iOS Smart Invert dulls colors I use Smart Invert (Settings > General > Accessibility > Display Accommodations > Invert Colors > Smart Invert) extensively. But when I enable Smart Invert colors become slightly dull, especially reds, see image:

On the left is the Health icon with Smart Invert, on the right is the Health icon without smart invert. The icon on the right is slightly brighter. The effect is really visible when you toggle Smart Invert a couple times while on the home screen.

This is on an iPhone 8+, on a brand new installation of iOS 11.2.1. I have no color filters enabled and True Tone and Nightshift are turned off. My iPad Air, that doesn't have True Tone doesn't have the problem.

I want this effect to go away, ideally the icons on the home screen look exactly the same with of without smart invert. Also, I'm using icons as an example, but the effect is visible everywhere, also on photos or YouTube videos for instance, which is a bit annoying.

This may or may not be related to how smart invert and neither night shift NOR true tone can operate together. Try your comparison with night shift off?

Edit: I tested it some more, and although true tone being off affects the tone a lot, the visual hues of non-inverted items in smart invert do look a lot more desaturated and just generally poopy. I think there is some incorrect colorspace handling going on in here.

When I take a screenshot in smart invert mode, the actual saved image appears to be truly inverted. this seems to indicate to me that under the hood everything does get inverted, and smart invert actually goes in and re-inverts some of the things back that it thinks shouldn't have gotten inverted. This process is likely what fails to bring colors back to their original vibrance.


ssh into my local ubuntu virtual machine I would like to ssh into an Ubuntu virtual machine running on Virtual Box on my machine; use Terminal to ssh into a virtual machine running in the same computer

To avoid "why are you doing that? do so and so" answers, here is why I need this: I need to write desktop automation testing that will run on Amazon EC2 but it is very hard to test due to the network delay caused by using VNC.

Make sure you are using Bridged Adaptor in the VirtualBox settings. User Pinhead reported that Promiscuous Mode should be set to Allow All.

In an Ubuntu Terminal window, enter the command below to see if the proper software is installed

sudo systemctl status ssh

If not, then use the commands below to install.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install openssh-server

If you do not know the ip address assigned to the Ubuntu virtual machine, then execute the following steps.

Open the Activities overview and start typing Network.
Click on Network to open the panel.
Click on the  symbol. You should see a image similar to the image shown below.

You can use either the IPv4 or IPv6 address.

In a macOS Terminal window, enter the command

ssh <username>@<ip address>

For example, if using the username dma and either of the ip addresses from the above image, then both commands below would work.

ssh dma@192.168.0.115
ssh dma@2001:470:1f11:4a6:281d:ecf9:cd9e:76a8


How do I access files that are owned by another user? I recently formatted my Mac Pro and I copied all the files to external drive, I didn’t use TM. After creating a new account on a new OS I can’t open the files, because the old user can’t be located. I can’t copy the files to the new account. I need to access my logic files but I can’t find a solution.
I tried making a new TM and editing the contents and replacing it with my old files, but editing the TM is prohibited.
Is there a way I can restore a Mac using a copied drive or a possibility that I can custom make a TM drive with the files.
Or If there is a solution where I use a windows machine to open the folders.
I need to get to these files

Even if you have the same username on a different instance of macOS (it could be the same computer), the OS doesn't see the two as being the same.
What you need to do is take ownership of the files.
Using Finder
You can do this in finder by using "Get Info" when selecting a file or folder.  In the example below, I'm selecting an entire folder to take ownership of.

Press ⌘ CommandI for "Get info"
Unlock the "Sharing and Permissions" pane
Add your name by clicking the plus (+) symbol
Then select  "Make username (Me)" the owner

Apple has an excellent support document detailing these steps.
Using Terminal
It's actually much easier (IMO) to do this via Terminal   Just issue the following command (you'll need to enter your password at the prompt)
$ sudo chown -R <YourUserName> /path/to/file

Where...

-R = recursively; it will take ownership of it and it's sub-folders (if any)
<YourUserName> is your login name.  If you're not sure issue the command whoami at the prompt
/path/to/file is the full path of the file or directory you want to take ownership of


Creating shared album takes long time I'm on iOS12, my wife is on iOS 13, she's in my family group. Today, I decided to share photos for the first time. On my iPhone 6, I went to the photos app and created a new album in 'shared albums'. Then I added 128 pictures to it. I then got a window with a pie chart saying "Vorbereiten..." ("preparing"). It has taken a very long time to complete this process, so I assume the images are physically downloaded and re-uploaded.

Why doesn't icloud just give permission to the photos I share in my family group?

Files in your cloud count against your storage container and are stored there on the server.

Shared files don’t count against your allocation and are stored in different buckets with different QOS and technical details.

Depending on if you optimize space on your device and have some items represented as thumbnails instead of the full images (or the image was modified on another device), you would have to round trip all 128 photos down to your device and then back up to the new bucket.

I’ve had preparing hang on one item, so I would cancel that and start with a single image, then add in a few and then maybe do the rest once you’re sure it’s not a server side issue.


Install old app version on iPad 1st generation iOS 5.1.1 (Windows 10, year 2018 question) I've just got first gen. iPad with iOS 5.1.1 and reset it to it's factory settings. Then I installed iTunes version 12.4.3.1 on my Windows 10 PC. Both iTunes and iPad are connected to same account and both are authorized. Now I can search for apps in the App Store.

I've already read tons of tutorials and advice how to install apps on outdated devices. I also checked this detailed answer of Chad's, but so far I find some app I need in App Store, I'm not more able to to do it. Install button on iTunes is now completely disabled.

And the same for any other app on the store.

Now I have now no clue how to handle it. I would be thankful for any advice.

As the text in the graphic says, you need to open the App Store on the iPad itself, not through iTunes on your PC.


TeamViewer "FAILED TO establish the default connection to the WindowServer" I need TeamViewer on my Mac to work remotely. I installed it via ssh using the command line

brew cask install teamviewer

which worked fine.

However, I seem to be unable to configure TeamViwer from the command line. Due to Corona, I cannot personally access the Mac at the moment, which means I have to do everything via ssh.

I tried

$ /Applications/TeamViewer.app/Contents/MacOS/TeamViewer

which fails with

  _RegisterApplication(), FAILED TO establish the default connection to the WindowServer, _CGSDefaultConnection() is NULL.
  Could not find domain for
  Could not find domain for
  2020-03-23 18:53:18.935 TeamViewer[1695:9920] +[NSXPCSharedListener endpointForReply:withListenerName:]: an error occurred while attempting to obtain endpoint for listener 'ClientCallsAuxiliary': Connection interrupted

and then stops until I exit with Ctrl+C.

I also tried this answer, which gave me

$ open /Applications/TeamViewer.app

  LSOpenURLsWithRole() failed with error -610 for the file /Applications/TeamViewer.app.

and

$ sudo open /Applications/TeamViewer.app

  LSOpenURLsWithRole() failed with error -10810 for the file /Applications/TeamViewer.app.

Furthermore, the path Library/Preferences/com.teamviewer.* does not exist.

What do I have to do next? What else can I try?

This should work (sudo privs required!)

Login with ssh on the remote Mac
Enter:

sudo /System/Library/CoreServices/RemoteManagement/ARDAgent.app/Contents/Resources/kickstart  -activate -configure -access -on -privs -all -restart -agent

to enable remote management
open Screen Sharing locally (/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Screen Sharing.app)
Enter the IP of the remote Mac
Enter your remote user creds
Log in with your remote user creds at the login screen
Launch and configure TeamViewer

Depending on the security settings of the remote network (firewall etc.) you have to use the same tunnel/channel as the ssh connection.

The steps above only work for macOS up to High Sierra (10.13.6).

In macOS Mojave and later kickstart only works with managed devices and special profiles, if screen sharing wasn't enabled previously:

Use the kickstart command-line utility in macOS Mojave 10.14 and later

Eventually, you have to access the remote Mac personally and set up screen sharing in System Prefs > Sharing (to access it via VNC) or launch and configure TeamViewer.


Standby during playback since iTunes 11 Since I upgraded to iTunes 11, my iMac (27", 2011) goes to sleep during playback to my Apple TV. This didn't happen before the upgrade, so it has to be related to the upgrade. Does anyone what I could do to prevent this from happening? It's kind of annoying. Standard standby time for the iMac is 10 minutes. Thus, after 10 minutes of playback my iMac goes to sleep. Both, my iMac and my Apple TV are running the most up-to-date software.

I think the only way to prevent this from happening right now is to increase your standby time.

The reason it goes to sleep is that iTunes 11 does not set a "power assertion". Here's an Open Radar bug report on this issue: http://openradar.appspot.com/12791690.

Hopefully Apple will change this in an update because I'm having the same annoying problem.

Update 2012-12-13: iTunes 11.0.1 just came out and the missing power assertion has returned. Your computer should no longer sleep when streaming to the AppleTV.


Google Chrome on OSX - disable password autofill How can I disable password autofill/autosave in Google Chrome without deleting all my passwords from the Keychain? I tried just disabling autofill, but Chrome keeps filling out passwords and still conflicts with LastPass.

I want to keep the passwords in the Keychain to use them on my iPhone/iPad with iCloud Keychain, but in Chrome I only want to use LastPass. Using Lastpass and Chrome autofill together does not really work properly, since they seem to conflict. I have to try multiple times to fill out login data etc.

Any help is much appreciated. Or should I file a bugreport with Chrome?

In Chrome, open the Preferences

scroll down and use Advanced

Find Passwords and Forms and un-check it.

To prevent Chrome using already stored passwords remove it in keyhain.

You have to do that for every Chrome password saved in keychain :(


Macbook Pro finder error -50 appearing randomly I've done a lot of research about this problem, but cannot find solution. My mac randomly gives an -50 error - nothing can be written and ReportCrash is using like 200% of CPU... Restart helps, but only for a short period of time. I thought it is HDD problem, so I bought brand new SSD, but problem persists. I reinstalled OS, nothing helped. I also downgraded from OS X El Capitan to Yosemite, but nothing helps.

It totally drives me crazy, because I use my Mac for presentations for big audiences, and when it happens when I am presenting, it is horrible.

Thank you all for helping!
(Sorry for any mistakes, not a native speaker :) )

Macbook pro 2009 13" |
4 GB RAM |
2.26 GHz C2D |
240 GB Kingston SSD |
OS X Yosemite |

Since it's out of warranty your options are a bit limited. I would start by bringing to the Apple store for diagnostic, or read here for how to get your own hardware diags.  You have already reinstalled a fresh OS on a new drive, so it's possible the SATA cable is bad (believe it or not I've seen this happen), or even the logic board.

What errors are reported in Console log when the problem occurs?


Free media player with jump-to-specific-time option for big mp3 files I'm listening to some mp3 files, some of them lasting 5 hours or more, and I'm looking for a player which allows to jump directly to a specific point in time in the mp3 file.

VLC has an option "jump to time" but it's buggy, it doesn't do anything or just hangs the app. Each time I reopen any player I've tried so far, I have to guess and click the time progress bar trying to find where I left.

Are you aware of iTunes' option to remember the play position in a file? Right-click on any track (or select it and press Cmd-I) to open it.


How can I determine which App is Hijacking / Disabling my Option-Enter combo? I use Option-Enter A LOT. My main uses are to put a new line into a message in Messages, and to open a url in a new tab in Google Chrome, I know I can hit Command-T, but I often want to modify the url slightly and open in a new tab in one fell swoop.

This used to work fine all the time, now it will work for a while and then stop until the next reboot. I have looked at System Preferences->Keyboard->Shortcuts and there's nothing defined for Option-Enter.

If there is a likely culprit, please let me know. Otherwise, if you could explain how to determine which App or process is affecting this.

Running El Capitan 10.11.3

The problem was an extra keyboard that I had enabled: Unicode Hex Input. I had definitely forgotten about it. I would do something (not sure what, don't really care) to switch to this keyboard and when this keyboard is active the Option-Enter does not work.

I removed this keyboard from my list of Input Sources: System Preferences -> Keyboard, Input Sources Tab. Problem solved, no longer able to switch to this.

Below is a screenshot of my Keyboard Preference Pane on the Input Sources Tab.

Note: The oval is where the Unicode source was. When there are multiple sources the minus button (bottom left arrow) is active to remove the currently selected source. Also I have Show Input menu in menu bar checked - there will be no menu bar item if you have only one source.


Why does Safari on the iPhone sometimes display a broken play image for YouTube videos? Sometimes I get this "cannot play" image instead of a YouTube video.  The video looks normal on a computer, so I'm not sure why this happens.  Reloading the page in Safari doesn't help.

Here's the page I was visiting: http://www.boweryboogie.com/2010/11/basketball-diary-trick-shots-on-the-lower-east%C2%A0side.html#more-19961

You tube sends HTML5/H.264 video to Safari and devices that are unable to reproduce flash video, however, certain videos (those who have ADs and some other features, as far as I can remember)) are still not supported by YouTube in HTML5 format; that explains why you might experience some problems when using Safari and seeing an embedded video.

In those cases, it’s best to use YouTube’s native application for the iPhone to watch the video.

I have the HTML5 “lab” enabled in youtube and it clearly says that “videos that have Advertising will be reproduced using the Flash player instead”. The video you are showing in your example (this) has advertising in it, hence why mobile safari on the iOS can’t reproduce it.

In you want to know more about this HTML5 “trial”, you can find all the information on youtube’s HTML page.


Fine-tuning "Open safe files after downloading" Is it possible to fine-tune the "Open safe files after downloading" setting in Safari? For example, to make Safari open files like ".ical" et. al., but not Zip-files.

If macOS has no built-in support for this, could a solution be a UNIX script daemon that instantly detects new files in the Downloads directory and opens files with certain extensions?

The preferences file is located at ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.DownloadAssessment.plist

If the file doesn't exist, then create it and include the following:

<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com-PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
    <dict>
        <key>LSRiskCategorySafe</key>
        <dict>
            <key>LSRiskCategoryExtensions</key>
            <array>
                <string>docx</string>
                <string>xlsx</string>
            </array>
        </dict>
    </dict>
</plist>

To exclude Zip files, add the following to the preferences:

<dict>
    <key>LSRiskCategoryNeutral</key>
    <dict>
        <key>LSRiskCategoryExtensions</key>
        <array>
            <string>zip</string>
        </array>
    </dict>
</dict>

More info at: Source


Black screen with dual monitors (10.9.3) I have been experiencing a problem with my Macbook Pro (latest version) when connecting it to a dual monitor.

I usually click on the trackpad to wake the computer immediately after it has gone into sleep mode but ever since I have started using dual monitors the computer doesn't wake instantly.

I will see the outline of my mouse but the background remains black.

Here is what the console shows after the sleep-wake up

What have I tried:

To get around this problem I have just changed the sleep time on my computer but that is only a temporary solution.

I also contacted Apple support who suggested a PRAM reset but unfortunately that didn't work either.

Interestingly my roommate has the same problem with his Mac (both are on 10.9.3) so I am wondering if this might be an issue with Apple's dual monitor support and not a hardware issue.

Any ideas?

10.9.4 purports to fix sleep-wake issues.  I know on my rMBP (pre-Haswell) I'd have a similar issue after disconnecting from a Thunderbolt display, and it's been resolved since upgrading.


Parallels desktop virtual machines cannot communicate when Mac has no network connection I have two virtual machines running on Parallels desktop (v11 if that makes a difference).  They are operating in Shared network mode.

When I have a wireless or Bluetooth network connection they can communicate between each other fine.

When I lose that connection (phone tether drops out, flying, etc) the virtual machines no longer are able to communicate with each other.

I have also tried the network in Host Only mode to no avail.

Is there some way I can have these virtual machines communicate with each other even when I do not have an external network connection?

From Parallels Knowledge Base the following indicates an internet connection is required for this to work.  No idea why that would be a requirement.

Network problems in the virtual machine
Article ID: 8978
Created On: Sep 14, 2010
Last Review: Nov 24, 2015
Views:
APPLIES TO:

    Parallels Desktop for Mac
    Parallels Desktop for Mac Pro Edition
    Parallels Desktop for Mac Business Edition
    Parallels Access

Note: Your Mac must be connected to the Internet for virtual machines to be able to connect.


What is the md5/sha1 checksum for Xcode 3.2.6 and iOS 4.3 SDK final? I downloaded the iOS SDK file xcode_3.2.6_and_ios_sdk_4.3__final.dmg from the Apple developer site but I'm not sure about its integrity.

Could anyone provide me the md5 or sha1 checksum for it?

I believe that opening a .DMG file automatically verifies it.

Basically, it contains a checksum in the file (or are you worried about malicious packages, rather then just corruption?).

Anyways, when I open a .dmg file, I see the message box with a progress bar say "Verifying" for a while, before it actually mounts.

Asmus added in a comment above:
"you can use hdiutil verify /path/to/image.dmg on the command line to compare an image against its internal checksum."


Is there a software to reset/flash your iphone to factory without itunes? i have two "broken" iphones. One of them, is a 3gs. I've changed is battery yesterday and it was ok for 30 min/1hour and then it just started rebooting. I searched online and i saw it was a common problem for the 3gs, nobody knows why but i would only need the battery to be charged and then it would be ok. I've tried to restore it itunes, sucessfully, but the phone wouldn't boot to the menu... Then itunes logo "of death".

I tried restoring in DFU, normal, i've tried softwares like tiny umbrela to exit the reboot loop, but no success. In itunes it never ends recovering, and it allways pops out some error. I had probably 6 diferent errors until now. I've used a "fixreboot" file, that i think uses greenpoison code... I only know that maybe 90% of the lines it reports, are errors, and then it says "no sucessfull firmware download after 60000ms, giving up" and then it justs reboots to itunes logo again...

This phone was just upgraded, and hadn't have any jailbreak.

The other one is a iphone 4, and has the same problem... It's stuck on the Itunes logo but this one, i allways get Code 2 error on it when restoring.

I guess the only way is to make it reinstall the firmware outside itunes. Is there any software to reinstall the firmwares other than itunes?

There is a reset button that lets you reset several different properties to factory settings. If you open 'Settings' on the phone (if you are able) and goto 'General'. At bottom of 'General' is a reset button. Tapping that brings up options for reset.


No applications respond to trackpad clicks I had a application called Boxcryptor which recently threw some errors (version expired, upgrade, etc.) and left the system in a unusable state.

My MacBook running Lion no longer responds to mouse (trackpad) clicks on any windows. I am able to move the mouse pointer but clicking on any controls in application does not work. The window does not even register the click (doesn't even get focused).

However, I am able to launch Terminal from Spotlight and managed to cleanly uninstall Boxcryptor using the provider Uninstall.Command. I also uninstalled some other potentially problematic applications like USB Overdrive. It doesn't help.

I have walked through several standard checks.

Verify/Repair disk permissions -- done; found some errors and fixed them.
Verify/Repair Disk - none found.
Rebooted in safe mode tried doing resetpassword to reset user directory permissions but unable to focus the controls in the dialog to execute the reset.
turned on "Use tabs to navigate for all controls". Doesn't have a effect in the Recovery mode.
Unable to press Enter to execute (nor mouse click) any focused controls.. so unable to launch Lion Reinstall in the recovery mode.
In console I see "Could not connect the action buttonPressed: to target of class NSApplication" for Dock. however KillAll Dock does not fix it. In my case though none of the UI widgets respond to any clicks.

Any other ideas I could try to fix this?

Update: I managed to start Lion reinstall by selecting it with arrow keys tab to focus "continue" and hitting space instead of enter to start it. However, I am stuck at the validate license when it tries to login to appstore. Can't make that window get Focus to type in username/password.

This sounds like a perfect candidate for VoiceOver. It's fairly (if not entirely) straightforward to learn and use.

Hit Command ⌘+F5 to turn on VoiceOver. (You may need to use the fn key as well to hit F5.) You can then hold down Control ⌃+Option ⌥ (usually referred to as the VO keys) and use the arrow keys to navigate around the screen.

Here is Apple's page on VoiceOver and here is a tutorial on how to use the technology.


Privacy Pane wont let me add a preference pane to control my computer I have a 2010 Macbook Pro 15 inch and i just upgraded to yosemite with a fresh install (no data on any hard drives). I am trying to set up FunctionFlipper, a third party preference pane that will let me turn my dashboard key into another key (i ant to use it to show launchpad).

I installed it even though its from an unidentified developer by opening it manually with command click and open. But to use it i need to add FunctionFlip.prefpane to my list of apps that can control my computer under the privacy tab. When i unlock it to be edited and hit the plus button, i navigate to Libraries -> Preference Pane but the functionflip.prefpane is grayed out and it wont let me add it to the list.

How do i add Function Flipper to the list of apps that are allowed to control my computer?

This is a known bug in the latest OS X Yosemite. You can’t select or drag prefPane extension file from the Finder window dialog.

When you’re prompted with the same screen, press Command+Shift+G and enter the path to the packaged application at:

~/Library/PreferencePanes/FunctionFlip.prefPane/Contents/Resources/

Check out the gif to see how it works.


"Unable to verify account name or password" on outlook.com Exchange server (browser works) Using macOS 10.12.6 on a PowerBook. In the past, I was able to use Mail.app to connect to my @outlook.com account, but after a password change (forced? I don't remember - it's not a primary mail account), Mail.app can no longer connect to the mail server.

The same credentials work on the outlook.com web application. So I decided to delete the account from Mail.app and re-add it. Here's what I saw:

Choose Mail -> Add account...
I select Exchange and click Continue
I enter name/address/password and click Sign In
I see this window:

I am not aware that I made any changes to the Microsoft server. Thoughts? Suggestions? Thanks.

I've struggled with this problem for months. My old hotmail account, which I've had since before MS bought it, stopped working on my Mac.  Webmail worked fine, iOS worked fine...just wouldn't work on Mac Mail.  Finally got it solved today.

If you have 2-step verification enabled on your Exchange account, you can't use your normal password with the Apple Mail client...you must generate an "app password" on the Exchange site, then use that in Mail.  NOTE: creating this "app password" does not change your regular email password.

To create an "app password":
- log into your Exchange account via the web
- click on the "you" icon at the top-right, then click View Account
- click Security near the top of the screen
- click the "More Security Options" link below the other option panels
- scroll down and click on "Create a new app password"
- use the resulting app password in your Mail client


Is it possible to save http-hosted MP3 files directly onto an iPad? Is there a way to save an MP3 from a web server directly onto an iPad?  I can stream it through the browser, but there is no obvious "save" capability.

Would it make a difference if the MP3 were an email attachment?

As fas as I know there is no way to save an MP3 file directly from the web. What you can do is jailbreak your iPad and then try saving it.


launchd StartCalendarInterval not working reliably I have several tasks that I run from launchd using StartCalendar interval.

Under Yosemite these do not necessarily run. (Under Mavericks and earlier they did run)

How do I see what launchd is doing and thinks should happen, how can I get launchd to log what happens(The tasks themselves write to logs but if they don't run I obviously get nothing)

For example I have this task which is due off at 1212 and 1412 and 2039 and on at 0601. The log gives all at the same time

2014-11-08 15:29:56.082 tdtool_mwb[9383:329594] Turning off device 3, Other
2014-11-08 15:29:56.684 tdtool_mwb[9387:329601] Turning on device 3, Other
2014-11-08 22:32:18.563 tdtool_mwb[14594:523323] Turning off device 3, Other
2014-11-09 18:16:52.844 tdtool_mwb[21630:891263] Turning on device 3, Other
2014-11-09 18:16:52.844 tdtool_mwb[21626:891252] Turning off device 3, Other
2014-11-09 20:42:37.353 tdtool_mwb[23789:973903] Turning off device 3, Other

My machine does turn at 0600 and I was logged in at midday to 2100 on both days.

Note I have other scripts that have the same issue it is not just something with tdtool_mwb (or even if it was how do I debug this)

If I reboot then they run correctly for a day or two.

If the machine is running and not sleeping then also seems OK but if it sleeps then it fails.

It was a bug introduced in 10.10.0 as mentioned here

It seems to have been fixed in 10.10.3


Automator Service with Google Translate I set up an Automator Service that receives selected text and then runs a simple shell script to pass the text to open google translate:

open https://translate.google.com/#auto/en/"$@"

It opens google translate just fine, but doesn't pass the text along with it. How can I fix?

google translate service

It worked for me as long as pass input was set to as arguments. You could try restarting or creating a new identical service like that.

You have to URL encode the input though:

open https://translate.google.com/#auto/auto/$(ruby -rcgi -e 'print CGI.escape(STDIN.read)')

Or if you don't want to use ruby:

xxd -p | tr -d '\n' | sed 's/\(..\)/%\1/g'


Deleted Bootcamp partition space is not unavailable anymore I uninstalled windows 10 I had installed using the bootcamp assistant, after which my MacOS disk size hasn't restored to normal. How do I reclaim the lost space?

You have a strange configuration. The drive's disk0s3 is type APFS in the GUID Partition Table (GPT), but does not appear to be APFS formatted. This would explain why the Boot Camp Assistant failed. Hopefully, these commands will fix your problem.

sudo diskutil apfs deletecontainer -force disk0s3
sudo diskutil erasevolume free none disk0s3
sudo diskutil apfs resizecontainer disk0s2 0


My 13” MacBook Pro 2020 Thunderbolt port not working/charging I bought this brand new MacBook Pro few weeks ago, now one of the two Thunderbolt ports are not working.
When the MacBook starts, the battery icon is black filled with a bolt inside. The system information says that the battery is fine and charged, the cable is plugged in but not charging. When I connect the actual charging cable it stays that way and doesn’t charge (I waited and checked for at least 10 mins). The other port works fine though. Crazy thing it doesn’t sound the “charger connected” ding when I plug in the charger. I’m using the original charger.
I Googled and read about resetting the SMC system which asks to press the special keys and power button for 10 secs. When the MacBook started, it showed the proper icon which was a black filled cell icon. I plugged in the charger into the same port and it starts charging after a few seconds. I removed the charger and it goes back to the same behavior.
As for the data transfer connection using the same port, I’m using a hub for that and it wasn’t working either with that port.
I’m new to Apple Ecosystem and I don’t have an Apple store around here to get it checked by them. So any help would be immensely appreciated because I’m pretty much losing my mind over this investment.
I also tried enabling and disabling battery health management mode; that didn’t help at all.
Let me know if anymore information is required to troubleshoot this.

I bought this brand new MacBook Pro few weeks ago, now one of the two Thunderbolt ports are not working.

Return it. Charging (I’m not referring to “Battery Health Management) is not something that’s regulated by the OS. It’s something that’s handled by the charger and the USB controller that negotiates charging current (you don’t boot the Mac to charge it).  I was recently reading a tech article where one one these controllers can fail for one port will “kill” the charging for all ports (have to find the article).  Could it be this?  Possibility or possibly not. Point is, you have a hardware issue that’s not going to be fixed by OS tweaks, unfortunately.
Given that this is brand new and you’re already running into issues, you need to return it. Not for repair, mind you, but for refund/replacement. It’s unacceptable that new products fail this suddenly. Don’t put the burden on your shoulders; put it on Apple’s (my consumer advocacy side coming out).


Is a copy of /Library and ~/. sufficient for a clean install? The title says it all. After too many OS X and now macOS upgrades-in-place, my disk is cluttered with too much history. There is also the occasional small but unnerving issue that may just be resolvable by a clean install.
Moving from Catalina (10.15) to (10.16), my plan is to save just /Library and ~/.. Is any other path necessary to maintain personalized settings?
(After upgrading disk-to-disk—as opposed to time-machine-to-disk—I haven't been able to continue using my Time Capsule histories, and hence I'll be wiping these and starting fresh.)

Yes, a copy of /Library and ~/. (which includes ~/Library) will retain most of your personalised settings. You may want to also include /Users/Shared as it is used by a few apps (e.g. from Adobe) to store licences and/or settings.
But the copy will include much of your clutter and history.  This will defeat the purpose of a 'clean' install.
A clean install requires you to erase the disk, reinstall macOS, reinstall applications and recover your documents, photos, etc. (but, sadly, not settings) from your backup.  This process will require you to enter application licenses and re-establish settings.
You need to judge whether the time and effort of a true clean install is worth it for you.
Personally, I do a clean install every 18 months or so - but that is because I am something of an app junkie.


To repair permissions for Lion, is it safe to use Disk Utility in Recovery OS for Mountain Lion? Background and question

I read of someone using a Mountain Lion Recovery System to attempt repair permissions of an installation of Lion.

I understand that for repair of permissions of Lion, it may be preferable to use OS X 10.7.5 or Recovery OS 10.7.5.

A question remains:

for repair of permissions of an installation of Lion, is it safe to use Disk Utility in a Mountain Lion Recovery OS?

Notes

diskutil(8) OS X Manual Page

  … The data that guides the permissions verification is written during the installation process. …

– but it's not clear whether that data is read from the selected volume when Disk Utility is run from a Recovery OS.

For verbs verifyPermissions and repairPermissions a plist is optional, but there's no interface to this in Disk Utility.

repair_packages(8) OS X Manual Page

Thanks to commentary, I see that an OS X run of Disk Utility to repair permissions involves both diskutil and repair_packages. Here's a line from output of fs_usage:

03:06:31  access            r/libexec/repair_packages    0.000019   diskmanageme

For another run, a little later,

macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$ sudo fs_usage | grep "usr/sbin/diskutil"
03:09:24  open              usr/sbin/diskutil                                                                0.000021   repair_packa
^C
macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$

– at the same time,

macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$ sudo execsnoop | grep 'diskutil\|repair_packages'
    0   7963   7143 repair_packages
^C
macbookpro08-centrim:~ gjp22$

OS X: About OS X Recovery

This Apple article mentions Disk Utility but not permissions of files.

About Disk Utility's Repair Disk Permissions feature

The diskutil repairpermissions /Volumes/whatever reads the BOM and receipts from /Volumes/whatever and not /. You can validate this with fs_usage and installing OS X on an external volume and running the check while snooping the IO.

It's always preferable to have the OS doing the repairing match the OS on the volume being repaired, but I've never been bitten with a problem by mixing things where a newer OS repairs an older OS. I've gone the other way in a pinch and not had it blow up, but I did make plans to run a proper repair when time was available soon thereafter.

Also - this is a very rare tool and like antiboitics, often gets prescribed erroneously. Repairing permissions only twiddles with Apple software and rarely is a problem due to incorrect permissions on a log file or an Application bundle.


What causes permissions to change? In Mac OS X, what causes the change in file permissions?

For example, consider that the operating system was terminated abnormally.

On a subsequent boot, randomly (or possibly those files that were open at the instant of termination) files have their permissions changed. They differ.

What is the cause?

The answer above is wrong - if one bit on the disk changes, the ECC on the disk will correct it, or the e.g. a application image will become unusuable - cause a "segmentation violation". Change a bit in the node that refers to a file - and the file may be useless.

Do not muck around when you answer "bmick". You obviously do not know enough about hardware and operating systems. In better servers, even the RAM will use ECC to avoid single bit errors.

I see this consistently in the Java VM framework. And the bug is probably what you describe: That a new version of Java VM has changed SUID, the Disk Utilty use a wrong repository for what file permission is supposed to be.

Now Apple, the "Disk Utility" is GNU Open source. Update your repositories when new 3rd party OS components are installed. This makes the software run with apparent hang-ups. The modifications blocks access to files and makes the applications hang and even loose files and make databases corrupt.

To help you, Thunderbird works fine on Linux/Ubuntu, and I can even access the MacOS files from the Ubuntu partition. On MacOS I loose files - and get "Permission Inconsistency". You can look at the Linux list of bugs with HFS+, where they describe this error - that file permission is changed, where this is blamed on the journal update of files that remain open when the system is taken down - "Synced()".

Now, HFS+ on Linux will close the files, and flush the journal. MacOS' journal is not flushed on time, and updated later, and when a "Force Quit" is done you risk an error. Then you update with the wrong answer you introduce errors and for others to replicate these errors are very difficult, because they have exercised extensive effort to find out what they do wrong.

We will not use Ubuntu to correct MacOS, it is so much easier to use Ubuntu without the bugs.


How hot is it normal for a 45 watt MagSafe Adapter to get during use? I have a Mid-2011 MacBook Air (13"). Recently, the 45 watt MagSafe Adapter grew extremely hot (painful to touch) and smelled slightly singed while I was using the machine and plugged into the wall. It appears to still work.

I am using the extender cord, not the duck-head plug, and I live in the United States.

What is a normal high temperature for the MagSafe to reach? At what point do I visit my friendly local Genius Bar?

Painful to the touch - especially when the device hasn't been that hot since day one - is a great time to unplug and take your rig (computer and power adapter) in to have things checked out. You might power off everything and try hooking just the shut down mac and see if drawing less current helps, but keep a very close eye on things and don't leave it plugged in just in case if you have any concerns.

I've got an 85W adapter that started buzzing faintly and now it's getting hot as well so I've stopped using it until I can have things checked out.

Also, ambient temperature is a big factor. Since things are air cooled, if you are 85 degrees F then the charger can't dissipate heat as well as if you were in a server room cooled to 62 degrees or so.


Map left mouse button in Karabiner Elements I want to map CapsLock to Left Mouse Button using Karabiner Elements in macOS Sierra.

I used to have such mapping in previous OS X versions using Seil and Karabiner but those no longer work in Sierra.

I tried to guess what should I put in the configuration JSON but failed.

"simple_modifications" : {
    "caps_lock" : WHAT_SHOULD_I_PUT_HERE?
},

Is it even possible to map Caps Lock to Left Mouse button in Karabiner Elements?

BUT: it's actually quite simple (if I didn't mis-interpret your question):

Just select [Add item] in K.-Element's "Simple Modifications" tab, choose "caps_lock" (left) and "button1" (right) – and you're DONE!

… no need for "Complex Modifications", btw.


How to use ua:// URLs There are buttons in the Starbucks app on iOS for redeeming free apps and if I long press on the button, it shows a URL like ua://75A6A5DC-D3BE-4056-9482-CEBCD5493F98. However, I don't know how to use the URL if I copy it. Safari won't navigate anywhere if I paste it in the address bar and press Go. If I just tap the button in the Starbucks app, it takes me to the App Store and automatically begins to redeem an app (presumably using a code embedded in, or retrieved from, the ua:// URL, but I'm not sure on that—just my hypothesis).

I have Googled and can't find any information on the ua URI. Can someone link me to documentation on what it means and how to use links like that?

When you click the button, iOS looks for an app that advertises itself as being able to handle ua://-URLs. Safari doesn't know how to do that, you'll need an app for that. I don't know if there's a way to find out which app responds to which URL schemes.
See this developer article.


iPhone receives SMS from Info I am receiving an SMS from Info on an iPhone running iOS 13. There is no contact Info in my address book. Does this perhaps mean that the sender suppresses her address/telephone number? Or what else can cause this?

UPDATE I should clarify that the exact scenario is as follows: I'm sending an SMS to a phone number; for what I know there is a person at the other end. A few minutes later the response arrives from Info (e.g. hence the iOS Messages app shows it in a new thread, which is somewhat inconvenient.)

Since your device didn’t assign the name, it came from caller ID

Contact your carrier for details of how and why they vet those names or if they just let people feed data claiming to be whatever sender they want and easily spoof (Lie to) the caller ID system.

Your carrier and national cell phone regulator would be the people to look at if and how SMS naming is being regulated or if the carriers can do whatever they please in terms of naming and whether you get to know who sent that SMS.


If I turn off iCloud backups for an app, will it affect it? I am running low in iCloud storage, so if I turn off backups for certain apps, will it be affected? For example let’s say it’s social media, will the photos or videos be lost?

Welcome to Ask Different.

Your question can't be answered properly because it depends on the app your referencing.

Some apps need real-time access to the data they store in your iCloud or they won't work properly; some don't.  Some apps will function fine without this access and some won't even start-up.

I recommend that if you're not sure, contact the developer of the app and ask them.  You can also turn off iCloud and then check the app, too.


How to view individual images in photos app I changed iPhone's and with the new one the photos get imported successfully - as shown below. The weird thing is I can not get the images to display except in thumbnails. With the prior phone I would double click on an image and it would be shown in a large size view.

So what am I missing now in how to view the individual photos in larger resolution?

Update Found this Apple provided documentation https://support.apple.com/guide/photos/browse-and-view-photos-pht56eafa987/mac :

However double-clicking or pressing return just puts that blue check-mark: does not  work.

Update An answer mentioned to import the photos. Well they are already imported: I had double checked and even went into the Library on disk and was able to open the photo from there.. But that's a really awkward/long-ish process..

On the top right corner, you should see import photos button. Pressing it will import them. What you're seeing now is the preview and selection window where you choose which photos to import.


Merge two keyboard layouts into one I'm a Dvorak user but I also need to use international keyboard too. The problem is - when I use international phonetic keyboard it's based on Qwerty.

When I have hardware support for Dvorak (on typematrix keyboard) it all works perfectly, but when I'm on my laptop, I can't use combinations of two layouts.

How can I create a custom layout which would be a combination of two keyboard layouts? If there is no way, please suggest some tool to create a custom keyboard layout for a Mac OSX.

I'm on Mountain Lion.

What IPA layout do you use? SIL's website has one for Dvorak. You could edit other keyboard layouts with Ukelele or directly as XML.

You could also try adding something like this to private.xml in KeyRemap4MacBook.

<item>
<name>test</name>
<identifier>private.test</identifier>
<inputmode_not>ROMAN</inputmode_not>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::Q, KeyCode::QUOTE</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::W, KeyCode::COMMA</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::E, KeyCode::DOT</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::R, KeyCode::P</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::T, KeyCode::Y</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::Y, KeyCode::F</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::U, KeyCode::G</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::I, KeyCode::C</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::O, KeyCode::R</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::P, KeyCode::L</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::BRACKET_LEFT, KeyCode::SLASH</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::BRACKET_RIGHT, KeyCode::EQUAL</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::S, KeyCode::O</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::D, KeyCode::E</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::F, KeyCode::U</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::G, KeyCode::I</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::H, KeyCode::D</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::J, KeyCode::H</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::K, KeyCode::T</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::L, KeyCode::N</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::SEMICOLON, KeyCode::S</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::QUOTE, KeyCode::MINUS</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::Z, KeyCode::SEMICOLON</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::X, KeyCode::Q</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::C, KeyCode::J</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::V, KeyCode::K</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::B, KeyCode::X</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::N, KeyCode::B</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::COMMA, KeyCode::W</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::DOT, KeyCode::V</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::SLASH, KeyCode::Z</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::MINUS, KeyCode::BRACKET_LEFT</autogen>
<autogen>--KeyToKey-- KeyCode::EQUAL, KeyCode::BRACKET_RIGHT</autogen>
</item>

It's based on remap.qwerty2dvorak in the checkbox.xml in the test folder.

If someone else was looking for a way to change the input method when holding a key, see this question.


Lion: four finger swipe to switch desktops (spaces) works on internal trackpad but not magic trackpad? Even though in the pref pane for Trackpad it says "Swipe between full-screen apps" when I'm using the internal trackpad in my laptop, it will switch desktops even if I'm not using full screen apps. However, when I'm using my Magic Trackpad, the 4-finger swipe does not switch desktops.

Anyone have a solution?

Do any 4 finger gestures work? If not, it's likely the trackpad faulty and not just some software bug in Mission Control.


Is there a way to send a text message via voice command in iOS after dictating it? I know that there are voice commands for inserting a new line or inserting punctuation, but I was wondering if there's a voice command to send a text message once it has been dictated. I tried saying the word "send," but that didn't seem to work. Is this possible?

P. S. This question was written using the voice dictation feature! :-)

If you have asked Siri to Send a new Message to some person, Siri Normally asks " Do you want me to send it" when it thinks you have finished.
Saying "Send" normally works. And Siri will say "Ok then I will send the Text message.."

I do not think there is a way to do it after you have used dictation.

Apples dictations command list


Password keeper for iPhone, Mac and Windows? Are there any (preferably free/cheap) solutions for syncing and accessing encrypted passwords on a Mac, a PC and an iPhone?

1Password

It's great and syncs on the iOS platform, and has a beta for Windows too now. :)


How can I retain the artist name? Most of my songs on my iPhone are ripped from CDs.
In this case, song information like artist name are typed by myself, saved and synced well to my iPhone through iTunes but some cases, the information is automatically changed then saved.
I'm perfectly sure it's the songs from artists that i've purchased from iTunes before.

For example, if I ripped songs then put the artist name with all capitalized like "KING CRIMSON", and sync to my iPhone, it shows me the exact same artist name.

But if the songs were from artist that I purchased before from iTunes, then the artist name capitalized is changed as uppercase remained only on first letter automatically during sync process (e.g., "BEATLES" → "Beatles")

The point is that even songs ripped, not purchased from iTunes are changed, too if the artist's songs were once purchased before.

See screenshots below—first one is song information ripped from CD (you can see artist name all capitalized) and second one is captured image from my iPhone (artist name automatically changed)

Can anyone help me with how to fix the uppercased artist name?

Try turning off a setting called, "Share details about your library with Apple".  In iTunes, goto Preferences, Store Preferences and uncheck that option.


Boot MacBook Pro from USB stick Concerning a MacBook Pro with Snow Leopard. As you know when pressing alt during startup there is the possibility of selecting which disc/drive/memory you want to boot from. For example if you have a CD/DVD inserted in the computer or Bootcamp Windows installed they can be selectable to boot from.

Here's what I want to do: I want that when I have a USB stick inserted to the computer, I want to be able to boot from that in the same manner as can be done with e.g. a DVD.

The problem is that when I have a USB stick connected to the computer during startup and press alt, the USB is not selectable to boot from. So the question is: How can I enable the computer to (during startup) select a connected USB stick to boot from?

I have tried a program called rEFit, which gives you another menu during startup, where you can for example select if you want to boot from any partition that you created. Unfortunately it still doesn't enable booting from a connected USB stick, at least not automatically. So I wonder how to enable booting from a USB stick, either in this program, or otherwise.

If you have done this yourself, or if you have any good ideas on how to enable it, please share.

USB thumb drives behave much like internal hard drives in terms of booting from it on a Mac.  Therefore, it depends on what you have on those drives.  If there is "just data" on the USB stick, it will, very much like "data" hard drives, not show up at the boot picker.

As a test, you can try to install a for your system supported version of Mac OS X onto the USB stick and then see whether it shows or not (I would understand that it will show thereafter as all Intel Macs can boot from USB).

NOTE: For obvious reasons, you should back up whatever you have on the USB stick before attempting this.


Can I delete my local photo library now that all my photos are on iCloud? I updated to the new OS X last night and uploaded my 70gigs worth of photos to iCloud. I plan on doing a backup on my raid as well, just to be safe, but am I okay to delete all my photos that are stored locally on my computer?

Yes - if you trust Apple to never lose the photos, you can delete all your local copies.

Pay attention to which devices have full resolution images and which have "optimized" settings.

Also, I've been doing this for iTunes Match for some time. I have only lost a few dozen songs in two years of trusting the cloud. For that reason, I now set alarms every 6 months to download a local copy of all the songs from iCloud and back that up to an external HD. I'll be doing the same with my iCloud photo library to be sure I never lose all the photos.

I would add, that if the thought of losing a dozen photos or having to wait several weeks if your account should get messed up for engineering to work out the problem isn't your cup of tea, you might keep your originals on hard drives and in filesystems you know you have the tools to work with directly.


What does Mail do when you try to quit it? For some reason, Mail takes significantly longer than most of my other apps to quit. It might become unresponsive for a period of time after I hit [command]+[q] before it actually quits. What is taking Mail so long to quit?

Turn on the Activity window to see what's going on. You probably have it set to purge deleted emails or some other shutdown maintenance. Press command-option-0 (command-0 if you're not on Lion 10.7) to see it or select from the Window menu.

I keep the Activity window up all the time just to see what's going on. But then, I have to monitor about 30 different email accounts for various work-related reasons.


Do I need a clean install of Lion if I want to defragment my disk? My 2009 MacBook Pro has been running very slow and glitchy under Snow Leopard. I've come to the conclusion that working with large files and repeatedly filling the hard disk to 95% capacity has likely resulted in fragmentation.

With this specific problem in mind, what is the simplest recommended upgrade path for Lion? I've created a bootable clone of my disk with CCC (plus a time machine backup on another drive).

Currently leaning towards wiping the disk, running iDefrag, restoring from the clone then installing Lion. Is there a simpler or otherwise better route?

Mac OS X defragments small files on the go, and has a hot file optimization zone where medium sized and frequently accessed files get ordered on the fast part of a hard drive.

If a tool does a block copy of the drive - fragmentation of files and directories gets moved to the copy destination. When you create a CCC clone, you are not copying the fragmentation state of each file--each file gets written as a single extent on disk. Likewise when you restore from the clone. So if you just wiped and restored from the clone, you'd be starting clean right there.

The apple Disk Utility can be told to do a file level copy or a block level copy - so for a one time copy - it's about as capable as CCC and SuperDuper.

If you're at 95%, it seems to me that a bigger problem is that the operating system can't allocate as much virtual memory as it would want, which would result in a lot of disk thrashing as it constantly clears out the limited VM space it has, which would be consistent with the problems you are reporting. Solution: bigger or emptier hard drive.


iPhone 7 using a lot of Wi-Fi data From 27th October, my iPhone started using a lot of Wi-Fi Bandwidth and I cant use the Wi-Fi for any other purposes.
Things I checked:

Checked for Whatsapp chat backup, No.
Checked for Translate offline languages, No.
Checked for iCloud Backup, No.
iOS update, No the auto update is off. Currently using iOS14.0.1. Since all bandwidth is used I cant update it manually also. So I didn't try.
Auto App-Update, checked and it is already Set to Do not auto update over Cellular and Wi-Fi.

After all these steps, still the problem is not solved. So I reset my iPhone deleting every data.
Then I restored all data from iTunes Backup and tried to download all app and it took a huge time and lot of data because something is running in background. So I paused some of apps from downloading and then cancelled the download of these big apps like Apple Office Apps, Google Office Apps and MS Office Apps and Garage Band.
I had a lot of photos and some files in the Files app in On my iPhone part and not in iCloud Drive.
My iCloud drive and iCloud backup is always turned off.
Then I deleted all my Apps to check if any app is doing it.
First whatsapp and then every other non-apple apps + Watch app and Translate app.
It didn't work.
So Today on 3rd November,I deleted all the files in my On my iPhone in files app and deleted all my photos.

Now the phone, despite having nothing, is still using all the Wi-Fi bandwidth.
There is no way to check the Wi-Fi usage from iPhone. But the battery information shows this data.

I have never tried with Cellular data since I don't have a Cellular plan and this king of data usage will cost a lot of Money if cellular data is consumed.
Also, now randomly, the phone is getting disabled for 5 minutes, mostly when I press the power button or when I restart the iPhone.
This is not Jailbroken or anything.
**Do anyone experience the same issue, or anyone advice me to solve this problem.
**
I would really appreciate it. Thanks in Advance.
Update on 4th Nov
I have already deleted all apps other than Apple apps.
Today, I deleted each app of apple and looked.
When I delete the contact app, the wifi usage became zero.
Now I am going to do the restore of my iTunes backup and delete the apple apps and see how it goes.
Update 7th Nov
Still the same problem of using a lot of Wi-Fi data exists even though all the apple apps are deleted.

Finally, I have found the solution.
I have already turned off iCloud drive and iCloud photos. But for some reason, the phone was uploading my 50+GB data to iCloud drive. When I clicked my iCloud it was showing that there is a Backup in iCloud, the size is not showing up as it is not complete.
But on clicking it, it says 57GB needs to be uploaded or sort of. When I the backup, the phone is now normal, not using any extra data.


Failed to Change Carrier-Logo on a jailbreaked iPhone 4 with iOS 5 today, i wanted to change my carrier logo on my iPhone.
Every Tutorial failed. Even if i complete delete my Carrier-Folder: nothing happens.
The path on the iPhone: /System/Library/Carrier Bundles/iPhone/TMobile_Germany.bundle

There isn't any other path were the icons can be.

I restarted the iPhone many times and changed four times the size and the name of the images.

Any suggestion?

The best suggestion I can give you is downloading Fake Carrier from Cydia. You can change the text, and use emoticons from Emoji as your carrier logo.

This is the best and probably the easiest way I've found so far.


Azerty layout with direct number input I grew used to the azerty layout (which was a bad idea, but I don't have energy to spend months relearning to type).

I would really like however to have the numbers row behave as it does in the normal qwerty layout (number input on press rather than symbol).

This is less for typing purposes than for keyboards shortcuts relying on numbers, which depending from the app either force me to add an awkward shift press or just don't work at all.

Ideas?

French Numerical might help.
I found this article whilst Googling -

  Numbers on the Belgian keyboard

  If you opted for the French or Belgian Apple wireless keyboard, you
  may experience a strange behavior when using the number keys. On the
  AZERTY keyboard, the numbers appear on the second top row of keys,
  together with the accented and special characters.

  Apple Wireless keyboard frHowever, it may be so that when pressing the
  Caps Lock On, you still get the accented characters instead of the
  expected numbers. This is a bit of a challenge when needing to enter
  series of figures.

  If so, you have to change the default keyboard in the system
  preferences, to “Français – numérique” instead of “belge”. Go to
  System Preferences, in the Language and Text section. Then in the
  “input method”, select the “Français – numérique” keyboard, and
  deselect the “Belge” keyboard. From now on, when Caps Lock is on, the
  number keys will actually return numbers.

The Keyboard Control Panel has changed slightly since that article was written - it's now accessible on a separate sheet, after hitting the + at the bottom of the pref pane.


Saving Applescript Removes Characters I have written an Applescript to launch and position two instances of an Application.  The script runs perfectly fine in the editor using this code:

tell application "App" to activate
tell application "System Events" to tell application process "App"
    set position of window 1 to {8, 22}
end tell
tell application "App 2" to activate
tell application "System Events" to tell application process "App 2"
    set position of window 1 to {914, 22}
end tell

It is not a scriptable app so I am using System events (I also changed the CFBundleName of the second app, so that it includes the 2 to differentiate the processes).  This all works fine in the editor when I run it.  However, when I save the script as an Application it consistently removes the "2" from "App 2" whenever I save the application, even though it compiles fine.  Does anyone have any idea why this is happening; I'm fairly new to Applescript.

You can avoid the problem at compile by dynamically choosing the apps in system events.

tell application "System Events"
    set App1 to (first process whose name is "App")
    tell App1
        set frontmost to true
        set position of window 1 to {8, 22}
    end tell
end tell

Then do the same for App2.


How can I remotely delete sensitive data and log out from a stolen Mac? Is there any software or a procedure that would allow me to

log out of all services (gmail, dropbox etc.)
and/or delete any sensitive data remotely

...from a machine that has been stolen?

Find my Mac
Find my Mac is free and part of iCloud. Included features are:

localize your Mac (internet connection required, Email notification)
remotely lock your Mac to protect privacy
remotely wipe your hard drive
play a loud sound
display personal messages on the Mac

You need a Mac computer with Lion to use this feature.


Mouse/Keyboard stop responding for short time at random intervals - OSX v10.10, 13 inch MaBookPro Retina my whole computer freezes it seems like, if I have streaming music playing it continues, however my mouse and keyboard stop working. This includes the trackpad and laptop keyboard not just my peripheral mouse and keyboard.

OSX v10.10, 13 inch MaBookPro Retina
16GB Memory
3Ghz i7 processor.

Any help appreciated, thanks for your time!

There have been bugs reported with certain OSX Operating systems regarding your issue. There are a multitude of things you can do.
 1. Update the OSX on your computer.
 2. If the OSX is updated, try uninstalled that OSX and re-installing it. Sometimes there are issues with typical functions when the computer is being installed or updated.
 3. Try switching accounts, often times there are some circumstances that have altered the settings on your computer. In such a case, create a new account and test if it is doing the same thing.
 4. If none of these solutions have helped, your computer may have a manufactures default and I suggest you take it to your nearest Apple Store or Certified apple care specialist.

I hope this could be of help.

If this helped you, please accept the answer so that it can help the community find this answer if they are having the same issue as you.


X11 application from 'administrator' account Call me paranoid but my everyday account has no privileges.

I have a 'administrator' account who is in wheel. When I want to perform administrative tasks, I open a terminal and do

su - administrator
sudo ...

This works fine in most situations, except with X11 applications.

sudo xeyes

fails with

  Can't open display:

What I've tried:

start X11 with the everyday user
do xhost +localhost with everyday user
do export DISPLAY=:0 with administrator

How can I run a X11 application with the administrator account when my desktop runs with the everyday user?


Software for burning AAC files to MP3 CDs? iTunes is lacking some features I could really use for burning MP3 CDs for the car audio system.

Ability to convert AAC to MP3
Ability to group non-album songs into folders

In itunes, the process appears to be:

find all the songs you want to burn to an MP3 CD
figure out which songs are not in MP3 format
tell itunes to make duplicate versions of these files in MP3 format
figure out which are now the MP3 versions and drag them into a playlist
edit the copied MP3s' meta data to 'fake' a new album so it's grouped on the CD correctly

Is there a piece of software that can do what I'm looking for and/or is there a way to do what I want in iTunes that I'm somehow missing?

If you change the Import CD As... to MP3, you should be able to convert any non-MP3 files to MP3. The same applies to all the supported file types.


Can I set up domain filtering on an Airport Extreme? I'm wondering if it is possible to set up domain filtering on an Airport Extreme based home network. Specifically, I'd like to block just rad.msn.com, and I need to do that at the network level.

Easiest way I know is to use a service like OpenDNS. You set up the Airport to send all DNS requests to OpenDNS and use their filtering (which can be quite sophisticated) to do the job of blocking or whitelisting web addresses. Of course you need to be able to protect the DNS settings on the Airport, but this is doable.

I have it set up for general filtering and monitoring on my home network which has more than 5 computers and more than a dozen wireless handhelds all served from an Airport Extreme.

Check it out at http://www.opendns.com/


iPod Nano battery loses charge when it's cold My fourth-gen iPod Nano has very recently started to completely lose its charge when I'm outdoors (currently it's a bit colder here, about 10°C / 50°F).

Indoors, or when it's warmer, it still manages a relatively reasonable music playback time of about 10 hrs. Is there anything I can do except contact Apple about a battery replacement? (The iPod is no longer under warranty and I want to avoid the 59 currency unit fee.)

The temperature you describe is not cold enough to affect battery functions too much. It’s within the operating temperatures and it shouldn’t happen. Take a look at the temperature charts in the Apple iPod Battery page and if it doesn’t perform as expected, contact them immediately.

UPDATE: If the iPod is not under warranty, you’re pretty much “hosed”, however, you can attempt a manual battery replacement. This google query is a good starting point.


When can we expect upgrade of 13" macbook pro? Core2Duo is old architecture in comparison with iCore (MacBook Pro 15" and 17").

When can we expect upgrade of 13" macbook pro?

And any rumors about what we can expect?

Apple Updates MacBook Pro with Next Generation Processors, Graphics & Thunderbolt I/O Technology
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2011/02/24mbp.html

MacRumors expects a new MacBook Pro soon (this April, probably). It will use Intel's new Sandy Bridge architectures.


Selecting half a document I have an extremely long document in text edit that I want to delete roughly half of. Is there a better way to do this than selecting by clicking and scrolling?

If the text is at the second half of the document, go to the beginning of the text You want to delete and press ⌘ CMD+⇧ SHIFT+↓ DOWN ARROW and then delete it.
If it's in the first half, go to the beginning of the text You do not want to delete and press ⌘ CMD+⇧ SHIFT+↑ UP ARROW and delete it.


How do I access special characters on Apple's Smart Keyboard? I bought the new iPad Pro 10.5" and with it the Apple Smart Keyboard with the US Layout. Now I am constantly switching between writing in german, english and some french.

Therefore I would like to access special characters like in macOS or in iOS:

  So how can I access the special character menu via the Apple Smart
  Keyboard?

You should be able to use the standard Apple option key shortcuts, such as ⌥ + e, then e produces é.  One list is here.

For the german "Umlaut", it is:

⌥ + u (for Umlaut) and then the letter (like a, u or o)

So:
 ⌥ + u and then a produces “ä”


How to save/load workspaces on El Capitan? I've noticed I'm using a few Finder and other app instances per project.
Sometimes I need to easily swap between "workspaces" and I've only recently started to use Mission Control and multiple Desktops which I'm getting the hang off.

However, I noticed I use some workspaces more than others.
I'd like to somehow save a list of Finder and other apps with their locations on screen to save resources, then restore the same layout at a later date when it's needed.

Is this something that can already be done using El Capitan (preferably with built-in tools) ?

If so, how ?

To assign a space to an application, you:

Activate the space where you want the application to live...
Right click the application icon in the dock

Choose: Options > Assign to: This Desktop

This will make it so that the application always opens to that space.

Applications typically remember their window location, so as far as that goes, it should in most cases be just set it and forget it type of situation.

If you want multiple layouts, you might want to try out Moom. Not the only app that does that, but I'd say it's the best one I know. You can use it to save snapshots of  application locations that can be restored via menu or shortcuts.

Should be noted that Moom doesn't control the application space, just the size and location.


Xserve(s): should I reinstall OS X I have 2 Xserve servers running OS X Server 10.6.4 with the following hardware configuration:

They each have Xserve RAID cards and drives. I have recently moved them from a data center, where they sat behind a pair of firewall devices and they had originally been configured for failover between the two machines. At the data center they had fixed IP addresses.

Now I have the machines set up at home, connected by Ethernet to an Apple Time Capsule that serves as my primary home networking device.

Finding and removing or disabling all of the legacy settings on these machines has proved daunting. I keep having conflicts that arise when I attempt to install new software and services.

So I thought I'd cast about for options and advice.

I have backups of all critical data these machines hold.

I primarily use these machines for parallel processing of Mathematica based applications (lots of number crunching). No web services, email, or anything like that.

Can anyone recommend a way to identify and remove or disable all of the legacy configuration and then set up the servers to to operate in their new simplified environment?

If not, do I need to wipe them clean, reinstall OS X, and configure them anew?

If so, how long does a reinstall take?

Do I need anything other than the original installation disks?

It's a good idea to reformat the machine, because who knows what all was run on it, and whether that may cause problems for you later or more so now. So it's a very good idea starting off from a clean slate - you will know what is installed, since you installed it.

In fact, I would never use a re-purposed machine without formatting it first. It's a security risk not formatting, and I would not want to chance my data etc on it. And since the machine was a server connected to the internet, there's even more reason to reformat it.

It will take you much less time to just start over than it would to go through potentially hundreds of thousands of files located on the system that could have been modified intentionally or maliciously.

A typical install of OS X usually takes less than 1 hour, usually around 35 minutes or so.  Server may take longer, and all you really need to do is get it started which takes less than 5 minutes.

Additionally, you would not even need the original install disks, you can install any version of Mac OS X newer than what came with the server originally. Which might not be a bad idea since you are not really needing the features that a server version has to offer, based on what you said your were doing with the systems.  But that really depends on what the Mathematica setup requires.


With Homebrew, how to check if a software/package is installed? I'm installing a set of softwares/packages/formulas via homebrew with command like

brew install <formula1>
...
brew cask install <formula2>
...

I wonder if it's a good idea to verify if the softwares <formula1>, ..., <formula2>, ... are already installed and only trigger the above commands for the ones NOT already installed. If so, how?

you could do something like this:

brew list <formula1> || brew install <formula1>

This will error on list and continue with install if not installed otherwise it will just list package files. (one could modify this further as a function or alias in .bashrc to make it easier to type)


Which charger to get fast charging of iPhone XR? I'm about to buy an iPhone XR. Technical specification says it's possible to charge 50% of the battery in 30 minutes. However, seems that the provided 5W charger is not able to do that. I've been in the Apple Store and they said I need an iPad charger, but which one?

When a search for "charger" and filter for "XR model," I get this one. Is it the correct one?

However, seems that the provided 5 W charger is not able to do that
  [charge the battery to 50% in 30 minutes]. I've been in the Apple
  Store and they said I need an iPad charger, but which one?

You need a charger that outputs at least 18 watts or is rated for 5V at 3.6A (W = V * A)

However, (IMO) you should get a charger that's capable of powering/charging all (not simultaneously, obviously) your devices.  The way chargers work is that the rating 12W, 18W, 80W is the maximum amount of power that it will deliver not the amount of power it will "push" to the device.

So, if a device says it's rated at 18W, it will draw no more than that.  If your power supply is greater than or equal to 18W, it will work.  If it's less, it will either charge slowly or you could damage the power adapter.  See this answer for more details

This is why you get a power adapter greater than what you need.  Getting an 80W, for example, will charge your MacBook Pro, your iPad, and you iPhone, whereas the 5W charger will only reliably charge your iPhone.


Smart Playlist in Itunes based on file location I'd like to create a smart playlist in iTunes based on a specific folder (I manage my media library manually).

Is that somehow still possible in ITunes 12 (even if it involves scripting)?

I don't think so. They appear to use information from the iTunes database/Library so how could they know anything about some random folder in your computer?

You could though simulate it using either Folder Actions or launchd but neither is perfect.

Folder Actions only works for new files in a directory and it provides the list of files added to the program/script you will run so you know what's changed.

launchd on the other hand will run your script/app whenever anything changes in the folder(s), you can monitor mupltiple, but it will not tell you which path changed or how - added or removed etc.

I would go with launchd personally. If it is just a single folder you could hardcode it into your script.

As for the script, try this...

set dpath to "/some/path/test/"
set qdpath to quoted form of dpath
set listname to "MyList"
set adpath to (POSIX file dpath as alias)

# Get audio files in selected folder
#   -- alas no recursive search results without a lot more code... :(
#   -- or use mdfind or other command line tool using `do shell script...`
set afiles to {}
tell application "Finder"
    repeat with ext in {".mp3", ".m4a"}
        set l to (every file in adpath whose name contains ext)
        repeat with f in l
            set end of afiles to (f as alias)
        end repeat
    end repeat
end tell

tell application "iTunes"
    if not (user playlist listname exists) then
        make new user playlist with properties {name:listname}
    end if

    # Built a list of existing list tracks so we don't have duplicates...
    set itracks to {}
    try
        set itracks to (get location of every track in playlist listname)
    end try

    set view of window 1 to playlist listname

    # Add not already in playlist
    repeat with afile in afiles
        if afile is not in itracks then
            try
                set tid to (add afile to playlist listname)
            end try
        end if
    end repeat

    # Remove any tracks from the itunes playlist not in the folder
    # and from the iTunes database else they still show up as invalid tracks...
    set iItems to (every track in playlist listname)
    set iLib to library playlist named "Library"
    repeat with iItem in iItems
        set loc to location of iItem
        if loc is not in afiles then
            set pid to persistent ID of iItem

            log "Removing: " & loc
            try
                # Thanks Doug Adams, it was driving me nuts....
                delete (some file track of library playlist 1 whose persistent ID is pid)
            end try
            delay 1
        end if
    end repeat
end tell

It is actually fun to watch it react to adding and removing files from the folder. Enjoy.... :)

Finally I'd reccommend you check these URLs.

www.macissues.com/2015/02/02/how-to-use-launchagents-to-monitor-folder-contents-in-os-x/
apple.stackexchange.com/questions/6658/


DNSCrypt fails to start (problem with libsodium) I am using current stable dnscrypt-proxy 1.6.1 version from Homebrew on El Capitan and Yosemite. On either machine I have the same problem.

When run dnscrypt-proxy fails with image not found error:

dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/local/lib/libsodium.13.dylib
 Referenced from: /usr/local/sbin/dnscrypt-proxy
 Reason: image not found
./dnscrypt-manual.sh: line 24: 67315 Trace/BPT trap: 5
   /usr/local/sbin/dnscrypt-proxy --local

I have libsodium installed with the following command

brew install libsodium --universal

In /usr/local/Cellar/libsodium/1.0.8/lib/ I have the following files:

-r--r--r--  1 macraf  admin   763268 Mar  3 12:48 libsodium.18.dylib
-r--r--r--  1 macraf  admin  1091336 Mar  3 12:48 libsodium.a
lrwxr-xr-x  1 macraf  admin       18 Mar  3 12:48 libsodium.dylib@ -> libsodium.18.dylib
drwxr-xr-x  3 macraf  admin      102 Mar  3 12:48 pkgconfig/

The problem was also discussed here with no resolution in current version.

It seems /usr/local/lib/libsodium.13.dylib is either hardcoded in dnscrypt-proxy or the libraries should be somehow linked.

Any idea if there is something wrong on the configuration side?

I managed to refresh dnscrypt-proxy so that it uses libsodium.18.dylib and does not throw the error anymore with the following procedure *:

brew update
brew prune
brew cleanup
rm -fr /Library/Caches/Homebrew/*
brew uninstall dnscrypt-proxy
brew uninstall minisign
brew uninstall libsodium
brew install libsodium
brew link --overwrite libsodium
brew install minisign
brew link --overwrite minisign
brew install dnscrypt-proxy
brew link --overwrite dnscrypt-proxy

* credits to Frank Denis the creator of DNSCrypt.


Can This Mac Pro Be Restored To Original State 2006 mac pro Intel core 2 duo, 4gb 667, Original GTX 7800 Nvidia WD(also a Nvidia 120 512mb), 500gb HDD, Memorex DVD Rom.

I got this free from a friend with no HDD therefore no OS.
I purchased Snow Leopard from Apple Store near me along with a cheap HDD for a restore. I placed the new HDD into my own 2008 mac pro and formatted the drive GUID mac os journaled for fresh install on older model.

Placed new HDD in '06 along with Snow Leopard booted to chime held in C until the disc started to read, waited a few more seconds released C and left it.

The drive spun on and off for 15-20 so I started pressing the space bar, tab and enter at various times until it sounded like it was installing which it must have done because after an hour or so the welcome video played. I could hear it but no picture just like the full install period.

Thinking it was the video card I purchased the Nvidia 120 512mb waited on delivery and installed on my '08 first and it worked so pulled it and installed in '06 hit power and nothing for a few minutes then the welcome video sounds again.

Repeated what I had done in the first install instance with the new card but the same thing occurred no picture at end of install just sound.

I have tried every start up option/ key press solution I could find to no avail.

I then came across hackintosh and found a boot disc that allows me to boot the hdd and when it loads the welcome video is visible but no sound. Upon opening 'About This Mac' it's apparent that the boot rom has changed as well as the Mac Version and as noob as I am I know it's not right.

The computer will strangely enough accept any x86 windows disc with full video from beginning to end of install, but I would prefer it mac.

Now I don't know how much of this is fact but I recall an article were a mac running dual boot OS X and windows with a VM on the windows side had somehow managed to completely scrub the first HDD containing the mac partition rendering it unable to boot mac os again.

There are several disturbing things from your screenshot I want to explain to you.
My answer is no direct answer to your problem, but in the end could help you, if you are willing to do some hardware modifications.

I just want to summarize your hardware description first and put my 5c to it.

First, it seems you don't have an original MacPro from 2006. The original MacPro has the model specification MacPro 1,1. Second, mine at home which was the first model introduced at WWDC back in time has been delivered with two dual core Xeons with 2.66GHz each in it, bus speed is 1.33GHz, RAM modules with at least 667MHz. Frankly, I never heard of a Core2Duo CPU in a MacPro. (see also http://apple-history.com/mac_pro)
The MacPro model 3,1 would be a MacPro Early 2008, so the guy you got the box from has made several modifications to it (to be polite and not to say "messed up"), including swapping the CPU's and installing a MacPro 3,1 firmware.
The MacPro 3,1 has 800MHz RAM modules and a bus speed of 1.6GHz and starts with two QuadCore 2.8GHz CPU's; additionally it is the first model with an 64bit EFI. (There is a BTO edition with only one 2.8GHz QuadCore CPU; my second MacPro under my desk which I have tuned to the max in the meantime.)
And that is the reason, why the 3,1 firmware on your hardware 1,1 MacPro is totally wrong - the hardware specifications do not match in any way with the MacPro 3,1 firmware.
The MacPro from 2007 (Model ID 2,1) is just a hardware release with higher speed CPU's, but is hardware identical (motherboard) to the original MacPro 1,1. So with installing the 2,1 firmware on a MacPro 1,1 it becomes a 2,1 with the capability to run faster clocked CPU's. (That is what I am doing currently with my MacPro 1,1.)
MacPro 1,1 from 2006 including model 2,1 has a 32bit EFI which limits the OS you can install on to Mavericks natively. You can't change that. There are several tricks to the OS you can do for running Yosemite on it (swapping some libraries emulating a 64bit EFI).
The best native GPU you could buy at 2006 for a MacPro 1,1 was the ATI X1900XT. (Still have that in my hardware shelf wrapped in anti-static plastic).

What you can do to have fun again with that box:

Downgrade the firmware to 2,1 (You need that for a CPU Upgrade to 3.0GHz Xeon CPU's, if you want this.)
Try again your Snow Leopard installation and upgrade it to Lion (10.7.5) then.

OR:

Downgrade the Firmware to 2,1
Buy a CPU upgrade to the maximum possible on ebay to two 3.0GhZ
Xeons.
Install the CPU's (one ebay seller even provides an
installation video for it; contact me for the link.)
Install Mavericks.

I currently need to suppress the urge to book the next flight to you, fixing that good old manually sickened MacPro. :-)


iPhone fails to activate after a restore I am using iPhone 4 which was with iOS 7.0 and I had the common problem with WiFi being grayed out. I am sure that Find My iPhone was active and I restored it in DFU mode.

Now, after the restore, attempting to complete activation shows the following error:

  The iPhone could not be activated because an unknown error occurred.
  Please try again later.

What can I do?

To be clear, when you're saying the phone doesn't activate, do you mean to say that the cellular service is unavailable on the phone?

If so, I would try two steps first, and if those don't work, there are some other options floating around.

1) Try ejecting and reinserting the SIM card. This forces a reconnection attempt to the cell service provider's network. Make sure you're in a location where you normally get service to ensure your location isn't causing the problem.

2) If, after this, your connections still don't work, try restoring network settings. I know this is a cliche suggestion, and you did just restore your phone, but I've seen it work a lot. This too forces a reconnection attempt to your cell service provider's network.

If these don't fix your problem, go to an Apple store and have them check the hardware on your device to ensure it isn't failing/dead. It's a free and quick diagnostic.


How do I use Image Capture to wirelessly scan to my Mac OS X? How do I use Image Capture to wirelessly scan from Brother MFC-490cw flatbed to my Mac OS X?  I go to Image Capture and get an Overview scan, but then cannot actually scan the image next.  Wher

To the right of the scan overview, there should be a pop-up list named Auto Selection. If it's set to off, then you should either select an option from there or select which part of the overview image to be scanned yourself by clicking and selecting the image.


How to eliminate noise on iPad analog/headphone output? I'm a musician with a home studio.  I've been wanting to incorporate my iOS devices (iPad 3, iPad mini retina, and iPhone 4s) into my music making for years, but only recently have synchronization and MIDI technologies gotten to where they needed to be.  Now I can sync my devices to my mac running Ableton Live, but this is where the trouble began.

In order to actually hear my devices, I'm running them through an analog line mixer alongside the output of my Mac.  The trouble is that the amount of noise coming out of the headphone jack of the iOS devices is outrageous.  It's not just normal line noise however, I'm hearing all kinds of access and data transfer going on.  It comes & goes in bursts, some lasting only a couple seconds, some lasting much longer.  Also there is a horrible, continuous high frequency whine, and little blips & "glitchy" sounds, much like if you've ever had your cell phone pick up noise from a computer, etc.  Bottom line it it's all horrendous to listen to, and definitely not acceptable for any sort of music making.

But here's the interesting bit.  If I disconnect the device from the Mac - all is quiet.  Not just quiet, but SILENT, except for the audio I'm actually playing on the device.  It's pure heaven to listen to... absolutely pristine.  But connect the Mac again and... back into the bowels of audio hell.

This is true on all 3 of my iOS devices, with completely different cables.  It's also true if I connect to my USB hub.  However, if I provide power to the iOS device via an external source (like a Lenmar portable power pack), then I do NOT get any noise.  It seems like some sort of grounding issue or something that only happens when physically connected to the Mac in some way.

Is there anything I can do to remedy this?  As it stands now, the analog outputs are simply unusable for music making if I want the devices to be powered at the same time (and with how much power some of these apps draw, power is really a practical requirement).  I've experimented with the MusicIO app, which allows for digital audio over USB.  While it does actually work, I'm having audio glitch issues with it which are unacceptable (and completely different from the noise described prior).  I also have an iConnectAudio4+ which works for digital audio, but only on a single iOS device at a time so really also doesn't get me what I'm after.  Anything I can do to "isolate from ground" or whatever else might be causing this horrible noise?

EDIT:  Some additional interesting info.  The noise is not actually in the analog path of the iOS device audio.  It's being introduced somehow into the path of my entire audio system by the analog out of the iOS devices, but is not in that signal path.  To illustrate this, I can turn OFF the mixer that the iOS devices are going into, so that no signal at all is passing through.  Yet I still hear the noise on the main outs of my system.  If I unplug the analog out of the iOS devices - even though they are not currently able to pass sound anyway - the noise stops completely.

EDIT 2:  I'm pretty certain now that this is a ground loop issue inside the iOS devices themselves.  I can essentially break the loop by disconnecting either the Mac, or the audio output.  If both are connected - even if the audio output of the iOS device is muted entirely - then I get all sorts of access noise coming out of my main system audio outs.  But since this appears to be inside the iOS devices, I can't really do anything to "lift" or otherwise isolate the ground.  I'm really stumped on what I can do about this other than add some sort of pro-level 3rd party docking solution to get balanced audio out (or even digital).  But I really don't want to do this.

Well to my shock and amazement, I seem to have solved the problem on my own.  Looks like it was actually related to the specific USB wiring of my setup.

I have a 10-port USB Hub (un-powered as I lost the AC adapter at some point) with most of the ports filled (a USB mic, a couple pieces of external MIDI gear, iPhone, Mac keyboard, etc.)  In addition to the devices I just mentioned, I also had my audio interface connected to this hub, but had forgotten that it was so.  The iPad mini was connected directly to the mac.

By switching things around and connecting the audio interface directly to the mac instead of to the hub, all extraneous noise disappeared completely.  Everything is pristinely quiet now (as best as I can tell at the moment, being that this is an active household and it's not exactly silent very often).  Definitely the constant whirring and chirping and data noises I was hearing before, are gone.  As is the high pitched whine.  Interestingly the iPad works fine connected to either the Mac or the hub, however does not get power if connected to the hub, so I'm leaving it on the mac.

Just goes to show how critical the way things are plugged in can be.  Just because it's a USB port, does not always mean it's the right one to plug into!  =)


Easy solution to use a SmartCard with a 15" MacBook Pro? I am looking for a simple solution that would enable my MacBook Pro to read smartcards and use them with Cisco AnyConnect VPN solution.

Do you know what cards are supported on OS X Lion?

I'd imagine any USB smart card reader should work. Here's one from the Apple site, assuming your card is similar looking to this - http://store.apple.com/us/product/H2312LL/A


Can I run one KeyQuencer Macro from inside of another? KeyQuencer is a macro/automation app for Classic Mac System 7.

I have a bunch of Macros already defined and I'd like to call Macro A from Macro B.
Possible workarounds I've dismissed out of preference:

duplicate the code from A into B
put all code in external text files (Open allows you to use the contents of a text file as the macro)

Is there a way to easily call one Macro from inside of another?

I can't believe this but the answer is so obvious I'm embarrassed.
Call the second macro from the first using it's hotkey!


Moving off iCloud Music - How do I download all my music? So after 5 years I've decided to switch to Android and I have almost 100GB of music stored on Apple's servers after uploading them there via the paid iCloud Music service. I want to download the high quality versions of my music on iCloud onto an external drive so I can then subsequently worry about getting them all onto the equivalent Android music service.

Can anyone suggest a way of doing this that will not involve downloading every track individually (and possibly losing my mind in the process)?

Open iTunes. Create a smart group that includes music that is not on your computer (location = iCloud). Make sure the group has live updating. Create a second group that includes music where iCloud status is "matched", file location is on your computer, and quality is under 256 Kbps. Again, ensure live updating.

In the second group, select all and delete the tracks - but do NOT delete from iCloud, only locally (you'll get a pop-up - it will ask if you also want to delete from iCloud - DO NOT choose yes!!). This should clear all low-quality local files for anything in Apple Music.

Go back to the first list. Select all and click the cloud icon to download the files locally. Keep doing this until this list is empty (that is, there are no tracks left that are only saved in iCloud).

Go to your Music folder. Everything you have in your iTunes library will be here (~/Music/iTunes, probably in a subdirectory such as "iTunes Media"). Copy everything here to an external drive. That should do it.

Note that you can ignore any files in the iTunes Media folder that are not music, such as iOS apps. Also note that some media will not transfer to another platform (iTunes album extras, some video content). You may also want to check for DRM on any older tracks - you can remove DRM by selecting the file and choosing "Create AAC Version" to make a copy with no rights management, or (for matched files) deleting the local copy and re-downloading it from iCloud.


Yosemite: How can I diagnose problem where Chrome won't download anything When I try to download anything in chrome, nothing happens (eg. saving an image with right click). When I try to download an extension, chrome says This item is already being downloaded and added into Chrome. I looked "under the hood" and the Download folder is correctly set. Downloads work in safari. This problem also persists in Chromium. I have tried several solutions to my problem, but I simply cannot download anything. I tried deleting my chrome profile, pasting a past solution into terminal, as well as completely deleting all chrome applications I could find and reinstalling. I thought this could be a cache problem and deleted the cache (sudo rm -rf ~/Library/Caches) as well as my Google Library folder (rm -rf ~/Library/Google). However, none of these attempts have affected my situation

What could be causing this issue? How do I diagnose this problem?

I updated my system software now everything works