Time Machine backing up more data than I can physically have I have a Retina MBP with a 512 GB SSD. Today, Time Machine shows me this:

Does anybody know how Time Machine can be backing more data than I can fit on my hard disk? For what its worth, I still have about 40 GB free on the internal hard drive.

Time Machine is setup on a 2TB Time Capsule.

I'd say that the Info Window on your Hard Drive that you posted in the comments is completely correct. It uses the new base 10 system for calculating your Hard Drive space.

I guess Time Machine is misreporting the amount of data backed up. This might be due to either Time Machine still using the old base 2 method for calculating HD space, or by Time Machine getting confused by the use of symlinks and adding up the size of some files multiple times.

It also could be that somehow the backed up data is bigger than the original data. This could be due to metadata, error recovery, or other factors. But I don't think this is the case, because the difference that you report is quite big.


Is there anyway to stop Microsoft Office 2016 on macOS prompting for update? I want to stop this prompt:

Normally I’d encourage people to keep their system / app up-to-date, but there is only one word that can describe what Microsoft had done in Office for Mac: catastrophe.

Their Apr 2018 update destroyed the ability to display / assign Asian font correctly. Prior to the update, I can view & set Asian font using the Asian name of a font family (e.g. "細明體" instead of "PMingLiU"). But after update all fonts are displayed using English font family name. I can stil use these Asian fonts, but it's no longer be compatible with Windows version.

Besides, the performance is severely declined after update: the text input curser can’t even catch up with my typing speed.

I've managed to revert to older version via Time Machine backup. This is not the first time that Office update ruined everything so I'd always make backup before applying for update. Now I just want to stop this annoying prompt.

Remove the "/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0" folder, which to place the Microsoft Auto Update (MAU) program.

Update: I found ms-office applicaiton would create the MAU2.0 and Microsoft AutoUpdate.app automatically after some days. You can create a blank file named MAU2.0 in the "/Library/Application Support/Microsoft" folder.

sudo touch "/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/MAU2.0"


IMAP files trashed and greyed out - can't recover in Mail.app A few days ago, my IMAP files were sent to the trash (if I did it, it was by accident, but I really don't remember doing it...) So the main file is there in the trash but I cannot scroll down the files, and its greyed out. And also I cannot recover the files, or put them back on the inbox!! Any ideas?

Here's a picture of what it looks like!Thank you for your help!

i took away the IMAP prefix in settings : imap.secureserver.net
left it blank and now it works again.


Using Time Machine with 2 internal drives My sister's 2012 MacBook is running terribly slow, so I adviced her to install an ssd. Since there are budget constraints, the best option would be to install de HDD in the optical bay place for storage and a 240gb ssd as system drive.

The thing is, she likes to constantly back up his system in an external drive using Time Machine and there's where my doubt raises.

Will time machine save only one drive? Can it save both drives and all their configurations as a single image?

I really want to help her saving some money

Thanks for your time :)

I agree that TimeMachine will backup both internal volumes.
https://www.baligu.com/pondini/TM/32.html

My sister's 2012 MacBook is running terribly slow

I would spend a little time diagnosing why the machine is running slow.

Run activity monitor /Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.  Check ram usage and paging.
Run etrecheck https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/etrecheck/id1423715984?mt=12


Options to deal with 43" monitor with MBP I bought a 43" monitor to replace two other monitors.  I am regretting it because it is difficult to get the scale correct on applications.  The applications are just bigger.  Using Chrome as an example I have to keep clicking the zoom down feature as it keeps resetting to 100%.  Plus, some website do not respond well to a zoom 50%, let alone 25%.

My Colleague has a 43" monitor connected to windows 10 and has it configured to act like four separate monitors.  He said the software he is using came from Dell.

How can I do a similar thing with Mac?

I like this idea because then I would not need to move the mouse so far to get to the menu across the top of the monitor.

[EDIT] After accepting the answer I had to go thru some experimentation to get VMWare Fusion to display properly.  This seemed to be the best setting for fusion:

I understand your goal is to be able to see as much as possible, even if that makes it smaller. In contrast, some people buy larger monitors so that everything appears larger, perhaps to compensate for poor eyesight.

Luckily macOS can accomodate for both preferences. In the System Preferences, under Displays, you can enable Scaled mode and choose More Space so that everything appears smaller, and you can see more things on screen at once.


Is it possible to suppress hidden calendars in iOS 5's notification view? I like seeing my upcoming appointments in the notification view, but I have several subscribed calendars that I generally keep turned off, but keep around so I can reference them when necessary. They're showing up in the notifications and I don't want them to.

To the best of my knowledge you can't fix this. Hopefully Apple will modify this in an update at some point, but who knows. For now, the notification center is useless to anyone with a complicated calendar system.


Is there a way to prevent applications to run, like I can with selfControl to disable opening websites? I want to force myself to focus.

I use https://selfcontrolapp.com to block websites. How can I block apps?

Is there a utility app, or a terminal command you know?

Freedom allows you to block apps on desktop, it includes a locked mode that should work if you block the right things, it is a paid app however.


Shared note folders not visible in icloud notes As soon as one shares a folder in Apple's notes app, be it in the web version or in any of the apps, the folder vanishs from the web version. So the question is: How can one view shared folders on the web?

You cannot view Shared Folders or their contents on the iCloud.com web view.
Evidence: Regardless of which account used to test, they do not appear.


Display external video on iMac I am considering purchasing an iMac. Our office situation is such that the new computer will be placed where a monitor is presently located for a Windows laptop connected via a docking station.

Is it possible to connect external video to an iMac? Alternatively, is the iMac capable of hooking up to a second monitor? (my monitor has multiple inputs which I could just switch between) Are there other options that I am missing?

Is it possible to connect external video to an iMac?

Yes, the latest 27" iMac can act as a monitor via Mini DisplayPort. From Apple:

  Mini DisplayPort output with support for DVI, VGA, and dual-link DVI (adapters sold separately); 27-inch models also support input from external DisplayPort sources (adapters sold separately)

You'll need an adapter to convert your laptop output to Mini DisplayPort. Be careful, as some adapters, such as those provided by Apple, are designed to output DVI/VGA/etc, and aren't capable of being reversed to accept it as input.

further reading: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3924


How can I decrease the maximum number of files where Get Info will open multiple windows? Is there some plist I can edit to decrease the number of files that Finder's Get Info function will open separate info windows for?

The number of Get Info windows that will open simultaneously is THIRTY-FIVE. The windows slowly appear one at a time, and once they finally finish appearing I have to close them all one at a time. Pure madness, and whoever chose the default value for this feature should go outside and think about what they've done.

If I get info on thirty-six files, it finally automatically consolidates them into a Summary Info window. I would like to change this threshold of 36 to something reasonable, like 4.

I know about the shortcuts to open the Inspector and Summary Info windows, however sometimes I accidentally forget to hold Option or Control, and I would like to eliminate the possibility of this happening by accident.

A satisfactory alternate solution would be if there were a way to make Get Info always open a Summary Info window instead of opening separate file info windows.

MacBook Pro (Retina, Mid 2012) running 10.10.5.

At least for 10.7.5-10.9.5 the assumption that the number of Get Info windows is restricted to 35 is wrong.

Instead the screen resolution and the size of the Get Info window seem to be the restricting factors. Using a 1920x1200 px monitor I get 6 windows in a row and 12 rows (= 72 windows).

Trying to get the info on 73 objects and more a summarizing Get Info window will open.

Apparently there is no simple hidden numerical threshold of simultaneously opening Get Info windows.

To simply have an identical behavior for cmdI and altcmdI map cmdI to altcmdI for the Finder.app with a key remapping app.

If you don't want to use a remapping app use System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts and create custom Finder shortcuts: Get Info -> shiftaltcmdI (to disable cmdI) or Get Info -> altcmdI and Show Inspector -> cmdI to swap the shortcuts of Get Info and Show Inspector. The same applies to Get Summary Info (with a different shortcut of course) if you prefer to change that one.

To quickly close all Get Info windows hit altcmdW or for some system versions alt-click on the close button of one of the windows. All other non-Get Info windows will also be closed though.


Keyboard Shortcut to Fill Right in Numbers? In Numbers, is there an equivalent keyboard shortcut to Excel's "Fill Right" Ctrl + R and "Fill Down" Ctrl + D?

Go to

Systems Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > +

to add a shortcut, select or add Numbers as the Application, and put "Fill Down" (exact, no quotes) in the command spot and then assign your shortcut (Ctrl + D)


Timeline slider does'nt always show up while listening to iPod Touch I have noticed that, sometimes, the slider that represents the entire duration of a podcast and showing the current reading position (the one that you're able to move to go forward or backward rapidly) is not present in the UI. Sometimes it's there, sometimes it's not...

How can it be explained ? Is there a trick to make this slider hidden and shown ?

The slider/speed controls as well as any lyrics, show notes, etc can be toggled on and off by simply tapping on the album cover/artwork once while in the iPod "Now Playing" screen


Distinctive slowdown across browsers on 10.9.1 I've noticed a strange pattern of delays when trying to fetch websites; the behavior seems extremely distinctive, and is easy for me to reproduce so I'm fairly confident of most of the details below. I'm hoping someone will recognize it, or be able to work it out.

The length of delay seems to increase with the amount of time since restarting my computer, as far as I can tell without bound. This is less carefully tested than the other points, but it I am confident that restarting fixes the problem and that it rarely appears within the first few hours after restarting (and seems manageable for a lot longer than that).
The delay appears in any of Firefox, Safari, or Chrome.
curl works fine normally. But while any of Chrome, Safari, or Firefox is loading a page, curl will experience large delays. Closing the browser will immediately cause all of the running curl jobs to finish successfully (for example, I can start up 5 instances of curl fetching different websites, all of which will halt at the progress bar showing no progress; closing Chrome will cause all of the jobs to immediately finish).
The delay for curl is substantially smaller than the delay for websites, even when it exists. Right now it is on the order of 15 seconds, because I haven't restarted in a while in the hopes of debugging it. A website will take much longer than this, perhaps 15 seconds while "waiting for www.---.com" followed by comparable lengths of time waiting for others.
Latencies (as reported by ping) don't increase during problems.
While curl is experience delays, different curl jobs will finish at the same time. That is, they will all hang for a long time, then all stop hanging at the same moment (and so finish at roughly the same time, on the scale of the 15+ seconds for which they are hanging). Sometimes this happens in browsers, but not reliably (which I think might be because a browser has several opportunities to hang before actually finishing loading the page). After the curl jobs finish, immediately restarting them results in them hanging in exactly the same way, so it's not that the problem has cleared up (at least not for very long).
The delay is quite varied across web pages. I haven't done a very detailed survey (that will be the next step I guess).
when it hangs, curl -v hangs at the progress bar with no data transmitted.
While loading pages in Chrome, most of the time is spent "waiting for" CDNs and third party services.
Often Chrome will be displaying a blank screen, and pressing "Stop" will cause the page to render (with most but not all of the assets loaded). I assume this is related to the last point, and is just a behavior of chrome that appears when we have this long delay, rather than being closely related to the problem.
The delay appears when connected to many different wireless networks with different performance characteristics (e.g. a 50mbps line). I haven't tried wired networks, though I presume it wouldn't matter.
Similarly a different DNS makes no difference (which isn't surprising given that ping is always fine).
I observe the same behavior under very different levels of stress on the system. For example, right now I have 3 / 8 GB of memory free.

As a additional debug method I would try to create a new system user and see if the problem persists.

In the past I have similar problems after installing VPN software. Even using the uninstaller the system was sluggish.

The truth is, us power users, usually abuse the OS installing thinking tools, browser extensions, preferences panes, command line tools... Some are beta or even alpha.

If this is your case installing a fresh system on a empty drive is probably the best solution.


MacPro Early 2008, how to hook up yellow power cords to the graphics card? I'm tearing apart my MacPro Early 2008, cleaning it, and putting it back together.

Most of it seems to be going back together fine but one part confuses me and that's the two bundles of yellow wires that connect from the motherboard to the giant red video card;

The two little black plugs on the end are where the yellow cables connect:

I'd like to know in which order they connect or if it even matters at all since they have the same plug adapter head on each of them.  The yellow coated wires come from the upper front of the case (towards the dual fans up front) on the motherboard and used to connect to the video card on the side closest to the CPUs.

The two power cables are interchangeable. Order is unimportant.

They were originally envisaged as one per card, in 2 PCI slots, but they're duplicates of one another.

From the Service Source Manual


Is it possible to downgrade an iPhone from iOS 8 to iOS 7? iOS 8 in my iPhone 5 drains the battery, I'd like to return to iOS 7 if I can.

Is it possible?

Nope.

Apple has stopped 'signing' for iOS 7.

Unless some new 'method' is found, the change is irreversible.


iOS 9.3 offline dictation not working I have an iPad Pro 12.9 and an iPhone 6s, both have "hey siri" enabled, along with dictation. However I can't get the offline dictation to show up. I initially thought it was because I live in Italy (but I have everything set to US English), so I tried wiping the iPad and just setting up everything without logging in to any Apple account. I set the location to USA and the language to US English, but I still can't get offline dictation. Any suggestions?

I think I solved this!!!!

I have an iPhone 6s+ and iPad Pro, neither of which allowed offline dictation.

For some reason, the language package which allows your iPhone 6s(+) or iPad Pro to do offline dictation appears to be downloaded alongside of any of Siri's English dialects.

Discovered this semi-accidentally. I had a weird-and-shouldn't-work epiphany this morning. I had an American English keyboard but prefer Siri's British voice. I wondered if it would only download if the keyboard preference and Siri dialect were the same. Changed the dialect to American English (which I had to download), restarted the phone, and viola, offline dictation was enabled.

Tried the same on my iPad, but it didn't work.

But then I realized that Siri's American English was already loaded on my iPad, so I tried downloading the Australian dialect, and voila!, offline dictation was now enabled.

It appears that downloading any English dialect for Siri will also download the offline dictation package.

Good luck!


Is it possible to continue using an to external monitor when closing the lid on a Macbook Air? I have an application I use on an external monitor with an external USB device.

Is there a way to close the lid and continue using the app on the external monitor?

I turned off the sleep upon close function, but the external monitor still turns off.

OSX 10.9.5

Yes, its called "closed clamshell" mode. In short, you'll need to attach your MBA to a mouse, a keyboard and power:

https://support.apple.com/HT201834


How can I place .dmg files away from the desktop? Every time I install an app, I get a DMG file showing up on the desktop. It looks like this:

How do I hide it on the desktop or keep them elsewhere to preserve the aesthetic?
When I Control + click on it, I don't see any way to hide it.
Also, when I do ls -al on the desktop, they never show up. Why is that?

What you're seeing is the mounted disk image,  you need to eject them.
These are no different than a USB disk or flash drive that you attach or a CD/DVD media that you load into a drive.  It will show up on your Desktop so you have an easy way to access them.  Once you're done installing them, you can simply right click and then select Eject.
For example, I double clicked a (random) DMG file (Western Digital macOS Apps) that was in a different directory (from my Desktop) and the mounted file shows up on the Desktop.  If you double click, you will see the contents (usually install scripts or the App to be copied to the /Applications folder).  When you're done, right click and select Eject.  Note, many newer apps (VirtualBox I know does this) will, as part of it's script eject and move the DMG to Trash for you.

If using Terminal, you can see them by listing the contents of /Volumes:
% ls /Volumes

You cannot delete the item; if you  drag it to the Trash, the trash icon will turn into the Eject Symbol.


Sync Google Contact Groups with Apple iOS Contact Groups I am trying to sync my Google Contacts with my iPhone / Apple Contacts. The contacts sync fine, but the groups are not preserved.
In Contacts for Mac, I can create a new group and add contacts to it, but that contact group will not sync across to Google Contacts, and vice versa.

Is there a way to keep these groups in sync?

There is no simple way to do this yourself. The best way is to use a third party app. I've found "Contacts Sync for Google Gmail" to be the best. There are iOS apps as well.

Best of luck!


Windows 10 on external SSD - touchbar and track pad issues 2018 MBP 15". 512/16/Vega 20.

(I should have ordered a larger internal SSD, but it wasn't really up to me.)

I have the internal SSD split into two 256GB partitions for MacOS and Windows 10. These work fine.

I have a Windows-to-Go Win10 install on a Sandisk Extreme 1TB USB-C SSD. This works fine - with an external mouse and keyboard.

Without the external input devices, I'm forced to use the touch bar for function keys, etc. The touch bar doesn't change context - swapping feature keys for F1...F12, etc. - when holding the Fn key. It displays all of the feature buttons (apologies as I don't know the term for these), but all of the buttons behave as Fx keys. So, I can't change the display brightness, volume (other than via the speaker icon on the task bar), etc.

I could live with that, but it's annoying.

The touch pad is the big issue. I can point and click. It does not however recognize two finger clicks, so I can't scroll or access a context menu.

To clarify: All of this works on the Win10 install on the internal SSD. It does not work when booting form the external drive. The internal SSD is hosting a Windows Insider version that I need for work. The external SSD has the latest public Win10 release.

Everything works fine under MacOS.

I've run the Bootcamp WindowsSupport install (obtained on this machine via Bootcamp Assistant) to get all of the drivers in place, and it claims to have succeeded. I have network, keyboard, AMD drivers and almost everything except for this odd behavior from the touch bar and the touch pad.

Help?

I suspect this is a driver issue, but I've not been able to install anything beyond what the Bootcamp installer provided.

The Boot Camp Windows Support Software contains files that should be exposed to the Windows installer early in the installation process. There is also software that can be installed after Windows finishes installing. You may have only preformed the after part. In other words, have you made sure all the INF-style drivers were copied to the driver store before the first reboot during the installation process.

When using the Boot Camp Assistant to install Window 10, the files contained in the Widnow 10 ISO files are copied to the same volume as the Boot Camp Windows Support Software downloaded from the internet. So when GUI Windows installer executes, the needed files (such as drivers) are extracted from Boot Camp Windows Support Software. There is no indication to the user that this happens. Also, when Windows finishes installing, the Setup.exe application included with the Boot Camp Windows Support Software executes. This is what users do see.

  Note: If the version of Window is sufficiently newer than the model Mac, then most likely the needed software will already be include with Windows. This is only a problem when the Mac is new enough that the needed software in only exists in the Boot Camp Windows Support Software.

You may want to try a normal install of Windows 10 to the external drive instead of a Windows To Go.


Is there a PDF reader that formats for mobile screens? Trying to read PDF on a mobile screen is a pain, be it iBooks or Adobe Reader. Neither of the apps properly format the content for reading on the iPhone. I was wondering if there is a "Reader" feature, similar to Safari's reading feature, on a PDF reading application that with a tap renders the content perfectly viewable on the tiny mobile screen.

If there is no such application then I would like to know how I can convert a PDF into any other format that would allow me to format the contents better for viewing on the iPhone.

PDF files are popular precisely because the formatting is fixed. A PDF author can be sure that their document looks the same on any device that displays it. So I'm afraid you're asking for a feature that goes against one of the basic premises of the format.

That said, some PDFs have a text-only layer that can be displayed directly. On an iPhone, I'd recommend Goodreader for this. It will display the formatted PDF, then you can click to display the text-only version. That version may be bigger and more legible for you.

Having a text layer depends on the author of the PDF, but I would think Goodreader may be a step in the right direction for you.


Run script at sunrise time I'm trying to set my hackintosh pc to turn on at every sunrise and to run iTunes as the macOS boots up using bash or AppleScript without 3rd-party apps.
I reached the point in my script when I need some help to let iTunes autorun with system boot only after sunrise time, but not with every other boot or restart. For this I have sunrise time variable in bash script and would like to try to link it with the cron job or find any other solution to run iTunes at everytime changing sunrise time.

Here is my script code, which updates sunrise time from the specific website every hour and works fine with waking / turning on my hackintosh at sunrise time:

#!/bin/bash

# Downloading webpage which contains the current sunrise time for my timezone
curl -L timezone.ru/suncalc.php?tid=193 > ~/sunrise-time &&

# Parsing the sunrise time stamp from the downloaded file
sunrise=$(grep 'Восход</b>: ' ~/sunrise-time | grep -o '[0-9]:[0-9][0-9]:[0-9][0-9]') &&

# Setting mac wake-up/turinng-on time reading variable from the previous line
echo "SYSTEMPASSWORD" | sudo -S /usr/bin/pmset -a repeat wakeorpoweron MTWRFSU $sunrise

All I need now as I said is to run iTunes only when my hackintosh boots up after sunrise time, but not need to run it at any other time when system boots up or restarts.

I tried to use offered by l0b0 at command  with some attributes but with no luck, maybe I didn't understand the proper usage of it.

Thanks for your help!

Run a script at start-up or login. Within the script, run a check to see if sunrise has recently occurred. If so, perform the iTunes script.

Your script needs to determine how long ago sunrise occurred. If the time since sunrise is short enough, run the script. Short enough might be five minutes ago; it is unlikely a Mac is restarted within five minutes of powering on.

Powering on a Mac can take seconds to minutes. Checking the time since sunrise also helps compensate for this unknown delay.

How Power Manager solves this problem

In Power Manager, which can both power on your Mac at sunrise and run the script, we divide this type of problem into two sections: the trigger and the action.

The trigger schedules the Mac to power on at sunrise. For that, we calculate sunrise time locally and enqueue an IOPMQueue event. This is similar to your web site query and pmset call.

The action performs the script. In this case, Power Manager would check at each power on event to see if the expected sunrise had recently occurred. If so, the script would be run. Within Power Manager, this sensitivity is called drift.


MBP 2017 making high pitched noise when in Target Disk Mode Recently, when I was transferring data between two MBPs, I found that the 15-inch 4 Thunderbolt MBP 2017 was making a high-pitched noise when in Target Disk Mode and connected to another mMc. It doesn't matter whether the MBP was charging or not. It doesn't matter when I connect; as soon as I do, it starts making high-pitched noise. What is a possible explanation for this? The MBP does not make high-pitched noise when in Target Disk Mode but not connected to another mac, when booted up into recovery system, when booted up into 10.13, or when booted up into 10.15.

There are many reasons for high pitched noises (commonly referred to as electrical squeal).  However, without hearing it and being able to put hands on, it's impossible to diagnose.

Try a higher quality Thunderbolt 3 cable.  An active cable which will handle higher bandwidth and more power is a good bet.
Determine if it's coming from the speakers by manipulating the volume.  If it is, some part of the audio circuitry is picking up noise and amplifying it.  This is a logic board issue.
It could be a shielding issue - as silly as it sounds, you might be able to solve this by wrapping the cable in aluminum foil.

The OS and TDM mode aren't going have any effect on electrical noises; these are created when electrons move through a conductor and they can sometimes produce a squeal or a whine. However, the bottom line is that your Mac is not supposed to be doing that.  If it is, there's likely a failed component and it must be taken in for service.


Macbook Air mid 2013 with Mavericks stopped connecting to familiar wifi after 10.9.4 update I recently installed update 10.9.4, which was recommended for all Mavericks users. My wifi was working fine beforehand and now won't connect to familiar networks. Ironic much? The 10.9.4 update was supposed to fix wifi problems for Mavericks!

I have tried various troubleshooting approaches and nothing works. My mac is able to see the network but not connect to it. When I try, it just says "The network _____ could not be joined" and then gives me the option to run diagnostics, which does not help. I've tried resetting the SMC and PRAM, deleting the contents of the system config folder, and of course have restarted the machine several times. I've deleted the bluetooth config file, deleted and re-added the wifi in network preferences and renewed the DHCP lease. I'm afraid I'm out of ideas.

I would try to manually connect to network to see if that works.

Here are the steps how to do that using Terminal by copy/paste following:

Turn On

networksetup -setairportpower en0 on

Find

/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/A/Resources/airport scan

Connect

networksetup -setairportnetwork en0 WIFI_SSID_I_WANT_TO_JOIN WIFI_PASSWORD


Is there a way to stop Bluetooth coming back on after an update When i do an update via the Settings app on the iPhone (because the computer i sync to iTune doesn't connect to the net) after the update is done Bluetooth is turned back on. because Updates can be months apart i keep forgetting this so when it comes back on i forget Bluetooth is turned back on and thus end up it having chew up more power.

Is there a way i can prevent the iPhone from turning on Bluetooth after an update?

Apple does this, maybe for information-gathering such as their iBeacon stuff.
There's not much you can do about this behavior and because I've not jailbroken my iPhone I cannot confirm whether jailbreaking your device will prevent this behavior.


Jailbroken iPod Touch (5th generation) erase all content & settings problems. I’m on the iPod Touch (5th generation)—that is a jailbroken device—and did an erase all content and settings an was. I followed all kinds of steps but it didn’t work because I got to the restore part but there is an update that came out and I can’t restore without updating.

When I try restoring and update the update is first and can’t go past that. The error says

  There was a problem downloading the software for the iPod ipod network
  connection was reset make sure your network settings are correct and
  your network connection is active, or try again later.

I’ve been trying over and over but same thing happens.

Unless your previous iOS was 8.1.3 you have no option but to update to 8.2. [& that will change within a few days.]

Apple stops signing old iOS updates very soon after the release of a new one.

It will only still sign an older iOS if that is the latest one your device is capable of running.

If you are having difficulty downloading the ipsw file, you could use a different downloader & use the links posted on OS X Daily - these are direct links to the Apple site.


AppleScript/Automate Mail Tasks I've been trying to help a coworker automate a weekly email compilation he sends out but haven't yet been able to figure out how address a few specific areas...first I'll explain the situation, then the goal.

Situation:
Project Manager at work has been tasked w/ gathering info from several specific employees (managers) each week regarding what their respective teams have been working on (and what progress has been made) and have scheduled for the coming week (this whole endeavor happens every Tuesday).  So he's asked them all to use a very simple format (no greeting, no salutation, nothing but the actual content they have to report).  Once each of these emails come in Monday night/Tuesday morning he then manually copies the text from each of them then pastes it into another email one at a time, thus composing one email w/ all of the content from each of the others.  Once he has this new, all-inclusive email, he then sends that to his supervisor.  (For the record I fully understand that there are countless better ways to do this and that it is laughable...but that's not my battle and it's how he was instructed to do it, so I'm just trying to make it easier for him.)

Goal:
I've already set up rules so the specific emails get moved to a designated box (thinking that that would make identifying the correct messages for the script/automation easier), and my next step was automating the...collation of these messages and creating and sending the new single message to the boss...and that's where things have stalled.

I've found scripts for copying, scripts for pasting, and (on an older version of OS x, 10.6 maybe) even found an action in Automator that compiled the text from selected messages (in Mail) into one new message...but sadly it just won't run on more modern versions of the OS (specifically 10.8 and 10.9).

So the questions is:
Is it possible, and if so how, to automate copying the message body of a specific group of emails and pasting all of the text into one new email, and have it addressed accordingly and sent?  The goal is for this guy to sit at his computer Tuesday mornings, select the emails in question (unless there's a way to script it so the correct messages are selected automatically) then run the script/service/application (via keyboard shortcut or a dock icon, both of which I can handle) and be done w/ it?

This is certainly possible with AppleScript. Here are some resources and snippets to help you craft your ideal script.

The final AppleScript combines the content of any selected e-mails and prepares an outgoing e-mail ready for sending. You can embed this AppleScript within an Automator workflow, or save it as an application for double-clicking.

Getting the Contents of Selected Messages

From Automating Spamcop:

set raw to {}
tell application "Mail"
    set msgs to selection
    if length of msgs is not 0 then
        repeat with msg in msgs
            set messageSource to source of msg
            set raw to raw & messageSource
            set background color of msg to gray
        end repeat
    end if
end tell

Sending E-mail with AppleScript

From Send Email using Applescript:

set recipientName to "WhiteHat"
set recipientAddress to "someemail@here.com"
set theSubject to "Type your subject here!"
set theContent to "Type your message content here!"

tell application "Mail"

        ##Create the message
        set theMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {subject:theSubject, content:theContent, visible:true}

        ##Set a recipient
        tell theMessage
                make new to recipient with properties {name:recipientName, address:recipientAddress}

                ##Send the Message
                send

        end tell
end tell

Combine, Create, and Send

Combining the two snippets above gives the following AppleScript:

set recipientName to "The Boss"
set recipientAddress to "boss@example.com"
set theSubject to "Type your subject here!"

set theCombinedContent to ""
tell application "Mail"
    set msgs to selection
    if length of msgs is not 0 then
        repeat with msg in msgs
            set theCombinedContent to theCombinedContent & (content of msg)
            -- set background color of msg to gray
        end repeat

        set theMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {subject:theSubject, content:theCombinedContent, visible:true}

        tell theMessage
            make new to recipient with properties {name:recipientName, address:recipientAddress}

            -- Uncomment line below to automatically send
            -- send

        end tell

    end if

end tell


As for macOS Notifications in System Preferences, can I restore the app which I deleted? I delete some apps in this window, and I cannot restore them even with the settings them apps.
Is there no way to restore these apps?
This looks that Not In Notification Center in this link is gone.
Remove an app from Notification Center preference pane

I think this is similar to the bug of the iOS in which if I select Don't Allow to send the notification when the app is installed, I couldn't modify the notification settings because the app did not exist in the list of notification settings.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7061805

This works for me!!
But I think that there is no Not In Notification Center is a bug, so I will post in the Apple's bug tracker system.

https://stackoverflow.com/a/51784565/7824640


Something like GeForce Experience for OS X I'm looking for an application like GeForce Experience but for OS X : a software that configures my games depending on the configuration of my Mac.

I think there is nothing like that for OS X, so do you know a web site who lists the recommended settings for games on Mac ?

I dont believe there is such an application, the only thing i can think of is if you're using a macbook pro with an nvidia card, you can install an application called gfxCardStatus (https://gfx.io/) which shows you if its using the integrated graphics card or the nvidia one, it also allows manual override of the setting.


Boot Camp OS startup selection not available with Windows Alt I am using iMac (Yosemite) and Logitech K800 wireless keyboard http://www.logitech.com/en-us/product/wireless-illuminated-keyboard-k800 (specifically the Finnish version of it).  When I press Alt on bootup, regardless of when I start pressing it, the operating system selection menu does not appear. I have tried 30 times, with different keys etc. No use.

Is it really impossible to go to the selection menu with a Windows keyboard?

I do have an Apple wired keyboard connected too. No problem with the Option key and selection menu appearing with that. I just don't want to keep the Apple keyboard solely for this purpose. If there is no other choice, will http://www.rodsbooks.com/refind/ help me (are there any cons with that rEFInd, I've never tried that)?

Actually, Boot Camp installs a Boot Camp Control Panel in the Windows Control Panel. The large icon appears as shown below.

Also, Boot Camp installs a gray diamond icon in the Windows notification area (system tray).

By clicking on this icon,

a menu will appear,

which allows you to easily switch back to OS X.

Upon opening the Boot Camp Control Panel, the Windows icon will be highlighted.

If the OS X icon is selected followed by clicking Apply or OK, the default startup partition will change back to OS X without the system restarting.

The same is true for the Startup Disk window under System Preferences for OS X.

In conclusion, the only functionality missing is a menu to select an operating system on start up. I suppose rEFInd would serve this purpose. I will point out there are others for which you have to pay for. For example, there is Boot Runner which has a 14 day trial period. It installs in the OS X partition and can be uninstalled. rEFInd may have problems with both installs and uninstalls.


How can I copy videos and photos to my iPad without syncing? What's the easiest way to get photos and videos on to the iPad without Syncing?
The way sync works is ridiculous; its either all the pictures in a folder or nothing. Basically I want the ability to drag and drop random photos with just a computer and cable available.
No cloud storage options please.

In iTunes, go to the iPad’s (or iPod’s) summary screen. Check the “Manually manage videos” box, and click the “Apply” button. You can then drag videos from your desktop to the iPad without having to sync.


Disabling QuickType into my html form fields I'm creating several html forms.

People asked me to remove the QuickType functionality introduced with iOS 8 for some of those forms fields cause sometime it's irrevelant and use screen place for nothing.

It's seems QuickType only appears for <input type="text">.

Even it has not been designed for that, I tried the autocomplete="off" and it doesn't work without a surprise.

I don't want to globaly desactivate QuickType into the parameters or to temporary hide it with a swipe down.

PS : QuickType is not yet a tag, I propose to add it

It's answered on SO:

i put autocapitalize="off" autocomplete="off" autocorrect="off"
and it works.

The asker said autocapitalize="off" was not needed.


Can any experts here figure out how to get Mavericks' Dock.app working on Yosemite? So one of the deal breakers that was preventing me from upgrading to OS X 10.10 is how ugly the dock looked (to me).

Since I had success getting some of the Yosemite's apps up and running on Mavericks (Yosemite's terminal for example, it supports scrolling with trackpad for some cli programs where you normally have to scroll with C-n, C-p or directional keys), naturally I tried the opposite, i.e. running Mavericks' Dock.app on Yosemite. Surprisingly, it worked! At least, partially. Functionality-wise, it works just fine, but on the looks it is missing the background image of the Mavericks' Dock.app.

Can someone more knowledgeable figure out a way to make this work 100%? As far as I know I'm not the only person wishing for this to work so if you can figure this out, you're doing us, a portion of the Mac community a big favor!

There's an app online called cDocks should sort u out

  cDock will unleash your Dock! It's a small program to customize your
  dock on OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) and 10.10 (Yosemite). There are several
  dock styles included and users can also create their own custom docks.
  What's New

  Version 6.0.6:

Bug fix 'helpers folder not installing'
Miscellaneous bug fixes
Bug fix 'Custom dock not working properly'
Bug fix 'junktest.txt created on desktop when updating'
Miscellaneous bug fixes
UI adjustments
Bug fix 'themes not loading'
Miscellaneous bug fixes
Updated donors in credits
UI redesign
more...

  Requirements

Intel
OS X 10.9 or later

http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/51149/cdock


iPhone GMail Push Setup (Exchange) Delete > Bin rather than Delete > Archive? I have GMail setup on my iPhone with push, as an exchange account. It's awesome. However, when I select to delete an email (as I often do - I get rather more rubbish than I'd like) it archives the email - and I want to delete it properly from my phone.

This is the opposite of a lot of questions, and I'm aware that if it's setup as a gmail account I can change this setting, but seemingly not if it's setup as an Exchange account.

You need to enable the "Delete Email As Trash" setting through Google Sync. Google added this feature in 2012:

On your iOS device, visit http://m.google.com/sync/settings and log in.
Select your device from the list on the "Manage devices" page.
Click the "Enable "Delete Email As Trash" for this device" checkbox.
Tap "Save" to accept the new setting.

Now when you delete an email on your iOS device, it will be sent to the "Trash" folder instead of the "All Mail" folder in Gmail.

Note: This feature is only relevant if you’ve setup your Gmail account in iOS mail as a Microsoft Exchange account.


Is the iPhone magnetometer sensitive enough to detect solar storms? Discovered this neat project to pull detailed magnetometer data from iOS: https://github.com/foundry/MagnetoMeter

I've been looking at different approaches to setting up a 24/7 magnetometer to monitor solar activity. One option was to set up an old iPhone 6 and beam the data over wifi to a server. However, I'm unfamiliar with the iPhone's hardware and sensitivity.

Is the built-in magnetometer going to be sensitive enough to detect solar storms?

I don't think anyone here will be able to give you a definitive answer to this, unless of course they've tried to do something similar.

Apple only provides very basic specs in terms of its sensors (e.g. accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer, etc) and doesn't go into their individual specifications.

However, considering that anyone can build a magnetometer from easily available materials to measure slight changes in Earth’s magnetic field due to solar storms, my guess would be that an iPhone's magnetometer will pick up on these fluctuations as well. But of course, this is nothing more than an educated guess.


Relocated items after macOS update to 11.3.1 After updating my macOS to 11.3.1 from 11.3, a directory named Relocated Items appeared on my desktop.
A document in that directory explained a bit about what's going on. I will attach the text of the document below.
so I viewed a diff between /etc/group and ~/Desktop/.../group.system_default and saw that
the line containing _trustd:*:282:_trustd exists in group.system_default but not in /etc/group.
Another odd thing I realized is the 'Date modified' on the file on group.system_default is 1. Jan 2020. This computer and the install are both from 2021.
Can somebody explain what is going on? I am not sure which of the files came with the macos-update and which I suposedly modified in the previous version.
I also don't understand what _trustd:*:282:_trustd means.
Document in Relocated Items Directory

During the last macOS upgrade or file migration, some of your files couldn’t be moved to their
new locations. This folder contains these files.
Configuration files
These configuration files were modified or customised by you, by another user or by an app.
The modifications may be incompatible with the recent macOS upgrade. The modified files are
in the Configuration folder, organised in subfolders named after their original locations.
To restore any of the custom configurations, compare your modifications with the configuration
changes made during the macOS upgrade and combine them when possible.
Configuration files with the suffix "system_default" were edited or customised but the changes
were allowed to remain installed. The system_default version of the file is provided to
demonstrate what the Apple-supplied version of this file would look like.
It is recommended you compare the two and evaluate whether you wish to integrate any changes
Apple may have made to the default version.

To your question, which file is the modified one, the document you've added already explains that:

Configuration files with the suffix "system_default" were edited or
customised but the changes were allowed to remain installed

...which means your current file "group" is the modified one and "group.system_default" is the default one, but wasn't installed, because the changes to "group" were allowed.

_trustd:*:282:_trustd

...is a user of the same named group on your computer, as also found in "Directory Utility.app" (for which you can search in Spotlight).
"282" is the "PrimaryGroupID".
The man pages for trustd mention:
trustd(8)                 BSD System Manager's Manual                trustd(8)

NAME
     trustd -- Daemon and LaunchAgent that performs trust evaluations

SYNOPSIS
     trustd

DESCRIPTION
     trustd provides services for evaluating trust in certificates for all processes on the system.

     This command is not intended to be invoked directly.

BSD                               May 7, 2021                              BSD

Who initiated the changes, or why, I cannot say - I would think you yourself should have a better idea, if you've done any modifications, or which application you've installed, that could have changed the "group" file.
Or maybe somebody else here knows.
About the date: if you look through the system volume, you may find that pretty much all system files have the same modification date (which is new in Big Sur with its boot snapshot).


Emacs 24 with fullscreen? Is there a way to use Emacs 24 in fullscreen mode? The Emacs wiki seems to imply that it has been disabled, but that there are some workarounds / patches.

It doesn't have to be "true" full screen, but I like to work without having the OS menubar  on the top and launcher at the bottom.

In the end, it is not clear how I can implement these patches or workarounds, which one I should use and / or if I should just install emacs <= 23.3.

My current .emacs includes the following (which allows me to use F11 to toggle fullscreen under Emacs 23 in Linux)

(defun fullscreen ()
 (interactive)
 (set-frame-parameter nil 'fullscreen
              (if (frame-parameter nil 'fullscreen) nil 'fullboth))
(progn
  (if (fboundp 'tool-bar-mode) (tool-bar-mode -1))  ;; no toolbar
  (menu-bar-mode -1) ;;no menubar
  (scroll-bar-mode -1) ;; no scroll bar
  )
)

(global-set-key [f11] 'fullscreen)

If you use Yamamoto Mitsuharu's emacs-mac-port then true full-screen "Just Works" (and much else too).  No need for any patches or workarounds.  At least, this is true for me on Mountain Lion.  YMMV on earlier OS versions.


How can I perform an Apple Hardware Test without my original install media? I have a 2007 MacBook that I'd like to perform an Apple Hardware Test on, but I don't have the original install media. I have a Snow Leopard install DVD, but rebooting and holding down D does not launch the test. Short of going to the Apple Store, is there any way to test the hardware?

I've never been able to figure out why this function seems so unreliable - holding D for diagnostics doesn't seem to work for me in practice. I wish I had a better explanation than "many models don't have this and even the ones that do, this isn't something I can count on."

I have come to rely on AHT that are available for authorized Apple technicians to download so you might be able to get help from one closer than an Apple Store - http://www.apple.com/buy/locator/service/

Apple will usually run a very good test for free as past of a genius bar appointment, and both Apple and Authorized Service will usually check a mac in for diagnostics under coverage for no charge. Out of warranty, expect to pay $39 to $85 for a diagnostic.

Lastly, you can order replacement media if yours are misplaced from Apple. 800-APL-CARE


What happens when I unsubscribe from iTunes Match? I know that for every song I have purchased from the iTunes store I can download it regardless and at any time. I was thinking of subscribing to iTunes Match to get a similar service for all the songs I have bought from other sources. I was thinking though, if I unsubscribe at a later date will I no longer be able to download the songs that I didn't purchase from apple through iTunes?

Or will all my songs that are recognised by "Match" be classed as purchased through iTunes and available to download indefinitely?

No, iTunes distinguishes your content gathered from outside the iTunes Store as either Matched up Uploaded. Matches means if found the song on iTunes while Uploaded means it could find the selected song but instead took your copy and placed it in the cloud. The benefit of the former is that Apple's copies are high quality AAC files and will replace your sometimes inferior lower bitrate MP3 in the cloud. At no time does the service concert any item to the "purchased" status however.

Once the service expires, Matched and Uploaded songs no longer can be downloaded indefinitely. The iTunes Match service is essentially the download portion of the service. Once you unsubscribe, you can no longer download any more songs from the service that have been marked as either Matched or Uploaded. Any song you downloaded while iTunes Match was active, you get to keep, though.

More information on iTunes Match can be found here: http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4914


keyboard shortcut for paste in Powerpoint not command V I was trying to figure out if this is supposed to be paste keyboard shortcut in Powerpoint for Mac.  On my system (OS X 10.8.2), it's showing up as a combination of control-option-C, which seems bizarre.  I would have expected command-V (as is the case in Word).  Anyone else have a similar experience?

Just to clarify, this is for copying and pasting text, not shapes like arrows, etc.

I had the same problem in Excel pop-up out of nowhere. Suddenly Cmd-V wouldn't paste anymore. Checking in the "Edit" menu I found that Cmd-V was associated with "Copy to Scrapbook", while Cmd-X would paste, etc. a whole cascade of messed-up keyboard shortcuts (of which only the lack of Cmd-V for "Paste" bothered me).

The following worked within Excel:

Go to "Tools" > "Customize Keyboard..." and reassign Cmd-V to "Paste" by selecting "Edit" under Categories and then "Paste" on the right. "Cmd-V" was still among the 4 or so "current keys" there but reassigning it still solved the problem within Excel.

For PowerPoint there is no such functionality it seems, the Microsoft website refers to "System Preferences" > "Keyboard" > "Keyboard Shortcuts" > "Application Shortcuts" where one can specify shortcuts for PowerPoint.

This obviously doesn't fundamentally solve the problem of how the keys got reassigned.

And I just realize that my answer doesn't directly answer in your situation. Nevertheless I hope it helps somebody else with the problem in Excel or Word.


Can't change Google Chrome icon For every other application package I've looked at, there's a Paste option available in Edit menu after selecting the icon in "Get Info" dialog. For Google Chrome, there isn't.

Why is that (i.e. is Chrome blocking the change somehow)? How can I get around this and change the icon? I'm sure there are apps for handling this, is there a way to do it without one?

Right click on the package, "show package content", then go in the "ressources" folder and change the icon there. The icon file is the .icns file.


Is there a way to rename "Remaining" to "Apple Juice Remaining"? On a MacBook Pro, is there a way to change the text in the battery life drop down?

Specifically, where it says "X:XX Remaining" I want it to say "X:XX of Apple Juice Remaining"

Why? Because a good pun is its own reword.

Yes, this is a serious question.  Yes, I tried googling first.

I'm currently running Mavericks, though an upgrade to Yosemite is probably in my near future.

You want to change line 92 of the xml version of  /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/Battery.menu/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Localizable.strings:

Make a copy of the strings file:

cp /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/Battery.menu/Contents/Resources/\
English.lproj/Localizable.strings ~/Desktop

Convert the binary strings file to xml:

plutil -convert xml1 ~/Desktop/Localizable.strings

Edit line 92 (Yosemite) of the file now on the desktop with your favourite text editor:

Convert the xml strings file back to binary:

plutil -convert binary1 ~/Desktop/Localizable.strings

Back up your existing file! If you mess up, this will let you reverse your changes by removing -bak from the file name.

sudo mv /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/Battery.menu/Contents/Resources/\
English.lproj/Localizable.strings /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/\
Battery.menu/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/Localizable.strings-bak

Overwrite the old file with the new:

sudo mv ~/Desktop/Localizable.strings /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/\
Battery.menu/Contents/Resources/English.lproj/

Result:


Terminal git:master after oh-my-zshell installation I just installed oh-my-zshell.
And my terminal looks like the image now. What is git master there?
I installed oh-my-zshell on other macs, the look is not like that.
I am on the root here BTW.

Can you explain this, please?

Typically some of the oh-my-zsh themes provide special prompts for directories that are Git repositories. The 'git master' just means that it thinks that the directory you're in right now is a Git repository, with new, unstaged changes. All of this has to do with source control. I don't know your background with source control but you can look it up if you're curious.

I would start with looking at your ~/.zshrc file and see what ZSH_THEME is set to. Then, I would look inside ~/.oh-my-zsh/themes/ and look for the theme that's set in ~/.zshrc. This latter typically has the prompt set that you're seeing right now. After this I'd change the prompt to look the way you want. In your case you might just want to disable the Git-related stuff from the place where the prompt is setting those variables.

Good luck!


Is there a way to view just symbolic links that I've created? I've noticed my iCloud storage is full even though I only have roughly ~2GB of data in there. When I view my iCloud storage I notice that both my desktop and my documents seem to be listed twice - once on the sidebar under 'iCloud' and also within the 'iCloud Drive' itself:

Is this normal? Or have I tried to be clever and add a symbolic link to these folders, even though I didn't need to?
Thanks )

That is completely normal when you have chosen to sync your Desktop & Documents folders with iCloud Drive. It does not mean that those folders would be stored twice or take up twice the space in iCloud Drive.


What utilities assist in taking and annotating screen captures for local (clipboard) reuse? Is there any Mac utility that will allow me to:

Take a screen shot
Annotate it (arrows, text, etc)
Upload it somewhere
Put a link directly to the image on my clipboard (i.e., not to some Skitch sharing page or whatever)

Or, just as good, would be a utility that puts a screen shot in my Dropbox public folder and adds the appropriate URL to my clipboard. This is what Jing used to do, but it's being discontinued and it doesn't work very well on the retina MacBook Pro.

Pix.am! meets all your requirements. And since it's a lesser-known service, it has shorter URLs than services like droplr.com or Cloudapp.


Wi-Fi range issue with new MBA 13 and Netgear WNR 2200 router Loving the new MBA 13 (my first Mac), but running into a frustrating wi-fi issue.

The MBA wi-fi flies when the machine is in the same room as the NetGear WNR2200 router, but it slows down considerably as I move it through our (smallish) house, and it pretty much crawls to a stop just 10 yards or so away from the router.

Original post
http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=1195289

Plus it does not connect automatically when wakes up.
Found lot's of articles with suggestions reseting from firmware to operating system but non of them worked.

My problem was that I've tried to improve performance switching from 54mb and WPA to 150-300 and WPA2.

Struggled with problems around 6 months and could not get back as messed with couple of configuration params.

Finally found that WPA2 does not affect to issues at all but speed need to be 54mb.

Now I've got lower speed, hope this won't affect skype calls (but it worked well with youtube (10xxp).


How can I use text substitutions without having to type a space? I have some custom text substitutions set up in the Language & Text pane of System Preferences. But in order to activate a substitution, I have to type the shortcut and then press the spacebar. This results in the replacement text followed by a space character. So if I want the text to be at the end of a text field when I submit a form, for example, I have to type "[shortcut]space⌫↩" instead of just "[shortcut]↩".

Is there any way to make the replacement instantaneous, so I don't have to insert and delete a space that I don't want?

Related: Text expansion for Mac OS X Lion?

TextExpander and DashExpander meet the requirement.

In TextExpander I have macros that are expanded without keying space, return or enter.


Do files on USB drive leave any trace on iMac (macOS Sierra)? I'd like to know if I look at files (specifically jpegs) stored on a usb drive without opening them, will they leave a trace on the iMac I'm putting the USB into?

Bascially, if I plug in a USB and don't actually open the jpeg files (eg. using preview) but only look at them as thumbnails in the finder folder, will they still leave a trace on the computer?

Also, if I move the jpeg files from one folder to another on the same USB drive, or from one usb drive to a different one (both plugged into the same iMac), does that also leave any trace on the computer?

I want to know if anyone else accessing the computer will be able to see any trace of the jpeg files after I've removed the thumb drives. And if so, is there a  way to delete it?

If you open a folder with files residing on an external drive, thumbnails will be created on the boot drive depending on the file type and the installed QuickLook plugins.

The previews, metadata and file paths are stored in SQLite database files deep inside the var folder in the com.apple.QuickLook.thumbnailcache folder. The path to this folder contains arbitrary folder names.

With the proper commands the preview pics can be extracted from the database.

To remove the pic previews and other data you would have to delete the content of the folder.

Related links:

View thumbnail cache in OS X
Collecting Quick Look Data From a Live macOS System


How can I make Safari stop webpages from overriding any shortcuts? I sometimes need to edit pages on WikiDot, but WikiDot overrides the ⌃+E shortcut (and many others), which is a system-wide shortcut I often use due to the lack of an end-key on my keyboard.

Is there a way to stop all webpages from overriding any shortcuts?

There are three ways to prevent this behavior on a web page.

Preferred method - Use the settings on the Web App to disable or change shortcut keybindings.
Use a third-party Safari extension that allows you to modify the keybindings for javascript.
Disable Javascript in Safari.


Keyboard shortcut to switch to a specific Chrome window Ok, I realize this is asking for the impossible. I habitually have about 4 Chrome windows open. On linux, I have a system set up so I have a different keyboard shortcut to switch to each window, so I can jump to the correct one really quickly.

Is there possibly a way to do this on OSX? I'm willing to write moderate amounts of code if necessary to implement this, 'though I should probably head over to StackOverflow if that looks like it will be needed.

try
    set text item delimiters to linefeed
    tell application "Google Chrome"
        reopen
        do shell script "sort -n <<< " & quoted form of (id of windows as text) & " | sed -n 3p"
        set w to window id (result as integer)
        set b to bounds of w
        set t to title of w
    end tell
    tell application "System Events" to tell process "Google Chrome"
        window 1 where position is {item 1 of b, item 2 of b} and title is t
        perform action "AXRaise" of result
        set frontmost to true
    end tell
end try

Windows that were created later usually have a larger id. If the script is run when there's no second window, there won't be an error dialog because it's wrapped in a try block.

You can give the scripts shortcuts with FastScripts or by creating Automator services.


Play Song in iTunes w/o Deselecting Highlighted Songs I'm trimming my iTunes library, so I have multiple songs selected/highlighted which I want to review. Is there a way to play a song without accidentally deselecting the other highlighted ones?

Also, is there any way to stop iTunes automatically jumping to whatever track just started playing?

One thing you can do is right clicking and click "Play next", going to the up next bar on the top, and clicking on the song you want to play and clearing the other selected song.

As to stopping iTunes from jumping to whatever track you just pressed, right click and choose "Play next" or "Add to Up Next" to put it in queue.


Samsung SyncMaster 2443 not filling out screen We have a lot of Samsung SyncMaster 2443s at the office, when I connect my mid 2012 MBP 13" to one of them, the monitor doesn't display full screen, it adds a black border around it (1/2"  thick). All my co workers with similar MBP and MBAs do not have this problem, it also persists on all the screens i've tried so far (3 different ones).

I've added a photo of the screen, it's like that all around. I can't find any setting on the screen or in system preferences to change it. I'm sure it has to be some kind of software problem, because when I reboot the display is full screen for a while, up to a certain point where I guess some OS setting is loaded.

I've tried resetting NVRAM/PRAM and removing the windowserver.plist files. My display settings are at 'best of resolution', but setting it manually to 1920x1200 doesn't matter.

Any clues on how to fix this?

In the mean time i've experienced the problem on multiple monitors. I finally committed to reinstalling my OS from scratch and that solved the problem for me. The problem is somewhere in the OS, but I didn't have any luck finding it.


I'm looking for an iPhone app to collect money (determine money goals) I wonder if there is an application (on iPhone) to determine money goals, for example I can set an aim "vacation on Hawaii - $5000" and see the progress from 0-100% after adding money.

Moneywell will look at what you are saving but shows the amount you have saved not the %age but you can set monthly/weekly budgets so that money is saved as you go along.


How to set brightnes for multiple thunderbolt displays at the same time using keys on apple keyboard Is there a way to set the brightness for all displays (thunderbolt displays) connected to a mac using thunderbolt syncroniously.

If I chnage the brightness using F1/F2 on my Mac Wireless Keyboard. Only the Main screen is affected. But I want the displays to stay syncronized.

Any way thought?

This won't let you adjust all of the screens but works for alternates

ctrl-F1 and ctrl-F2 usually change the brightness on the other display (or external display on 10.7).


I live in Taipei, how can I get help by chat in English? I would like to use the chatsupport feature. I am in Taipei and my only languages are Math, Python and English. However chatsupport will only converse with me in Chinese.
I walked into Apple Taipei 101 this afternoon to try to get some face-to-face assistance but the place was packed; this is a tourist hot spot and the store was packed and the staff frazzled. I may try to go again Monday, but my question here is how to use Apple chatsupport in English from a connection in Taiwan?
I don't have a vpn.
The link provided in the text sends me back to this page again because of course my location is in Taiwan. I see no way easy out of this loop.

I tried to reply to the e-mail summary that I received after the chat session was complete. It failed (it's no-reply) the error message recommended:

Thanks for contacting Apple. Messages sent to this email address aren't monitored. Here are links to some Apple websites that you might find helpful.
View your support and service options: getsupport.apple.com/GetSASO

and of course that also will only lead to help in Chinese as well:

fyi the last message (in the short chat exchange below) is in Chinese:

很抱歉，因為我們這裡只能是使用中文對談，如果可以的話，我非常願意使用中文與您交流，這是我的工作我非常願意嘗試。

and pasting that into google translate returns:

Sorry, because we can only use Chinese to talk here, if you can, I am very willing to communicate with you in Chinese. This is my job. I am very willing to try.

You can switch the country (and the language) at the bottom of https://getsupport.apple.com/


iOS Simulator installed apps location in Xcode 4.3.1 Where can I find the apps installed on the iOS Simulator?

I am running Xcode 4.3.1. I have found the location of the simulator at

/Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/iPhoneSimulator.platform/Developer/Applications/iPhone Simulator.app

but for the life of me I can't find the installed apps.

On my computer, it's ~/Library/Application Support/iPhone Simulator/5.1/Applications

Simple NSLog(@"%@", [[NSBundle mainBundle] bundlePath]); did the trick.


Why does my phone only turn on when it's plugged in? My iPhone 4 doesn't turn on unless it's plugged in. When it is plugged in, it briefly shows the Apple logo and then shows my lock screen. Where it should say Verizon and show how much signal I have, it only says searching. It also says my percentage is at 100% but I know it's really somewhere around 30-40% because that's how much charge it had before it turned off on me. Also, when I try turning on the wifi it tells me that the wifi networks are not available, but I have the wifi working at home. What does this mean, or what should I do?

A common solution to this kind of problem is a complete restore (possibly in DFU mode). Before proceeding, make a backup of the entire content of your iPhone via iTunes or iCloud.
Then, download the latest firmware available via iTunes. Charge the battery entirely before the restore, just to be sure that the iPhone won't shut down during the process.
Proceed by putting the iPhone in DFU; let then iTunes do the rest.
I suggest you to DO NOT restore your iPhone from backup after finishing. Test everything, including Wi-fi connection. Install an app that shows you the actual battery cycles. Maybe replacing the battery could do the trick. If possible, try to connect to different hotspot; if the iPhone could not connect, maybe another problem is in the antenna.
Let us know.


Is there a way to sync music from more than one iTunes account to one iPod? I got an iPod Touch 4th Gen from a friend, and she left all of her music on it so I could have a larger music library. The problem is, I don't know if there is a way to sync my library with the iPod without deleting all of the music she left on it. Is there a way to sync music from more than one iTunes account onto one iPod?

No, there is no way to do that. However, on a windows computer you can turn on "view hidden files" and be able to copy all of the music files in the music folder directly from the iPod to your computer. Once you've copied the files you can add them to your music library and re-synchronize the iPod.


How to change a users name on a Shared Photostream? Shared Photostreams are a fantastic way to keep in touch with family and relatives. Comments on Shared Photostreams make them even better as this allows discussion about the action in the picture. However, here is the problem lies: there are two subscribers who share the exact same name (one married into the family, attaining the same last name as well) - for clarity, let's say "Jessica Smith".

So, when "Jessica Smith" comments, it is impossible to tell which person this is actually referring to. In normal life we have gotten accustomed to including the one's middle name when referring to her. So, the goal is to change it so that one is "Jessica Smith" and the other is "Jessica Grace Smith".

How is this possible?

"Jessica Grace Smith" has tried to change her Apple ID name by managing her Apple ID online, but this has had limited success by updating some Photostreams and not others. Also, I have tried removing her, making sure her email was in my contact for her as "Jessica Grace Smith" and then re-inviting her, but this didn't work either.

Following these steps should do the trick:

Unsubscribe to the shared photo album.
Change the full name on the Apple ID account.
Subscribe again to the Photo Stream by getting a new invitation.

Afterwards, all the comments you'll post should display the new name. The thing is that once a comment is posted, the name does not change, so if you want to change the name on an already posted comment, you'll have to Delete the comment, follow the steps, and post it again.


How can I initialize an SSD? I got a ssd, and I am trying to clone it with the hard drive. I am trying to use super duper! When I plug the ssd in, it says that the drive is not initialized, so i cant select it to copy to. When I go to disk utility, the partition option is greyed out. What do I need to do to make the drive readable so that it can be selected in the program? It's a wd blue 1tb.

Edit:

I figured it out. I just needed to press erase, and that opened up the option to format it.


How do I uninstall wine when I don't know how it was installed? It was not installed with Homebrew, nor does a .wine file exist in my home directory. I don't remember when or how I installed it, but it's running and using up large amounts of CPU on my machine, and I'd like to remove it for good.

The wine project has an excellent Wiki article specific to macOS.  It includes how to remove wine from your macOS system, but basically there are a few ways to uninstall wine

MacPorts:

sudo port uninstall --follow-dependencies wine

Homebrew:

brew rm wine && brew rm $(join <(brew leaves) <(brew deps wine))

Source:

sudo make uninstall
rm -rf /src/wine              #Remove the source
rm -rf $HOME/.wine            #Remove pseudo C: and registry entries
rm -rf $HOME/.local           #Remove desktop menu entries and icons

You can attempt any of these methods without fear that if you didn't install using that method, there won't be adverse affects to your system.


Automator: Change to selected directory and run shell script I'm trying to create a context menu command via Automator service. The context menu command will run a shell script to create some default documents in the given directory.

I wrote out the shell script which executes correctly when run from the target directory:

#!/bin/bash

touch History.markdown
touch Notes.markdown
touch Plan.markdown

touch ProjectName.tmproj

cat <<TEXT > ProjectName.tmproj
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>currentDocument</key>
    <string>Notes.markdown</string>
    <key>documents</key>
    <array>
        <dict>
            <key>filename</key>
            <string>Notes.markdown</string>
            <key>selected</key>
            <true/>
        </dict>
        <dict>
            <key>filename</key>
            <string>History.markdown</string>
        </dict>
        <dict>
            <key>filename</key>
            <string>Plan.markdown</string>
        </dict>
    </array>
    <key>openDocuments</key>
    <array>
        <string>History.markdown</string>
        <string>Notes.markdown</string>
        <string>Plan.markdown</string>
    </array>
    <key>fileHierarchyDrawerWidth</key>
    <integer>200</integer>
    <key>metaData</key>
    <dict/>
    <key>showFileHierarchyDrawer</key>
    <true/>
    <key>windowFrame</key>
    <string>{{113, 95}, {1230, 900}}</string>
</dict>
</plist>
TEXT

I then opened Automator and created a new service. I set the service to receive selected input of folders in Finder.

I then added the following to the top of my shell script to received the selected directory as standard input:

FolderPath=$1
$(cd $FolderPath)

The variable FolderPath definitely gets the current directory. I added a say $FolderPath to the shell script and it says out the entire path when run from the context menu command.

The problem is that when I try to change to the directory in the variable, nothing happens. I put another say command that spoke the command pwd after the directory change and it says that I'm at my user's root.

Is there something that automator does differently when dealing with shell scripts?

Here's a screen shot of the entire service.

I should also mention that I have tried to just concatenate the folder path and the file name that I've tried to create with the touch command and when I do so it only uses the string name of the file to create:

say "$FilePath/History.markdown" # only says "History dot markdown"

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

The problem here is you have the input being passed to stdin. I don't know why that's the default, but you should be able to just change the popup menu in the top right to "as arguments." I did that and added cd "$1" to the top of the script and it worked.


Macbook Pro A1212 Video Card Dying? My friend has a circa 2006 A1212 Macbook Pro 17inch. It has issues starting up but when it boots everything works fine but the screen is all pixelated, flashes randomly, and some parts have a red tint.

I think the video card is dying and that was the general consensus on the internet (note: external monitor has same effects).

Is there a way to salvage this machine or get it in a better working condition without replacing the logic board?

The GPU and CPU are all soldered to the logic board, so in theory someone with enough skill and tools could repair the logic board itself, but in practice replacing the board or the computer is more cost effective in almost all cases.


Does using an app send my IP address and device identification info to the app maker? if I use an app, would I be giving info like my IP address and device identification like the MAC address to the app developer/owner?

This completely depends on the app. There's nothing that by default sends identifying in formation about your system to the App developers, the App would have to have been written in order to have this behavior. Depending on the app, however, it's possible that some might.

You didn't mention if you're on iOS or Mac OS. If you're on Mac OS, and you're concerned, or curious, you should consider installing an outgoing firewall like Little Snitch. What this will do is show an alert message asking for permission every time any app tries to send data to the Internet. You can use the Little Snitch network monitor to identify what data is being sent, to determine if your privacy is being violated. You can also prevent the app from sending data at all.

If you wanted to do the same for iOS you could use software on your router, but this is an advanced topic and beyond the scope of this answer.


Why does "ls -l" display the year of my (jar) file as "16:18"? I was looking through my file system and noticed that the date of mysql-v5.jar is formatted incorrectly.

~/Dev/Lib$ ls -l
total 29128
-rw-r-----@ 1 johndoe  staff   2256213 Mar 16  2015 guava-18.0.jar
-rw-r--r--@ 1 johndoe  staff  11684781 Jan 30  2012 kuromoji-0.7.7.jar
-rw-r--r--@ 1 johndoe  staff    968670 May  4 16:18 mysql-v5.jar

What is going on?

(So far, all 3 jar files have worked just fine for me. I can't remember where I downloaded those files from.)

From man ls (The Long Format):

  If the modification time of the file is more than 6 months in the past or future, then the year of the last modification is displayed in place of the hour and minute fields.

Or in other words: It works as designed.


USB C to DisplayPort hub works with VGA but not HDMI I have a Cable Matters USB C to Dual 4K DisplayPort Hub and a MacBook Pro 2016 (No touchbar). I am using Windows on Bootcamp.

The hub works fine with a DisplayPort to VGA adaptor, but it doesn't work with a DisplayPort to HDMI adaptor or cable. I have tried the hub on both MacOS and Windows 10 but the external HDMI display detects power (an icon appears showing there is something connected) but does not detect any signal.

I have updated the graphics drivers, reinstalled the USB C drivers and reinstalled Windows but nothing worked. The hub and HDMI display work with a HP laptop with similar Intel integrated graphics.

Does it not work because the DisplayPort to HDMI is passive?

Yes, you'll need an active DisplayPort to HDMI adapter for this to work. A passive adapter does not work.

The reason this doesn't seem intuitive is that many DisplayPorts ports are of the "DisplayPort++" type (also called dual-mode). Those are able to automatically detect when used with HDMI, and then the port outputs a signal specifically for HDMI. The non-++ DisplayPort ports on your hub does not do that - and thus need an active adapter for converting the signal.

You can use an adapter such as this:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EDT0072

It sounds like you've left out some part of the explanation on how you got it working with a HP laptop - as the same limitation should apply there.

Note: If you intend to connect two displays for extended desktop, this hub won't work. Connecting two seperate displays requires support of MST, which macOS does not offer. You'll need to use a Thunderbolt 3 adapter or dock instead.


In TextEdit or similar editors, is it possible to go to a previous bullet's indent level without a bullet? I have an issue is with bullets in a rich-text editor. If I want to put several paragraphs under one bullet, like this:

  Bullet one
  Bullet two paragraph one

  Bullet two paragraph two
  Bullet three

I can achieve this by typing ctrlReturn at the end of paragraph one (rather than Return). The beginning of the text that I type after that will indent properly inside the bullet rather than create a new bullet.

But my problem is doing that after a second-level bulleted list, like so:

  Bullet one
  Bullet two, first part

  Inner bullet list, first item.
  Inner bullet list, second item.

  Bullet two, second part
  Bullet three

I can't find any way to make the "Bullet two, second part" indent properly to the bullet level without a bullet. The ctrlReturn trick brings me to the inner bullet list level. Trying to tab back from there adds a bullet. Trying to remove the bullet by simply selecting and deleting it seems to work... until I add a new bullet down the list, at which point the bullet is restored.

Is it possible to continue the text of a bullet after a secondary bulleted list, and if so, how?

I'm using Curio, which has text objects that are apparently based on Core Text (rich text editing), and I'm trying to work with bullet lists in it. For all intents and purposes, if there is a solution for TextEdit, it will probably work for me as well.

Many WYSWYG text editors and word processors try to anticipate your formatting intentions.  It takes a bit of work to overcome this at times, selecting lists, deselecting lists, adding formatting after the fact, etc.

For a bit more control while working, you can manually insert bullets in your text along with using tabs.  See Screenshot.  Not using the list but rather setting your tabs manually and typing the bullets manually is a bit more work at first but gives you the control you need.  This should work in most text editing environments.

option ⌥+8 will make a text bullet • (You can use any character you wish too either by typing the key combination or using the Character Viewer)


Can't download updates because "This update is not available for this Apple ID" I keep getting this message when I type in my password to do an update.

  This update is not available for this Apple ID either because it was bought by a different user or the item was refunded or cancelled.

The computer was bought by me and has only been used by me.  What do I need to do to fix this?

Try going to the "purchases" section in the App Store. Accept the free apps like iMovie and Garageband there.


Different types of USB cable I have 30-pin-to-USB cables that came with iPod touch 3rd generation, 4th generation, and iPad 3rd generation. Are the cables different? If so, how can I identify which is which? I notice differences in the width of the cable, color of the plastic part on both sides of the connector (gray vs. white), and the length of the rubber tube that covers the connector, but am not sure if these are just minor variants or they are different products.

I know that the newer models accept 2A current, as opposed to 1A on older models, and the AC adaptors are designed differently accordingly, but was not sure whether the cables are also different.

The older USB cables from iPod days have deeper and thicker plastic enclosures on the 30 pin end as well as physical buttons on the sides to help disengage the metal "ratchets".

The connectors that came with the iPhones had much weaker springs for the side "ratchets" so you could just pull to detach the connector.

Here is a Bluetooth iPhone charger (that is slightly larger and thicker than the iPod model) with a current iPhone cable for comparison.

The cables are all functionally equivalent once seated so you don't need to worry about current or power since even the oldest USB cable can carry all the signals needed for the latest iOS products and chargers.


How to use machine name of iOS devices on network? I have an iPhone 4 and a 3rd generation iPad. They connect to my local home network over WiFi but I cannot use their machines names. I have an app on both devices that exposes a web server, but I can only connect to them using their IP addresses and not their machine names.

If I try to ping their names from a Windows PC I get the following:

Ping request could not find host <iOS machine name>. Please check the name and try again.

How can I enable their machine names to be accessible via DNS on my home network?

I use a Time Capsule as my Wifi router, and all my devices are registered in the domain (e.g. "lan") once a device has a lease and each device receives the "lan" domain as the search domain as part of the DHCP config.

Pinging 192.168.0.xxx, iPhone4.lan, just iPhone gets me to my device.

If you can ping the devices by IP address and not by name, then the answer lies more in your home network than in the devices themselves, and how the DHCP server registers device names once a DHCP lease has been obtained.

If your Windows machine has a static IP address, then its quite possible all you need to do is add the Wifi Lan name into the DNS Search config on the Windows PC, but more information is needed on how you are configured.


How do I fix permissions on Big Sur? I think I am experiencing permission problems on my Mac. I am running an iMac with macOS Big Sur, recently updated to 11.4, though the problem has been around for a while.
There is one application which cannot save an existing file (though it can save a new one). As part of the trouble-shooting process, I logged in as an alternative user, and it seems to work properly. I conclude that it has something to do with who can do what.
I have also saved the file to an external USB flash storage, which is in ExFat format. This is from my normal account. Again this works perfectly, so I conclude that saving on a volume with no specific permissions is OK. I doesn’t work if I save to an external drive formatted with HFS+ or APFS.
This leads me to conclude that the problem is one of permissions, possibly on the ~/Library directory. Comparing permissions on the Home directories, I get:
drwxr-xr-x+ 11 irving     staff    352 27 May 14:32 irving/
drwxr-xr-x@ 97 mark       staff   3104 26 May 09:54 mark/
drwxr-xr-x+ 13 something  staff    416 26 May 09:57 something/

The mark directory is for my normal account, and the only differences I can see are that final symbol (+ or @).
When I run ls -l@d /Users/* I get:
drwxr-xr-x+ 11 irving     staff    352 27 May 15:02 /Users/irving/
drwxr-xr-x@ 97 mark       staff   3104 26 May 09:54 /Users/mark/
    com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineNewestSnapshot    50
    com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineOldestSnapshot    50
drwxr-xr-x+ 13 something  staff    416 26 May 09:57 /Users/something/

What are the correct permissions for a Home directory, and how can I ensure that they are all set correctly?
Output from ls -l@e /Users/mark*/Downloads/*.lbx:
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mark  staff  1156 21 Mar 09:50 /Users/mark/Downloads/Test Label.lbx
    com.apple.lastuseddate#PS     16
    com.apple.macl    72
    com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags   42
    com.apple.metadata:kMDLabel_mfabisnytttdleinsb4kkin77y    89
    com.apple.quarantine      29
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mark  staff  1641 13 Apr 17:42 /Users/mark/Downloads/Test2.lbx
    com.apple.lastuseddate#PS     16
    com.apple.macl    72
    com.apple.metadata:_kMDItemUserTags   42
    com.apple.metadata:kMDLabel_mfabisnytttdleinsb4kkin77y    89
-rw-r--r--@ 1 mark  staff  1150 27 May 16:18 /Users/mark/Downloads/test.lbx
    com.apple.lastuseddate#PS     16
    com.apple.macl    72
    com.apple.metadata:kMDLabel_mfabisnytttdleinsb4kkin77y    89tp

This appears to be the result of a poorly completed Time Machine restore
drwxr-xr-x@ 97 mark       staff   3104 26 May 09:54 /Users/mark/
    com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineNewestSnapshot    50
    com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineOldestSnapshot    50

You can try this 2 commands for suppress this attributs :
xattr -rd com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineNewestSnapshot /Users/mark

and
xattr -rd com.apple.metadata:_kTimeMachineOldestSnapshot /Users/mark


Created a second OS X partition, erased the first, now can't delete old partition I bought a secondhand macbook pro (early 2011). It was running Yosemite, but I wanted to do a fresh install, as initially I didn't have the password.

I created a 2nd partition and installed a clean Yosemite on to it. I then wished to use that partition, so I "erased" the original partition in Disk Utility, so that it would let me erase it.
Once I did that, the "-" button was selectable, but it will not actually delete the original partition, or modify the 2nd one at all.

I believe part of this is due to the the fact that the startup disc partition is on bottom and not on top, therefore I wouldn't be able to drag the partition to expand it to the max capacity of my computer.

That's all i'm trying to do. I realize that what I did was actually the long way (and pointless) to the results i'm trying to get. But how can I do this? I'm not worried about losing any info, as to me this comp is brand new. However, I don't have a USB stick with more than 8g, so I can't create a bootable disc for Yosemite, and pretty much need to install from app store download.

If the machine still boots, go to the App store and "purchase" Yosemite (its free).  Now boot the machine holding COMMAND R and boot to internet recovery.  If you see a poorly animated spinning globe instead of an Apple logo then you are on the right track.  Now you have can reformat the whole drive and do a clean install of Yosemite.


Does Apple Mail prevent duplicates from being created in the same folder when copying/moving messages and how? I am migrating email from one email provider to another using Apple Mail. I want to make sure that I do not accidentally create duplicates as some emails are duplicated in various sources.
If I try to copy the same email from two different sources into the same folder, does Apple Mail prevent the duplicate from being stored?
If so, does anyone know how Apple Mail determines if the email message is a duplicate (same body, subject, from, to, etc)?

Not only does Mail not prevent the presence of duplicate messages (2 messages with identical headers and contents, including time stamps), but it (or iCloud) sometimes creates duplicates (buggy behavior). These can be hidden in Mail.app but you will see them in iCloud-Mail (via Safari) or with another mail client such as Outlook.
If you need to delete duplicates you may want to have a look as https://www.macworld.com/article/2046576/how-to-delete-duplicate-email-messages.html .


How do I create El Capitan installer on a Catalina (or post-El Capitan) installed Mac for use on USB boot installer I have downloaded the El Capitan dmg file (InstallMacOSX.dmg) provided by Apple. The expanded dmg image contains the package "InstallMacOSX.pkg" which should be run to create the El Capitan installer but fails with the following message "This version of OS X 10.11 cannot be installed on this computer." presumably because quite reasonably it would not make sense to install on top of a later version of the OS. However in this case I want to create a boot USB drive for an installation on another Mac.

I am stuck in a chicken and egg situation where I need another machine running El Capitan or earlier to create and El Capitan boot installer.

I have noticed that these instructions no longer work as expected when using the current InstallMacOSX.dmg file, which can be downloaded from either the Apple website How to get old versions of macOS or the Apple website How to create a bootable installer for macOS. These instructions may work as expected, if you are using an older saved version of this file. At best, these instructions are just a hack and Apple has every right to change the InstallMacOSX.dmg file to prevent the desired results.

Note: On 1/31/2021,  M. Justin reported this answer still works for Yosemite.

I have posted a new answer to this question.
This new answer is must less of a hack, because Apple explicitly inserted code into the El Capitan installer to bypass the checking of the model when executed in a "VMware Fusion Player" virtual machine. So,  Apple evidently intends for users of newer model Intel Macs to use this new answer to retrieve the Install OS X El Capitan application. Still, I would like know from Apple why they thought such a complex procedure is necessary.

Below is my original answer.

Note: This answer was adapted from Klanomath's answer to a sightly different question.

There is a link on the Apple website How to get old versions of macOS that will download a file that can be used to create the Install OS X El Capitan application. However, if the model Mac is too new to allow the installation for El Capitan, then message given below will occur when trying to create the Install OS X El Capitan application.

This version of OS X 10.11 cannot be installed on this computer.

If you are trying to create a USB installation flash drive of use on another Mac computer, then you can still use the downloaded file to create this installer. The instructions are given below.
This method was verified by using the following configurations.

Catalina on a MacBook Pro 2017 touchbar for use on iMac 2009 24”.
Mojave on a Mac mini 2018 for use in a VirtualBox virtual machine on a iMac 2013 21.5".
Catalina on a iMac 2013 21.5" for use in a VirtualBox virtual machine on the same Mac.

The following steps can be used to create a USB installer for El Capitan.

Use instructions on the Apple website How to get old versions of macOS to download InstallMacOSX.dmg.

Use the Disk Utility to erase a 16 GB or larger flash drive. If the Disk Utility window has a View pulldown menu, make sure Show All Devices is selected. Highlight the flash drive, then click on the Erase button. Use the setting shown in the image below.

Next, click on the Erase button. When finished erasing, click on the Done button.

Use the Finder applicaition to open InstallMacOSX.dmg.

Enter the commands given below. A folder named El Capitan will be created in the /tmp folder to hold temporary files.

Note: The easiest way to enter the commands is to copy from this document and paste in the Terminal window.

rm -rf /tmp/El\ Capitan
pkgutil --expand /Volumes/Install\ OS\ X/InstallMacOSX.pkg /tmp/El\ Capitan
diskutil eject Install\ OS\ X
cd /tmp/El\ Capitan
hdiutil attach InstallMacOSX.pkg/InstallESD.dmg  -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/esd
sudo asr restore -source /Volumes/esd/BaseSystem.dmg -target /Volumes/MyVolume -noprompt -noverify -erase

After entering the last command given above, you may get a message similar to the one given below.
asr: Couldn't personalize volume /Volumes/OS X Base System

Some versions of macOS will produce this message while other versions do not. I suspect this is an fatal message because an exit status of 1 was returned.

Inspection has determined that the part of the command that failed is unimportant.

Therefore, I was able to ignore this error. However, the error can also be avoided by applying the following steps given in the section below titled Alternative to Using the asr Command.

To finish creating the bootable USB flash drive El Capitan installer, enter the commands given below.
diskutil rename OS\ X\ Base\ System Install\ El\ Capitan
rm /Volumes/Install\ El\ Capitan/System/Installation/Packages
cp -rp /Volumes/esd/Packages /Volumes/Install\ El\ Capitan/System/Installation
cp -rp /Volumes/esd/BaseSystem.chunklist /Volumes/Install\ El\ Capitan/
cp -rp /Volumes/esd/BaseSystem.dmg /Volumes/Install\ El\ Capitan/
hdiutil detach /Volumes/esd
sudo bless --folder /Volumes/Install\ El\ Capitan/System/Library/CoreServices --label Install\ El\ Capitan
cp /Volumes/Install\ El\ Capitan/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/InstallAssistant.icns /Volumes/Install\ El\ Capitan/.VolumeIcon.icns
cd "$HOME"
rm -r /tmp/El\ Capitan
diskutil eject Install\ El\ Capitan

Remove the flash drive. You are done.

Alternative to Using the asr Command
The command given below may generate a error message and/or hang depending on the version of macOS and perhaps the model Mac you are using.
sudo asr restore -source /Volumes/esd/BaseSystem.dmg -target /Volumes/MyVolume -noprompt -noverify -erase

You can avoid entering the above command by following the steps given below.

If the volume on the USB flash drive is no longer labeled MyVolume, then use the Disk Utility to erase the flash drive. Highlight the flash drive, then click on the Erase button. Use the setting shown in the image below.

Next, click on the Erase button. When finished erasing, click on the Done button.

Enter the following command to create a sparse flash drive image.
hdiutil create -type SPARSE -size 10g -layout MBRSPUD -fs HFS+J -volname MyImage -attach /tmp/El\ Capitan/MyImage

Basically, you want to restore to volume MyImage from the hidden file BaseSystem.dmg. The hidden file BaseSystem.dmg is shown in the Finder window image shown below. The drive OS X Install ESD can be found in the hidden volume Volumes in the root folder.

There are various ways to view hidden files. These ways depend on the version of OS X or macOS you are using. You may have to search the web for a way that works for you.

Highlight the MyImage volume shown in the Disk Utility main window. Click on the Restore button, then the Image button. Select the BaseSystem.dmg file, as shown below. Next, click on the Restore button.

After a successful restore, you should see the image shown below. You can click on the Done button and quit the Disk Utility.

Also, you should get the following popup.

Enter the following commands to clone to the flash drive.

Note: The dd command takes a long time to complete. See this answer to track the progress of the dd command. The bytes to be transferred is approximately 10 GB.

getdsk() { local "x=$(diskutil info "$2" | grep Part\ of\ Whole)"; eval $1'="/dev/r${x##* }"'; }
getdsk DSK1 OS\ X\ Base\ System
getdsk DSK2 MyVolume
diskutil unmountdisk $DSK1
diskutil unmountdisk $DSK2
sudo dd if=$DSK1 of=$DSK2 bs=1m
diskutil eject $DSK1
diskutil unmountdisk $DSK2
diskutil mountdisk $DSK2

Note: Since the original will be immediately ejected and eventually deleted, I did not bother to use the hfs.util command to change the UUID of the clone.

You can now proceed with the rest of the steps.

References
How do I make a bootable USB flash drive on a Mac?
What is the best way to generate a Yosemite or Mavericks Install USB flash drive?
Install El Capitan with VirtualBox on OS X