Change email reply's automatic object When I reply to an email, the object is automatically set as "Re: {object of the previous email}".
I would like to change the "Re:" and have "Rép:" instead.
Is that possible? I didn't find that option in the settings (most likely in "viewing" or "composing"...)
Thanks:)

I very much doubt this is editable anywhere - because it doesn't actually mean what people think it means…
Everybody thinks re means reply or regarding, but actually it is a word in & of itself.
Re is the ablative form of the latin word res, meaning 'thing' or 'affair', or 'in the manner of'.
It is not an abbreviation at all.
Refs:
 Which is an abbreviation, of 'references' ;-)
https://www.dailywritingtips.com/regarding-re/
https://thewritecorner.wordpress.com/2010/03/20/what-does-re-stand-for/
https://english.stackexchange.com/a/2520
Another reason to not ever change it is that it forms part of the email standard RFC 822 - Internet Message Format, which specifies it as an accepted method to start a title - no email app will ever be looking for anything other than re when it threads successive emails with the same title.

When used in a reply, the field body MAY start with the
string "Re: " (from the Latin "res", in the matter of) followed by
the contents of the "Subject:" field body of the original message.

BTW, I knew where to start researching this information because the first job I had fresh out of school involved legal writing, which frequently uses Re: to indicate subject matter & not to indicate it is a reply.


How to use iPhone 6 back up on iPhone 4s? My iPhone 6 broke down and I've tried to use latest backup on my old 4s with no luck.
Is there any way I can use it for my old 4s?
Thanks

It may be that the 4s is an iOS version behind:

If the iPhone 6, was/is on iOS 10/11(how to check it https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201685), there’re no way to do this, if not, try update the iPhone 4s to iOS 9.3.5 (how to update https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204204), and then retry restoring the iPhone 4s from your backup.


What are the dimensions for the apple dock icons? I have figured out how to change the icon for my program that I made in java, but now the default icon goes and nothing is there, is it because of the incorrect dimensions? I currently have a 16x16 logo, is anyone able to help me with what the dimensions need to do in order for it to display correctly?

Additional Note: The icon is a .png file if that helps in any way.

An app's Dock Tile Icon should be 1024 × 1024.

For more information about customising your Dock Tile, see the documentation:

Mac Developer Library: Dock Tile Programming Guide

Keep in mind that implementation (software development) is off-topic here.


Reuse Time Machine backup drive after migration to new machine I'm going to be migrating to a new machine in the new few weeks/months, and want to avoid something that happened during my last migration.

I used Migration Assistant and a Time Machine backup to load everything on to my then new(ish) MacBook Pro.  Everything copied correctly, however, when I tried to set up Time Machine on the new MacBook Pro using the original Time Machine disk, I was unable to.  I'm not sure why, and as a result, I had to buy a new external HD for a new Time Machine backup.  This was a somewhat of a waste because the original Time Machine backup disk was less than half full.  Also, I was no longer able to access backups from before the migration, since the new MacBook Pro would not recognize the original Time Machine disk.

Now, I'll be doing the same thing soon, and my current Time Machine disk is barely a third (1/3) full, and I'd rather not purchase a new HD, and also rather not have to lose a few years worth of backups.

Is it possible to re-establish Time Machine for a newer machine using the same disk as for the older machine (and the source of the migration image)?

Apparently with macOS Sierra your new Mac can inherit your old Time Machine disk and likely with High Sierra, too. I recently moved the main drive from a failing 2011 mini to a new-to-me 2012 mini. I was prepared to erase the Time Machine disk and start over, as suggested by the first commenter, but I plugged it in and out of curiosity was looking at its contents in Finder. A dialog message popped up asking if I wanted this computer to inherit the Time Machine backup from my previous computer. It cautioned that if I wanted to do this I could no longer use the backup on the previous computer. Fine with me. My previous backup is now associated with the new computer with no problems.

Apple support doc outlining when and where you can inherit a Time Machine disk: https://support.apple.com/kb/PH25698?locale=en_US


Does 'erase all content and settings' actually erase all data? I recently decided to sell two of my iPhone's (5 and 6s) and I used the 'erase all content and settings' option to wipe and factory reset my iPhone. Now, I'm a little concerned whether this is enough to prevent any data retrieval on my iPhone's and I was wondering if a simple reset in iPhone's settings can provide the same effects as that of an overwritten data? If not, what should I do? Is there a method for overwriting data on an iPhone as there is for macOS?

As long as you follow the steps provided by Apple to erase your iOS device, it will erase all data on the device.  A simple 'reset' of the device is not the same as 'erase all contents and settings'.

Follow these steps:

If you paired an Apple Watch with your iPhone, unpair your Apple Watch.
Back up your device.
Sign out of iCloud and the iTunes & App Store.

If you're using iOS 10.3 or later, tap Settings > [your name]. Scroll down and tap Sign Out. Enter your Apple ID password and tap Turn Off.
If you're using iOS 10.2 or earlier, tap Settings > iCloud > Sign Out. Tap Sign Out again, then tap Delete from My [device] and enter your Apple ID password. Then go to Settings > iTunes & App Store > Apple ID > Sign Out.

Go back to Settings and tap General > Reset > Erase All Content and Settings. If you turned on Find My iPhone, you might need to enter your Apple ID and password.
If asked for your device passcode or Restrictions passcode, enter it. Then tap Erase [device].
If you're switching to a non-Apple phone, deregister iMessage.
Contact your carrier for help transferring service to a new owner. If you aren't using a SIM card with your device, you can contact them to get help transferring service to the new owner.


Keep wifi connected after log off Is there a way to maintain a wifi connection after log off on OS X 10.8 Lion?

I would like to be able to log in, log off, and log into a new account on my domain without having to plug in my ethernet cable.

Set DisconnectOnLogout=NO:

sudo /Sy*/L*/Priv*/Apple8*/V*/C*/R*/airport en1 prefs DisconnectOnLogout=NO

Replace en1 with the interface number of your AirPort card, if it's different.


How to move imovie from one computer to another? I've been editing a video in macbook and it's running out of space..
How do I move the data to a new computer so that I can continue editing the video?

See this video - How to Export an iMovie Project.


How Finder tracks location of items in the sidebar In Windows File Explorer if I create a shortcut to a folder on the disk and then rename/remove/move to trash the folder I will be no longer able to click and open the link.

On Mac if I drag a folder to the Finder sidebar and then do the same operations with the folder, Finder will track it somehow and let me open the folder even if I move it to the Trash.

What macOS API is responsible for this?

I'm not sure if there's an API for it, per se, it's simply the way it operates. Items in the Finder sidebar are actually aliases to the original item.
From What Are Aliases, Symbolic Links, and Hard Links in Mac OS X:

When you create an alias for an object, the system creates a small data file that includes the current path to the object, as well as the object's inode name. Each object's inode name is a long string of numbers, independent of the name you give the object, and guaranteed to be unique to any volume or drive your Mac uses.
...
When you access an alias, the system checks to see if the original item is at the pathname stored in the alias file. If it is, then the system accesses it, and that's that. If the object has been moved, the system searches for a file that has the same inode name as the one stored in the alias file.

(Or do you mean an API that allows you to create aliases from your own application?)


Macbook showing unusual storage uses I'm using macbook retina mid 2014 with storage capacity 128GB. When i check my storage About This Mac > Storage, its showing uses of movies occupying 3.96GB. I check all folders individually but i can't find a single video file.

And also why the "other" section occupying 56.04 GB of storage.
Here is the screenshot.

When I have run across puzzling lack of space on my Macs I have used the freeware OmniDiskSweeper that catalogs the disk and sorts by size. there are others out there that do similar things, this article talks about three.

One of those should help you discover, in greater detail, what is consuming the space on your Mac.


Accidentally removed iCloud from Finder siderbar I accidentally removed iCloud drive from the Favorites sidebar (in Finder).

Dragging it back isn't restoring it.

How could I restore it?

It can be done by going to Finder preferences -> Sidebar and checking iCould Drive


Mac drive not showing up on resetpassword screen I am trying to reset my admin password using recovery partition. When I type resetpassword in terminal, a window shows up but I don't see my drive in the top box.

Is there a way to fix this? btw, I tried booting into single user mode, but it goes straight to the login page.

EDIT:

I may know why the drive doesn't show up. I checked Disk Utility and saw that the drive is locked. But I need a password to unlock it, which I don't have!

The drive is locked using FileVault encryption and cannot be accessed until you unlock the drive. This may be set to a master password of yours, and often is set a while back. You may want to try older passwords (or versions of them) to see if any of those work.

To unlock the drive:

Boot into the recovery mode
Launch Disk Utility
Select the drive in disk utility
Click unlock near the top of the disk utility window

Unfortunately, the drive will not allow you to boot into those options and/or work on it until you pass the encryption lock. It will require a password or for you to completely erase the drive.


How to hide the top menu of chrome? How to hide the top menu of chrome?  File/Edit/View/...

This is a way to hide the whole menu bar:

Open System Preferences.
Click General
Under the Appearance section, check "Automatically hide & show the menu bar".
Close System Preferences; the menu bar on your computer should now automatically show when you mouse over it, and hide when you move your mouse cursor somewhere else.

PS. This applies to all applications, not just Chrome.


Mac Could Not Restart After a Kernel Panic I was forced to restart MacBook Pro when a kernel panic happened about 2 hours ago... Since then my computer would just stuck on the grey screen with the Apple logo every time I tried to reboot it. Some useful log appeared when I tried to boot it in Safe Mode and single user mode:

disk0s2: I/O error.

   0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [ErrType IO] [ErrNo 5] [IOType Read] [PBlkNum 24] [LBlkNum 2][FSLogMsgID 327376684] [FSLogMsgOrder First]

   0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [DevNode root_device] [MountPt /] [FSLogMsgID 327376684] [FSLogMsgOrder Last]

0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [ErrType IO] [ErrNo 5] [IOType Read] [PBlkNum 55232] [LBlkNum 763][FSLogMsgID 375551380] [FSLogMsgOrder First]

0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [DevNode root_device] [MountPt /] [FSLogMsgID 375551380] [FSLogMsgOrder Last]

0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [ErrType IO] [ErrNo 5] [IOType Read] [PBlkNum 55008] [LBlkNum 749][FSLogMsgID 299898203] [FSLogMsgOrder First]

0 [Level 3] [ReadUID 0] [Facility com.apple.system.fs] [DevNode root_device] [MountPt /] [FSLogMsgID 299898203] [FSLogMsgOrder Last]

That was when the booting process got stuck. The log seemed to suggest that there were problems with the disk i/o and mounting the file system.

To you experts:
Can you interpret what this means? Was this a hardware problem? Can you decide more specifically what the problem was? Do you have any suggestions of a potential fix?

Thanks,
Stephen

Try to boot into recovery by holding down Cmd+R.

If your computer shipped with a Mac OS X Install disc, insert the installation disc, and restart the computer while holding the C key.

If using a Recovery partition or Internet Recovery (OS X Lion and later): When your computer finishes starting up, choose Disk Utility from the Utilities window.

If using an installation disc: Choose Disk Utility from the Installer menu.
Important: If you started from an installation disc, do not click Continue in the first screen of the Installer. If you do, you must start from the disc again to access Disk Utility.

Click the First Aid tab.

Click the disclosure triangle to the left of the hard drive icon to display the names of your hard disk volumes and partitions.

Select your OS X volume.

Click Repair. Disk Utility checks and repairs the disk.

Hopefully this might solve the issue. Otherwise I suggest backing-up your data and reinstall OSX.


How do you get a Cisco VPN connection to remember its password? The Problem

I've got a Cisco IPSEC VPN connection in my network settings on a Yosemite machine. It works fine, aside from prompting for a password on every single connection. The saved password is ignored entirely.

Background

If I enter the password under the network settings and click connect, the saved password vanishes, and the dialog prompting for a password appears. I've verified that the password is correct (it's copy-pasted from a document).

Things that didn't work

A suggested solution to this for Snow Leopard was to save the password, open Keychain Access, locate the "Xauth" key in the system keychain, and grant /usr/libexec/configd access to the key. This had no effect.
Usual permissions repair/disk check stuff

Weird stuff

If I watch keychain access while hitting the connect button, the saved password vanishes outright from the keychain right when the dialog appears.

Overall Question

How do I get the password correctly saved so I don't have to rekey it on every connection?

I guess you are using anyconnect to connect to the Cisco VPN server. AnyConnect can also be used from Terminal. This works on macOS Sierra and AnyConnect 3.1.14018. Create a bash script with the following command:

/opt/cisco/anyconnect/bin/vpn connect your-vpn.server.here -s <.credentials

And put the login details in the file .credentials with the following three lines:

0
your-username
your-password

Don't forget to put reasonable permissions on the files.


When my mac is tethered to my iPhone it can't resolve localhost My broadband internet died on the weekend and so, in order to get some work done I am tethering my MacBook Pro to my iPhone.

I am running a number of servers within docker containers.

If I deactivate the tethering and just connect to my usual wifi (despite it not having any ability to connect to the outside world due to the broadband being down) then host localhost works fine. But while tethered I can't resolve localhost at all. Running host localhost returns Host localhost not found: 3(NXDOMAIN)

I have tried this on my other Mac too with the same result, which is weird as I regularly travel and work via tethering off my iPhone and it's never been a problem before.

What could cause this to happen and how do I debug / fix it?

I like using fully qualified DNS and http://xip.io/ explains how to map whatever RFC1918 non-routable address you have set up in docker to avoid the whole localhost mess when you change up your route to the internet.

This ends up being more solid for me rather than munkying about, especially if your tethering is IPv6 only which can complicate things.


Macbook Pro does not recognize brand new internal hard drive I have a 13.3" mid-2012 2.5 GHz Macbook Pro and wanted to upgrade the internal HDD from the factory standard 500GB capacity to a 1TB. I popped the bottom case, discharged any static, undid the screws on the drive bracket, pulled the old drive and installed the new drive.

After putting the Macbook back together, I booted from a USB thumb drive and launched disk utility. In DU, I can see the thumb drive, but I can't see the new hard drive at all. Booting from Internet Recovery is the same.

What's more, I repeated all of these steps on a different Macbook, and the results were the same there -- drive not seen. Bad drive right out of the box, yeah? Rare, but it happens.

So I got a new drive, same capacity, different brand and same result: I don't see the drive in Disk Utility at all, no matter how I boot.

I was thinking that these drives just needed to be formatted, even though both indicated they were Mac compatible, which I presume means pre formatted in FAT so both Mac and PC could read them. Is it possible that these drives are shipped raw and totally unformatted (first was Seagate STBD1000100, SATA III, second is Western Digital WDBMYH0010BNC-NRSN, SATA II)?

If they are indeed unformatted, how the heck am I supposed to format them when Disk Utility can't see them at all? I don't have an external drive available, but I suppose I can wrangle one with some shenanigans.

You need to create a boot installer disk to setup a new disk as an internal boot disk for a Mac. You will need a running Mac system and a blank USB Thumb drive (at least 8GB in size). As long as you have that, here are the basics:

Download the OS X installer from the Mac App Store. Quit the installer if it opens automatically after downloading.
Mount your USB flash drive, or external drive with a 8GB or larger partition.
Open the Terminal (which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.)
Use the createinstallmedia command in Terminal to create the bootable installer.

WARNING! This process will ERASE the USB thumb drive, so you can't have anything on it!

For El Capitan the command line would be as follows, where MyVolume is the name of your USB disk:

sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/MyVolume --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan.app

Also note that FAT formatted drives will NOT work as a Mac OS boot disk. They must be reformatted to Mac OS X Extended (Journaled) disk using a GUID Partition Table.

To learn more you can head over to Apple's website and read how to Create a bootable installer for OS X. As well as check out a simple walkthrough over on MacWorlds website on formatting a Mac boot disk.


Smart playlist based on a playlist Here is something I've been trying to get to work on an off for a very long time.  I have a ton of music and I like to cycle through things I haven't heard in a long time.  I also like to listen to albums beginning to end primarily.

Here is my latest setup
iTunes 12.2 on Windows 7

Iphone 5S,  IOS 8.4

I add music to my phone with a standard playlist "iPhone playlist".  I manually add and remove songs when I sync the phone to the computer.  In between syncs I'd like another smart playlist to only include the songs I haven't played yet.

So I attempt to do this:

Playlist is iPhone playlist

Last played is not in the last 60 days

live updating is checked

This works on the PC, but the smart playlist is never updated on the phone once a song is playyed.

Any advice?

updated:  I may not have explained it clearly.  Try this example:
1- in iTunes, add new standard playlist called "Temp"
2- add three songs to temp that haven't been played in a few months
3- next add a new smart playlist called "Temp not played"
4 - add this criteria to the "Temp not played" playlist
     a-  playlist is temp
     b - last played is not in last 30 days
5-  both playlists should now contain three songs
6-  sync these two new playlists to your phone and disconnect the phone from your computer
7-  on the phone, listen to playlist "Temp not played"
8 - when finished, does "Temp not played" still contain the three songs (even though you just played them)

That's what is not working for me.  "Temp not played" is never updated until I sync with the computer.  Other smart playlists work fine.  Say for example you created a list of no plays.  Once the song is played it disappears from the smart playlist immediately on the phone.

I think the problem is when the criteria for a smart playlist contains the "Playlist is xxx" criteria.

Thanks

I've run into the same problem and I too have narrowed it down to the "playlist is xxx" criteria.  Live updating works for every other criteria I have, but it doesn't like either a reference to alpha text or the reference to another playlist for some reason.  This seems to be a bug with iOS 8.4, because it worked fine for me before the update.  (I think it has more to do with the use of alpha text because I ran into the same problem when I tried to use "category is".)

I have figured a work around.  Not the ideal solution, but it works for me.

I took a field I never use, in my case BPM, and cleared it out for all songs in my library.
In standard playlist XXX, I entered "1" in the BPM field for all the songs in that playlist only.
Then in my smart playlist I add the criteria "BPM is 1".

This works.  It draws only from songs in the standard playlist XXX, and live updating works as it should on the phone.

The only thing I have to remember is to clear the BPM field when I delete a song from standard playlist XXX.

Hope that helps.  And I hope Apple fixes is this in their next update along with some other annoying smart playlist issues I've encountered.


Standalone Flash player app for swf -files I use nowadays Opera because it just works for these swf -files.
No other browser work.

However, the problem with Opera is that it is big.

Is there any tool by which you can just view SWF -files?

Did you already visit Adobe?

Adobe provides a standalone Flash Player: Flash Player Projector 16.0.
Additional also debugger versions are available as well as older versions.

Originally it was meant for Flex and Flash developers.

Example: Starting a flash game


How to uninstall VirtualBox / removing Kernel Extension Reading this thread

I made with brew:
brew cask uninstall virtualbox

Error: Cask 'virtualbox' is not installed.

The dmg file of virtual box is not on disk..

Thanks for any good ideas.

You can either redownload the virtual box dmg and run that script or download and run this script

The script above is just the script I got from the uninstall.tool


iTunes 10.7: Does listening to songs change their mp3-files? I use iTunes to listen to music and I use Wuala to backup my mp3-files. Before recent versions of iTunes, I never had any problem with that.
But with more recent versions (I don't know when it started, but the problem definitely occurs in the current version 10.7), there is a problem: Whenever I listen so a song on iTunes, Wuala makes an update of the backup, i.e. the songs that i listened to are uploaded anew. This means that Wuala thinks that the file has been changed. I find it really annoying because this uses CPU and bandwith when I listen to music. I want to solve this problem.

My question: Is it true that iTunes, in more recent versions, changes the mp3-file when listening to a song, or is the problem caused by newer versions of Wuala?

EDIT:
Thanks, Dave K. Comparing checksums is a good idea. I've just done the same: I checked the checksums before and after playing a few tracks, and none of the checksums changed. However, Wuala still uploads played tracks. On this screenshot, one can see that Wuala uploads tracks the checksum of which has not changed:

Thus, Wuala updates files which haven't changed. What else could be the reason why the tracks are uploaded? I noticed that iTunes opens the mp3-files with write access, as one can see from the fact that the information in Finder shows identical times for "modified" and "last opened" (is this a correct conclusion?):

Could that be the reason why Wuala uploads the files? Where is the information stored that a file has been last modified at a certain time? (not in the file, since the checksum doesn't change)

My Setup: Crashplan, OS X 10.8.2, iTunes 10.7 (21)

I am unable to replicate the same issue on my system, and haven't noticed any excess changes or uploads to crashplan on my filesystem after playing music. To be sure it wasn't happening in the background, I ran a checksum on one of my audio files, played the complete song in iTunes, and re-ran the checksum. If something in the file itself had changed, the checksum would be different.

Here are the results:

Big-iMac:Abbey Road dave$ openssl sha1 17\ Her\ Majesty.m4a
SHA1(17 Her Majesty.m4a)= 3aea5150d7b1d21846b6502bac7ccacca44ff0fa
Big-iMac:Abbey Road dave$ openssl sha1 17\ Her\ Majesty.m4a
SHA1(17 Her Majesty.m4a)= 3aea5150d7b1d21846b6502bac7ccacca44ff0fa

As you can see, the checksum matches the second time after playing the song through iTunes. Most of my collection is ripped into ALAC (m4a), so I thought I'd test a standard mp3 file as well:

Big-iMac:One More Night in New York City dave$ openssl sha1 2-21\ The\ End.mp3
SHA1(2-21 The End.mp3)= a223d6fb542bee5191794d0a74f971da19fb9afc
Big-iMac:One More Night in New York City dave$ openssl sha1 2-21\ The\ End.mp3
SHA1(2-21 The End.mp3)= a223d6fb542bee5191794d0a74f971da19fb9afc

This too produced the same checksum before and after playing the song in iTunes. All of the metadata about your library (play count, etc.) is stored in the iTunes Music Library.xml file, not in the mp3 itself so I wouldn't expect individual songs to change. However, it's quite possible that the iTunes Music Library file will need to be re-uploaded since it changes frequently.


Macbook permanently crashes while updating to El Capitan I downloaded, and then started installing OS X El Capitan on my MacBook Pro. But I think it just stacked i think. So I turn off mac, and then turn on again. Every time when I try to login on my account I have a crash as following:

Is there a way to reset this and download again?

I am really appreciate for any help. I do not know what to do.

I did it with simply press Cmd + R, and then press off. Cmd + R I kept pressed until Apple logo appeared, then I get into Install OS X mode. There you should once again connect to the internet, choose language,and waiting for new install.


How to fix not working ⌘ ⎋ shortcut in Lion 10.7 I have a new MacBook Pro 15" early 2011 and use Lion.

For "Launchpad" I can't use the Shortcut F1.
For "Move focus to menu bar" I can't use the Shortcut Cmd+Esc (⌘+⎋).

Simply said, there are functions, which are not working with one specific Shortcut. I can assign it, but it does not work.

The Shortcuts works for all the other functions and the one function works with all the other Shortcuts.

Sometimes when I wildly clicked around and restarted, the shortcut Cmd+Esc (⌘+⎋) worked with "Move focus to menu bar" one time.

What could I do to fix the bug?

Go to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> and assign and enable the shortcuts you want.


MacBook Pro not turning on after not being used I have stopped using my MacBook Pro (end of 2016) with touchbar for more than a month. Today I tried to boot it up but was not able to.
Before not using it, I made sure it was charged to 100% and I shut it down completely. I thought doing so would help prevent the battery from being damaged.
Unfortunately it seems the mac is dead without any reason. I have to say that when I tried to start it today, the screen lightened up, then I was able to see the login screen for 1second then nothing. I could see that it was at 1% and being charged.
I tried to leave it charging for 1 hour but still nothing.
Any idea what to do from here ?

Reset your SMC. It controls the power management hardware on your system. It may not be allowing your battery to charge for a number of reasons.
If this still happens afterwards, please take a (preferably high frame rate) video of you powering on your machine, including both the keyboard and display, so that we can see at precisely which point in the boot it fails.
EDIT:
In our discussion in comments, we ruled out possible low-hanging fruit:

Ensuring the correct key chord for SMC reset (ShiftControlOption on the left-hand side of the keyboard for pre-T2 units, + Power)
Swapping the charger cable.
Swapping the charger.
Trying all four USB-C ports.
Verifying live AC power.

Because of how early in the boot flow the failure occurs, it is likely to be due to a hardware issue. There’s very little you can do to debug this without poking at the hardware, whether it’s you or an Apple support engineer doing it. You would need to start probing voltages along the power rails and looking at power sequencing on an oscilloscope. Maybe it’s something as simple as a bad battery confusing SMC, in which case you could try to replace the battery yourself, but don’t buy one unless you’ve confirmed with a multimeter that yours is bad.
Short answer: Talk to Apple for options.


Macbook Pro camera still not working (green light on) - tried heaps of suggested solutions to no avail My macbook pro camera does not work in facetime, photobooth, zoom, etc despite the green light being on.

What I've tried so far to solve it which hasn't worked:

sudo killall VDCAssistant & AppleCameraAssistant command (returned "no matching processes were found")
Rebooted macbook in safe mode (opened Facetime and it said "No Camera
Available")
Repaired disk using Disk Utility
Reset the SMC

I have a feeling that it is a hardware failure. When I leave my laptop 1/3 the way open and tap the screen, the camera starts working properly (sometimes). However, when I then fully open it, the image freezes and returns back to a black screen.

My camera was working fine in January, however in February I updated from High Sierra to Mojave. But it was only until March I realised my camera no longer worked. Last week I updated from Mojave to Catalina, camera still doesn't work. I don't think updating my macbook was the reason but I just added this incase..

Is there anything to try short of hardware repair?

No, you have exhausted the typical steps and if you can send it in for repair or feel you won’t break it worse by opening it yourself, a repair is in order.

Before a repair, make a backup of everything and wipe and reinstall the OS. You need that to start the repair and if it fixes things, you’ll save the cost and time of the repair.


Is there an equivalent of Linux's kernel memmap on OS X? According to memtest86, there is a persistent single bit error in my MacBook Pro's 16GB of DDR RAM.

Since the error is in the second half of the physical address space, I can work around the problem by running sudo nvram boot-args="maxmem=8192". However, this is a bit of a waste of the other half - a working 8GB minus one bit.

Is there a way, perhaps with an Open Firmware command or configuration, or a special boot-args option (e.g. nvphash?), that will allow me to mark as unusable just the small section that contains the bit error?

You can achieve what you want with the system call mmap(2) passing as argument for the protection value PROT_NONE which means pages can't be accessed.

But I would suggest to buy a new memory chip, because the error you detected is the signature of bad quality and your erroneous bit won't stay alone for too long (within the same chip).


What apps use ~/.bash_profile? I accidentally deleted my ~/.bash_profile, and want to know which apps will go down. What most common apps (development apps) use this file?

Generally, none of them should use it, since it is a bash-related file, and it won't be sourced/loaded if another shell is used.

Be sure to add the following line to a new ~/.bash_profile:

[[ -s "$HOME/.profile" ]] && source "$HOME/.profile" # Loads the default .profile


To change default map application in iPhone Apple Maps are very inaccurate. They costs my time and money when I use them by accident.
I want to change the default app to Google Maps.

How can you change the default Map application in the newest iOS to Google Maps?

I really would like to delete the Apple Maps from my phone.

You can't change the default app. Some apps give you the option to choose which app to open maps/directions in, but this varies per app and app developer. There is no system toggle and Safari/Siri/etc will continue to open maps in Maps.


Installed the PL2303 Driver in my Mac, but I still can not find the `tty.usbserial*` under `/dev` Installed the PL2303 Driver in my Mac, but I still can not find the tty.usbserial* under /dev.

I follow the PL2303 Driver to install the PL2303_MacOSX_1.6.1_20171018.zip in my Mac.

I installed the pkg, and restarted my Mac, but there is a difference between the manual and mine:

The manual:

Mine MacOS:

And the most important is, under the /dev, I can not find any tty.usbserial*:

$ ls tty.*
tty.Bluetooth-Incoming-Port

EDIT-01

IDs in the manual:

Product ID: 0x2303
Vendor ID: 0x067b

My USB2.0-Ser!:

Product ID： 0x7523
Vendor ID：  0x1a86

EDIT-02

My macOS sierra version is 10.12.6 (16G1114).

EDIT-03

I tried install CH341SER_MAC_ZIP.html

But, now if I insert the USB into my Mac, my Mac will restart with the error on screen:

  your computer will restarted because of a problem. Press a key or wait a few seconds to continue starting up.

and there is no USB2.0-Ser! now:

You have the driver for the prolific chipset AT-232 cable installed - VID 0x067b, PID 0x2303.

The device you have connected is not reporting as a prolific AT-232. The device you have connected is reporting as a QinHeng Electronics CH340 - VID 0x1a86, PID 0x7523.

I'd recommend trying the driver for the CH340 http://www.wch.cn/download/CH341SER_MAC_ZIP.html


Clone one Mac and restore it on multiple Macs I am going to setup a bunch of MacBooks Pros with the same settings. I could go through every Mac and install all the programs but here is what I would like to do.

I would like to setup one Mac with the appropriate settings and programs. Then clone the drive to an external hard drive and then just restore that drive to each and every MacBook.

I am completely new to this and have messed about in Disk Utility for hours without getting this to work. I have also read a lot of articles online that are way too simplified.

I actually managed to make an image file of the drive and restore it, but this makes the Mac un-bootable. Basically the Mac gets stuck in an eternal boot loop.

Could someone with experience please give me a mini tutorial on how to clone one Mac to multiple Macs with an external hard drive?

On the Mac that you wanted to clone

Connect an external Hard Drive to your Mac.
Open Time Machine in System Preferences and setup the backup of your system.

This may take some hours depending on your type of external drive.

On the other Mac where you want to transfer that clone

Shut down the system
Connect the Time Machine backup disk created earlier
Power on Mac whilst holding the Command + R buttons. This will take you to recovery.
Choose Restore from Time Machine backup and press Continue.

This will make an exact clone of the first Mac.
For other systems also follow the same steps.


Macbook Pro 16 Failed to boot after Big Sur update now I'm unable to mount the disk even in recovery mode On reboot it showed the cannot boot from hard drive ? screen.
I rebooted into recovery mode but it fails to mount the drive. I can see the drive there with the correct details. It says the following:
Could not mount "disk0s2" (com.apple.Diskmanagement.dis enter error -119930868.)
I googled the error but get lots of posts relating to external drives etc. Nothing in any posts I've come across has helped.
When i run FistAid on the drive it get the following:
Repairing Storage System
Performing fsck_apfs -y -x /dev/disk02s2
warning: nx_block_count is 488475719, while device block count
error: object (oid 0x1): o_cksum (0xbd26e8008dccb575) is invalid for object
Checking the container superblock.
Storage system exit code is 8.
Storage system verify or repair failed. :(-69716)

Operation failed.

If i do "disk util apfs list" in terminal i get the following:
Container ERROR -69808
APFS Container reference: disk1
Size (Capacity Ceiling): ERROR -69620
Capacity in use by volumes: ERROR -69620
Capacity not allocated: ERROR -69620
+-< Physical Store disk0s2
  APFS Physical Store Disk: disk0s2
  Size: 1894999998464 B (1.9 TB)

I need some photos and files off the drive so if anyone can help it would be very much appreicated!

The 16 MacBook Pro is Intel based and has the T2 chip. This means all the data is well encrypted and the keys are stored on the T2 and the system will unlock all of the system data in target mode and other pass phrases may also be able to decrypt the data with FileVault enabled.
I would revive the firmware if you can’t use your known passwords to try and transfer (but not run first aid) to a second Mac.

https://support.apple.com/en-om/guide/apple-configurator-2/apdebea5be51/mac

Do not restore - the steps are very similar and the words sound too close for comfort. Restore intentionally deletes and destroys all data.
Revive leaves your data intact. Now, if your data is already gone, you won’t know until after the revive  is done. It’s unlikely revive will make it harder or more expensive to do data recovery, but I would stop immediately with any fsck since that deletes files and restores the system to a previous state to make the filesystem correct. It’s the opposite of what you want to get files backed up.
For that you want these:

https://drivesaversdatarecovery.com/
https://www.prosofteng.com/mac-data-recovery and two external drives, one about 16 GB or larger to install a rescue OS from recovery and a second the same size or bigger than your SSD to copy off files. (If you have or can borrow a second Mac, install this there and boot yours in target disk mode.)

Then once you have the files backed up, use Internet Recovery to try reinstalling macOS on top of your existing data (this also doesn’t intentionally erase the data, just layers a working system on top of whatever system was there). With luck, you’ll get a backup and a working system without having to do an erase install or the full restore operation.


Can't install Homebrew on macOS Mojave; installer doesn't recognize Command Line Tools I'm trying to install Homebrew on macOS Mojave 10.14.6. To do this, I'm running the command line suggested at the Homebrew website:

/usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Although my computer already has Xcode installed (updated to version 11 a few days ago, according to the version history), the Homebrew installer doesn't seem to be aware of this. Instead, it tries (and fails) to perform a fresh installation of the Command Line Tools.

Here's the output I get in the Terminal window:

==> This script will install:
/usr/local/bin/brew
/usr/local/share/doc/homebrew
/usr/local/share/man/man1/brew.1
/usr/local/share/zsh/site-functions/_brew
/usr/local/etc/bash_completion.d/brew
/usr/local/Homebrew
==> The Xcode Command Line Tools will be installed.

Press RETURN to continue or any other key to abort
==> Searching online for the Command Line Tools
==> /usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/touch /tmp/.com.apple.dt.CommandLineTools.installondemand.in-progress
Password:
Timed out while loading data from the Apple Software Update server.
==> Installing the Command Line Tools (expect a GUI popup):
==> /usr/bin/sudo /usr/bin/xcode-select --install
Password:
xcode-select: note: install requested for command line developer tools
Press any key when the installation has completed.

At this point, the computer displays a dialog box asking me to either (a) install XCode or (b) visit the XCode page in the App Store. Neither of these options does anything useful. (I either get to see a progress bar doing nothing for 5 minutes, or the App Store opens and confirms that, yes, XCode has indeed been installed.)

Is this a temporary issue caused by the version 11 update of XCode? Can anyone suggest a solution or workaround?

Xcode command line tools is a separate package for Xcode

Download Command Line Tools for Xcode from developer.apple.com/download/more and install it again.

source: Installing Xcode Command Line Tools

Useful for troubleshooting

xcode-select -p


Accessing someone else's ICloud? Is there a way of accessing my husband's iCloud to possibly retrieve deleted messages.  I know ICloud ID and good idea of password.  Question is if I log in from a different device will he be alerted??

Are you suspecting a mistress ? ^^

And yes, your 'husband' will be alerted by this mail :

  Your Apple ID was used to sign in to iCloud on - device -

Accessing to a "someone else's iCloud" without permission is illegal.


Disable sleep mode for a specific app? Can I disable the sleep mode for a specific application so that my mac won't go on sleep until the app is closed?

If you have any interest in running shell script the following will work. Just set the "Display_Sleep_Time" and "System_Sleep_Time" as you want them to be along with the "App" you are choosing to prevent sleep on. By launching the script anytime you run your app your all sleep times will be turned to 0 preventing both your display and system from sleeping.

TESTED ON

10.5.x
10.6.x
10.7.4

NOTE: WARNING THIS SCRIPT DOES CONTAIN AN INTERNAL LOOP. You may prefer to utilize the following script inside a Daemon rather than use the internal loop the script provides. However, the same concept applies.

#!/bin/bash

watch="true"

App="Safari"
System_Sleep_Time="30"
Display_Sleep_Time="10"

System_Sleep=$(pmset -g | grep " sleep" | awk '{print $2}')
Display_Sleep=$(pmset -g | grep " displaysleep" | awk '{print $2}')

while [[ ${watch} == "true" ]]; do

    watch_App=$(ps -A | grep "${App}.app" | grep -v grep | sed "s/.*${App}.*/${App}/")

    if [[ ${watch_App} == ${App} ]]; then

        if [[ ${System_Sleep} != "0" ]]; then
            pmset -a sleep 0
            System_Sleep=$(pmset -g | grep " sleep" | awk '{print $2}')
        fi

        if [[ ${Display_Sleep} != "0" ]]; then
            pmset -a displaysleep 0
            Display_Sleep=$(pmset -g | grep " displaysleep" | awk '{print $2}')
        fi

    elif [[ ${watch_App} != ${App} ]]; then

        if [[ ${System_Sleep} == "0" ]]; then
            pmset -a sleep ${System_Sleep_Time} > /dev/null 2>&1
            System_Sleep=$(pmset -g | grep " sleep" | awk '{print $2}')
        fi

        if [[ ${Display_Sleep} == "0" ]]; then
            pmset -a displaysleep ${Display_Sleep_Time} > /dev/null 2>&1
            Display_Sleep=$(pmset -g | grep " displaysleep" | awk '{print $2}')
        fi

    else

        /usr/bin/logger -i An error has occured with preventsleep.sh

    fi

done


Format usb drive (dmg is on - and show read only) I have a problem to format/erase an usb drive with mac os x on it. It shows that drive is read only.

Is there any way that I can format/erase disk to become writable?

i remember this from a few years ago -- there were a lot of these slipping into RO mode.  here is a forum talking about it: http://forums.sandisk.com/t5/All-SanDisk-USB-Flash-Drives/Sandisk-cruzer-16GB-became-read-only/td-p/255218/page/2

with no real solution.  it is a hardware issue, regarless of operating system etc.


Which free alternatives to Little Snitch can I use to block internet traffic per applications? Little Snitch can block internet traffic of a particular app. Can I do something similar without (paying) Little Snitch, either by using free alternatives or configuring the OS X firewall directly?

TCPBlock

  TCPBlock is a lightweight and fast application firewall … you can prevent selected applications on your computer from opening connections to the network.

TCPBlock is free and can be downloaded from MacUpdate, however TCPBlock doesn't appear to work with El Capitan and is no longer being updated.

PF Firewall

OS X comes with the PF firewall, which can be configured to block all connections to certain servers in all apps. Blocking all connections from a single app is not possible as far as I am aware without external software.

You can use IceFloor as a GUI for the PF firewall.


How can I join an ics remote calendar? I have to join a shared calendar for which i have a https url (like https://servername:5006/calendar/calendar.ics)

How can I join it on the Calendar App?
I only managed to subscribe to it, although when subscribing I cannot add my own events but only see what others are publishing.

It works perfectly using Thunderbird Lightspeed, but I want to be able to use the Calendar App for my convenience

Solution found by myself:
I needed to create a new local calendar (possibly importing the ics file downloaded from the server) then publish it at the same address such that it is now localized there


How do I transfer video to iPad and password protect it? Is there a way to transfer videos to iPad but at the same time password protect it?  Or password protect a folder so that only people with a password can go into that folder?

There are a lot of applications doing this job: VideoVault (1$), FolderLock (4$), and a free LockDown, but it requires your iPad to be jailbroken. Sorry, didn't found anything that would be free and, ehm, completely legal.


Config a function key to activate the [App : Show All] command [my first question here...]

Is there a good way to map a function key to do the [App : Show All] command? i.e. Un-hide all apps.

BTW, i currently use Spark to map function keys.

Check out the Keyboard preference pane:

In the Keyboard shortcuts tab, click the plus to add a new shortcut. Set the dropdown to "All Applications" and then type "Show All" (case sensitive!) as the menu item. Map it to whatever you like.


If I purchase an album (or song, book, etc) on the Apple Music app for Android, can I download it on iTunes for Windows? Here is the Apple Music app for Android on the Google Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.apple.android.music&hl=en

I am running iTunes 12.3 on Windows 7 Pro.

Apple Music is a online library of music for a monthly subscription fee. As long as you setup your Windows iTunes to have Apple Music all music will available. If you add an album to your Apple Music Library, it will appear on all of your devices Apple Music Library as added.

I do not believe there is a way to "Purchase" music in Apple Music, it is a subscription.


Can I watch 3D movies on my Mac? Can I watch 3D movies on my Mac? If not, can I just watch them normally in 2D (not having 2 pictures side by side).

According to this Apple document:

    Autodesk’s FBX for QuickTime enables QuickTime as a 3D viewing solution that supports content from any professional 3D package. With FBX for QuickTime, digital artists can share, view, and interact with 3D content seamlessly, efficiently, and at no cost. Now available for both Mac OS X and Windows.

So, I'm guessing that's a yes.

If you want to take that 3D movie and convert it to 2D, you can most likely use MPEG Streamclip for that.


Is it possible to set the duration of a GrowlNotify notification? Looking to speed up Growl notifications on a per-application basis (doesn't seem possible within Growl's own GUI), I'm sceptical but still curious if this is possible via GrowlNotify:

Does anyone know whether it's possible to set the duration of a GrowlNotify notification?

You can kind of do this with Growl GUI, not the best approach, but should work:

With the Grown GUI you can set event duration per-style. You can also assign styles per application.

So, if you assign different styles to different applications, you can achieve the desired effect. But that would result in different visual styles for different applications, which may not be desired. You may also be able to duplicate styles (don't know how) and assign styles that are the same visually to different applications. Alternatively you may be able to create new styles based on existing ones.

Again, not the best solution but should works.


Assign function keys to umlauts I'm using Apple's wired keyboard with number pad.

Above the number pad there are 4 unassigned function keys (F16 to F19) which I would like to assign to the German umlauts ä, ö, ü and the sharp s ß.

Is there a way to do that?

It would be realizable with a -> Service. Such Automator Services are quite fast...but too slow for a smooth typing flow. However, there are third-party hotkey managers that are suitable for this.

Butler: not updated for a long time, but very powerful and fast (and
free)
BetterTouchTool: quick and easy to use
Alfred: might be too slow
and many more...

With Butler you can execute text directly (!), with the others you might need an AppleScript. Open the Script-Editor to get the IDs for the umlauts:

id of "Ü"

The necessary Applescript for "Ü" would then look like this:

tell application "System Events" to keystroke (string id 220)

Assign e.g. shift-F19 (because of capitalization)


Can a damaged Time Machine disk harm my iMac when I will plug it in? iMac El Capitan had to be restarted several times with the on/off switch during which the TM backup disk made a clicking noise. I got the Imac working, is it safe to plug in my TM backup disk to see if it still is working?
I have no other back up.

The iMac should not be harmed from plugging in such a disk, no. So in that sense it is "safe" to try.

However, note that there's a risk of further destroying data on the actual drive. It might work, but it might not. In any case, if it does work, I would suggest copying over any data you cannot afford to loose from the old drive to another drive.

If you have data on the drive that you cannot afford to loose, I would refrain from trying to do a lot with it yourself, and contact a data recovery service.


Does the Apple Watch need an iPhone to be on the latest iOS to pair? My S0 sport won't pair with my iPhone 6s on a 11.1.x version of iOS. I can't actually update my iPhone at the moment but this is the only suggestion the engineers have given.

The Apple Watch page doesn't mention series 0 anymore but for series 1 mentions Apple Watch Series 1 require an iPhone 5s or later with iOS 11 or later so I guess if they're compatible my phone meets the requirements. All I hear is "update, update, update", I wish I could but it's not an option for me at the moment. I'm not sure how updating my phone would fix the problem either unless this is a bug. The support engineers tell me it isn't a bug, at least not a known one which prevents iOS 11.1.x pairing with S0 Apple Watch. Maybe there's something I don't understand.

My iPhone says

  watchOS 3.1.3 Your software is up-to-date.

My watch says

  Please continue set-up on iPhone.

I've rebooted, powered off & on, enabled airplane mode etc. etc. etc. more times than I can count but I can't get the watch to pair. Even doing a clean reinstall of iOS and multiple factory resets of the watch didn't help. It's a 42mm Aluminium Sport (S0?) pairing to an iPhone 6S.

I can't see anything in Apple's advertising that says it won't work on a version of iOS that is 11.x but isn't the latest :(

I had the identical issue today. Updating my phone to iOS 11.3 resolved the issue.


How do you get a stack trace of a running process? On Linux, you can examine /proc/$PID/stack. Is there an equivalent on OSX?

Maybe this is what you are looking for?

Open Activity Monitor.
Select the target process.
Click on the gear icon in top left.
Select "Sample Process" from appeared menu.

It will display detailed info about process:


How can I get Xcode to install under Lion? I'm slightly confused under Lion as to how to get dependencies in place for Homebrew. It wants Xcode in place, and I can go to the app store and click on "Install", and it dutifully says "Installing"... and stays stuck on "Installing" after several minutes. I can find Xcode but apparently not get to "Installed", in the past indicative.

How can I install Xcode? Do I just need to give it more time to install? Or is there another way like installing from tarball? It's been "Installing" for a few minutes, and seems stuck.

When the App Store is "Installing" keep in mind this  includes "Downloading", and Xcode is usually about 4 GB. Leave it overnight or monitor your network traffic to see the progress.

Once Xcode is installed, you will need to run xcode-select to expand your path since tools like make and compilers/linkers are in /Applications/Xcode and not in your typical bash path. You can go to settings and download the command line tools to keep them if decide to delete Xcode later.


Disable all Mac system keyboard shortcuts whilst using nano I want to use nano on the terminal, however the built-in system keyboard shortcuts constantly conflict with the usability of the program.
Is there a way in which I can set a system option to disable all system shortcuts whilst I am running nano? I am aware that this would be the case regardless of whether I switched to a different application, but I am hoping it would set a habit that I would not do this until I had finished editing and closed nano again.
There are multiple shortcuts which conflict, and as such I am confident that there are more that I haven't yet found, thus I would like a blanket solution such that I can start to learn and be more efficient with nano's shortcuts without any confusion as to whether I can trust the nano help screen
I am aware that bettertouchtool exists, but I don't know if it would be able to set configuration in an event-driven way like I would like

Seems the conflict would most of the time be a Meta keybinding where Meta = CMD key on a Mac. The Nano website has a keybinding section of documentation here. You may need to configure a .nanorc and redefine those keybindings that conflict with macOS.
https://www.nano-editor.org/dist/latest/nano.html#Rebinding-Keys
The macOS Terminal under the Profile -> Keyboard has a checkbox for Use Option as Meta key.  Seems to work for the nano meta keys.  This is per Profile in Terminal.


Lock Screen Command One-Liner I'm trying to find out whether there is any kind of equivalent command line one-liner which replicates the exact identical functionality of the 'Lock Screen' menu option available via the Keychain app in OS X 10.6

I'm aware of the all the 'usual' solutions (sleep/screensaver preferences to require a password on reactivation) but these are not suitable to me.

I'm also aware of this option:

/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/user.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend

which is also not suitable for me.

The perfect functionality is the 'Lock Screen' option however I have not yet found an elegant way to call it.

At the moment, I am calling via Automator, which isn't elegant!

I have read much about this issue and my understanding is that no-one has yet found the 'holy grail' but I was wondering whether that might have changed.

In OS X 10.9 and later:

pmset displaysleepnow

By itself, this command only causes the display to sleep, resulting in a black screen. By configuring your computer to require a password immediately after sleep, this one-liner works as a "lock computer" command. The preference is available at System Preferences > Security & Privacy > General.

Source: How to lock screen on MacBook Air?


Missing Wifi in iMac 2011 I recently re-built the iMac 2011 by taking it all apart, cleaning and adding new hard disk and fresh install of High Sierra.
I am however unable to get any sort of wifi or even ethernet! This is quite strange! I want to know if there is a way to detect what components are attached to the iMac, like the list of components in Device Manager in Windows?
I want to see if Airport card is detected or not. I double checked the three wirings online as follows and they are attached same way using markings.

The networksetup utility would be a good place to start. (networksetup -help)


How to create a bootable OS X Snow Leopard USB drive? How can I achieve this from either macOS Catalina or Windows 10? I can't seem to find a guide online. I've downloaded Mac OS X Snow Leopard Install DVD from the Internet Archive. Keep in mind that this is an .iso file, not .dmg.
I don't need a full step-by-step guide, just need to know how to format the drive (MBR/GPT?) and how to copy the .iso file to it.

Creating a USB Flash Drive Installer from a Snow Leopard ISO File
This was tested using an iMac (21.5-inch, Mid 2011) 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 with MacOS High Sierra 10.13.6 installed. The procedure should be the same for Catalina. The flash drive needs to be at least 8 GB in size. The Snow Leopard ISO file was the same as discussed in this answer, which should be the same ISO you have linked to in your question.

Use the Finder application to mount the Snow Leopard ISO file.

Use the Disk Utility application to erase the flash drive, as shown below. I chose the default name Untitled. Finally, click on the Erase button.

Highlight the name Untitled, then click on the Restore button on the top of the Disk Utility application window. In the popup window, select restore from Mac OS X Install DVD, as shown below. Finally, click on the Restore button in the popup window.

Using the Command Line Interface (CLI)

Note: This flashdrive will be using the Apple Partition Map scheme. This differs from the flash drive created using the Disk Utility, which used the Master Boot Record scheme. In other words, there is more than one way to create a USB flash drive installer from a Snow Leopard ISO file.

The steps below are for OS X and macOS.

Use the command given below to determine the identifier for the flash drive.
diskutil list

Enter the commands given below to create the USB flash drive installer. Here, an assumption is made that the ISO file name is snow leopard install.iso and the file resides in your Downloads folder. Also, an assumption is made that the identifier is disk2. If necessary, make the appropriate substitutions.
DISK=disk2
diskutil unmountdisk $DISK
sudo dd if="$HOME/Downloads/snow leopard install.iso" of=/dev/r$DISK bs=1m

The steps below are for Linux.

Use the command given below to determine the name for the flash drive.
lsblk

Enter the command given below to determine if any volumes on the flash drive are mounted. If there are mounted volumes, then use the sudo unmount command to unmount them before proceeding. Here, an assumption is made that the name for the flash drive is sdb. If necessary, make the appropriate substitutions in the rest of the steps.
mount | grep /dev/sdb

Enter the command given below to create the USB flash drive installer. Here, an assumption is made that the ISO file name is snow leopard install.iso and the file resides in your Downloads folder. If necessary, make the appropriate substitutions.
sudo dd if="$HOME/Downloads/snow leopard install.iso" of=/dev/sdb bs=1M


Can I remap UP and DOWN arrow keys in Aperture? I want to remap the up and down arrow keys, from Move Selection Up and Move Selection Down to Increase Rating and Decrease Rating.

That way, it would be really instant to move between photos with the left/right arrows, and adjust the rating with the up/down arrows.

Unfortunately, the Commands window does not let you edit these specific actions.

Does anyone knows if there is any workaround on this?

So, using a little plist trickery, I've managed to re-assign those keys.

The steps I took are the following:

Aperture > Commands.. > Customize
Duplicate current command set and name it "MySet"
Export & delete the current set
Open it with Property List Editor
Find and Delete: MoveSelectionUp and MoveSelectionDown entries
Save and exit
Import it via Aperture > Commands.. > Import
Select it via Aperture > Commands.. > Custom commands set

So now the UP & DOWN arrow keys are free to assign whatever you like (in my case Increase & Decrease rating feels like the way to go!)


Transparent PNG photo shape creator on iPad I have searched high and low looking for an app that will do a very specific thing.

I want to take a photo from my camera roll, apply a pre created shape mask to it (not freeform) and then save it back to the camera roll with a transparent background.

It appears that the iPad camera roll does not handle transparent .png files so well, it adds white where the transparency would be.

I have tried photoshop touch as well as a handful of other apps - but nothing seems to work.

I know I can do it on a Mac, but I am looking for a mobile solution.

Can someone please please help me.

This App will allow you to make parts of a photo transparent then save to your camera roll. You will have to draw the shape or use the simple tools to create the mask.  Works well for me as I usually want to remove the background. Not sure of the file format but they are transparent and are great to add to things like Keynote.
https://itunes.apple.com/nz/app/background-eraser-for-ipad/id532187687?mt=8


Installing Mavericks via Terminal I have the Install OS X Mavericks.app in Recovery Mode and I want to execute it somehow to start the installation from the terminal, so I don't need the internet connection.

I executed the InstallAssistantTool within Contents/Resources, but that just leaves a blank line and the terminal doesn't do anything.

I also tried createinstallmedia to create a bootable SD card, but that tells me that the .app file isn't a valid OS Installer.

How can I finally install Mavericks from Recovery Mode, within the terminal?

** EDIT: **
I want to install Mavericks from the Install OS X Mavericks.app and when I go to /Contents/MacOS I want to execute InstallAssistent, but the problem is that the installer hangs on checking eligibility with Apple, while my Internet connection works.

The problem is, that my SSD is empty/erased and thus I have no access to the App Store and so on, as it is my only Apple device.

Possibly I am missing something here, but unless you have a very slow internet connection or none at all, recovery mode should be able to install the O/S version that shipped with the computer. The recovery partition downloads and installs the O/S for you, no terminal needed. Unless you want to do it that way as an exercise in technical exploration, this method was developed to eliminate shipping recovery media with every Mac and make the process as easy as possible.

Once that O/S version is on your Mac you can then upgrade/update to the latest version of Mavericks


Using a gift certificate for an app without fully redeeming it I have an Apple gift certificate with a balance on it.  I would like to use some of that balance to purchase an app from the App Store, but I don't want to fully redeem the gift certificate for iTunes credit (so I could, for example, use the gift certificate in an Apple store for actual physical products in the future). Is there any way to do this?

There are two different types of Apple gift cards. iTunes cards can only be redeemed on iTunes, and conversely, Apple gift cards can only be redeemed at an Apple Store, the online Apple Store, or 1-800-MY-APPLE. What you are asking is not possible since Apple gift cards cannot be redeemed for apps. (Or if you have an iTunes gift card, it cannot be redeemed for physical goods.)


UNTRUSTED_CERT_TITLE trying to install Sierra I'm trying to reinstall macOS Sierra from the recovery partition, and I'm getting an error when it is checking for eligibility

The computer that I'm using is most definitely a Mac, and I can't use it until I install Sierra

Just to give an actual set of steps to expand on the answer from Sam

Go to Utilities -> Terminal
If connected to Wifi, use ntpdate

ntpdate time.apple.com
If not on wifi, use date command

date 1201160419    # Sets date to 4:04PM Dec 1, 2019
Quit terminal and restart install procedure


iTunes doesn't open, no error messages or anything, not even when executed through terminal I just updated to iTunes 12, and I when I open it, nothing happens. The icon on the Dock doesn't even bounce. When I start it in the Terminal, nothing happens either, no messages. When I open it with sudo, the application does show up in the dock with a dot, but no messages or UI.

I don't think it has anything to do with my user profile since it does not work in sudo either, it does come closer to work though, but it's a very very small difference. I have rebooted the computer, obviously.

I also tried reinstalling it, it's been stuck on "moving files to their right places" with 1 minute left for 7 hours.

"1 minute left" is the sign for "I'm doing your user stuff right now, I have no clue when it will finish, 'cos that depends on how much stuff you've got" … but if you've force-quit it, you broke it & will have to start over.

There is similar confusion at OS updates, the "doing your user stuff" part apparently cannot be predicted anywhere near as well as the initial processing/update, so you get a "1 minute" that can take hours. Patience is a virtue; in fact patience should be directly proportional to the time since your last solid backup.

I'd clear the saved state for starters & see how that goes …
~/Library/Saved Application State/com.apple.iTunes.savedState


headset plugged in via Y-adapter and extension cable stopped working I own a late 2013 iMac 27". The following setup worked for months until yesterday:

The 3.5mm port is connected to a Y-Adapter, the adapter let me use two headsets at once. I use my headset and my stereo (which as new mic and only is for output) on the ends. In-between headset and y-adapter I use a 5 meter extension cable. That worked very fine the last few months.

Yesterday my friends reported my mic sound is bad and they hear my keyboard while talking. I checked and saw that the mic from my headset was no longer recognized within the audio settings. Sound itself works fine on the headset, as well as on my stereo.
I rebooted, nothing changed.

The (bad) solution was plugging in my headset directly to the build in 3.5mm port. External microphone shows up in the settings. Testing the long extension cable and the Y-adapter I came to the conclusion both work fine. It is very unlikely that on both cables the mic channel broke at the same time.

I tried my (never touched before) headsets from my iPhone and my HTC, both only work when directly plugged in, but not over one or both cables.

Directly plugged in headset sound far worse then over the previous setup. According to my friends, which hear me everyday via TeamSpeak.

The only thing I did with audio was to have a Skype session in the night (I usually don't use Skype). I read now that skype + OS X sometimes lead to missing microphones, but only within the Skype App, not affecting the system input. So I assume that this is not related to my issue.

The setup is sadly pretty unique.

Anyone experienced similar issues or have any suggestion on how I can fix?

If it matters, here is the extension cable  and the y-adapter on (German) Amazon.

Based on this statement in your question:

  The (bad) solution was plugging in my headset directly to the build in
  3.5mm port.

This tells me you didn't have good results going directly from headset to iMac audio plug.

  Directly plugged in headset sound far worse then over the previous
  setup. According to my friends, which here me everyday via TeamSpeak.

Which is confirmed by this statement.

  Testing the long extension cable and the Y-adapter I came to the conclusion both work fine. It is very unlikely that on both cables the mic channel broke at the same time.

This is absolutely correct.  Cables will last a long time if you don't abuse them.  You would know if your cable was giving you trouble and you didn't indicate it here.

Unfortunately, your iMac audio port may be bad.

Your audio cable plugging into the back of your iMac looks something similar to the image below.  Each one of the contacts is a "spring loaded" contact that pushes against the plug.   In effect, it is a mechanical component and prone to failure at some point.   Alternatively, you may have a bad solder joint on the audio jack's connection to the logic board.  It's impossible to know unless you have it diagnosed by a technician.

After doing some searches around the Internet, it seems the the audio port for the iMac 27 (2013) is still separate from the logic board, but for whatever reason it's not availabe in the aftermarket yet.

Looking at the the back of the iMac, we see it's to the left of the SD card reader.

However, looking at the logic board, it's not physically attached:

(images courtesy of ifixit.com)

This gives me hope that you can have it replaced by Apple or an Authorized Service Center.  Hopefully, soon, it will be available for order on the secondary market because this is a very easy DIY project.

The other options is that you could switch over to USB and/or Bluetooth headsets.  Going USB would probably be the easiest way to go.

You mentioned that you have it connected to a stereo.  I am personally using Behringer UCA202 Audio Interface to hook my iMac up to my Bose Wave Radio.


How to clone iPad 1 to other iPad 1 I need to transfer all apps from iPad 1 (without cellular) to another iPad 1 (with cellular). My eldest son plays some child's app on my old iPad 1. My younger son grown up so he want's to play this games too. As I have another one iPad 1 I wanted to install this apps on it. But they are don't support iOS 5 any longer.
So I'm looking way to clone old iPad.

The easiest way to do this is to iTunes on your Mac or PC.

Broadley speaking, the steps would be:

Launch iTunes on your Mac or PC
Connect the first iPad to your computer
iTunes should recognise that your iPad is connected and will display an iPad icon
Click on the iPad icon and view the Summary screen
You'll see a Backups section. Click on the Backup now button to make a full backup of the iPad to your computer. This may take some time.
Once completed, connect the other iPad to your computer
Repeat Steps 3 & 4 above
In the same Backups section, click on the Restore Backup... button
You'll now have the option to restore from the backup you just made to your other iPad. This also may take some time.

Further reading:

How to back up your iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch
Restore your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch from a backup


iMac FaceTime HD camera shows no image/black image There's an iMac whose FaceTime HD camera isn't displaying video images in applications like FaceTime, Photo Booth, or QuickTime video recorder.

OS X El Cap shows that the camera is attached and registered properly in the About This Mac - System Report.

fresh new install of El Cap on a Fusion drive. Previously the camera worked well with Yosemite.
the green light indicator flashes on/off repeatedly and irregularly when you start an application that uses the camera
there are no error messages or anything about no cameras being attached.
pressing the big button to take a photo in Photo Booth has no effect. The button is on the screen, but isn't pressable.
Skype is not installed

What steps can I take to get the camera to capture and display video properly?

Attempts to fix

reset the NVRAM

Items to investigate

should I reset the SMC?
will the Apple Hardware Test reveal anything

I recently opened this iMac to install an SSD. All cables were re-attached properly.

I have had this problem in the past. I found my answer here. http://osxdaily.com/2013/12/27/fix-there-is-no-connected-camera-error-mac/
Open terminal from the utilities folder in the applications folder. Type sudo killall VDCAssistant into terminal and click enter.
Then, enter sudo killall AppleCameraAssistant (may say "No matching processes were found", this should be fine). That should do the trick.


Can I switch off AutoCorrect/Spell Check/Auto-Capitalize in a specific app? In this particular instance the corrections are unwelcome when I try to use Firebug Lite within Safari. I'd like to turn off the correction options but then it would be globally off so I don't get them in any other apps. Can I do it for just Safari?

Unfortunately, AutoCorrect is a system wide function on iOS. One cannot enable/disable it on a per-program basis.


Calibrating battery on a Macbook: am I supposed to keep the computer running all the time? I've been advised in a lot of places (for example: https://www.lifewire.com/calibrate-macbook-air-battery-2260856) to calibrate my Macbook Air's battery from time to time: every three months or so, keep it running until the battery dies, then turn it off and charge it completely again. This allows the battery to give you more accurate readings of the power left.
But it has just occurred to me: when doing this, am I supposed to keep the computer running all the time? Or can I close the lid and let it sleep (without plugging it in) for some of that time? After all, it's kind of hard to keep the Macbook on for 11 hours...

It doesn't matter how the battery runs down; there's no difference whatsoever in the battery (or the computer) when your battery is depleted when the computer is running or when it's asleep.  The battery's charge level will fall below the voltage necessary to power on your laptop - one way is just faster than the other.  So, bottom line is that either way is fine - which ever you are comfortable with.


Apple Programming Guides on Kindle? Does anyone else here really wish they could send apple programming guides to their kindle? The apple programming guides are great learning tools but they are online, and multi-page and I am not sure of the best way to get them on my kindle (for reading on the bus, or whatever). Has anyone here found a way, or can suggest a way, to send an entire programming guide to PDF?

Get the PDF version here
http://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/iPhone/Conceptual/iPhoneOSProgrammingGuide/iPhoneAppProgrammingGuide.pdf

Or by clicking on the PDF button on the upper right of ANY Apple programming guide.

Then drop it on to your Kindle :)

You can also email it to your Kindle using whatever email address is indicated in your settings.

If you need to convert the original PDF for Kindle there are few online programs that will do that.

Or put the word 'convert' in the subject line of your email when you email the pdf to your kindle.


administrator account with parental control? what is the use of having a parental control on and administrator account?

I have a mac where a 12 years old girl is using, she can do what ever she like (install apps, chat, etc) but want to have restriction on web sites against porn, etc

currently she has admin account, and I see that i can activate the parental control on! I did and it worked, but she can change the settings? my test shows she can not, what do you think?

Just create an admin account for yourself, where you know the password, and create a standard account for your daughter.

If she wants to install something or do something 'admin-y' that you approve of, she can ask you and then you can go and type in your password to change it (Mac's can do this without needing to have the admin account logged in, it will bring up a dialogue box where you type the admin name and password so it's easy for you), however you can also set parental controls to block only somethings, so you can enable app installing etc., for your child, while still blocking sites.


Safari window always highlight Is there a way to have a Safari window (or just a tab) always highlighted?

I mean, when using other programs, have a piece of screen occupied by a Safari window (resized, obviously).


2009 4,1–5,1 Mac Pro Upgrade Only Shows 1066 on RAM. NVRAM Reset Didn't Work So I just finished my 4,1–5,1 build. I installed a pair of X5675's along with two sticks of Samsung 16GB DDR3,4RX4 PC3-10600R 1333MHz 240-pin ECC REG Server Ram, for 32Gb. Trouble is, it's showing up as 1066 instead of 1333.
Now, the machine is running fine, but I'm curious as to why my memory isn't showing full speed–I triple checked the specs on that RAM before I bought it and thought it should work, and it does, but not at 1333. Tried zapping the NVRAM, to no avail. Anyone have any ideas?

I can't find out what actually decides it, however I just noticed this note on the Apple KB - Mac Pro (Mid 2012 and earlier): How to remove or install memory

  Note:   Although the memory speed of the UDIMMS is 1333 MHz, they will
  operate at 1066 MHz or 1333 MHz depending on the processor in the
  computer.

Typically, MacPro5,1 models with one of the Nehalem processors only support a memory speed of 1066 MHz, while those with one of the Westmere processors support a memory speed of 1333 MHz. In your case, the X5675 processors are one of the Westmere variety, so I can't explain the discrepancy in speed.

I have a pair of X5690 in mine & RAM runs at 1333MHz.

It's probably worth making sure you have the pair in the correct places, just in case...

BTW, the Pros run fastest in triple channel - so if you can afford one more RAM stick...


Keynote - playing slide - three finger swipe won't switch applications When I'm in the middle of a keynote presentation playing - the three finger swipe to switch applications no longer works. When I exit playing the presentation - it works again. I run Keynote '09 on OS X Lion.

Is there a way to make three finger swipe work in the middle of a presentation without stopping and starting it?

Three finger swipe won't work in Keynote 2013.

There is quite a complicated way to exit and flip applications here.

There is a simple way to flip to the last used application by pressing H.


What is the filename of "New Messages Sound"? I'm looking for the file which Mail plays when a message comes in.

It's located in the Resources folder inside Mail.app. Assuming you've left Mail.app in its default installed location, the path is:

/Applications/Mail.app/Contents/Resources/New\ Mail.aiff


Upgraded to Mojave and now MacOS won't allow me to have the same password locally as my iCloud account I upgraded a new to me MacBook Pro (Mid 2015) to Mojave and the checkbox was pre-checked to use iCloud to unlock MacOS. This setting keeps me from having the same local and iCloud password.  How do I turn off this "feature"? Since the Mojave security update the checkbox to disable this "feature" is gone from the Change Password dialog in Users and Groups.

Apple is making it hard for you to reuse the password from the setup assistant only.

Just enter a new password to get past this.

Then if you require them to be the same, go and immediately change the password in System Preferences. Apple doesn’t store or check the passwords other than the initial setup, so you can reuse your passwords as much as you wish.

The only wrinkle I haven't tested lately is if you have enabled FileVault and iCloud escrows your FileVault unlock keys might still be entangled with your account password.

I was going to comment on your question, but it got too long for a comment and it is opinion, so I'll share that here after answering how to get around things as best I know.

As for your comment about moving to windows, you are correct - we all have to pick our poison. No commercial software fails to make design and security decisions like this one that they don't bend on.

If we were to delve into this - the question I have for anyone (and myself) is:

  What's your use case for not having an iCloud password that's distinct from one Mac local admin password?

The security model in 2019 is using secure storage and long unique passwords to contain when a breach happens. Having a different password for cloud unifying - highly confidential and attackable information and a much shorter one you type day in and day out seems like a very reasonable baseline for everyone. Especially if you can take a second step and choose to unify both easily if you don't want to have two to remember.

On the other side - Imagine if Apple let the default setup keep the same password on iCloud and the Mac and your Mac FileVault backup was the same password you forgot. All your eggs are in one basket. I think they have had this happen and made the decision to inconvenience people in the name of having the discussion we are having (or I'm attempting to have) to raise the security of Mac users.

I get you might be momentarily inconvenienced or angry, but perhaps you'll reconsider after thinking through what the long term effects of implementing what used to be are for you and your community. Anyhow - I'll get off my soapbox and hope I didn't anger anyone with some opinion here.


How to run swift command while staying on breakpoint in XCode? In JetBrains's IDEs there is a option to launch custom commands while staying on breakpoint. Is there same functionality in XCode?

Right-click on a breakpoint
Select "Edit breakpoint"
Define an action


Can I get the Canon EOS Utility to stop bugging me when I plug in my iPhone? I'm not sure if this belongs here or SuperUser, so I'll ask here and if the community decides to close it, I will re-ask there.

Every time I plug my iPhone in to my MacBook, the Canon EOS Utility (installed with the software for my DSLR) pops up and decides to inform me that a camera was not connected. I, of course, know this, as I just connected my iPhone. This happened with my last iPhone (3G) and continues to happen with my current iPhone 4.

Is there any way to get that software (provided by Canon) to stop bugging me (on my MacBook, OS X 10.6) when I plug in my iPhone?

After plugging in your iPhone, open "Image Capture.app" in the Applications folder. In the bottom left of the window is an option to choose what to do when this "camera" is plugged in. Change this to Do Nothing or open iPhoto as you would prefer.


Conditions for repair at Apple Store Last time I was in an Apple Store, they suggested they could repair the Super Drive on my MacBook Pro (2010) when I next came in. Of course, it is out of warranty, so there will be a charge.

But, are there any conditions in order for them to perform a repair? Since I bought the laptop I have replaced its memory from the standard 4GB to 8GB. If it were still under warranty, is this something they would refuse to repair for (void)?

Do they have any conditions in order for them to repair, even when out of warranty?

You should have no problems since you are paying for the repair anyway. Plus, upgrading the RAM on a MacbookPro does not void your warranty.


How can I find the serial number on a mac programmatically from the terminal? What command can I use to retrieve the system's serial number from the unix command line? As uname will output some information about the software and hardware, I would like to retrieve the serial number from a command to use in a script.

The system_profiler command provides a direct answer that’s easily human readable (assuming you are on 10.3 or newer), but you can also use ioreg for the task as it generally completes faster.

system_profiler SPHardwareDataType is the data type that contains the core hardware information, and you can use grep or awk to pare things down further as needed:

system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | awk '/Serial/ {print $4}'

or

ioreg -l | awk '/IOPlatformSerialNumber/ { print $4;}'

Both of those commands take between 0.5 and 0.2 seconds to run on modern SSD Macs, so if you want to optimize the command and remove the " you can have your answer in 0.005s or so:

ioreg -c IOPlatformExpertDevice -d 2 | awk -F\" '/IOPlatformSerialNumber/{print $(NF-1)}'


How do I turn flash "on" instead of "auto" on iPhone camera in iOS14? Before iOS14, one could keep flash on permanently by clicking on the flash icon in the upper left of the screen and setting flash to "on". Now, clicking on the flash icon only gives the options of "auto" or "off".
How do I set flash to "on" when taking a photo or video?

You can swipe up from the bottom of the photo/video preview to bring up additional options, including the ability to set flash to "on". You can then swipe down to hide the options.
When taking a photo (as opposed to a video), you also have the option of using the arrow at the top of the screen to toggle the options.


Can I initiate a MacOS restart to Recovery mode solely from the command line? I've done some searching online without luck, hoping that one of you Mac virtuosos might know the answer. On Intel Macs, I know I can hold Command  + R but I'm looking for a terminal command to initiate this without keys being pressed.
Is there a command that will reboot a Mac into recovery mode?

You can do that using the following command:

sudo nvram "recovery-boot-mode=unused"
sudo reboot

This sets a firmware variable in nvram indicating that you want to start in Recovery mode on the next boot, and then reboots the machine.

When done in Recovery mode, run the following from the Terminal in Recovery mode:

nvram -d recovery-boot-mode

This deletes the firmware variable so that the next boot is a normal boot.

If Recovery boot fails and you cannot progress, you could also remove the firmware variable by holding down the keys Command, Option, P, and R during boot. This resets the nvram and thus the firmware variable.


Is gaming on Mac OS X possible? I'm currently thinking about buying a 27" iMac after my current Windows computer. I know Mac OS X is awesome, but I was wondering how is gaming on this OS. What I mean is, how much of the current game releases are both on Windows and Mac OS X ? And if they are not released on Mac OS X, is it possible (performance speaking) to play them on the Windows VM ?

I know my question might not be clear. If that is so, please comment, and tell me what I explained wrong, and I'll try to improve it.

Thanks

I hate to disappoint you but I am afraid gaming on a mac is still very limited.
Head to steampowered.com and see for your self.

Although I believe that in the near future the major gaming publishers will see the opportunity with growing numbers of mac users and reconsider adding OS X as a platform for gaming.

Using a virtual machine is not recommended for gaming.
You can dual boot though and run Windows natively and games work fine this way. See Boot Camp


FileVault Encryption Bypass Can't get past my FileVault encryption on my Mac as I've forgotten my password. I know my admin username and password, but not my password for my FileVault on my regular user profile. I need to unlock my FileVault to even be able to switch users and login to my admin account. Also, I tried my recovery key and it doesn't seem to unlock it. Any ideas?

Your description is a bit confused, so I'm not sure exactly what's going on. The current version of FileVault (technically FileVault 2) encrypts the entire disk, not individual accounts. It's normally set up so that any of the users' passwords can be used to unlock the volume at startup time. If you've just lost your user password on a FileVault-protected volume, but remember the password for an admin account on the same volume, just start the computer, log in to the admin account, then use the Users & Groups pane of System Preferences to reset the other user's password.

Note that after you do this, the user account's keychain (an encrypted password database stored within the account) will still be encrypted by the account's old password. When you log in to the user account after resetting its password, you'll get an error stating that the system was unable to unlock your keychain. If you don't know the old password, there's no way to regain access to the old keychain, so the only real choice is to select "Create New Keychain", which discards the old database and starts over with a new (blank) password database.

If that's not what the problem is, then please clarify what's going on.


How do I change the icons and labels in the MacOS boot manager? I freshly installed Big Sur with Windows 10 Boot Camp on a late-2013 MacBook Pro Retina with a replaced SSD. When I hold down the option button at boot, the options are listed as "EFI Boot" (Windows 10) and "Macintosh HD", but both are using external drive icons instead of internal. Under MacOS, the icons for both drives appear correctly as internal drives. I tried changing drive names in diskutil, renaming the drives in the MacOS Disk Utility and under Windows, placing .VolumeIcon.icns files in various places, and various bless commands.
I'm asking this to answer my own question, I couldn't quite find a correct solution in any one spot. Pay close attention to the folders involved, this was the important part.

Rename “EFI Boot” in Startup Manager:
Open up a Terminal and use the following commands:
diskutil list - use this to find the Windows EFI partition
sudo diskutil mount disk0s1 - whereas "disk0s1" is your EFI partition
sudo bless --folder /Volumes/EFI/EFI/Boot --label Windows - whereas "Windows" is your label of choice
Rename “Macintosh HD” in Startup Manager
Similar to above, but:
sudo bless --folder /System/Volumes/Data --label MacOS - whereas "MacOS" is your label of choice
Missing/Wrong Boot Manager Icon
Reboot in recovery mode (command+R at boot) and use a terminal to run
csrutil disable
… which disables SIP protection
For Mac side:
sudo cp /System/Library/Extensions/IOStorageFamily.kext/Contents/Resources/Internal.icns /System/Volumes/Preboot/.VolumeIcon.icns
This will change the Mac/Macintosh HD boot icon to the default internal drive icon, but you can just copy whatever .icns file you wish to that location.  See other posts for info on making your own .icns files.
For Windows side:
sudo diskutil mount disk0s1 - Whereas disk01 is the name of your Windows EFI partition from above
sudo cp /System/Library/Extensions/IOStorageFamily.kext/Contents/Resources/Internal.icns /Volumes/EFI/.VolumeIcon.icns
Don't forget to enable SIP protection again, if you wish, by booting back into recovery mode and using:
csrutil enable


macOS keeps asking for disk password: how to allow a user to unlock File Vault encrypted disk? After a restore, macOS still requires the disk password. Here what happened:

First, I used diskutil to format my disk as APFS encrypted and I set a disk password. Then, I installed macOS High Sierra (10.13.6) and restored a TimeMachine backup.

The restore succeed, but something went wrong with disk decryption permissions: now at boot the macOS ask for the disk password (that i know), and afterwards for the user password for my user called john.

The only allowed user to decrypt the disk is a Disk user.

# diskutil apfs listcryptousers /dev/disk1s1
Cryptographic user for disk1s1 (1 found)
|
+-- 2FFF91FA-12A5-3F55-8252-85AAF1188EBA
Type: Disk User

and

# sysadminctl -secureTokenStatus john
2018-08-20 20:40:55.784 sysadminctl[3561:141251] Secure token is DISABLED for user John X.

Is there a way to allow the existing admin user john to unlock the disk?

The most reliable way to solve this would be to decrypt your disk and then encrypt it using the Filevault settings page.


iPhone restarting when battery below X% My iPhone restarts "randomly" when the battery is below a certain threshold (which I haven't been able to specifically pinpoint). A couple weeks ago I had the battery replaced with a new one, as battery life wasn't longer than just a couple of hours

The device has iOS 10.2.1, to be upgraded to 10.3 hopefully during the day.

Any ideas of what could be wrong? I've read suggestions about resetting the iPhone, but just sound like a pretty rough/brute solution to implement, although it's an alternative indeed.

Certain iPhone 6S models were known to have this problem.  You can check the serial number at this site to see if it's affected (presuming it's a 6s; you didn't specify the model):

https://www.apple.com/support/iphone6s-unexpectedshutdown/

Mine had this problem, and the guys at the Apple Store repaired it (I don't know if it was the battery or a component on the logic board).

For other devices, you may have to try erasing all content and setting it up as a new device and give that a try for a few days to see if that fixes it.  I want to say that my brother had the same symptom and a reset was the solution for him (it's been a while).

I've had an occasional problem with restoring years of accumulated backups and phone migrations that only a fresh install seems to fix.


Higher resolution on Macbook air - simulated? When I connect my MBA to Apple TV it adjusts the MBA resolution to something else which makes everything smaller but gives me more screen real-estate. I don't want to do this often but sometimes its nice when an app window is large and not scalable.
Is there a way to do this without connecting to ATV?
Preferably a script to run that makes the adjustment and then one to set it back?
Thanks,

SwitchResX provides functionality for this.
When you have installed it, open it from System Preferences, go to the Color LCD tab at the side, and go to the second tab (I believe). From there you should be able to set 1920x1080 without being connected to your TV.


Can we install Android on an iPhone 4? Does anyone know if we can install Android on an iPhone 4?

I've jailbroken my phone with redsnow, and followed the steps at http://lifehacker.com/5693309/how-to-install-android-on-an-iphone-in-six-easy-steps which teaches you how to install Android on an iPhone.

However when I tried to add the repository http://repo.neonkoala.co.uk into Cydia (step two), I have the error repository not found:

Does anyone know where is the new website for downloading the repository at http://repo.neonkoala.co.uk?

The short answer is no.

At the moment, most of iPhone 4 hardware is unsupported by iBoot. The thing is that iPhone 4 bootrom hasn't been hacked in order to install custom boot loader that will boot Android and, as I said before, many of iPhone 4 hardware has no drivers.

Also, iDroid allows you to install only 2.x at the moment. However, I have asked the devs some time ago, they told me that they're working on porting Android 4 to the iPhone 4.

Anyway, until there are a needed bootrom hack (which also leads to untethered jailbreak, pod2g/Chronic can release it soon) and quite enough drivers you won't be able to install android on your phone.


No power through USB for Roland A-49 I just plugged my Roland A-49 to my MacBook Pro (Early 2011 2.3 GHz). The MIDI keyboard would have its power supplied via USB, but it has no power. The specification says it needs 98 mA current, which is way less than the 500 mA provided by the MBP's USB 2.0 port. If I plug it into a desktop PC, it works. What can be the problem? An USB hub would solve this issue, I suppose, but can I avoid buying one?

I do not think it is a power problem.

Check in GarageBand if your device is showing up.

If not:
I would start with getting the latest software for your MIDI device


Kernel Panic when booting into Mac OS. iMac 27 2017 A few months ago, I was using the iMac and opened up spotlight search and there was my first ever kernel panic. It restarted then I logged back in and everything works fine.
(The report is at the end)

After a month, I had 2 QuickTime player windows open, a Final Cut Pro window, a Chrome tab with only 8GB RAM. A kernel panic happened and I was able to log back in and opened up chrome and started watching a YouTube video, after a minute or so, another kernel panic happened and another one after reaching the login screen. It kept restarting (it's like the Kernal panic countdown started getting shorter to the point where it wouldn't even reach the login screen. After a few restarting, it showed a ''prohibitory sign'', after 30 seconds it shut off. I tried booting into Recovery mode but no luck. I tried booting into internet recovery, the globe did a quick spin and went into the same apple logo and progress bar and it did a kernel panic. I pressed Alt at startup and selected my BootCamp drive (Windows) it booted with no problems at all.

It's been a few months since my last interaction with Mac OS. Every time
 I boot I have to hold down alt and select BootCamp. I'm currently writing this post on my BootCamp drive with no problems at all. Video editing works better than Mac OS. The reason I got an iMac is to use mac os and not windows or I could've just got a PC instead. So I would like to fix the Mac OS portion of this iMac.

SPECS:
Mac OS Version: 10.14.2 (I think)
iMac 5K 27'' 2017
3.8GHZ core i5
8GB Ram
2 TB Fusion Drive
Radeon Pro 580 (8GB) Graphics Card

Kernel Panic Report

First you should try removing any third-party, external peripherals you have connected to your iMac. If the problem persists, and your observations are correct, then you have a hardware error with your iMac. You should contact Apple or the dealer for repairs. You can also use the built-in hardware test to search for errors, but be aware that it only catches a small subset of possible errors.

The reason I say this is that when you boot into Internet Recovery, it is not using any information from your macOS installation or from your hard drive in general. If that kernel panics during boot, you have a hardware problem.

There are many possible reasons as to why this seems to only affect macOS and not Windows in Bootcamp. You could be lucky that you're not hitting the faulty hardware, and it could be that Windows in general does not use that portion of the hardware - or that flaws in that piece of hardware is inconsequential for Windows (or at least you haven't noticed the problem yet).

The actual defective hardware could be many things, but it is often faulty RAM or similar component. The hard drive is not used for Internet Recovery, but there's a small chance that a defective hard drive could interfere anyways - however, in that case you shouldn't be able to run Windows from the same drive.


How to stop Mail from automatic "mark as read" behavior? (in Sierra) I'm curious if there's a way to deactivate the feature/behavior in Mac Mail (Sierra) where mail is automatically marked as read when clicked (I want it to remain unread until I click otherwise). I know that I can use the "Classic View" to remove the preview feature, but that doesn't accomplish what I'm aiming for (I want the preview to remain active). And I know there used to be a plugin called TruePreview which offered this feature, but it's no longer available. Any ideas?

"Mail Act-On" by SmallCubed has a feature to "Do not mark message as read". It currently costs $30 and that is a lot if that is the only feature you plan to use (it's main purpose is to help you create advanced mail processing rules). I have used it in the past and it worked well (currently using Outlook).