Is a hardware-based full disk encryption possible on a Mac? Is it possible to use hardware-based full disk encryption (perhaps on a Samsung 840 Pro SSD) on a Mac, specifically a Macbook Pro 8,2? If so, how?

My understanding is that this will be handled in the BIOS or possibly EFI, however I think Apple's EFI is generally quite locked down.

I'm not looking for any software-based solutions such as FileVault 2 or TrueCrypt. I dual boot and matters will be simpler if it is handled in hardware.

I've asked myself exactly the same thing as I've also bough a Samsung 840 Pro for my MacBook Pro. After some research I've found this post indicating that the 840 Pro's hardware encryption requires TPM support, and that's only found in PC BIOSes, not in Mac's (U)EFI. To be sure, I've asked Samsung support which of the standards "ATA-Security", "Seagate DriveTrust" and "TCG OPAL" are supported by the 840 Pro, and their answer was:

  Dear Customer,

  Thank you for contacting Samsung SSD support regarding your inquiry.
  In response to your inquiry, the only one of the 3 that the unit
  supports is the ATA Security feaure. As for the encryption, the 840
  Pro Series SSD only supports AES 256 bit hardware level encryption but
  requires the BIOS to be TPM enabled.

So there's no way to enable the 840 Pro's hardware encryption in a Mac.

However, there's also the Crucial M500 which supports TCG's Opal. In conjunction with a special Opal management software like WinMagic's SecureDoc for Mac it sounds as if it's possible to get hardware encryption to work on a Mac.

BTW, note that according to Sophos' support their SafeGuard does support Opal only on Windows, not on Mac OS. Also, McAfee's General Q&A for Opal states

  Q: Will Opal drives be supported on Mac OS X?

  A: No. Apple currently does not ship their devices with Opal drives so Opal is not supported on Endpoint Encryption for Mac.

But of course that's says nothing about that happens if you just put an Opal drive into a Mac yourself.


Remotely control MacBook Pro Retina The rMBP dropped the infrared receiver making Apple Remote useless with it. It's a shame, since Airplay + Apple TV + Apple Remote would have worked as a perfect combo.

So, while playing a movie with Quicktime / VLC and streaming it to the TV, how can I control the playing (pause, skip, rewind...) remotely? Is the iPhone or an iPad of any help? Is there any remote-control app?

Are you trying to remote control the Apple TV? Or are you trying to remote control the MacBook Pro? (both will work!)

There's the Remote app (by Apple, not affiliated) which can control the Apple TV, and there are probably lots of 'VLC Remote' apps if you are trying to control VLC itself.

VLC Remote Free for iOS here
VLC Remote (paid) for iOS here

These work directly with the VLC client and allow for the full control experience - media selection, play, pause, rewind, forward etc.


iPhoto only sees 67 of my 388 photos Preface: this is an iPod Touch 2nd Gen on iOS 4.2.1 and I am on iPhoto 11 on a MacMini from 2006 operating Snow Leopard. This iTouch was synched with an iMac I used to have which contained all of the original music, photos, contacts, etc.

I have successfully been able to grab my music off of my iTouch, I've also been able to successfully move all of my contacts, mail, etc. But one thing I seem to be having an issue with is the Photos on the device.

Photo Library says I have 388 photos. But when i connect to my mac and launch iPhoto, it says I only have 67, and all of these happen to be screenshots taken with the device.
I'm eager to erase and re-sync, but I dont want to loose the images on this device.

ps: Dropbox ALSO only detects 67 photos.
pss: Image Capture also only shows 67 photos. All from the "Saved Images" album. No other albums.

What's going on? How can I get my Photo Library on the device safely to my Mac, I dont care if its synch from or ripped out of.

Also, it's not jailbroken.

iPhoto and Image Capture only access photographs that are on your Camera Roll. I suspect that the 67 photos they find are the only ones on the photo roll. Other images—those in albums, etc.—cannot be downloaded by iPhoto and Image Capture.

Some third-party programs can access the non-Camera Roll photographs on your device. I haven't tried any of them, but PhoneView from Ecamm seems to be recommended frequently.

http://www.ecamm.com/mac/phoneview/

I have also seen programs that attempt to extract photos from backups of the iPhone. Again, I haven't tried any of them. But they may be worth considering.


How to get the path of the selected Image in Adobe Bridge via Applescript? I am trying to get the parent file path of a selected image thumbnail in Adobe Bridge CS5.1 to pass it on to a shell script. An Applescript wraps a tiny javascript command in command like this:

set js to "app.document.selections[0].spec.parent.name;" # parent of 1st selected image
tell application "Adobe Bridge CS5.1" # target adobe product
    set theResult to do javascript js # fire away, waiting for return value
end tell

The javascript reports the correct value — I tested the output within Bridge via alert. Alas, the do javascript command does not return any value, so I added an explicit return statement:

set js to "return app.document.selections[0].spec.parent.name;"

throws an error in AppleScript Editor.app:

error "Adobe Bridge CS5.1 got an error: AppleEvent handler failed." number -10000

What am I doing wrong? NB: I just need the path, I don’t care about how it is done.

I think you would have to go via Photoshop using BridgeTalk to get the path.

function getPathFromBridge(){
    function script(){
        var Path = new File(encodeURI(app.document.selections[0].spec.parent));
        return Path.toSource();
    }
    var filePath='';
    var bt = new BridgeTalk();
    bt.target = "bridge";
    bt.body ="var ftn = " + script.toSource() + "; ftn();";
    bt.onResult = function( inBT ) { filePath = decodeURI(eval( inBT.body));}
    bt.onError = function( inBT ) { filePath = '';}
    bt.send(4);
    if ( undefined == filePath ) filePath = '';
    return decodeURI(filePath);
}


Problem with building project by CMake I have installed gcc and g++ instead of clang compilers from Xcode, so now I have problem with compiling with cmake. After running cmake I have got error:

-- The C compiler identification is unknown
-- The CXX compiler identification is unknown
-- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/gcc
-- Check for working C compiler: /usr/bin/gcc -- broken
CMake Error at /usr/local/Cellar/cmake/3.15.3/share/cmake/Modules/CMakeTestCCompiler.cmake:60 (message):
  The C compiler

    "/usr/bin/gcc"

  is not able to compile a simple test program.

  It fails with the following output:

    Change Dir: /Users/yuriy/Projects/SublimeProjects/AgingAlgorithm/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeTmp

    Run Build Command(s):/usr/bin/make cmTC_d5a2e/fast && xcrun: error: active developer path ("/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer") does not exist
    Use `sudo xcode-select --switch path/to/Xcode.app` to specify the Xcode that you wish to use for command line developer tools, or use `xcode-select --install` to install the standalone command line developer tools.
    See `man xcode-select` for more details.

  CMake will not be able to correctly generate this project.
Call Stack (most recent call first):
  CMakeLists.txt:6 (project)

-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!
See also "/Users/yuriy/Projects/SublimeProjects/AgingAlgorithm/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeOutput.log".
See also "/Users/yuriy/Projects/SublimeProjects/AgingAlgorithm/build/CMakeFiles/CMakeError.log".

Problem have been appeared after deleting clang compilers and Xcode and changing links cc, c++, gcc and g++.
In terminal macOS can run utilities gcc, cc, g++, c++, but it still doesn't work for cmake.

Can I fix it without installation of basic clang compilers from Xcode? If I can, so how?

Assuming you installed gcc using brew, run brew info gcc. Find the path similar to /usr/local/Cellar/gcc/9.2.0. Go the that directory and find gcc file in bin. Copy the path name and paste it in Cmake (assuming GUI) as follows.

After cleaning cache in File -> Delete cache, start afresh in Tools -> Configure. Specify "Unix Makefiles" instead of Xcode and select "Specify native compilers."

In the compilers for C and C++, copy the full path found above. Similar to /usr/local/Cellar/gcc/9.2.0/bin/gcc-9.

And then try configuring. And update me with the log afterwards.


On Mountain Lion, Trash doesn't Empty there is a file stuck in the trash

This is what it shows when i do 'Get Info'

When i 'Empty' the trash

The sound plays, the trash window disappears, but the Trash icon doesn't appear empty and the file is still there when i reopen the trash.

I've tried the terminal

According to the terminal, there is no file in the Trash folder.
What am i missing? How can i solve this?

EDIT
So, i found out that the file is actually in another volume and as the Trash shows the 'trash' for all volumes, the file is being shown in the trash.

So, the file is in the Trash for my Bootcamp volume [/Volumes/BOOTCAMP/.Trashes/501]

I try deleting it from the terminal

but its still there

what do i do?

The Trash contains files from different volumes. Try running…

rm -rfv /Volumes/BOOTCAMP/.Trashes/*

Depending on drive permissions, this may have to be run using sudo.


Is High Sierra Activity Monitor accurate on a a MacBook Pro from 2013? I have an older MacBook Pro that generally runs just fine. But sometimes, it slows so much as to be unusable - to the point that I can type a couple dozen characters and sit back to watch as they take a full 10 to 15 seconds to appear on the screen.
Checking Activity Monitor, I can not find any problems, and in fact, see that the system and user are both only using 4% to 5% of CPU, leaving the CPU 90% to 92% idle - I have never sen it go below 86%.
Only 10 to 12 GB of the 16GB memory is being used.  I am displaying All Processes and set the Update Frequency to 1 second.  I am maxed out on the OS with High Sierra 10.13.6.
SimStreamProcessorService often shows up at the top of the list when the computer slows to the point of being unusable and after a Force Quit the computer will operate normally.  For awhile.
Is there a reason Activity Monitor is not showing me how I can use 90% of the CPU?

Unfortunately the answer is most likely "yes."
There is a reason, or at least a possible to likely reason(s).
This could easily be bound to a failing component (logic board, drive, I/O etc.) As if there are hardware problems those won't show up in activity monitor. Ask someone who (very recently) knows.

Boot the Mac while holding the d to go into diagnostic mode. The Mac will do its thing and report any problems it can.
Boot the Mac into Recovery Mode by holding the ⌘r kees at boot.

Once in recovery mode go to Disk utility. Select the top drive (your boot drive) and click on First aid.
Both of those tests will find gross issues with your Mac. It is not a guarantee that it will find a problem with any hardware or soft errors/bad blacks on the SSD. But it is always with trying.
OK so we've tried diagnostic tools, how about a different user profile? Go into System Preferences, create a new admin user and log in as that user. Problem gone? The issue was something in your user profile. The fun part is finding what it was. And by fun, I mean no fun at all.
If nothing is found there. I would back up your whole drive (Time Machine or 3rd party utility) Create a flash drive macOS installer with your preferred OS version (there are tutorials all over the place on hot to do this). Boot from the installer, re-format your HD and install the OS fresh.
Once that is done boot your mac normally and before restoring any of your apps, docs, pics or settings see if the problem is still there.
If the problem still exists it is most likely hardware and time to either have it repaired or buy a new Mac.


Problem installing IguanaTex on Mac (can't find `.dylib` file) I'm trying to install an experimental version of IguanaTex on my Mac.  I'm stuck and need some help.

Here are the directions:

install AppleScript (IguanaTex.scpt)

mkdir -p ~/Library/Application\ Scripts/com.microsoft.Powerpoint
cp ./IguanaTex.scpt ~/Library/Application\ Scripts/com.microsoft.Powerpoint/IguanaTex.scpt

This worked fine for me.

install IguanaTexHelper (libIguanaTexHelper.dylib)

sudo mkdir -p '/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office365/User Content.localized/Add-Ins.localized'
sudo cp ./libIguanaTexHelper.dylib '/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/Office365/User Content.localized/Add-Ins.localized/libIguanaTexHelper.dylib'

This is where I'm having an issue. . I can't seem to find the file "libIguanaTexHelper.dylib" anywhere, and I can't find anything online about it.  I've already made sure that my computer is showing hidden files.
 Can someone please help me clear this up?

According to the readme you are referring to, all the required files are on https://github.com/ray851107/IguanaTexMac/releases.


Need assistance troubleshooting / learning launchctl and plist I've always been a crontab guy. Recently I have decided to make the switch to Apple's launchd processes, and I am unable to get my first plist to run.

The plutil -lint command tells me the plist is formatted correctly. Actually, it outputs "OK".
I have run the bash script manually and confirmed that it properly operates when manually initiated.
I have loaded the file using launchctl load and received the response "already loaded" on repeated attempts to do the same.

The problem must be in my PLIST definition.  Please help me spot the error.

I expect this to run with the following conditions:

Only while the user jaredclemence is using the system
Once immediately on login
Every 15 minutes thereafter
Change Directory to /Library/WebServer/Documents/medface/ before running the script.

The plist file is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN"
"http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
        <key>Label</key>
        <string>org.pediatricheartcenter.medface.crons</string>
        <key>User</key>
        <string>jaredclemence</string>
        <key>ProgramArguments</key>
        <array>
                <string>/User/jaredclemence/runMedfaceSchedTasks.batch</string>
        </array>
        <key>WorkingDirectory</key>
        <string>/Library/WebServer/Documents/medface</string>
        <key>StartInterval</key>
        <integer>900</integer>
        <key>RunAtLoad</key>
        <true/>
</dict>
</plist>

Notes:

I have stored the file in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/org.pediatricheartcenter.medface.crons.plist
A previous version of the file used Program instead of ProgramArguments with a <string> value instead of an array.

Launchd writes errors to system.log.  Using Console, I viewed the log. There, launchd told me that it did not like my User key value.  I removed the User - jaredclemence key-value pair, and loaded the plist again. It then told me the batch program did not exist and I then noticed the error in the file path.  /User should be /Users

By removing the User setting and correcting the file path, I was able to fix the problem. Now, running ps -ef | grep 'runMed', I am able to see that the batch file is currently executing.

SUCCESS!


Disable loopback interface lo0 on 10.8.4? For testing purposes (testing raw network speed over a number of cables) i have equippped my Mac Book pro with a Thunderbolt to Gigabit Ethernet Adapter besides the built-in gigabit ethernet connection.

Both interfaces have been assigned a manual IP in the 10.0.*/24 range.

Starting iperf with iperf -s --bind 10.0.0.1, then starting the client with iperf -c 10.0.0.1 yields speeds of over 40 Gigabit per second. I assume (correctly so according to some googling) that not the interface itself is used but rather the local loopback interface as both IPs reside on the same computer. So my thought was to disable lo0, even just temporarily by issuing sudo ifconfig lo0 down. Thies doesn't work (it might have worked once for a few seconds but I can't prove that). lo0 just stays up.

Is there a way to (temporarily) disable the local loopback interface lo0 so I can do my tests?

Thanks!

The version of iperf I have (from Homebrew) does indeed allow binding the client and server to different interfaces, like so:

iperf -s --bind 10.0.0.1
iperf -c 10.0.0.1 --bind 10.0.0.2

(for the purpose of this answer I assume that you want the server on .1 and the client on .2)

The problem is that the routing table (visible through netstat -rn) appears to override this, sending traffic to 10.0.0.1 through the loopback interface.

Rather than disabling loopback altogether, you can delete that specific route:

sudo route delete 10.0.0.1 127.0.0.1

I found that this caused my Mac to be unable to reach itself (on that IP) for a few seconds, until it found an alternate route out the other interface and through my router. Once that route showed up in netstat -rn, iperf worked fine. Here's my before and after:

[  4] local 192.168.2.99 port 5001 connected with 192.168.2.101 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  4]  0.0-10.0 sec  16.7 GBytes  14.3 Gbits/sec

And after:

[  4] local 192.168.2.99 port 5001 connected with 192.168.2.101 port 5001
[ ID] Interval       Transfer     Bandwidth
[  4]  0.0-10.0 sec   343 MBytes   288 Mbits/sec

288Mbps being a fairly reasonable speed considering that one of the interfaces in use is 802.11n wireless.

I was also able to return my routing table to normal by simply toggling the interface off and on again.


Use an old driver (for OSX 10.3) in a new mac (OSX 10.8/9) I have a printer (Sansung ML-1250) that has driver for OSX 10.3 but now I have a new mac with OSX 10.9 and I'm not sure how to handle it.

Is there any solutions?

You are in luck. Your printer is supported by the Gutenprint open source printer drivers.

http://gimp-print.sourceforge.net/MacOSX.php

Install these and you should be OK. You may find not all functions of the printer are supported but usually with Gutenprint they come close.


RAM mismatch in macbook pro early 2011 I tried to put two 4GB sticks (OWC) into a MacBook Pro early 2011 17 inch. Either of the 4GB sticks works with either of the stock 2GB sticks but both the 4GB sticks do not work. It causes kernel panics. Firmware is already at the latest version (MBP81.0047.B27). I am well aware of fitment process. Officially it can support 8 gb max.

Macs are quite a bit more tolerant of what RAM they can take and handle well. If RAM can be upgraded at all. A 2011 MBP has a wide range of options. Using Apple approved RAM modules (at a small premium)  with the same specs as a non-approved module of the same brand usually only gets you small advantages: they pass the hardware test at the Genius bar without issues and are practically guaranteed to work in a Mac. But that doesn't mean the non-approved modules do not work.
It is true that the module has to meet certain specs. But as long as it is DDR3 SO-DIMM with the correct voltage and not too slow the MBP 8,2 from 2011 should be able to handle it.

That means two  DDR3-1600 sticks each at 8GB is way out of Apple's official spec. Yet the machine works fine with them. The 1333 option is playing it safe and slower. Apple's advice: is doing just that. It doesn't even matter whther they are DDR3 or DDR-3L since the L variant is rated at 1,35V but required by spec to also run at 1,5V like the MBP 2011 wants it to. But choosing the L variant doesn't give you any energy savings in this case. To summarise: the machine in question can run at least up to 16GB RAM with 1,5V at at least up to 16000MHz just fine.

And the OP already confirmed that the sticks are working in some configurations but not in others.
Concerning the OP question there seems to be a hardware fault: It might be the logic board (more specific the ram slots being even pickier). Or it might be that the two 4GB sticks have issues. "Mismatched" modules it says in the title. Absent the knowledge of how this old problem went forth the advice had to be:

Most likely at least one of the 4GB modules is somehow flawed. To hunt it down and exclude other possibilities:

reseat the modules: test one module at a time; then both, swapping modules from slot to slot (this not only should pin down any problems with the individual modules but also might clean the slots a bit. Cleaning the slots per se might be an option as well.)
stress test the modules separately at first, then together in the combinations noted above
get the logic board tested, RAM slot failure is not that uncommon
buy modules of the the capacity, same specs both at the same time together (this is belt+suspenders advice; mixing modules should work – and did as the OP demonstrated)


iPhone 5c does not alert imessages from email addresses I have an iPhone 5c running iOS 9.3.1

Why does iMessage only give me sound and alerts when a message comes from a phone number and not when it comes from an email address?

On the iPhone go to Settings --> Notifications --> Messages and make sure the following are all turned on, depending on what you want:

Allow Notifications
Show in Notification Center
Sounds --> <select sound>
Badge App Icon
Show on Lock Screen

Under Alert Style When Unlocked select either Banners or Alerts, depending on how you want to be alerted.

As mentioned by @bmike, your Do Not Disturb setting will affect if the alerts go thru or not.


Does "brew install gcc" installs GNU C++ compiler on macOS? I am a new Mac user and was wondering if installing gcc via brew install gcc command would install GNU C++ compiler?

Yes, installing gcc using brew install gcc will install GNU C++ compiler.

The compiler is installed by default in /usr/local/Cellar/gcc/8.2.0/bin.


Error in importing videos iPhoto in my Mac mini pops an error, upon trying to import video from the camera:

/Users/Pat/Pictures/iPhotoLibrary.photolibrary/Import/Masters/Roll 1/EK000003.AVI
Can’t import the videos because the file is an unrecognized format.

What does this mean?

This could be two things.

The video could be using a codec that iPhoto doesn't recognise. Unfortunately Apple don't seem to publish a list of video codec that they support. Even Apple's listing of image file formats is vague.

The video could be using a recognised format but the file could be corrupt.

I would try opening the file in something that supports a wide range of video formats, like VLC. If the file doesn't open at all, there is a good chance it is corrupt. If it does open, you can check the file format with CMD + I.


Macbook Pro 2011 A1278 Keyboard Diagnosis A MBP keyboard is unreliable to the point where a USB keyboard is a workaround.

Googled the issue presents many software based remedies.

What tests can be performed to confirm that that the problem is hardware? or software?

Is this a known defect with this particular model?

You are lucky to have a keyboard that lasted 7 Years.

Normally their life span is much less, and it depends on your eating habits (yes, eating, believe it or not).

Best way to keep it clean and last longer in the future

use compressed air can from time to time
buy a ~$6 transparent cover foil made to fit your model keyboard
replacing individual keys is possible if you are a surgeon
no comment on eating habits

As for hardware test, use the builtin Apple Hardware test. That might show a problem or not.

Hold D key during restart and follow the instructions.


Choose only the first input file from input I'm making an Automator App that will run an AppleScript. The app will be used for running a Terminal script on a file which the input receives - both by launching the app or by dropping a file on the app's icon. When launching the app, user can select a file manually. However, when user drops multiple files onto the app, I want it to choose only the first file of those files, because the script used later can only work with one single file at a time.
Below is the code I have until now. When one or multiple files are dropped on the app, I get an error: "Can't get item 1 of 1."
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you
on run {input, parameters}
    if input is {} then
        set inputFile1 to (POSIX path of (choose file with prompt "Please select a file to process:"))
    end if

    if input is not {} then
        set inputFile1 to {}
        repeat with i from 1 to count input
            set end of inputFile1 to quoted form of (POSIX path of (first item of i))
        end repeat
    end if

    tell application "Terminal"
        if not (exists window 1) then reopen
        activate
        do script "xxx" & inputFile1 in window 1
    end tell
end run

The following example AppleScript code is the minimum coding to achieve the goal presented in the OP, that is to only act on the first file dropped on the Automator created AppleScript application using a single Run AppleScript action:
on run {input, parameters}

    if input is {} then
        set inputFile1 to ¬
            quoted form of POSIX path of ¬
            (choose file with prompt "Please select a file to process:")
    else
        set inputFile1 to quoted form of ¬
            (POSIX path of first item of input)
    end if

    tell application "Terminal"
        if not (exists window 1) then reopen
        activate
        do script "echo" & space & inputFile1 in window 1
    end tell

end run

Note the use of echo in the do script command for testing purposes, instead of xxx as in the OP.

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors. Additionally, the use of the delay command may be necessary between events where appropriate, e.g. delay 0.5, with the value of the delay set appropriately.


How to identify Apple Music tracks? My playlist won't sync to my iPod because there's Apple Music mixed in the playlist. I didn't think I had any Apple Music in my library. How can I tell which song is Apple Music and which song I own?

There’s no way on iOS other than turning off the Apple Music and seeing what tracks remain. (doing that, You should retain all settings and be able to re-enable it as soon as you have your answer.)

You can easily see this on iOS and in iTunes, though with one smart playlist. That playlist syncs to iOS so you could go that route, too:

Match iCloud Status is Apple Music and you're done on the Mac. Then you will see your Apple Music Playlist on iOS under your Library - below the Apple Music curated playlists, under the genius playlists where the Smart Playlists are indicated with a multi colored gear.


How to throttle Photostream traffic? When my wife's 2012 macbook pro is doing it's photostream sync, it slows my internet connection to a crawl and gives me 500+ pings in various video games.

If I knew the ports that Photostream uses, I could set up a QOS rule on my DD-WRT router- what ports does it use?

Another possible solution, is there a setting in IPhoto or the photostream agent to tell it to stop using all available bandwidth to sync?

Thanks!

It uses port 443.

It is the default port for HTTPS, though, so it will affect a lot of other applications and services other than PhotoStream.


How do I check the effective file permissions/accessibilty for/of a given file and a given user? How do I check the effective file permissions (including ACLs)/accessibility for/of a given file and a given user (including service/system accounts) without checking the whole path manually?

Example: Suppose a user joe, and the file /long/path/to/file.txt. Even if file.txt was chmoded to 777, joe still has to be able to access /long/, and then /long/path/ and then /long/path/to/ before. If joe doesn't have at least read access to all folders in the path, he can't access (read/write/execute) the file. So the effective permissions for him (as "world/all" user) are 0 and he can't access the file.

Alternatively: how do I get a list of the permissions (including ACLs) of all users (including service/system accounts) for a given file?

An app or a bash script are also welcome.

A similar question with a slightly different focus has already been asked at Unix & Linux: How to check if a user can access a given file?

One commercial app which provides the effective permissions for a user and a selected file or folder is TinkerTool System:

In the example below the effective permissions of the file /private/var/log/clamav.log for the user Spotlight are shown. The user Spotlight can neither read nor write data.

Triggering the tab Show or Set Permissions the POSIX permissions/ownership are shown explicitly.


Does Apple's license for OS X allow it to be virtualized on an HP PC? I have an HP laptop and I'm thinking about buying OS X and running it inside a virtual machine on the laptop.

Is running OS X inside virtual machine allowed by the license?

Lion is the first Mac OS X to license some virtualization on the non-server OS.

From the 10.7 EULA:

(iii) to install, use and run up to two (2) additional copies or instances of the Apple Software within virtual operating system environments on each Mac Computer you own or control that is already running the Apple Software.

Notice the condition, though: it's only allowed on Mac hardware when running Lion as the host OS.  There are also provisions for installing it over Snow Leopard macs.

Running it on HP hardware would likely be a violation of the license as written. Check with your lawyer as always when the question of legality is involved since any license has to respect your local laws.


Type a special character with a regular keyboard I am trying to reinstall an iMac but I don't have the original Apple keyboard. Instead a  "regular" keyboard is attached.
I can't find out how to type the "at" symbol (@). I need it to enter my Apple ID so I can download Mavericks to reinstall the sytem.

Is there any way to type it or circumvent the Apple ID login?

Either look at the keyboard viewer:

Or google for pictures of Apple keyboards:


MacBook keeps switching between my 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz wifi networks for no reason I have my router setup with 2 frequencies:

When I'm near the router, I'm connected to the 5Ghz wifi network.

But when I go into my bedroom, I am switching to the 2.4Ghz network because the 5Ghz signal is too weak at that distance (barely getting any speed).

So I manually switch to the 2.4Ghz, but my MacBook automatically changes back to the 5Ghz network. I switch back to 2.4Ghz, it stays connected for 2-3min and then goes 5Ghz for no freaking reason.

I already placed the 2.4Ghz network at the top of the preference list in the advanced network settings, but it didn't help.

Running OS 10.11.5. Any ideas?

Try this...

System Preferences > Network > Wi-Fi > Advanced

Drag the various wifi logins to the order you want.  In your case, the 2.4GHz above the 5GHz.


Cannot use Mac Mail to send email via my two gmail accounts (e.g. iPhotos) Gmail I cannot configure Apple email on my MacBook Pro to allow me to send iPhotos (for example) via one of my two gmail accounts. I do not normally use Mac mail but I'm stuck with it as part of my software.

One message, for example, claims "Gmail not online" when in fact it is.

I have put in the passwords in both the Account tab and the Advanced tab.

Would appreciate your help. Thanks!

To send photos from within the iPhoto app:

If you get this message in iPhoto when sending email:

Then you need to enter the new/correct password for your gmail (you can find it in your keychain)

To tell it the new password open iPhoto preferences and enter new correct password there.

Here are settings on my mac that work.


How to fix blank icons for Download and Documents stacks in the Dock I'm getting blank icons for stacks (e.g. Downloads) and grids (e.g. Documents) in the Dock. Nothing seems to fix it. Have tried relaunching the Finder and even a full reboot, but nothing helps. Any ideas?

There's a question about exactly the same problem from a while back but that's no help as the OP said that upgrading to Mountain Lion fixed his problem.

I'm running Mavericks (10.9.2). Problem started recently, but I can't tie it definitely to the 10.9.2 update.

UPDATE: tried restarting the Dock and that got back 2 or 3 icons, nothing more.

Here's an example of the problem:

Try removing PDFs from the stack's contents. Source

If that doesn't work, try backing up and removing ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist and relaunching the Dock (killall -HUP Dock).


"Verification failed" when trying to update to iOS 8.1.1 because of a network issue I have an iPhone 5s and whenever I try to update it to iOS 8.1.1 it shows the error message below:

  iOS 8.1.1 failed verification because you are no longer connected to the internet.

However, I'm connected to the internet. I tried with 2 Wi-Fi connections.
Any ideas on how to fix this ?


How to connect MacBook Pro mid-2014 to monitor: hdmi, dp or usb-c? I have a MacBook Pro mid-2014 with a HDMI port and a Thunderbolt 2 port (that I beleive doubles up as a miniDP port).

I have just bought an Acer H2777HU 27 inch (2560 x 1440 pixel) monitor. It has a HDMI port, DP port and USB-C port.

It only came with a DP cable, which does not fit the miniDP port on my MacBook.

So my question is: what is the best way to connect the two, ensuring that I get the full 2560 x 1440 resolution, 60Hz refresh and can use the built in speakers?

Is it:

HDMI to HDMI (are there different sizes of HDMI?)

miniDP to DP (does this cable exist?)

Thunderbolt 2 to USB-C (does this cable exist?)

Thank you

According to this answer, you are probably better off with DisplayPort.

Does USB-C to HDMI take more processing power than direct USB-C to DisplayPort?

HDMI will work, but probably only give you a 30Hz refresh rate rather than 60Hz that your system is capable of.


Updating and running Git through Homebrew instead of XCode On my new 2014 Mac (OS X 10.9 Mavericks), I have just installed Git using Homebrew. In order to install Homebrew, I had to download and install XCode 5. So now, when I enter the command which git, I can see that Git is running from a different file pathway than the rest of the Homebrew installation. Git's different pathway is /usr/bin/git. I believe it is supposed to be in /usr/local/bin/ instead, with the rest of Homebrew.

I found a solution to getting Git to run from the Homebrew installation (and consequently an updated version of Git). According to another Q&A on this site, the solution is to add export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH" in ~/.bash_profile.

Unfortunately, I don't understand where to enter that information. When I'm in Terminal, I can't change directories to something called "~/.bash_profile." How do I get there to enter the command export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"? I tried entering the command /usr/bin/open ~/.bash_profile, but Terminal tells me: The file /Users/**MYNAME**/.bash_profile does not exist.

This: ~/.bash_profile is a file, not a directory. It's a file that gets executed when you start a bash login shell:

  A login shell is a bash shell that is started with - or --login.

  When BASH is invoked as a login shell, the following files are executed in the displayed order.

  /etc/profile
  ~/.bash_profile
  ~/.bash_login
  ~/.profile

To ensure your Homebrew-installed tools appear before any other tools you can copy and paste the following in to a terminal window to update your ~/.bash_profile file:

cat << 'EOF' >> ~/.bash_profile

export PATH="/usr/local/bin:$PATH"
EOF

This will append (>>) the necessary lines to ~/.bash_profile for you in a safe manner. The append will create the file if it does not exist. The heredoc syntax used above is explained in this nice StackOverflow answer.

After making changes to your .bash_profile file you need to reload it or start a new Terminal session to see the change. To reload it in your existing session type:

source ~/.bash_profile


How to import text to columns and import numbers to text in macOS Numbers? Windows Excel allows me to paste a body of text and in the bottom right corner of the pasted content, a menu prompt will pop up that can initiate the "Text Import Wizard" to import delimited text into columns (text separated by commas or spaces, for example). In Numbers, such an option doesn't exist that I know of.
Second, how can I import text (including numbers) as text? With windows I can do both of these functions with the Text Import Wizard and with Numbers I can't do either.
The only solution I've found to the first problem is to download a custom workflow that I found in this Apple Community thread: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8293955
And a less elegant solution is also discussed here but it's much more clunky: How can I do text-to-columns in Numbers?
Regardless, I still haven't found a way to import numbers as text.

Not sure which version of Numbers you are using but one can adjust import settings from a text file in both Numbers v6.1 and v10.2 and it works resonably well in my experience.
Just open the text file using Numbers and a popup menu will emerge saying "Table data was imported. Adjust Settings" as soon as the file is opened. This menu disappears after a few seconds but you can adjust the same settings using an option in the sidebar menu as well as described in this Apple support page.
As for your second question, sorry that I don't know in general how.


Move library existing Itunes library to Apple Music I deleted my local iTunes Library since I assumed I could listen to the music anyway using Apple Music. After deleting my music files by emptying home/music/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music I have three types of tracks, based on the column iCloud download:

Files with this icon : I can play them without problem.
Files with this icon : These won't play, which is expected, I have already accepted that these tracks will have to be added manually.
Files without an icon: If I try to play those I this popup

and the exclamation mark is added in front of the title of the track. If I choose Locate I get a Finder window and the option to point Apple Music towards the local file, which is expected. However, and here is the rub, if I choose Cancel the song plays, the exclamation mark disappears and this  icon  appears after the title of the song. Which is unexpected but nice.

I'd have to execute the steps under 'Files without an icon' about 6000 times to be able to play most of my tracks again.

After a lot of trial and error and messing about with Apple script the solution turned out to be deceptively simple: Select all songs in your library and in the context menu and choose the option remove download.


Music Tracker Software allowing Keyboard Input for Playing Piano I'm looking for a piece of software that is a tracking studio, that allows you to use your keyboard to perform at least piano parts, or at best, any instrument.

Needless to say I mean keyboard as in my QWERTY keyboard I'm typing into right now. MIDI support is optional, but probably already there on any piece of software like this.

I've used LMMS in the past, which (aside from the hard coded AZERTY input method) was a wonderfully simple program that offered plenty of high-end VSTs and features to grow into.

You have this in GarageBand. Keyboard mapping.

If you decide, one day, to link a midi keayboard, the only thing you need is the Midi to USB cable. Nothing else.


How do I change the name on my @me.com email.com? I'm divorced now and I've updated my name in iCloud but when I send an email from @me.com email my hyphenated name still comes up. How do I change that?

Assuming that you're trying to change your full name (and not the email address itself), you can follow the directions in this Cnet article:

  First log into iCloud.com, then click the Mail icon to open the
  Webmail application. In the Webmail application, click the gear at the
  top right and choose "Preferences" from the menu that appears, and you
  should see a window that appears with settings specific to your e-mail
  account. Click the Accounts section and you should see editable fields
  for Description and Full Name. Fill in your desired full name to
  display, and save the settings.

  Note: Image courtesy of Cnet

Your updated full name should then be used by the @me.com email address. The article also discusses how to change the displayed full name in the OS X mail client, but this example is a bit more generic.


ARKit, Xcode, and iOS 11 upgrade I have El Capital 10.11.6 and I do not wish to upgrade, however I need to clarify whether this means I cannot download and experiment with ARKit?

The latest Xcode version that is compatible with El Capitan is 8.2.1 but when trying to download ARKit, it suggests using Xcode 9.x so I wonder if this is just a suggestion or absolute requirement?

In other words, the fact that I would like to remain in El Capitan and Xcode 8.2.1 definitely means that I can never download and use ARKit. Correct?

In order to develop ARKit apps you need to use Xcode 9.x. Xcide 8.2.x does not include ARKit.

From Apple's Developer page:

  Get Started with ARKit

  Xcode 9 and iOS 11 Download iOS 11 and the latest version of Xcode 9,
  which includes the iOS 11 SDK to build AR features in your app today.


Mac OS Mojave 10.14.1 File Sharing services off after restart I have a late 2014 Mac Mini, running Mojave 10.14.1, which I'm using as a file server to a few users in our lab.  The server will occasionally see power outages due to weather.

The machine reliably restarts after power outages, but the "File Sharing" service is deactivated.

Is there a way to reliably start the File Sharing service, at boot time?
Does anyone know of a work-around, to activate the service from the command line? Ideally, I'd like to script a check -> inspect the service state, and start it if it's not running.
I'd use "cron" to run the check every so often, unless someone has a better recommendation.

I just upgraded to macOS Mojave 10.14.3.  Looks like Apple has fixed this bug.

Anyone else having this problem: update to 10.14.3 or later.


How can I prevent itunes to sync mp3 files in downloads folder? So I have a 30gb ipod and I am using the latest iTunes.

When I connet my ipod to my mac I see that mp3 files in downloads folder are copied to my iPod which I do not like at all.

How can I prevent this?

I only want to sync albums I buy from the store and the cds I import.

Follow these steps to prevent your device from syncing automatically.

Open iTunes Preferences and select the Devices tab.

To prevent iPod, iPhone, and iPad devices from syncing automatically, select the option below:
"Prevent your device from syncing automatically"

After you select this option, reconnect your device.

You can than select music you do want to sync. You can also use smart folders to sync selective music.

source support.apple.com


What are the key-names for the PressAndHold.app keyboard plists? To avoid ambiguity in this question I will use key to mean a plist-dictionary-key (look-up string); and key to mean a button on your keyboard.

This answer to another question identified a great way to edit the special characters you can insert using the press-and-hold method on your keyboard.

You can edit the Keyboard-xx.plist files of the PressAndHold.app to add your characters to existing press-and-hold keys. The plist dictionary keys for each press-and-holdable key look like this: <key>Roman-Accent-a</key>, and <key>Roman-Accent-A</key>, etc. but if you want to add some press-and hold characters to a number key, or a punctuation key then you need to know the key name for the dictionary in order to add it.

I want to add press-and-hold characters for the 2 and 3 keys and possibly others, I have tried the following formats for the key names in the plist file:

2
Number-2
Roman-Accent-2

None of these add a press-and-hold popover for the 2 key. What are the correct key names for all of my keyboard keys that I can add in Keyboard-en.plist?

I have actually the same question, but this may help someone that is trying to figure this out.

I found here, that the name is probably Roman-Accent-2:
https://github.com/skalnik/dotfiles/blob/master/osx/emoji-expansions.plist

as this code is used:

<key>Roman-Accent-1</key>
<dict>
<key>Direction</key>
<string>right</string>
<key>Keycaps</key>
<string>1 1</string>
<key>Strings</key>
<string>1 1</string>
</dict>

Also look up Keyboard-ja.plist, and you see that they use this Roman-Accent-x for almost any character x. But nevertheless, it doesn't work for me if I add it to Keyboard-en.plist. I don't understand why.


Danger in not maintaining known_hosts file? I am not sure what all hosts I have accumulated over time under my ~/.ssh/known_hosts file are.

Is there any risks in keeping all hosts' addresses or doesn't it make any difference?

Is there were any risks in keeping hosts addresses or if it doesn't make any difference?

Yes, it is. This file creates your database of trusted host keys. If you do not maintain it in any way, there might be a lot of them that are expired or possibly leaked from the original host. In that case, you are exposing yourself to MitM attack, where potential attacker can spoof your DNS, redirect your SSH connection to his server (presenting previously valid host keys) and ask you for your password.

This is a big disadvantage of not using any public key infrastructure (PKI) with central certificate authority, which would take care of the expired certificates by distributing certificate revocation lists (CRL) to all its users.


Why does quitting an application automatically bring up Finder? When I quit an application, Finder is automatically brought up rather than the last application I was using. Why does this happen, and is there any way to change this? Thanks.

I don't work for Apple, so I can't say so authoritatively, but I think the Mac works this way because Apple considered it the most intuitive; that it follows the "principle of least surprise." I am not aware of any easy way to change this behavior, although I suspect with some scripting it might be possible.

There is no reason to quit apps that you switch between frequently. The Mac does a good job of managing its own memory. That and shutting down are the only reasons to quit apps.


Change output format of "top" command in Mac OS for memory usage? I am using the top command in Mac OS from this answer to grab memory usage:

$ top -l 1 -s 0 | grep PhysMem

PhysMem: 5490M used (2569M wired), 11G unused.

Can I go from that to possibly printing out "Used / Total"?

Like so:

PhysMem: 5.49G / 16.0G

or just:

5.49G / 16.0G

Side questions:

Would that final top command be suitable to run in a few second interval and the output used for something later? Or is this not the best or most efficient command for grabbing this info and I should use something else?

I am basically trying to replicate what Luke Smith did in his video, but in Mac OS for fun, and so I can try to learn this stuff.

A bit verbose, but the following awk snippet does this

$ echo 'PhysMem: 5490M used (2569M wired), 11G unused.' \
  | awk 'BEGIN {S["G"]=1024; S["M"]=1}
         /PhysMem:/ {U=substr($2, 1, length($2)-1) * S[substr($2, length($2))];
                     N=substr($6, 1, length($6)-1) * S[substr($6, length($6))];
                     printf("%.2fG / %.2fG\n", U/1024, (N+U) / 1024)}'

5.36G / 16.36G


Two iPhones, one computer, one music collection (This is not the usual "I want to share one Apple ID across two iPhones" question. Sharing an Apple ID may be the answer, but it's not the goal. I know of at least one other possible answer.)

Problem statement

How can I share about 10GB of music on a computer (most of it not purchased from Apple), along with its associated metadata, between two iPhones?

Current situation

I have a 20GB music collection. I ripped most of it from our CD collection. I got most of the rest from Amazon, Google Play Music, or sites with songs under Creative Commons licenses (free and legal to download). I purchased a couple of dozen songs from iTunes Plus (no DRM); if I need to, I can easily convert them to MP3 files that have nothing to do with Apple.

Currently, all 20GB lives on a desktop computer running iTunes. All the music is synced to an iPod Classic.  About 10GB is synced to my spouse's iPhone. The metadata -- playlists, song ratings, playcounts, etc. -- is shared between the computer, the iPod, and the iPhone. All three use the same Apple ID.

I like the PC/Mac iTunes application. I love being able to simply plug in my iPod or my spouse's iPhone and keep everything in sync.

I'd love that same simplicity with the new iPhone I'm about to get. I'm not sure what that implies for the choice of Apple ID(s) I'd use with my new iPhone.

Possible solutions

The simplest solution is to sync my new iPhone to the same desktop computer. Would that mean my iPhone would need to use the same Apple ID as my spouse's? How much of a problem would that be?

Another simple solution: I could clone my iTunes library (with a new Apple ID) and use it for my new iPhone. The metadata would start the same but fall out of sync; that's unfortunate, but it avoids any problems from sharing an Apple ID between two iPhones. I'd also have to add any new music to both iTunes libraries

Observations

Family Sharing doesn't help because I want to share music not purchased from Apple.
I don't need to share app purchases.
Most of our data (e-mail, calendars, contacts, photos) is associated with our respective Google accounts.
This article describes how to have one Apple ID for "iTunes & App Store," and different Apple IDs for iCloud, Messages, and FaceTime. The article is about sharing an ID to share purchases, which is not what I want.

FYI, This "Think Different" question goes into even more detail about having different Apple IDs on one iPhone. Edit: so does this article on support.apple.com.

My spouse only uses iCloud for wireless iPhone backups. (I also manually back up her phone to the desktop computer using iTunes.) I expect my iCloud usage to be the same.
I already have most of my songs (but none of my metadata) uploaded to Google Play Music. Please see "I'd love that simplicity ..." above.

I'm afraid to start setting up my iPhone until I know what Apple ID I want to use. (I think I can begin setting up my new iPhone by choosing "Move Data from Android," then choosing "Skip This Step" when I'm asked to sign in with or create an Apple ID. Am I risking anything if start this way?)

The iPhones may use separate Apple IDs and share the same music library from itunes, (as you said, all of it is rights free / downloaded from Apple). The Apple ID only comes into play when syncing contacts, calendars, and alternate Apple Services. You shouldn't have any problems with Music syncing between iTunes and your new iPhone. Furthermore, you may download Google Play Music on your phone, and use the already synced content. The choice is yours.

All the best!


Thunderbolt 1 to USB Type C adapter? I have a 2012 MacBook Pro.  It has a Thunderbolt (Mini DisplayPort) port.  I'd like to plug a USB Type-C device into it, since Thunderbolt is faster than my USB 3.0 port.  I'm having a hard time finding an adapter with male Mini DisplayPort on one end and female USB-C on the other.  Does such an adapter exist?

Use this adapter if it's a Thunderbolt device -> https://www.apple.com/shop/product/MMEL2AM/A/thunderbolt-3-usb-c-to-thunderbolt-2-adapter

You will need a Thunderbolt cable as well.  That should work for you, it's worked for me.

If this is not a Thunderbolt device with a USB-C port, but is instead a USB 3.x device with a USB-C port then you need a different cable.  Like this one -> https://www.amazon.com/AmazonBasics-Type-C-Adapter-Charger-Cable/dp/B01GGKYR2O

If you want to get gigabit speeds then make sure it's a USB 3.x cable and not a USB 2.0 cable.

If the device has a captive USB-C cable then there is no cheap solution.  You will need a Thunderbolt 2 dock with a USB-C port, and these are hard to find.  It would likely be cheaper to just replace this USB-C device with a USB-A or Thunderbolt 2 version than get an adapter.


Photo library won't import back on Mojave after Catalina I have downgraded to Mojave after the automatic installation of Catalina that have given me a lot of problems.
Now I have a Photo library that won't open back on mojave.
It's a 178GB library and I need it back.
Is there a way to do that?

I can offer you a work around.

Go to you Pictures folder
Right click your Photos library, "Show Package Contents"
All photos are in the "Masters" folder. Create a new Photo library and import.

At 178GB I'm guessing you have some level of organization, folders, etc. I'm unsure if that's recoverable.


How to transfer Adobe licenses to another Mac A Power Mac just died at the office. We also have another one which died a couple of months ago. They both had Adobe software installed on them, and I need to transfer those licensees to other Macs.

Problem is, most of these Macs were transferred from another office, so we don't have any disks or licensing information - except what's on the hard drive. I was told that the IT guy that was here before me managed to transfer licensees just by copying some files. So I scoured the hard drives and managed to find some stuff which resembles licensing information, but I was wondering whether there are any guides on how to do this.

I would at least need the versions of the installed products, and their serial numbers. This information was requested by Adobe when I contacted them. I told them I would need to get that from the hard drives, but they weren't willing to help with that.

have you tried to find out if you had technical support services for those Adobe softwares? if yes then you can ask them for the version and serial numbers. If you are a company and you have volume licensing the information you are looking for is registered in the Adobe services. Hope this helps.


How to copy the entire contents of a Time Machine backup drive to a new one? I have a Time Machine backup drive (also used for other archival purposes)  which has a damaged file-system.  I am able to mount it "Read Only," but fsck_hfs will not repair it.  *(Apparently it's just a problem with "extended attributes," but this is enough.)

I've ordered a replacement drive, and now I need to know what is the best way to reliably copy all of the information from the old drive to the new, properly preserving permissions and everything else that Time Machine (in particular) requires.  Is there, for instance, a Time Machine function to "move backup to a new drive?"

(OS/X Catalina 10.15.3, current.)

"Transfer Time Machine backups from one backup disk to another."

  https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202380


Macbook pro 2009 2.66 samsung SSD 830 won't boot internally I'm trying to install a Samsung 830 GB in a MacBook Pro 2.66 (2009). It boots and works perfectly external using USB (im using it now) but not internally, so I was wondering what I have to do to make things working.
I'm running mountain lion 10.8.2

I've searched this issue on Google but no one has come up with a definitive answer

I afraid you might be in for a struggle having done this upgrade on a mid-2009 15" MacBook Pro and I'm not alone in having the problem. I ended up having to replace the drive cable and switch to using an SATA2 rather than SATA3 drive to get an replacement drive (SSD or magnetic) to work. The problem is documented on the OWC web site.

As I recall, I got a larger replacement magnetic drive to work by downgrading the firmware but getting an SSD to work required upgrading to firmware, replacing the cable, and getting an SATA2 drive. If you already have the drive, start with the cable and maybe that will be good enough.

I've cloned lots of drives to external drives and then swapped in the external drive for the internal without a problem so I think it's far more likely you have the hardware compatibility problem than a software issue.

BTW, even with a SATA2 drive, the upgraded system flies.


Finder freezes after updating to OS X 10.10.4 The Finder is unresponsive after booting ever since I've updated to OS X 10.10.4. It takes a couple of minutes until it is ready. What can I do about it?

In my case it helped to remove the application state of the Finder. This command will move the state file to your desktop:

mv -r ~/Library/Saved\ Application\ State/com.apple.finder.savedState ~/Desktop/com.apple.finder.savedState

Then restart the Finder process with killall Finder. If that was successful and you don't need anything from the old state file on your desktop (like a list of the opened windows from the last session), you can move it to the trash.


Short battery life on a brand new iPhone Well I got my iPhone 4 about a week ago. When I got it I did several full charging cycles, 3-5 if I remember correctly. And these days an iPhone battery really seemed "unkillable". It was really hard to drain about 50% with wifi and 3g internet, games, photos and videos, music, and several different apps.

But now I experience something strange: my battery drops 30% by night (just locked screen), and when I use my iPhone not so hard as first days (just music and Safari), battery has only 30% remaining (out of 100%) in 5 hrs.

Well, it's very bad. I don't want to charge my iPhone twice a day.

Also, when I leave my iPhone charging for night (I know it can fully charge in 1 hr), I see 93% in the morning. And it doesn't increase.

So, as I said I calibrated my battery several times when got an iPhone, and now battery drains super-fast. Can anybody tell me what's wrong and what should I do to make my battery work as expected (at least 10-15 hrs on hard usage, but 20+ hrs will be welcome :D)?

Hope to hear the solution. I tried setting it up as new already :/

(The original question is on Apple Disscussion Forum https://discussions.apple.com/message/16420171)

Since you've tagged your question with iOS 5, I'm assuming you've updated. Take a look at this question and see if anything there helps: Why is iOS 5 draining my battery so fast?

I had the same issue after updating, and deactivating syncing of Reminders with my work's Exchange server did the trick.


Missing disk space after failed Bootcamp install Earlier today, while running Bootcamp attempting to install Windows 7 on my late-2012 iMac, I suddenly lost 160g of disk space after Bootcamp failed to create the partition for Windows. Disk Utility reports that the main Fusion Drive is still 1.1tb, but the only visible partition is Macintosh HD, spanning only 950gb instead of the entire disk (minus the hidden recovery partition). Disk Utility also duly notes that there are only 2 partitions, which I assume to be the main harddrive and the recovery partition:

diskutil cs list actually shows what happened to the storage (note the free space, which exactly matches what I specified in Bootcamp):

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 320B77F3-91C2-4221-B24C-D8B91C233D32
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         1120333864960 B (1.1 TB)
    Free Space:   160000114688 B (160.0 GB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume CEADFEBA-F128-40BE-A075-EBFD3877CDD6
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     120988852224 B (121.0 GB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 8CECCFC2-E046-499F-B762-B278E2398F75
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    1
    |   Disk:     disk1s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     999345012736 B (999.3 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family E52D5439-ED00-4A23-97A7-70BCF34CBF41
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Type:         None
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 933B0D1B-9E56-4DB3-8853-013BE1C2C6E4
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk2
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          951826382848 B (951.8 GB)
            Revertible:            No
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS
            LVG Type:              Fusion, Sparse

Trying to run diskutil cs resizeVolume 933B0D1B-9E56-4DB3-8853-013BE1C2C6E4 0g to give Macintosh HD the remaining space did't work out either:

The Core Storage Logical Volume UUID is 933B0D1B-9E56-4DB3-8853-013BE1C2C6E4
Started CoreStorage operation
Error: -69674: The provided Core Storage logical volume has an incorrect size; you should run whole-disk repair

diskutil verifyDisk disk0 ends with the following:

The volume 320B77F3-91C2-4221-B24C-D8B91C233D32 appears to be OK
Storage system check exit code is 0
Incorrect size for volume "Macintosh HD"
Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting
Error: -69688: Incorrect size for logical volume

gpt -r show gives the following:

      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  236306352      2  GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  236715992     262144      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  236978136          7
  236978143         32         Sec GPT table
  236978175          1         Sec GPT header

Does anyone have any ideas how I can get this Free Space back, preferably without needing to wipe my harddrive?

You need to reinstall Mac OS X

Backup your system/data.

Boot into Internet Recovery (CMD + R + i)
Open Terminal
Erase your Macintosh HD Volume

diskutil cs deleteVolume 933B0D1B-9E56-4DB3-8853-013BE1C2C6E4

Erase Macintosh Volume Group

diskutil cs delete 320B77F3-91C2-4221-B24C-D8B91C233D32

Erase SSD this should disk0, verify!

diskutil eraseDisk jhfs+ SSD disk0

Erase HDD this should disk1, verify!

diskutil eraseDisk jhfs+ HDD disk1

Create LV Group (order is critical SSD and HDD in that order, verify!)

diskutil cs create OSX-MacintoshLVG disk0s2 disk1s2

Create Logical Volume

diskutil cs createVolume <UUID from Step 7> jhfs+ "Macintosh HD" 100%

Restore from TM or reinstall Mac OS


No shared Links available in iOS 7 Safari New with iOS 7 is a "Shared Links" tab in Safari. I have twitter accounts setup on my device (TweetBot shows them). However I don't see any content in the Shared Links tab. Just this message:

No Shared Links
Links shared by your contacts from select social networks will appear
here.

How do I link my twitter account in Safari so that content appears here?

Go to Settings > Twitter and link your account there. Once installed, and linked, if you open the Bookmarks tab in Safari, you will see Bookmarks, the Reading List, and Shared Links. If you have logged in properly, your Shared Links will appear here.


iTunes 12.7 how to download all music from iTunes Match Mac OS 10.13.4, iTunes 12.7.4

Somehow my music library has become screwed up, and almost all of my 28,000-odd tracks aren't where they should be (according to iTunes). I can create a playlist of all the tracks, and I can export that playlist to a text file. But I don't see how to download those tracks to a library.

All of this happened following moving my Film library to an external drive, tho I don't see the connection. My TV Programs appear to be Ok.

Help!!

If you need to download the already uploaded music to the iCloud (iTunes Match), you could try re-syncing the media library.

Step1 : sign out from iTunes
Step 2 : Delete all the remaining music files.
Step 3 : Sign in to the iTunes.
Step 4 : Let it to sync the music library from iCloud.

For more info : https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8046575


MobileMe services has stopped working message in Outlook 2006 I have Windows 7 and use Microsoft Office Outlook 2006 and every time that I open it pops up a screen that says mobile me services has stopped working.

I use iCloud to merge my contacts and calendar from my iPhone 4S. What can I do to stop this from happening.  Should I uninstall iCloud and reinstall it?  What suggestions do you have?  I want to keep icloud.  If I delete mobile me will it delete icloud?

Delete mobile me account on the iPhone
Add MobileMe account, but when prompted to activate "Find My iPhone" feature, keep it inactive.
Once MobileMe account has been setup on your phone, proceed to activate the "Find My iPhone" feature.


How Noisy is the Time Capsule (2013)? I have an older Time Capsule and it's pretty noisy. Does anyone have one of the newer tall models? How loud is it in a quiet room?

I have the newest 3TB since a few days and for me it is basically without any substantial noice.


Cannot remove DevonThink Pro from menu bar I installed DEVONthink Pro, then uninstalled by removing the App from the Applications dir, but I can not get rid of the icon/menu in the menu bar.

I've removed every file anywhere that has the name 'devon', but the think just will not go.

The menu you are seeing is actually the AppleScript system menu. It gives you a handy way to launch applications when you're in an app.

To turn it off:

Select the option in the menu Open AppleScript Editor.app
Open the Preferences menu
Unselect the Show Script Menu


For the Apple SSD drives, will they run slower with less free space available? From what I understand, most SSDs will run slower once there is 20% or less free space available, due to TRIM/garbage collection. However, are Apple SSDs the same way?

The reason I ask is because I've seen some drives that are advertised as 256 GB but actually are 280 GB or so in size, so even if they are "full" they can still run at peak performance.

So, I'm thinking of getting a Mac Mini from Apple with an SSD preinstalled in it. Would I have to leave 20% free space at least for peak performance?

The drives are provisioned with space set aside to handle garbage collection and bad block replacement. I'm sure it's possible to drive the create benchmarks where a measurable drop in performance is shown under certain conditions but I've used six different SSD's in three different MB/MBP and have never noticed a drop in performance even when the drives were almost full.


How to view my posts and responses on official Apple Support Community website? I have an account with Official Apple Support Community linked to my AppleID. The username on the site is different from the Apple ID. I want to find a question that I asked on the website, but there is no way to see posts or comments I have made that is assigned to my username.

I've tried searching my username in the search bar as well, and that is not working either. I'm able to look up posts involving other users (if the post text contains the username) but nothing comes up when I look for text containing my username.

How do I search my posts and responses on the site?

EDIT: When signed in, I've tried going to the "My Subscriptions" page but nothing shows up. I even played around with all the filters, and checked the "Authored" and "Participated" filters but I get no posts.

I noticed it says "There is  no recent content available". Could this be because the posts were made years ago, and haven't been indexed? One post was made in 2013 while another was in 2016, and I know this because I was able to find two posts by googling site:https://discussions.apple.com "MY_USERNAME".

After you sign in, the main Welcome screen displays. Here's a screenshot of the top right portion of that sreen:

At the top right, select "My subscriptions." That should return a list of the threads to which you're subscribed, and I think one is automatically subscribed to threads one starts.

I don't know if subscriptions (or their listings) are automatically cancelled after a period of time.


Table of contents for only a section in iWork Pages? I have a master table of contents that works like a charm, and each section is broken out appropriately with page breaks v sections.

For each section, I would like to have another table of contents for only that section. Is that possible? I'm in Pages '09.

This feature isn't supported by Pages '09. If you want to do this you'll have to switch word processing programs or manually create your Master Table of Contents.

  Each table of contents (TOC) you create using a Word Processing
  template lists only the content that follows it, up until the next
  table of contents. If you want a master table of contents for the
  entire document, it must be the only table of contents, and it must be
  at the beginning of the document.

Source: Apple's Pages '09 User Guide (page 64). The same information can be found using Pages > Help and searching for Creating and Updating a Table of Contents


Joins both usb and wifi personal hotspot iphone My macbook automatically joins both the usb and the wifi version of my iPhone's personal hotspot. I know I can just turn airport off or only enable my iPhone's usb tether.

Is it possible to make my mac only join the usb mode and not the wifi, if both modes are enabled?

There is no built-in logic to specify an if/then decision to not join WiFi so the mac will join any WiFi SSSID that is detected and matches its list of auto-join networks.

You can set the service order by "secondary clicking" the gear at the bottom of the Network Preference Panes to Set Service Order... and make sure the WiFi is lower than the USB connection. It will still join, but no traffic will flow while the USB connection is viable.

Lastly, you could just make a new Network location called USB Only and turn off WiFi all together when you select that location on the mac. Changing network locations can be scripted as a service and AppleScript/Automater or FastScripts to effect or reverse the change you desire from a keyboard shortcut.


Yosemite install freezes on "Transfering your Information" I installed Yosemite on a blank external drive. For the past half hour, it has been frozen on the Transferring your information screen, saying 20 minutes left, but not budging.

Aside from waiting indefinitely, how do I break out of this non-progress, and what domain need to do to resume the installation process, preferably without starting from scratch?

I had long wait as well.  Vaguely remember also at 20 minutes.  Also heard reports of similar waits on some of the podcasts that I follow.  I waited think a lot longer (than 20 minutes) and the install finished successfully.    As with all progress indicators, it is an indicator.   Sometimes things take longer.   In general would be very cautious to stop an OS upgrade in the middle.   almost certain to have things screwed up.


MacOS & finder hang to beach ball after a couple of hard resets, won't go away I had to do a couple of hard resets (holding power button until it shuts off) because MacOS became unresponsive.
Now it's happenning every time, when opening a pdf with preview, or apps that used to work fine, now hang up with the beach ball and never come back, and some times the whole finder hangs.
It looks like something got corrupted because I made some clean restarts and it keeps happening, other than reinstalling MacOS, is there something that I can do to try and fix this?

Specs:
MacBook with intel core duo, 2GB memory
MacOS 10.6.7 still using the original factory install (plus updates) from about a year and a half

Run disk utility on your hard-drive.  Inspect the disk for problems, repair if necessary, and re-run a verify to make sure it passes.  It may give you a hint about needing to boot into single-user mode - if that's the case follow the instructions carefully.

Backup your data.


Why does unzipping via Finder set execute bit on text files? When unzipping a .zip file by double-clicking on the .zip file via the Finder, I notice that plaintext files have their execute bit on. Unzipping an equivalent .tar.gz file does not exhibit this behavior. Why?

For example, unzipping this zip file will result in the LICENSE, README.md and CONTRIBUTING.md (plaintext files) to be marked as executable. But unzipping this .tar.gz file does not exhibit this behavior.

When unzipping each using the command line unzip utility, OSX does not mark the files as executable. So why is the Finder doing this? It seems strange, and insecure, for it to be marking plaintext files as executable.

The ZIP format does not contain information about Unix permissions (see ZIP, file headers). By default all files are then marked as executable.

Tar can store this information and by untarring it is possible to restore them (see tar, file format).


See what apps and data are taking up space in iOS, without iTunes? Is there a way i can see what apps and data are taking up space on my iPhone 8, running 12.4.1.

I know if i plug my phone into iTunes i can get a report on this, but wondered if its possible without iTunes ?

To see what’s taking up all your storage space, open the Settings app, tap General, then tap [Device] Storage.

There, you’ll get an overview of how much storage space you have used and how much you have available, and you’ll get a list of how much space each app uses for the app and associated data.


Will closing a MacBook cancel restoration from Time Machine backup? I'm currently restoring a MacBook from a Time Machine backup. Estimated time for completion is 3 hours. I'm traveling and will have to pack it up in 30 minutes. Will that cancel the restoration process? If so, how delicate would such a cancellation be? Might it lead to a corrupted state?

It will put the MacBook to sleep, which effectively pauses the restore.

Since you're restoring from external media even if the MacBook itself doesn't recover nicely when woken back up you could simply start another restore from the same Time Machine drive.


Time Machine backup will not restore to my internal HDD drive I had a major hard drive failure, so I have replaced the HDD on my MacBook mid 2012 13" model with another 1TB. I was running latest version of "Mojave" MacOS.

I go to restore from the time machine (TM) backup and I am being told that it will only now restore to an SSD drive because APFS systems can only be restored to SSDs. I wasn't even aware that my Time Machine was doing backups in APFS.

So I am really stuck here. Is this Apple's very unsubtle way of telling me to buy a new MacBook with an SSD drive to be able to keep using TM backups and other system features? Like planned obsolescence? Or have I done something wrong? The full message that comes up when I do the CMS + R recovery boot and try to restore from TM:

  The system can't be restored onto this disk because APFS systems can
  only be restored to internal SSDs. Reinstall MacOS on this disk and
  then use Migration Assistant to transfer data from your backup
  instead.

Similar issue.

"The system can't be restored onto this disk because HFS systems can't be restored to space sharing APFS volumes.  Reinstall macOS on this disk and then use Migration Assistant to transfer data from your backup assistant."

I think the "accidental" disconnect from Time Machine backups due to HFS/APFS incompatibility was intentional.


My macbook pro early 2011 wont boot my Macbook pro early 2011 wont boot i tried pretty much anything, i changed the hard drive cleared the Pram and SMC and it still wont work. When i turn it on it has the SLR on but Im greeted with a black screen. The fan and SSD turn on.

My first thought is the screen--maybe it's booting but the graphics aren't working or the screen isn't working. I have that periodically with an old ThinkPad running Linux. Try connecting to an external monitor and booting.

Another thought: try booting with an external startup disk.


How to edit Symbolic Links in OS X? I had painstakingly gone through and created symlnks to a whole host of files in my system.  I couldn't use aliases because they were failing to be copied with RSync, and also certain apps I use to access my home system remotely over iOS, couldn't handle Aliases but worked fine with symlinks.

Now however I had to change some hard drives around, and my original files are now in a new location.  This of course means all my symlinks have broken.

Aliases deal with this just fine but as stated above, I have to stick with symlinks.  Is there any way to mass-edit these symlinks?  I just need to change the name of the drive in the path.  The old location was for example:

/Volumes/Old Drive/path/to/file

the new one is:

/Volumes/New Drive/path/to/file

Seems like there should be a workable command line way to do this since they'll all require the same change.  I found at least one utility (Make Symlink) which claims to allow this, but it appears to be many years old and looks abandoned.  I couldn't even manage to decompress the .sit archive it was packed in.

EDIT:  I found this page, which suggests that in unix anyway, proper us of ln should do the trick, but so far it doesn't appear to do anything - not even output any error message when pointed to a non-existent symlink.

Got it!  Turns out ln is the answer after all, but I had an error in my path.

Here is a functional command line for anyone who might need to edit a symlink "in place" in the future:

ln -f -s /path/to/new/location/of/original /path/to/location/of/broken/symlink/

Notice that you're not actually pointing all the way to the broken symlink itself, but to the directory that contains the broken symlink.  This assumes that the expected name of the symlink, is identical to the original name of the linked item.

This is of course for fixing a single link, but from here I can imagine it wouldn't be overly difficult to script a solution that applied something like this recursively.


Will I have to pay for photos sent if my friend has switched iMessage off? Both my friend and I have iPhone 6 and we iMessage often.  I just sent him three photos but it seems he has switched iMessage off for some reason as the text I sent has delivered as green instead of blue and I didn't get 'delivered' or 'read.'

I just want to know if I'll now have to pay for sending those photos as I always do whenever I send photos to non iPhone users?

Yes, I expect that you will.

If a message cannot be sent as an iMessage (blue) for any reason - e.g. the recipient does not have an iMessage capable device, they have turned iMessage off, or you do not have a data connection over which to send it, it will go as an SMS or MMS message instead (green).

If the message is entirely plain text it should be sent as SMS, which are cheap or free on most mobile (cellphone) plans. However if it contains a picture or other attachment, which SMS does not support, it will be sent as an MMS message and these are usually charged at a higher rate.

At least on iPhone with iOS 9.3.2, you can see from the grey text in the message field before you start typing whether the message will be sent as iMessage or SMS/MMS ('Text Message'). If the recipient should be able to receive iMessage but you can't send one, e.g. because you don't currently have a data connection, sending should fail and you should then be asked whether to send the message as a text message or MMS.


How do you close a file that you've opened with /usr/bin/open? I've opened a PDF file with /usr/bin/open, and now I'd like to close it from the command line. (I'm writing a script.)

How might one go about doing that?

You can't, at least not directly. /usr/bin/open will have told some other app to open the file, and then immediately dissociated itself from the whole affair.

If you know which app did the actual open, you might be able to use scripting to tell the app to close it. Something like

/usr/bin/open SomeFile.pdf
# time passes
/usr/bin/osascript -e 'tell application "Preview" to close document "SomeFile.pdf"'

But that pre-supposes that you know Preview is the app, and that this is the correct syntax for telling it to close a document, and that you've gotten the correct value for the document's name.

You can eliminate some of that uncertainty by specifying the app in the open command, and by assuming that the document will still be the front document when your script wants to close it.

/usr/bin/open -a Preview SomeFile.pdf
# do some stuff
/usr/bin/osascript -e 'tell application "Preview" to close front document'

(It might be more robust to refer to the app by its bundle-id rather than name

/usr/bin/open -b com.apple.Preview SomeFile.pdf
# do some stuff
/user/bin/osascript -e 'tell application id "com.apple.Preview" to close front document

but that's barely more than a matter of style.)

In general, /usr/bin/open can open just about anything. It behaves like double-clicking, so it can "open" windows (in Finder), applications (as themselves), disk images (by mounting them), network shares (by connecting to them), or even ordinary documents (by launching the app currently selected as the default app for that document type). Each of these flavors of "open" has its own flavor of "close".


Is there any way to not boot Finder at startup? Is there a way in OS X to change the desktop from Finder to something else (for example KDE from Fink)?

Basically, I want Finder to not boot up at startup, so no icons, no dock (but keep the menu bar)

I don't know if this still works; but in 10.6 you could define a different application to run in place of Finder.  I did this for a iChat stand-alone "kiosk" once.

For example:

defaults write com.apple.loginwindow Finder /Applications/iChat.app

When you logout and login, the application you designated (in my case, iChat) will start.  I suppose you could set this to XQuartz; but, again, I haven't tried it myself.

To back out the changes:

defaults delete com.apple.loginwindow Finder


XCode update is not being reflected I have downloaded the latest Xcode 7.2 from the App Store.

But when I open Xcode, it still show the version as 6.4.

I am running on OS X Yosemite 10.10.5.

How do I use Xcode version 7 and above?

Unfortunately, I got the same problem some times ago, when, after upgrading to El Capitan, I couldn't update to Xcode 7.1.1.

To solve this issue, I did the following:

Remove the .app file in your Application folder (if you prefer, you can use apps like CleanMyMac to remove any other related files);
Go to Downloads for Apple Developers (after having logged in) and download Xcode 7.2 directly from there.

Don't know exactly why the normal update doesn't work, but now, after re-installing the app completely, everything works fine for me (also the new updates from the App store).


Very slow file copy to encrypted disk image I have a new iMac running El Capitan.  Bought a SanDisk flash drive for backup.  I created an encrypted disk image on the flash drive.

Here's the problem:  copying 10GB to the unencrypted part of the flash drive takes about 5-6 minutes.  Copying the same 10GB to the encrypted disk image is estimated to take 2 hours.

Why the huge difference in copy times?  Is there any way to speed up file copying to an encrypted disk image?

Finder needs to encrypt each file before copying it to the disk.

No, there is not a way to speed it up without removing drive encryption.


Apple Remote Desktop 3.9 Update problems? If you run Apple Remote Desktop Admin you will notice Apple has recently released version 3.9.

If, as happened to me, your AppStore does not display the update to the Apple Remote Desktop Client update as well as the Apple Remote Desktop Admin upgrade, and you upgrade your Apple Remote Desktop Admin first, these bad things will happen:

You will not be able to open Apple Remote Desktop Admin on your machine, because your client is not the right version.

If you run the AppStore again and pick up the ARD Client updater, you can open ARD Admin again, but

You will lose the ability to send Unix commands, install packages, etc to all computers you manage that have not yet upgraded to ARD client 3.9

If you upgrade your remote clients to ARD Client 3.9 by whatever means, you will get back control of them through your ARD Admin but,

The ARD Client version 3.9 is not compatible with any OS below Yosemite!

If you run clients running an OS older than Yosemite, you will only have Screen Sharing access to those clients forever more (or until a legacy patch is written).

Anyone with Apple Remote Desktop Admin 3.8.5 can still do all of the remote goodness to ARD Clients running version 3.9.

TL;DR, if you upgrade your Apple Remote Desktop Admin to version 3.9, you will have a bad time.

Can anyone suggest a workaround, other than "don't upgrade to Apple Remote Desktop Admin 3.9"?

One thing that helps is that there is a compatibility mode in the Security Tab of the Preferences.


How can I quickly filter by edited photos on iOS? Often I will have many versions of a similar photo.  I will select my favorite and then crop and edit this version. Later I would like to  quickly find the nicely edited version from the other photos.  Sometimes I do not want (or forget) to favorite the edited photo after I edit it.  In addition, sometimes I would like to find a photo I edited months or even years ago.  Is there a way to quickly find edited photos in iOS?

There is a feature for filtering photos in the iOS Photos app which allows you to quickly find previously edited photos.  To access this capability click the three dots at the top right of the photos app (the three dots are located next to the "select" button).
After pressing the three dots (...) you will see the following screen:

Select "Filter" and the screen below will appear.  On this screen select "edited"

Finally select "Done" and you will see only your edited photos.
You can reverse this by selecting the three dots again, selecting "Change Filter" and then setting the filter to "All Items"


Bought new iPhone 6s. Asking for different apple id. Why? My girlfriend's brother just ordered a new iPhone 6s and he tried setting up his phone but the store I believe keeps asking for a password for a Japanese registered email address. Assuming that's not meant to happen. Any reason this is happening? Is the phone refurbished or stolen and not new? Thanks for any info

It sounds like he has encountered Activation Lock. He can check that theory here:

https://www.icloud.com/activationlock/

The information provided would seem to indicate the device has been used before.


iCloud Family Sharing: Notifications to others member if you leave? If I leave Family Sharing will it notify anybody of this?

Yes. Everyone in the family will get a notification in their notifications center.


Have the MacBooks Pro in 2011 and 2012 still shipped with installation disks? I'm looking into acquiring some older Apple hardware and am wondering how long Apple still shipped hardware with installation disks. So when did Apple stop shipping installation disks (or more specifically: did the 2011 and 2012 MacBookPros still ship with disks)?

Mac OS X 10.7 Lion was released to manufacturing on July 1, 2011 and was the first Mac OS that was not made available on optical media. I believe that the last MBP to ship with optical media were the Early 2011 models which were introduced in February 2011 shipping with Mac OS X 10.6.6 meaning that the Late 2011 MBP introduced October 2011 and shipping with Mac OS X 10.7.2 would have been the first to ship without optical media.


Where could be the ringtones, wallpapers located on iOS IPSW package? I've used and already extracted the IPSW of iOS 11, there are 4 DMG files there, where could that be on that DMG files there, and where exactly insider one of there could I find that such files?

They're in the biggest of the three DMGs (the one containing the root file system, it's 2.3GB in my IPSW), under /Library/Wallpaper/iPhone:

Ringtones can be found in the same DMG, under /Library/Ringtones.


AppleScript to add URL to Pi-hole whitelisting I'm writing a script to easily add sites to my Raspberry Pi's Pi-hole installation.
I've got the following:
tell application "Terminal"
    reopen
    activate
    do script "ssh pi@192.168.*.*" in window 1
    delay 0.2
    do script "mypassword" in window 1
    delay 0.4
    do script "pihole -w *I need a display dialog where I can put an URL that returns to terminal
    here* in window 1
    delay 0.2
    do script "exit" in window 1
end tell

I want to do this so I do not have to login to my Pi-hole site every other time to block or whitelist some sites.

Use the display dialog command’s optional default answer parameter to collect text

https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/documentation/LanguagesUtilities/Conceptual/MacAutomationScriptingGuide/PromptforText.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40016239-CH80-SW1
set input to display dialog "Enter URL" default answer "" with icon note buttons {"Cancel", "Continue"} default button "Continue"
do script "pihole -w " & (text returned of input) in window 1


Which parts of MBA-13" mid-2011 can be upgraded? Which parts (if any) in Macbook Air 13" mid-2011 can be upgraded to either:

an original part from a later version of Macbook Air/Pro
or a third-party component which has a better performance/extra features?

Which are those replacement work really well (eg with no compatibility problems; last at least as long as the originals etc)?

E.g.: CPU, SSD, RAM, main board, wifi/BT card, speakers, USB 3.0, camera etc.

Here is what I found so far:

wifi: upgradable to 802.11 AC, with third-party QuickerTek QCard2 (manufacturer gives dimensions: V1= 18.07mm x 39.9mm, but contradicting answers on whether it's compatible with MBA2011 13"). I asked for feedback on it in a separate question; haven't tried it myself yet)


macOS 10.13.4 not installed and disappeared from AppStore I started to update my MBP (2013) to macOS 10.13.4 using the AppStore.

After installation and login, I got a notification that some things didn't get install.

I opened the AppStore, macOS 10.13.4 is not available anymore to download, neither it is in the Installed section.

I checked also "About This Mac", my version is still 10.13.3

No, I never installed any Betas or GM.

Problem is solved by booting in Safe Mode and install macOS 10.13.4 from there.


What are some good two factor methods for logging onto your Mac? What are some options I can deploy to require users to use multi factor authentication when logging onto their Macs. In the same fashion you use your password and Google Authenticator code to log into Gmail, GitHub, Slack, etc., is there something for logging into your Mac.

How about something like Knock?  http://www.knocktounlock.com
It's not exactly the same as looking up a time-dependent code, but does require the 'second factor' in order to unlock.

The neat thing is that many apps (I think Knock included) run on Bluetooth, so when you walk away from the Mac and the BT disconnects, it automatically locks up the machine.


Turn off the SSH Agent How do I turn the SSH Agent off? I'm having troubles with Vagrant and it indicates that I should disable my SSH Agent before continuing, yet I can't find a straight forward answer. How would I do it?

Temporary answers work too. I'm happy with how my environment is setup, it's just this particular situation where I need to verify that disabling the SSH Agent corrects the issue, even if I then turn it back on.

unset the environment variable $SSH_AUTH_SOCK. In bash, from where you run the vagrant commands, simply:

export SSH_AUTH_SOCK=""


Airport Extreme: How to share a hard drive over the guest network? I'm offering my Internet to somebody living in another apartment and used an Airport Express to extend my Airport Extreme signal. Since the Aiport Express only extends the "main" network, the other person is using the main network whereas I'm using the "guest" network myself.

I recently got an external hard drive and connected it to the Airport Extreme's USB port because I want to use Time Machine to automatically backup my MBA.

However, the hard drive is automatically connecting itself to the "main" network. Is there a way for me to access the hard drive through the "guest" network instead?

The most up-to-date version of AirPort Utility is 6.3.2.

According to this Apple Release Notes of AirPort Utility 6.2, you can extend guest networks as a part of the update.

The most current AirPort Utility is 6.3.2, which is available through software update. I however is able to find 6.3.1 in this Apple Release Notes.

This will solve your problem easily by letting yourself use the main network, and your neighbor using the extended guest network.


iTunes incorrently splitting the songs in an album. Metadata problem? I have these albums and songs in my iTunes Library. They should appear grouped, but for some reason, iTunes splits them up and shows them as separate albums with the same name and details:

I check the metadata and everything seems to be in order. Here are screen shots of the first two songs:

Why is iTunes doing this? Thanks for your help!

I've only ever seen this happen when the metadata absolutely differs in some way between tracks. There are two ideas that come to mind:

Highlight each individual character and make sure 3 dots ( ... ) haven't been transformed into a single character elipses ( … ). Highlight each of the dots above and you should understand the difference.
Check the 'Sorting' section too and make sure all of that data is identical, notably in the 'Grouping' fields.


Ensuring replies to group messages go to the whole group rather than just the individual who sent the original When I send a group text - I get back replies as individual messages all in their individual conversations and no one else can see the reply - this is fine if I want them private.

But I have once seen where each group member was replying and we all could see the messages like a conversation string - how do I set it so when each group member replies we all see their answer and also it is on the same stream

If you send a group message on your iPhone, anyone else who uses iMessage will respond to the entire group. However, if a message recipient is using standard SMS (such as a user on an Android, etc.), their response will be a standard SMS message back to you.

So if you want a true group message, ensure everyone is using a Mac or iOS device, with iCloud and iMessage enabled. If you are in a mixed environment with non-iOS users, you might look at a third-party messaging app that works on all platforms.


How can I effectively analyse my macbook's performance issues? In recent months my macbook has been steadily running slower.

It's about 2 years old and gets heavy use so my initial suspicions are that maybe the hard drive is starting to get old. I used the disk utility and it said the disk was fine though.

I dont have an especially large amount of applications running at a time, about 4-6 (plus whatever background stuff is going on).

As you can see I am more or less speculating, is there a tried and tested way of diagnosing this stuff before I put in an SSD (can the Apple retail stores do this for me?).

Cheers

In my experience Apple stores won't really do that kind of work, you may be better off taking it to an authorised service centre for that kind of thing.

You can use Activity Monitor (found in Utilities folder) to monitor disk activity. This will give you an idea of how quickly the drive is shifting data to and from its platters. You'd then need to research to see if the throughput you're getting is below par or normal.

Another thing to check would be CPU and RAM usage, checking these when the system is performing badly can give you an idea of what's slowing you down (assuming that it's software hogging your CPU/RAM).

It may also be worth checking the Console (also found in Utils folder) to see if any applications or services are spamming any (error) messages, these apps/services may be causing slowdowns by hogging system resources.

Another (far less innocuous) troubleshooting step could be to do an archive and install of your system (which basically keeps all your files and settings but installs a fresh copy of the system) and see if performance improves.


How can I solve "Cannot Start Family Sharing" error, when trying to set up family sharing? On my iPhone I go to Settings -> Apple ID, and click "Set Up Family Sharing", and this error appears:

But... I am Jon, and I'm not familiar with any family sharing setup.

And my Mac says basically the same thing, when going to System Preferences -> Family Sharing (via Catalina 10.15.1):

I've called Apple Support about this but they say I need to log in with the iCloud account my primary account is associated with, but I've no idea what account that could be. As far as I'm concerned I have one and only one iCloud account, and I haven't made any account changes in years. Apple Support insists they can't look up more information.

So how do I use Family Sharing in this situation? Or even just debug this? Apple Support insists there's nothing they can do so I'm not sure what to do next, anyone got any ideas??

Oh.

Okay, I found a hint in an email from 2012 (!) when MobileMe transitioned into iCloud (remember that!?), and I guess I had another account back then which for reasons unknown I apparently family shared to my new account ♂

My strange past behaviour aside this looks to resolve my issue (waiting for account deletion to go through before I can know for sure).

If anyone else comes across this: https://appleid.apple.com guided me towards my long-lost account, and https://privacy.apple.com is where I put it up for deletion.


How to prevent Mac from changing the order of Desktops/Spaces You may have encountered a situation in which Mac changes the order of desktops based on some events like alerts on a program or a web page in browser.
How could I disable this logical change?
Note: I'm using El Capitan, but I had this problem since Mavericks.

System Prefs > Mission Control
Uncheck Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use.

This will fix the order of all your regular Spaces - but not Fullscreen spaces, which always go to the right of existing numbered Spaces.

From comments: Note this cannot fix the Mac confusing which external screen is which. That's not user-controlled at all, & seems to occur mainly [though not always] when the external screens are identical.