Mac Mini white screen - no recovery / no os installed I wiped (all partitions) a MacMini without knowing it was running bootcamp. This caused it to go to a Windows screen that said "no bootable device" when I used cmd R during boot to select a DVD or USB drive to boot from.

I got rid of that error with an NVRAM reset but...

Now, if I insert a Yosemite install DVD and use cmd during startup to select the DV, I hear the DVD spinning and the Mac sits at a white screen.

I created a Yosemite USB installer, it does the same thing as the DVD.

I also created a Lion Recovery USB, it does the same thing, white screen.

What else can I do to install OSX or to install a recovery partition to install OSX?

Thanks!

Try a SMC/NVRAM reset while no device is plugged in. If that doesn't work, then connect it to another Mac and use Target Disk Mode to reinstall OS X


Battery issue with iOS7 and iPhone4 So, I have IOS7 installed in my iphone 4.

I first noticed this bug as follows:
When I get home around 18h I plug-in the computer, and at around 23h before going to bed it's already 100% for some time, phone is not even hot from charging anymore.
Before sleeping, unplug the computer, then I hold down the power button and slide the red banner to completely power it off.
Next day at around 8am when going out, I turn-on the iphone and the batery is at ~80%... WTF?

So after realising this issue was persistent, I tried some other tests... turn off wifi or 3g or both before sleeping, phone simply doesnt care, even in airplane mode the cellphone simply goes drunk and waste it's juice.
If I completely leave it off for more than 3 days, there's no way to turn it back on again withouth plugging to a computer or charger.
Can people post here and comfirm if this issue also hapens in other iPhones 4, 4s, 5, 5c and 5s?

Now, that's a serious deal breaker, cuz back in april 2012 (other IOS) I traveled abroad and left my iphone 4 in airplane mode for over a month cuz I had no place to charge it, and the batery withstand a month of alarm-clock and notes reading usage still with spare capacity.

Now I wonder, what exactly is iphone doing to drain the batery even after completely turn-off procedure...
iCloud synching? Or maybe some powered-off location tracking? <<----- This is serious!!!

I hoped someone would notice this and fix, but since now I can't find this issue not even on google.
And I have to travel again april 2014, I probably wont have electricity for quite some time again... Guess I will have to depend on paper and wirst-clock-alarm, oh my =(

There have been many reports of older devices that run iOS 7 that get significantly less battery life. iPhone 5s and 5c aren't affected. iPhone 5 gets hit a little. iPhone 4S gets affected more. iPhone 4 would be getting hit the most! As for what will help, turn off location services and turn down screen brightness are good starts. Good luck!


I have a 2008 Macbook Pro will a 85w power cord work? I have a 2008 Macbook Pro and my cat recently chew through that power cord. I bought a 85w adpater but I don't want to open it if I know it won't work.

Does an 85w work with a 2008 Macbook pro or should I exchange it for the 60w?

According to Apple knowledge base entry HT2346 the 85W power adapter is the right one. However, there seem to be issue with "T" style (the old) vs. "L" style (the new): see this thread. It seems that for some people, a workaround does the trick:

  Turn off your computer, flip over the laptop and remove the battery, hold down the circlular button on the battery for 10 seconds, the green light should go out. Re-install the battery and turn your computer on. Your new charger should work fine.

If that doesn't work, you need to call Apple support to arrange for your power adapter to be replaced with a "T" style adapter:

  Apple is aware of the issue with the pins being at a different depth in the new chargers with the "L" shaped connection. After having two new ones not work, I contacted tech support. They sent a new version of the old charger with the square mag safe connector. It works fine.

Edit: Apparently the MacBook SMC Firmware Update 1.4 should fix the "L" style power adapter issue on older MacBooks.


The space in the others section of iTunes is taking 1.85GB I have an iPod touch 4g on iOS 6.0.1; 8GB. The others section in iTunes takes 1.99GB. I don't have more than 20 contacts, no email accounts, and not more than 5 notes.

First what I backed up and restored my iPod and again restored from my backup to get my apps again. I did this 5 times and Others remained at 1.99GB.

NOTE: I don't have any music and removed all mail, music, and contacts for this.

I tried deleting the music folders of iTunes from diskaid and Others dropped to 1.85GB. That still seems like too much.

What should I do?

UPDATE: i dont have any big apps except FIFA 13. All othersare less than 100MB each. Excluding FIFA 13 all the other apps and photos takes 547MB.

Even with 10 apps, make sure none of them is containing lots of documents (e.g., an eBook or comic book reader).

Or download iExplorer (free for file system access) and browse through the content of your device.

Also, you can try this:

Connect your device to the computer.
Open iTunes and select it.
Go to the Applications tab.
Scroll down to the Share Files section and.
Select every app one by one and see what documents can be transferred to your computer (you'll be able to check its size).


Default to ActiveSync for Exchange Calendar Even though I have Exchange ActiveSync set up in my iPhone 6 settings, when I create a new appointment it defaults to iPhone calendar instead. How do I set the ActiveSync calendar as the default?

Choose a default calendar in Settings → Mail, Contacts & Calendars → Default Calendar (right at the bottom).


Add feature to SelfControl software : choose network interface to block SelfControl is an open source software to block Internet connection for a time period. However, it blocks connection from ALL network interfaces.
I'm looking for someone that would like to add a function in order to allow the user to choose the network interface to block. The goal is to block only the WiFi connection and let the ethernet working.
The source code is available at github.

Have you tried contacting Charlie Stigler or Steve Lambert, the creators of SelfControl? An offer to fund the feature would also likely help.

I expect you will get a better response from your enhancement request on the SelfControl issues page. More potential developers will see requests there and others will be able to back the issue to highlight its potential.


A way to generate a universal image URL that works between Mac and iOS (DropBox, iCloud, other?) I'm looking for a way to make all my markdown file universal that is work on iOS, Mac, even Linux/Window/Android.

I want to have a single folder where I stick all my images and then point to that folder from whatever OS/device I'm using. For example

~/img/image.png

would be readable in the .md file from anywhere.

Does anything like that exist? Can I use iCloud or Dropbox for that?  Are there any other solutions people may suggest?

I want to have a single folder where I stick all my images and then point to that folder from whatever OS/device I'm using [and] would be readable in the .md file from anywhere.

What you're looking for is a cloud based service.  There are several image specific services that can do this for you:

Flickr/SmugMug
500px
Imgur (used by Stack Exchange)

However, you're not limited to a service that only supports images.  iCloud (pending), DropBox, OneDrive, etc. all the ability to do what you want.  For instance, using the following markdown code, I can insert the following image hosted on my OneDrive account:

Code:
<img src="https://kl8ofa.bn.files.1drv.com/y4mW66FhA4IBlnLBez4t70-rBq51PBEoTI6USX6Kxn46GjR-xfXtWz3knMJm6MbqIOwqutlneyiaDLQvj_upQgrhVjIsjQFjmHEb_DPIsIwQtzE1KD52cMyrRkZuSFQw-vJdTSkIfQfcU3IOPTj0VxC_o_Sbew8NK7I9RtUBAmfCk1NXqURe0BIVkt2-NeHQhadleH2VG0HN8e5PV3BggllSA?width=2048&height=2048&cropmode=none" width="400"

You can even create a download link to the original wallpaper file by using supported HTML within your markdown:

Code:
original wallpaper file

Now, understand, that link must be generated by the service unless you plan to host the images yourself (way too much work!).

More Examples:

Dropbox:

Code to Embed image:

Important note:  To embed the image and not make it appear in the DropBox widget, you need to replace the ?dl=0 at the end of the URL with ?raw=1.

Code:
Download link for Think Correctly Wallpaper

Download link for Think Correctly Wallpaper

Box.Com

Unfortunately, you can't embed an image from Box.com because their widget is incompatible with Markdown.  However, you can still share the link  Apple Leather Desktop Walpaper  like the others above.

Code:
 Apple Leather Desktop Walpaper

Image Attribution.  None of these wallpapers are mine.  They are the work of the original artist and I claim no ownership.  These were sent to me or I found them in my travels on the Internet.

Summary

Other than the dedicated services, OneDrive and DropBox seem to have the best integration (IMO) for both embedding and linking images into a markdown document.  I'm partial to OneDrive and it's integration directly into macOS, but preferences vary.  DropBox is a bit more efficient with respect to the length of the link.  Box.com falls short in that you can't embed images but you can link to them.


Catalina Messages app: run applescript on receive new message & when the message is read? Are applescripts for Messages still saved in /Library/Application Scripts/com.apple.iChat?  That seems like an odd location, but I didn't find a folder for com.apple.messages

I tried saving this in the com.apple.iChat folder, but nothing happened:

using terms from application "Messages"
    on message received
        display dialog "testing"
    end message received
end using terms from

You could try Jared, which is an iMessage Chat Bot: https://github.com/ZekeSnider/Jared

There's a sample plugin in the repository, yet this requires some Xcode knowledge.

It seems Apple removed the handler because they launched iMessage for Business https://developer.apple.com/business-chat/. If you look into the API, there‘s a „Message received“ handler, so it may be possible using that service, but probably not a good idea for personal stuff.

Edit2:
Back to the SQL solution, this article dives pretty deep in explaining: https://stmorse.github.io/journal/iMessage.html

Edit3:
I found the following repositories based on nodejs :
https://github.com/CamHenlin/imessageclient
https://github.com/CamHenlin/imessagebot


Teaching Mavericks' Text-To-Speech how to pronounce I find the best way to proof read a piece of text (such as an email message) is by having my computer read back to me what I have written.  I highlight the piece of text, right click->Speech->Start speaking.

Sometimes, I find that it doesn't pronounce words correctly.  I found a built-in app (~\Applications\Utilities\VoiceOver Utility)
Under speech, and the tab Pronunciation, where ostensibly I can tell the text-to-speech engine how to phonetically pronounce a word.

For some reason, the text-to-speech simply doesn't update, and continues to mispronounce words I have already entered into the dictionary.  I've tried quitting my application, I've tried restarting my computer.. I just can't understand why it's not working.  Help please!

As far as I'm aware, the pronunciation table of the Voice Over Utility only works when using the Voice Over feature, but not in the 'normal' text-to-speech feature. It's sad.


As the Mac mini has no battery, would it fail or just suspend if the power is cut? I was interested in buying a Mac mini for work (I love Linux but it requires too much maintenance).

However, it turns out that it has no battery at all (different to a MacBook Pro/Air etc).

I have never owned a Mac and I would like to know what happens if electrical power is missing for a few seconds? (It happens.)

Does it have kind of "snapshot" function or would it result in losing everything I was doing (if not saved)?

As with any computer which does not have a battery you will lose everything not saved to disk if you unplug the computer from the power  supply. If you use a Mini in an unstable environment, adding a UPS might reduce the risk of data loss.


Why is the App Store not automatically showing the update for macOS Sierra? App Store is not automatically showing the update for macOS Sierra?

OS X version: 10.10.5

Update (Oct 3, 2016)

Apple will now automatically download the upgrade for macOS Sierra on computers running OS X 10.11 El Capitan. You will see it automatically download as long as you have enough disk space, and have Automatic Updates enabled.

You must still specifically run the installer to upgrade to macOS Sierra.

Original Answer

macOS Sierra is not an update. It is an upgrade.

In macOS/OS X, upgrades are not automatically offered to you through the Update tab of the Mac App Store, nor the Automatic Updates functionality. You will not see behaviour like Microsoft offering Windows 10. You must specifically download the installer (and run it) to upgrade to macOS Sierra.

Either click on its entry in the Mac App Store (currently in the Featured tab), or by opening this direct link.


Deauthorize old user on my iTunes without their Apple ID I think that my ex-boyfriend's music is still syncing with my iTunes. It is syncing via the cloud.  We both used to share the iTunes and now he has his own on his own computer (I assume).

Is there anyway I can view what users are authorized on my iTunes and delete one without knowing their Apple ID and password? Also, I do not have cloud set up so this is kind of creeping me out lol.  We have VERY different musical tastes and I'd love for these songs to stop randomly popping up in my iTunes (they are really inappropriate).

Yes! You can deauthorize any of the computers or devices authorized for your iTunes account. If you have access to a computer, the easiest thing to do is to open iTunes and go to Store -> View Account in the menus. (That is on my mac iTunes, it might be slightly different on Windows.)

In your Apple ID summary, you can see Computer Authorizations and Deauthorize All (you can easily reauthorize your own computers after this, since you have the password -- which you might want to change!) A little lower down you should also see "iTunes in the Cloud" where you can press "Manage Devices" to see the iOS devices authorized on your account and remove the ones you don't like.


Can I stop Dropbox from automatically updating itself on OS X? Dropbox seems to auto-update itself on OS X. Problem is that the latest version of Dropbox doesn't support OS X 10.10.0 which I have to run for compatibility with other apps.

I tried re.installing an older version of Dropbox, which then works for a few minutes before it updates itself again.

Is there a way to stop Dropbox from updating itself so I can stay with an older version of Dropbox?

Your may try moving it from /Applications/ to /Applications/Utilities. Dropbox does not automatically updates when I keep it in Utilities folder.


Wrong factory display callibration for MacBook Pro 2016 15" I believe that there is an issue with the factory calibration of my 15" MacBook Pro 2016. This was the first MacBook with a DCI-P3 display and I got mine in December. I want to find out if this is a known problem and is this fixed in some of the later batches.

The color management profile for the display is retrieved from the hardware on every reboot and stored in /Library/ColorSync/Profiles/Displays/Color LCD-<UUID>.icc where UUID is a hardware identifier. This profile is said to be individually calibrated in the factory during production.

Upon examination, it appears that the hardware provided profile is more close to sRGB colorspace than to the DCI-P3 one.

Color LCD colorspace over the generic Display P3 profile (gray).

The colorspace difference is quite visible on this screenshot. Inner triangle is Color LCD, outer is Display P3.

When using Color LCD all the colors are blown to the P3 colorspace, resulting in quite vivid colors. Also I'm unable to view the Webkit color gamut site correctly. If I'm using the Display P3 profile everything looks better. In both cases I don't have an individually calibrated display.

I would like to find out:

If this is a recognized problem by Apple. I believe this might be an issue with the first batch of 2016 MBPs. Issue such this shouldn't stay unnoticed.
Is there a way to regenerate the Color LCD icc profile, but with wider gamut, keeping the individual calibration data intact. Will changing rXYZ/gXYZ/bXYZ (colorant tristimulus) be the way to go?

EDIT:
I did dump EDID from the display, and the Chromaticity Coordinates (bits 23-34 differ from the ones in the Color LCD profile. Using them to recreate the ICC profile makes one very close to the Generic DCI-P3 one. Seems the EDID contains right information, but macOS is not generating a valid color profile. I did fire a rdar, let's see..

After waiting for almost two years for Apple to fix this clearly software bug (Apple Care active for this machine), I went to an AASP and requested a display replacement. The issue was demonstrated (along with a few sq. mm of missing coating) and was replaced for free.


MacBook Pro HDD corrupted files and bad blocks? Find command running for 4 days; Disk Utility reports no errors Computer:

Late 2011 MacBook Pro 13"
Factory 500 GB serial ATA (5400 RPM) HDD

Problem:

A few days ago my computer started running extremely slow — could barely perform the most basic functions like typing.

What I've done:

I ran an Apple hardware test (both the long and short one), but eventually it always froze (and allegedly continued running for hours) at a certain time — but did not say what exactly it was testing.

I also tried to repair the disk and permissions in Disk Utility via recovery mode, but it found no disk issues (fixed numerous permissions issues though).

None of the above helped to resolve.

Therefore, I tried to copy some of the important folders I was working with (because Time Machine stopped working a few weeks ago) and it wouldn´t let me copy some video files, returning errors.

After reading StackExchange, I ran this SMART Utility and it turns out I have just over 100 bad blocks in my HDD, with 40 000 files corrupted.

Easy question:

I am assuming this means that my HDD is dead and I should get a new one?

Follow-up questions:

I followed the advice on another question, to enter this into Terminal:

find / -type f -print -exec dd if={} of=/dev/null bs=1m \;

It has been running for 4 days straight without freezing — but the post above said it should freeze when it hits a bad block. It seems it's been going through all the files in my computer and allocating new space to the bad blocks.

How long should I wait for this to finish?

Is good for this to be running so long? Should I let it finish, or should I not waste time and start setting up a new HDD?

In response to your first and easy question, yes, your HDD is dying and needs to be replaced ASAP.  Now is a good opportunity to change it to an SSD.  Here is a good video on YouTube that shows you how.

I am not sure why you would use dd to fix bad blocks/sectors when DiskUtility has a more robust solution.

Boot into recovery mode by holding Command-R (or off a CD or USB Key)
Go into DiskUtility and under the First Aid tab, click "Verify Disk"
You should get a bunch of errors reported
Click "Fix Disk"

Now, you aren't fixing the disk per se.  You are marking the bad sectors as unusable so data doesn't get written there.

Once you do this...
Back up your files to another drive ASAP


Why does my iPod display "Artist Unknown" after I entered in the artists in iTunes? I had a bunch of songs on iTunes that didn't have artist names, so consequently, I didn't have artist names on my iPod touch. I added artist names to all the songs I have on iTunes and now the artist names are not even showing up on my iPod. It just says "Artist Unknown" I really have no idea what to do. Can someone help me?

I faced the same issue after upgrading my iPod touch to iOS 5.1.1. I ended up restoring it to factory settings, and setting to auto-sync with iTunes (I ordinarily prefer to sync it manually!). I also had to change not only all "artist" names but also "album artist" names, as the new software appears to list the music according to album artists.


Update from OS X 10.11 beta release to retail version A few days after it was released, I installed the first beta of OS X 10.11 El Capitan on my MacBook Air (Early 2015 model). The El Capitan beta has been running more or less stable and I only had some minor issues that were resolved in later beta releases.

It hasn't occurred to me to check my OS X version for a while. Upon doing so now, OS X still reads "OS X 10.11 Beta", but the Mac App Store doesn't display an available update.

How can I update to the latest retail version of OS X El Capitan?

I managed to update it now. The new OS X version wouldn't show up in the Updates tab of the App Store, but it was still listed on the front page. Just had to download that (which also includes the whole installer, so it's a little bigger) and updated the OS. Now it reads "OS X 10.11.1".


Will a MacBook work if bought from a different country? If I buy MacBook from Pakistan, will it work in Canada?

Yes it will. Just be sure you want the keyboard layout in the country where you buy. Changing the physical keys is practically a non-stater. Everything software will reconfigure properly.


Disable all iOS notifications I have set up an old iPhone 5 for my grandmother (85) which I set up with Apple Configurator to be in single app mode for the phone only.

I had turned off all the notifications, and made sure that nothing in the background would interfere with the Phone app freezing - due to having an alert that couldn't display but needed action.

However, recently there was an iOS update to 10.3.4 and there are no settings to turn off System notifications. I was wondering if anyone had a fix, or any understanding on disabling notifications for other apps when in single app mode?

Until recently the latest version of iOS available for the iPhone 5 was iOS 10.3.3.

iOS 10.3.4 and 9.3.6 were updates for older devices (released at the same time as iOS 12.4) to fix a problem that may cause problems with GPS location performance and/or lead to the system date and time being incorrect. It's only because of the nature of the bug they were fixing that Apple released these updates years after the last update for these older versions of iOS.

So, the reason for my explaining all this is that it'd be best to just update the iPhone 5 you gave your grandmother and then the likelihood of another system notification is extremely unlikely (iOS 10.3.3 was release about two years before this one).

For more information on this update, refer to: Update your iPhone or iPad software to avoid issues with location, date, and time on Apple's website.


Set audio output source per application I want to do something simple I want my music to play on my headphones and and the rest of the sounds just on my MacBook speakers.

Is it possible to set different outputs for audio?

I believe this would require an external soundcard. The MacBook's soundcard is built to output one channel of sound, not two. You can purchase audio interfaces with multiple outputs for relatively cheap from any audio retailer, both online and in-store.


Syncing photos from iPhoto on a Mac to Photos under iOS8 iTunes used to have an option for syncing an iPhoto library with one's iPhone. This seems to be gone now, leaving only the option of syncing a folder of pictures from one's Mac. Is there some way to sync an iPhoto library, or should I export all these photos to a directory and sync that?

Sync Photos from ... iPhoto [or Aperture, a named folder, or Pictures]

All photos, albums, Events & Faces

That's everything.

Alternatively,

Selected albums Events & Faces & automatically include events from...


All contacts missing on icloud? Suddenly, my iphone no longer has any contacts saved.

When I go to icloud.com, my contacts section is empty.

I tried: settings-> advanced -> restore contacts, but I see "no archives available".

Any suggestions for how I can troubleshoot this (or restore my contacts?)

I think your problem is that you may have removed an email or account that had all of your contacts stored! If this is the case, you need to try and get that account back on your phone!


How do I launch Terminal while in macOS Sierra Recovery Mode? I just installed macOS Sierra and when I log into the Recovery mode, I do not have the Utilities menu in it. Only the 4 options, Restore From Time Machine Backup, Reinstall macOS, Get Online Help and Disk Utility.

How can I access Terminal from OS Recovery?

This is a bug in the recovery Mode, also the same issue if you create a USB Device for install. Try to load Recovery Mode again and choose one the the four available options that should get the menu back.

I've tried boot from USB Device three times until the menu was visible.


Why is the shortcut to "select previous tab" not reliable in Safari? Quite frequently the shortcut to "select previous tab" in Safari does not trigger. Unfortunately, I've not been able to see a pattern of when this happens. Restarting Safari usually (always?) helps.

The shortcut is ctrl+⇧+⇥.

How can  troubleshoot this problem?

I've never experienced this in Safari, and I expect there is some sort of conflicting shortcut. Either that, or "quite frequently" your mouse focus is in Flash or Java, and shortcuts aren't being sent to the browser (which doesn't seem terribly likely given the frequency).

Due to having switched to Safari after several years in a row of using Chrome and Firefox, I've set the Previous/Next Tab commands to ⌥+⌘+←/→, using System Preferences. Again, I've never had any issues with switching, so I'd suggest (if you're willing, and can't find the source of the problem) to set it to another shortcut you can remember.


How to remove shortcuts from Launchpad installed by Windows through Parallels 10? I installed Java in Windows 8.1 through Parallels Desktop 10 and got ugly Java shortcuts in my Launchpad.
I tried to launch "Java configuration tool" right click then remove from Launchpad, but it's still here.

How can I remove it?

updatetool and Java Control Panel should be removed.

Just found a useful article for my problem: http://kb.parallels.com/112798

1) Open finder, then press Shift+CMD+G and type "~/Applications/"
2) Locate your Virtual Machine's folder (there will be 2 similar folders, click on one that has application icons inside)
3) Remove all necessary shortcuts and they will be gone from Launchpad as well.


Confused over Mac Pro 1.1 EFI firmware 32 vs 64 bit: patch firmware or OS installer? I have the original Intel Mac Pro 1.1 and I know it has a 64-bit CPU (Xeon), yet it has 32-bit firmware. However, I know that it's possible to patch it to run 64-bit OS, like OS X Mavericks (which I used to run on it via SFOTT).

I now run VMware ESXi 6.0.0 on the machine so I can run VMs. ESXi 6.0 is the last version officially support on the Mac Pro 1.1, but just like OS X Lion -> Mtn Lion, I am reading that it is indeed possible to run VMware ESXi 6.5 on the machine.

My question is this: Do I need to "patch" the firmware of the Mac Pro 1.1, or simply the ISO installer of the OS? When I installed Mac OS X Mavericks I simply patched the ISO. I found this post about installing ESXi 6.0 on a Mac Pro 1.1 and in the comments the author says he thinks the process is the same for ESXi 6.5, but is not sure.

Resolved. I was able to simply patch the ISO/installer: https://hacker223.wordpress.com/tag/macpro/


Adding an IMAP account without saving emails locally in Mail 7.0 I want to add an IMAP-account to Mail.
Since I've used this account for many years, it contains thousands of emails and archive folders, and I really don't want to fill up my SSD with that.

I couldn't find a way to limit synchronization to a certain time frame or specific folders (I guess that's not really the concept of IMAP).

I found out that there used to be a "Don't keep copies of any messages" checkbox in Mail's preferences, so emails would not be stored locally.
I would be completely satisfied with this solution, however, in Mail 7.0 this option was removed (which I don't understand, seems like such a basic function to me).

Does anybody have a solution for this?

Suggestions for alternative software are welcome as well (in case there's really no way to use Apple Mail without downloading my entire mail history).

Please check this question.

One way to save space is to exclude attachments from download.
I think you have to uncheck: Account->Advanced->Automatically download all attachments


Why is the minimize window function disabled sometimes? Once in a while, the yellow minimize button on some windows is greyed out, and the Window → Minimize menu entry is likewise disabled. Right now, for example, this is the case with two open Terminal windows. If I open a new Terminal window, it can be minimized, but the old ones remain unminimizable (if that's a word). I tend to think of this as a bug. Or is it a feature? If so, what causes it, and what can I do to enable minimization of these windows?

There was an old QuickTime bug that caused the minimise button to become disabled on some windows.

But also be aware the app can disable the minimise button itself.


How can I sign in on the Mac App Store with my Apple ID using the Terminal? For a project of mine I want to sign into the Mac App Store with my Apple ID using the Terminal. I'm currently using Mojave so I cannot use inbuilt sign in functions for libraries like mas

Currently mas does not support the signin command on Mojave.

No other purely Terminal-based method exists at the moment. There is none delivered with Mojave from Apple, nor does one exist currently as a third-party program.

However, you can use the following workaround:

https://github.com/tiiiecherle/osx_install_config/blob/master/05_homebrew_and_casks/5b_homebrew_cask/6_mas_appstore.sh

In lines 162-201 it uses Apple Script to open the Mac App Store GUI application, and automatizes entering the Apple ID credentials. Essentially this makes it possible to sign in using the command line, in scripts and similar.


applescript : add clipboard content to list Can I create a list from the clipboard?

Let's say my clipboard is `name email phone and any random number of text

Can the words be separated and added in a list?

Also the item can be either text and numbers, but I guess the best way would be to do a text delimiter by space?

Let's say my clipboard is "name email phone" and any random text and numbers.
Can the words be separated and added in a list?

You don't realise it, but you've answered your own question.
TL;DR
Say your clipboard contains the string "Kevin stackexchange.com 124098".  Separate this into a list of words like so:
words of (the clipboard) --> {"Kevin", "stackexchange.com", "124098"}

You can read more about this builtin AppleScript feature below, where I've given a detailed explanation, including why, sadly, this won't be quite as effective if an email address is involved:
words of "Kevin@example.com" --> {"Kevin", "example.com"}

So you'll either need to remember to restore the obliterated "@" symbol later; or, as you suggested, use text item delimiters set to a space character.
Detailed Information: text item delimiters vs words
AppleScript text objects are comprised of word and character elements that subdivide one another into the component building blocks of any string: text subdivides into words and/or characters; a word subdivides into characters.
Moreover, the words subdivide text at intervals marked by whitespace of any length, which is much more convenient than text item delimiters, which will split a string at each individual occurrence of a specified delimiter.
For example, setting text item delimiters to the space character, and applying it to a two-word phrase with three spaces between them, you'll end up with this:
text items of "foo   bar" --> {"foo", "", "", "bar"}

However, obtaining instead the words that make up the string avoids having to deal with empty-string list items:
words of "foo   bar" --> {"foo", "bar"}

Moreover, like text items, words of a text object will subdivide the string naturally into a list of individual items.
For completeness, I'll quickly demonstrate how characters will decompose a string:
characters of "foo"       --> {"f", "o", "o"}
characters of "foo   bar" --> {"f", "o", "o", " ", " ", " ", "b", "a", "r"}

A bit of caution is warranted when decomposing a string into words, believing it operates identically (or near enough) to a space delimiter.  It doesn't.  There are a defined set of characters that are considered "word characters", and a set of characters that are not.  "Word characters" are any character that, when grouped together, are considered word-forming.  If any non-word character appears, the word is considered split into two distinct words at that character.
Word characters basically include the letters A-Z and a-z (and any accented variants), numbers 0-9, the period (.) and the underscore (_).  So "tH1s" is a word, and "this_is_a_single_word.123".  However, "this#is%four words", and, counterintuitively to me, "over-achieving" is considered two words (the hyphen is a non-word character).
Other non-word characters obviously include the space; or any whitespace for that matter.  Plus any symbol you can type with your keyboard that wasn't included in the list of word characters, except the dollar sign ($), which I annoyingly left to now to mention just to reflect how annoying it is that it's randomly considered a word character:
words of "hello#$&world" --> {"hello", "$", "world"}


How to access "Faster (fine)" and "Slower (fine)" playback controls on VLC for OS X? Else, what alternative? I'm a little impatient.  When I watch recorded technology conference sessions, I like to speed a video up during parts I can grok quickly, and slow it down to normal when knowledge isn't sinking in fast.

Until recently, I've been using the excellent VLC media player to do this on Windows.  VLC on Windows has commands to speed up and slow down in fine increments.  Witness:

The Faster (fine) permits speed-stepping from 1.00x to 1.10x, 1.20x, 1.30x, etc.  Contrast that to "Faster", which jumps directly to 1.50x.  Whoah, too fast!  (Well, I'll grant that 1.50x is sometimes useful: for keynote sessions where there's more fluff :-)

Anyway, I thought in moving to OS X that replacing VLC would be easy: Just get VLC for OS X. But, I discovered recently that VLC for OS X is missing the "(fine)" versions of the speed-stepping. There's only the too-fast one that jumps to 1.50x.  Witness:

Questions:

Is there a way to restore the "(fine)" versions of the commands to the Playback menu on VLC for OS X, or otherwise access them through some secret key-binding magick?  i.e. Are they hidden and I just can't access them? Or, does the OS X version of VLC completely lack these fine-grained controls?
Failing #1, what alternative & free video player for OS X offers such fine-grained speed-stepping controls?

Thank you.

Yes, VLC for OS X provides this level of control.

If you go into VLC » Preferences [aka. ⌘+,] » Hotkeys you'll find that you can associate hotkeys for both actions – Faster (Fine) and Slower (Fine) – and more:

You can find plenty of options here:

set them up the way you were used to using them on Windows,
set a hotkey for resetting playback speed back to normal etc.

Note: If your newly assigned hotkeys don't seem to be taken into account, you might need to quit VLC and start it again.


How can I restart the smart card service since OSX Yosmite without rebooting? In OSX Yosmite, the pcsc service was replaced with Apple's own "Crypto Token Kit" for handling smart cards.  We used to be able to restart pcscd like in this answer, but I have not been able to find a way using the new service.

Is there any way to restart the Crypto Token Kit without rebooting the machine?

Do you know what the process is for the Crypto Token Kit? Most likely, the answer
 would be similar to the one you linked, i.e. kill it and then restart it. The only thing is that any startup arguments may have changed.

I used to do something similar at times in that I would kill pscd to clear a situation, but I don't recall ever having to start it manually. I believe it either came back to life itself after a few moments or perhaps I triggered it by unplugging the smart card reader and then plugging it back in.

I would suggest trying to kill the process first and give it a minute or re-plug the reader. If that doesn't work, let us know?


iPad will not charge I can transfer data from trough a genuine Apple cable from my iPad to a PC but the same cable will not allow my iPad or iPhone 4s to charge battery using a multi point USB hub connected to a power point. how do I overcome this?

There are 3 kind of USB hubs.

Unpowered

Non-powered, or passive, USB hubs do not have an external power source and only pull power from the computer's USB port, limiting the maximum power to single USB (splitting).

Powered

Powered, or active, USB hubs use an external power source to bring each hub port to the same energy level as an on-system port, but not to charge them.

Powered with Charge capability

mostly have one (or more) of the USB ports capable of charging devices


How to see what process on iPad/iPhone is using data? I have my iPad using shared WiFi from my Mac. It's not plugged in, nothing's updating, nothing's open. But unless I have it on airplane mode I see it draining all the bandwidth from my Mac. Is there some app or settings view that shows what processes are using bandwidth?

On an unjailbroken device you can't see this information.

On iOS 7, you can only see cellular data usage ( Settings > Cellular network > Usage )

Maybe you could just try to kill one by one the apps that are running in background.


migration assistant fails to move data files Using Migration Assistant, with direct connection by Ethernet, between two Mac Minis, both running Mavericks.All my applications moved, but none of my data files.
Have tried moving my data to various locations on the source computer but nothing works.

I am sure you read the instructions how to migrate on Mavericks.

There is also the manual data transfer information here.


How to set the amount of IMAP email stored locally in Apple Mail? My provider told me that our mail server is suffering because of a HUGE usage, and, to be more specific, IMAP usage.

I tracked down the issue to four Macs that use IMAP on quite big email accounts (more than 5GB each).

My guess is that Apple Mail is storing locally a little amount of email, and send all search requests directly to the server. Can I set Apple Mail to have all the emails locally (so that searches are done only locally)?

Thanks,

(Assumptions: Clients are using Mail.app, clients are on a reasonably current version of the MacOS)

The point of IMAP is to store email on the server, so that the user can access their email from multiple devices and see the same list of messages. Also, this isn't a Mac specific thing, any email client using IMAP would be expected to maintain synced stores of email messages on both the client and the server, unless the user deliberately moves messages to a client-side only mailbox (which most clients allow).

As an aside, 5GB doesn't seem like a lot of email to me.

I would not configure Mail.app to send all emails to a client-side mailbox, but instead encourage users to create "On My Mac" mailboxes and store older email messages there.

To create an "On My Mac" mailbox in Mail.app, in the "Mailbox" menu choose "New Mailbox..." in the window that appears allowing you to name the mailbox, make sure that the "Location" pop-up is set to "On My Mac". The user would then have to manually move over the messages they wanted to store locally to the new mailbox. Note that this means you lose the ability to see the same list of messages from another client (like a phone) and moves 100% of the burden of backups to the client (but presumably you are backing up the client already).

To see how much space is being used by the various IMAP email boxes, right-click on the main inbox and select "Get Account Info". This should bring up a window showing all the IMAP mailboxes (Sent, Draft, etc.) and the space used by each.


High fan speed and CPU temp with low CPU usage? I've been having intermittent fan speed and high CPU temperature when my CPU usage is nearly 0%. I don't run any weird apps. If I put my computer into sleep mode and wake it back up, this fixes the issue. I think this is an System Management Controller(SMC) issue, but I'm not sure. Anyone know how to fix this permanently?

Try resetting the SMC as noted in the question for your MacBook Air and see if the problem persists.

If the problem does persist it may be a failing temperature sensor, resulting in the fans running faster than normal to worst case fail-safe full-speed state, your only option at that point would be to take it to Apple Support for repair / replacement.


Spotlight is disabled for my main volume $ sudo mdutil -i on /
/:
Error: unable to perform operation.  (-400)
No index.

Lately, I'm low on drive space on my main volume. But after I just deleted some stuff, the error remains:

$df -h
Filesystem                          Size   Used  Avail Capacity  Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2                       373Gi  337Gi   35Gi    91%    /
devfs                              183Ki  183Ki    0Bi   100%    /dev
/dev/disk0s4                        93Gi   60Gi   32Gi    66%    /Volumes/BOOTCAMP
map -hosts                           0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%    /net
map auto_home                        0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%    /home
localhost:/S6MhrIf1loZf9DznX1dkrf  373Gi  373Gi    0Bi   100%    /Volumes/MobileBackups

I noticed a similar error once in console.  If I recall, very similar errors start occurring regularly above 80% capacity, meaning you haven't freed up nearly enough yet.

There are several system activities that potentially eat a significant amount of space, like creating a new swap file. To protect such activities, Apple deactivates some space consuming activities, including indexing, once the drive is 80% full.

There might be system tuning parameters which you could tweak that control this.  In fact, those errors get seen vastly more often than mdutil's errors, meaning you might learn more by opening console, identify the related errors, and google them.

I've learned to consider all those annoying log messages a "feature" myself though since leaving 50ish gigs free for temporary emergency usage has more "utility" than filling that space with infrequently used junk.


Install Adobe After Effects 7.0 on OS X Yosemite I tried to install Adobe After Effects 7.0 on my Mac with OS X Yosemite but got an error Installation failed - an error occurred. (no details)
What can I do to fix this error? (I'm new to Mac/OS X)

You are going to need to download the latest version of Adobe After Effects.
https://www.adobe.com/products/aftereffects.html?promoid=KLXLW
I doubt are going to be able to download the old version of Adobe After Effects unless you go back to the OSX that used to be compatible with that version of After Effects (Which I don't recommend at all). You are just going to have to get used to the newer version of After Effects.


What version of Lion do I have? I know it might sound like a pretty dumb question, but it's the truth, I have no idea whats going on. You see, my brother used this iMac since the times it had Snow Leopard. I have no idea what he did, undid, redid, or disdid (yeah, I just invented a new word there).

The point is now I use this iMac, and I  was blissfully living without knowing some weird thing was going on... until today. I noticed 10.7.2 was released, cool, but it's not on Software Update, so I head to support.apple.com and download the client version manually.

It won't let me install.

Hmm... ok. I head to "About this Mac" and here is what I see.

Please notice the "Version 10.7.1". Should work, no? Well, I go to "More Info..." and, to my surprise, this is what I see.

Yup. Mac OS X Lion Server 10.7 (no 10.7.1) and not only that. Please note the build number. Turns out it apparently is the build version of Developer Preview 2. Nevertheless, I go to /System/Library/CoreServices/SystemVersion.plist and surprise! It says:

Yeah, thats another build version. It turns out it IS the build version of 10.7.1. So it is 11B26?

Mmmmm... no. System Overview says 11A418 too. Half of my mac believes its one version, half believes its the other, and ultimately I can't install 10.7.2: Neither the Server Combo nor the Client Combo. Any ideas why this is happening? Suggestions? Or will I have to make a long distance call to my brother and wait like 4 hours for Lion to download and install agian? Any comments/suggestions welcome!

It looks like a developer preview of Lion Server was installed at one point overtop your current consumer version of Lion. You can't do that.

I can't (under penalty of compromising my confidentiality agreement with Apple) go into detail but installation of Developer seeds are not so simple as to keep installing new versions. There is a process to ensure nothing breaks.

I assume your brother is not a registered developer and was not made privy to these processes, hence the errors above.

In short, your system is hosed. I would recommend reinstallation from either the MAS or using the Recovery HD (boot holding ALT ). It's of note that reinstallation of Lion will not remove the contents of the user profile and aside from having to download the OS, quite painless. Simply boot using the Recovery HD, select the location of the installation (your case, Macintosh HD) and sit back. Once done, you will have a fresh copy of 10.7. Then you can use Software Update to install 10.7.2 (and any other updates you require).

Then give your brother a good wallop for (allegedly) pirating OS X (and another for his ineptitude and pirating the wrong flavour)!


Issues with document syncing between iOS and host computer I had an app in my iphone which i recorded a meeting, (TSA) it said it was ready to sync to document folder. so I syncd and they all disappeared.

Where is the document folder located?

When itunes deletes from iphone is there any way to find those and restore?

Why did itunes delete apps that were installed?

Did you sync with a computer that you don't usually use? If you lost the app, you lost it's Documents directory, and your recording is gone.

Here's what is supposed to happen;

You're supposed to open iTunes and browse to your device. In the list of apps with the iOS Home Screen style view, there is a section at the bottom to select an Application, and manage it's Documents storage folder.

You do not need to sync in order to view up-to-date information in this screen. You are immediately able to save the data out of the app into a location on your computer.

Unfortunately, if you've sync'ed your phone and lost the app you've also lost the data from within it. There is little likelihood for data recovery on a Flash Disk device.


How Do I Import Burst Photos That Aren't Being Recognized By My iMac? I own a 2007 Macbook running Mac OS X Lion, a 2009 iMac running Mac OS X Yosemite and an iPad Mini 2/iPhone 6 Plus both running iOS 9. None of my burst photos will import using Image Capture or Photos. In fact, Image Capture and Photos don't even recognize them at all. I have over 1,000 images in my camera roll. Over half of them are individual photos that were once part of bursts. Yet, Image Capture and Photos only see around 300 photos in my camera roll, which are photos that were shot individually and were never part of a burst. Even when I go into my burst photos and select each photo within every burst so that they're showing in my camera roll as individual photos, none of them import. How can I import and backup all of my burst photos?

Please Note: This has been an ongoing issue for me ever since burst photos were first introduced.

Unfortunately, the below answer does not answer my question. All of the photos have already been separated from bursts by "selecting" each photo within each burst and also marked as favorites. They are all listed individually in my camera roll. Still, they are not being recognized by Image Capture and Photos. I need to know what to do so that they'll be recognized by Image Capture and Photos so that I can import them. Just to be clear, this is the problem that I am having: All of the photos from bursts are all present in my camera roll as individual photos, but they're not being recognized by Image Capture and Photos on my iMac, so they will not import.

No matter which burst photo,
until it isn't marked as 'Favorite' , it doesn't get to the actual 'Camera Roll'.

So,
Mark those photos as 'Favorite'. Then, try connecting your iOS Device to your Mac. Now, the 'Image Capture' app should open automatically. [If it didn't, check the cable connection(USB<->iOS Device) or manually open the app.
If you're not sure the problem is the wire(cable), see if the iOS device is being charged(of course this happens if you have turned on USB Charging in Settings).]

Also, there's a 3rd-party app named iExplorer  which can help you in many ways. I recommend this app, but I'm not responsible for any further problems within your Macs or iOS devices.

As the iPhone User Guide (By Apple, available on the iBooks Store for free) suggests:

  Take rapid-fire shots: (iPhone 5s) Touch and hold the shutter button to take photos in burst mode. The counter shows how many shots you’ve taken, until you lift your finger. To see the suggested shots and select the photos you want to keep, tap the thumbnail, then tap “Favorites.” The gray dot(s) mark the suggested photos. To copy a photo from the burst as a separate photo in Camera Roll, tap the circle on the lower-right corner. To delete the burst of photos, tap it, then tap .


OSX Photos Events and Albums Have same photos I have migrated from iPhoto to OSX Photos. All my Events are there with all their photos. Back in iPhoto I had Albums and Events with Events always the master. I could delete a photo from Albums and it would stay in Events. That was fine. What are the rules for Photos pls? I can see the same photos in both Events and Albums but when I search for a photo (that I know is in both places) it shows up only in Events. I delete a photo from Events and it stays in Albums. Any clues pls?

Events are now just albums. So, you can remove specific photos from Albums or "Events" without deleting the photo. Only if you delete a photo from the main Photos view is it actually deleted (and then, under File: Show Recently Deleted, you can recover it for 30 days).

I recommend deleting events that are no longer useful, as the Photos view now nicely converts into years and locations as you zoom out, which you might previously have manually set up as events.


Where are system environment variables set in Mountain Lion? In Lion (and previous releases) it was in .MacOSX/environment.plist. After upgrading to 10.8, the file is still there, but the variables aren’t taking.

I’ve also tried adding them to /etc/launchd.conf and they’ll show up in  Terminal, but not GUI applications (like my IDE).

I asked this question on the Apple Developer Forums as well and got back this, official response.

  Change the Info.plist of the .app itself to contain an "LSEnvironment"
  dictionary with the environment variables you want.
  ~/.MacOSX/environment.plist is no longer supported.


Implications of disconnecting the closed lid sensor/battery level indicator As a follow-up to this question MBP Mid 2009 thinks the lid is closed permanently I have identified (with a lot of help from google) where the closed lid reed switch is connected to the logic board, disconnected and insulated it.

The immediate side-effect of this was that my laptop now turns on every time without needing an external monitor or some voodoo where it would sometimes boot if I kept pressing the power button every time it went to sleep, this is a good thing.

A less positive side-effect is that I now have to manually put the laptop to sleep before I close the lid, not a huge problem if I'm honest. (Oh and the battery indicator lights no longer work, even less of a big deal)

My question is this, can anyone think of any other negative impact this may have on the machine over the long term? I'm considering just leaving the laptop as-is now.

The negative side is that it may power on (via paired bluetooth mouse or keyboard) while in your bag. Everything else is like having installed InsomniaX on your book.


How to fix sync issues in multi-output device? When I'm listening to music (iTunes) during the day, I'd like to have sound all around me.  So I've created a multi-output device out of my main audio interface (Propellerhead Balance) and my portable Bluetooth speaker (MagicBox II).  Unfortunately there is a significant sync issue between the two.  I'm not surprised that the audio signal would be delayed slightly with Bluetooth, but then I had hoped that the hardware interface would match the delay to compensate.  This is clearly not the case.  I have tried enabling drift compensation but it made no difference at all.

Is there a way to make this setup work with both output devices in sync?

The only solution I've found is to use the third party app AirFoil Speakers and use my iPad as the receiver for my "rear channel" audio (the BT Speaker).  I found an article documenting some debug settings that include per-device sync adjustments:

  To enable the sync adjustment, follow these steps:

  1) Quit and re-launch Airfoil while holding down the option key. This
  will bring up the debugging window.

  2) Turn the Sync Adjustment debugger to On, and click Done.

  Now each remote speaker will have an additional slider below the
  volume slider - that's the sync adjustment. The center is 0 offset,
  and the ends are +/-1 second. Adjustments only take effect when
  connecting, so if you're experimenting with it, you'll need to
  disconnect, adjust, and then reconnect to see how well it worked.

Very handy and works well once dialed in!  It's unfortunate that in addition to the BT speaker already purchased, this solution also needs both a commercial 3rd party app as well as an expensive iOS device, but unless there is an option somewhere within the Mac OS to adjust sync in a similar fashion but for hardware audio devices, this is going to have to do (and I'm fortunate to already have the iOS device).


Move items from old keychain to new keychain I've just done a clean Mountain Lion install, and one thing bothers me a lot:

How can I move passwords from my old keychain to the one created by the installer when it performed a clean install without a migration of data?

I copied my old keychain to ~/Library/Keychains and added it to the keychains list. It works except that I have to unlock it every time I log in. It's rather annoying and I'd much rather have all my passwords and certificates in one keychain.

I've tried to just Cmd+C/Cmd+V the passwords from old keychain to the new one, but it asks me about keychain's passwords for every item (and there are hundreds of them)

Any ideas?

As a workaround, you can make the password of the old keychain empty. You can do that by pressing the OK button for a second time after this error message is shown:

You can then just click the allow button repeatedly without having to type the password every time.


Deleting files from mac but not from iCloud I copied my files to the iCloud Drive directory:

I want to save them in iCloud but I dont want to use my disk storage.
How to delete files from my mac and keep it in iCloud Drive? Dont need to access them without downloading. I want to use iCloud as place for backup for my files.

How to delete files from my mac and keep it in iCloud Drive?

You cannot do this, because...

iCloud is a syncing platform and not primarily a backup platform.

  iCloud connects you and your Apple devices in amazing ways. It makes sure you always have the latest versions of your important information—like documents, photos, notes, and contacts—on whatever device you’re using. It lets you easily share photos, calendars, locations, and more with friends and family. It even helps you find your device if you lose it.

It's designed to give you access to your files from all your devices.  It's not designed to allow you to put a file there and then delete it from your device.

If you need an actual backup solution, you should look to Google, Dropbox, or OneDrive.  They'll allow you to do the file backups you need.


AppleScript to tell Adobe Reader to close a certain document Adobe Reader has N documents open. One of them has a known filepath and title and it needs to be programmatically closed. How to go about doing this in AppleScript? Specifically, how can I:

Talk to Reader
Access a list of documents currently opened
Select the document I need to close among the list above (I know: document path on the filesystem and document title, not necessarily "position" (e.g. frontmost, background, 3rd tab, or similar) or order in which it was opened)
Give Reader the command to close the file, not changing the active/frontmost document if the document to close was not in front of the user. Remembering which one was active, quickly switching to the one to close and back to the previous one is acceptable if it can be done almost imperceptibly

Hopefully this is a precise definition of the task, thanks for your help.

"Adobe Reader" is not really scriptable, you can't access to the objects (window, document), but You can use the GUI Scripting.

This script works well here.

set theTitle to "this name.pdf"

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Adobe Reader"
        tell window theTitle to if exists then perform action "AXPress" of (get value of attribute "AXCloseButton")
    end tell
end tell

This script requires that you enable access for assistive devices in the Universal Access System Preference pane.


Retina Macbook Pro 13" makes clicking noise once a second It's hard to describe the noise, so here's a recording. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDh-2qxeUGw&feature=youtu.be

My half-year-old retina MBP 13" started to make this clicking noise about once a second. The sound is very consistent, and just never stops. What is this, have you had it and how did you fix it?

The only moveable part in a retina macbook pro 13" is the fan as seen on the following picture: (courtesy of ifixit)

Therefore it must be an issue with the fan, particularly because the noise originates from the right side (imagine the macbook pro flipped and the fan will be on the right side). Either the fan failed or something got stuck in the fan and is preventing it from spinning. I suggest you take it into an Apple Store so they can have a look at it in detail.


How to Undo More than Once in Excel for Mac? I am using Excel for Mac version 16.28 and don't see how I would be able to Undo (Command Z) more than once as after undoing once a second undo will just undo the first undo and I have the state I started out with.

This doesn't seem to be an issue for other people.

Is there a setting to allow a deeper undo-redo chain in Excel for Mac?

Have you actually tried?

As I have used CommandZ multiple times on formulae I have edited several times and it steps back through the changes sequentially. Even changes sheets as necessary.

On version 16.29 & 365, the help file says 100 actions can be undone but there are exceptions...

Just tested by entering 0 to 9 in separate cells - CommandZ goes back through deleting them in the order they were entered.


Can the Mavericks install binary be shared between two different apple accounts? My question is similar to Re-use Mavericks install file, but instead of re-using the Mavericks install file on my own Macs, I would like to make a copy for a friend (so he doesn't have to download such a huge file over his slow connection).

Is this legal?

A side thought; Does this question even make sense if the binarys have the same checksum?

Is there anything unique to the install file? (e.g.: My app store account details.)

I was thinking if we dropped it in place in the /Applications dir and then he went to the app store and "bought" it, it would detect the file was already in place and proceed as if it had been downloaded.

(Not trying to do anything dodgy, just trying to save him from downloading a file that I already have.)

Yes, you can reuse the downloaded installer across Macs, even if they're using a different Apple ID account for The App Store. The installer contains nothing in it that prevents it from being used this way.

Data about App Store accounts comes from existing user data on the machine during the upgrade, it's not embedded in the downloaded installer.

The legalities of doing this seem fine: the upgrade is free and the user is required to accept the EULA when they run the installer application, before the install begins, so you're not bypassing some acceptance of this agreement by sharing the installer instead of downloading it from the App Store.

Edit and field test: A friend used my pre-downloaded copy of the installer on his MacBook Pro tonight and it worked just fine.


Music on iPhone/iPad grouped bizarrely despite being fine on iTunes I have some 'albums' in my iTunes library that look fine to me:

However, when I sync them to my phone and iPad, they become grouped in really weird ways:

If I play the album, all the songs are actually on the device:

I just can't see them in the actual listing.
I thought it might be the "Grouping" field in iTunes, but it's empty for all the songs, and the behaviour persists (even after several of the files have been replaced).

How do I get my devices to show me all my songs, not these weirdly grouped swap ins?  I'm on Windows, if it makes a difference.

Found it!
There is an additional field in the data: “Work”.  It doesn’t appear in the “Edit info” box, but you can make it appear as a column in playlists and the like.
The misbehaving tracks had had “Work” values set; I deleted them, synced it across, and then they were showing up as expected.
Note that editing this field doesn’t seem to qualify as an “edit” for the sync to pick up automatically, so I had to modify something else to make it re-copy those files.  (I added a space to the end of the song name, synced, then removed the space and synced again.


iPad application failed to install from iTunes on Windows I am trying to install an application on my iPad 2 from Windows. Whenever I do so, I am getting an alert on iPad: Application failed to install.

When I install the same application from iTunes on my MacBook, everything works fine and the application is successfully installed on the device. I am sure it is not the case of some provisioning profile error. There might be some issue with iTunes or the OS version, but I don't know.

I have iTunes 10.5.5.3 and Windows Vista. Can someone help me?

Thanks,

Nitish

Firstly, check to make sure that there is not a download in progress that has not been interrupted/paused.

Secondly, the file may be corrupt, my suggestion would be to remove the .ipa file from windows, and allow iTunes to re-download it.

right click the app within iTunes and click "Show in Windows Explorer"
find the .ipa file for your application and delete it.
re-download the app from your Purchased Apps page in iTunes.


How to add the U2 album to my iPod? I see the new U2 album in my library. I sync my iPod but the album does not sync. I click the "Add to" arrow in iTunes and select "Add to iPod" but still no luck.

Apple discussions appear to be down.

Anyone got an answer for me? Totally lost here.

From iPhone/Pod...

Open 'Music' Click 'Songs'
At the top you then see a link to 'Store'

Once in the iTunes Store click 'More' at the bottom.
Then... Purchased > Music, scroll to U2
Next to Songs of Innocence, click the Cloud icon, it should change to Downloading

From iTunes...

Click iTunes Store
Once in the store, click the Home if you're not already there.
To the right, under Quick Links click Purchased, then Not in my Library.

Then same procedure as above, look for the Cloud icon [I already got mine so I can't repeat the steps exactly.]


Terminal command to kick selected users off my network There are lots of ports in my small office but sometimes I want to kick out people who are accessing internet instead of doing their job. With arp -a i can look for all of the connected users. But how to kick them off a network. Please don't tell me Router's conf. I want to do this via terminal itself. There are ways to do that, i saw my friend doing that.

Unless your desktop is the central proxy server you will have to go through the router. Just because you can see other machines with arp doesn't mean you can do anything with them.

Kicking them off the network via the router will usually be total - does the office staff depend on the network do do their jobs?

A better way is running your own DNS server. You can then simply redirect any time-sucking service somewhere else in a manner that makes it look like the site is temporarily down, like this:

*.facebook.com IN A 192.168.1.252

192.168.1.252 runs an Apache vhost site named facebook.com, it serves up a clone of the FB maintenance page for any URL.

It will take a very network-savvy user to figure it out, and you won't be the demon boss (at least not right away). Turn it on and off regularly to maintain the illusion that it's the other service.

Or for more fun: Upside-Down-Ternet.


Mac OS X Terminal [Use option as meta key] overrides backslash in spanish keyboard I already posted this question in stackoverflow:

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/4811282/mac-os-x-terminal-use-option-as-meta-key-overrides-backslash-in-spanish-keyboar

but I was informed there that this is the right place to ask it.

I check "Use option as meta key" checkbox in Mac OS X Terminal, because I like to use emacs way of moving between words: M-f & M-b.

But if I do that, I can't get the backslash (Option + º; i.e.: Option + key-at-the-left-of-1-in-spanish-keyboard). If I uncheck it, then I can input the backslash, but I don't have M-f & M-b.

Is there a way to get both? This is driving me nuts!

And, as I already answered you on stackoverflow, the solution is to put the following line into your ~/.bash_profile, which remaps the unicode character "∫" (Unicode: E288AB, which is what is sent to your terminal right now in your desired configuration when you press Option + °) to the backslash character:

bind '"\033\xE2\x88\xAB"':'"\\"'


Corrupted USB Drive - Unable to Partition or Erase Disk I am heavily struggling with a corrupted USB. The problem I am facing is that I can neither partition nor erase the Disk. The disk is empty and there is not partition created. I can also not find a volume. It is also impossible to initialised the disk or perform any action on disk utility.

Any help is highly appreciated.

$ diskutil list
...
/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
  #:          TYPE NAME             SIZE       IDENTIFIER
  0:                               *16.0 GB    disk2

Did you try erasing your disk with diskutil? You can do that via this command (assuming your disk is still disk2):

diskutil eraseDisk FAT32 NAME MBR disk2

Here is an explanation of the command:

diskutil: This is a disk management tool provided by Apple.

eraseDisk: Tells diskutil to erase a disk

FAT32: The filesystem format you want to use. You can replace it with any other filesystem, such as JHFS+ or FAT16

NAME: The name of the newly erased disk's new partition

MBR: Partitioning table to use. You can replace it with GPT if you want.

disk2: Your disk's identifier. Replace it if your disk's identifier is different. You can find out your disk's identifier using diskutil list

More information about the usage:

Usage:  diskutil eraseDisk format name [APM[Format]|MBR[Format]|GPT[Format]]
        MountPoint|DiskIdentifier|DeviceNode
Completely erase an existing whole disk.  All volumes on this disk
will be destroyed.  Ownership of the affected disk is required.
Format is the specific file system name you want to erase it as (HFS+, etc.).
Name is the (new) volume name (subject to file system naming restrictions),
or can be specified as %noformat% to skip initialization (newfs).
You cannot erase the boot disk.
Example: diskutil eraseDisk JHFS+ UntitledUFS disk2


iTunes Still Charging per Track While Subscribed to Apple Music I'm an Apple Music subscriber but I clicked an iTunes link from a website and now all albums have prices. My Apple Music subscription is active, I can stream all my Apple Music playlists and my phone works as expected, but iTunes is acting as though I am not subscribed.

In preferences Apple Music is selected:

However in iTunes I have a Store link and prices:

How do I get to the Apple Music subscription I'm paying for?

The prices are shown because you are in the iTunes Store tab. You can still buy tracks and albums there, like before. To get to Apple Music, click "My Music", "For you" or "New" in the top bar.

"My music" is where your music is, both the tracks and albums you've previously purchased and the ones you've saved in Apple Music. "For you" is personalized suggestions, and "New" is well, new music.

When you do a search from any of those tabs you can also choose to search Apple Music instead of just your own library.


Prevent "Google password Required" notification (Mac OS X) I know in Systems Preferences I can delete the Google account which will stop the notifications. However, I'd like to keep this account and simply stop being notified to enter my password. I deactivated this account on Google so I no longer have my password. I want to keep this account on my Mac because it has email I still want to see.

Maybe try unchecking "Include when automatically checking for new messages"


Do Terminal processes stop if Mac sleeps? I'm running some Python machine learning programs through Terminal that take hours at a time to finish. If I leave my computer unattended it hibernates - the screen goes off and I have to type in my password again.

When this happens, does my script get cancelled, paused, or continue the same? I would hate to think that my script could be 99% finished, and then gets aborted because my computer went to sleep.

All processes get paused when the system goes to sleep, independent of whether the process is part of macOS, an application or some code you wrote on your own. After the system wakes up again, all processes will continue to run.

PS: Processes which were waiting for network or disk data when going to sleep may run into timeouts though. But that can happen anyway so most processes should be able to handle that anyway.


Can't install the software because it is not currently available from the software update server - iPad I'm attempting to sync my iPad with my MacBook pro, but every time I plug it in I'm getting a message from iTunes, "A software update is required to connect to your iOS device." When I click "Install," I get another error message: "Can't install the software because it is not currently available from the software update server." The iPad's charging icon is also blinking off and on.

As I've been poking around the internet about this, I've gotten several answers about how this is something to do with a beta version of iOS, however currently running only the most current and stable builds of iOS and macOS (iOS 12.1.1 and macOS 10.14.2). Apparently installing xCode worked for some folks back in July/August, but I've done that to no avail...see this thread with the same problem, and a user offering the xCode solution: A software update is required to connect to your iOS device / iPhone

Any help is much appreciated!

Order of messages and subsequent error:

Just solved this issue. I was using a thunderbolt hub, and connected to that was:

My iPhone
Power Supply

I removed the power supply and connected it to another thunderbolt port and it worked. In my case, I think it had something to do with the power and the iPhone being in the same hub - maybe the power adapter was pushing too much power into the hub.. god knows, but it's fixed!


Missing Time Machine Files caused by FSEvents Failure? I recently did a clean install/upgrade to Mac OS 10.8.2. I did a final update of my ongoing Time Machine Backup and verified Disk Integrity. After reinstalling and restoring my files, I have learned that some of my files and file changes are missing from the Backup.

One of the reasons for doing a clean install is that I have been having strange FSEvents failures for some time. If I would write a file from the terminal and then double-click that file in the Finder, I got a -43 File Not Found error until I reload the Finder window (leave and revisit that folder).

I believe Time Machine relies on the same FSEvents subsystem to detect file changes. Just as the Finder cannot see the new files, the Time Machine doesn't bother to back them up.

Can anyone confirm this theory? I need to better understand what is happening here so I can go about recovery. In other words, the data loss is silent, affecting an unknown subset of files, going back and unknown and possibly variable length of time. I am trying to diagnose the extent of the damage.

Yes.

It is known that FSEvents is the basis for Time Machine, and in fact Spotlight indexing as well before that.

In both cases, it acts as a tripwire for the relevant parts of your system, so that Time Machine knows what it needs to back up and Spotlight knows what it needs to index.

However, using FSEvents for backups does leave a tiny bit of room for error, as you have probably discovered. This old post from the Apple mailing lists details another idiosyncrasy.

Fseventer is a brilliant little app that can help you delve into the FSEvents world if you are interested.

At the end of the day, Time Machine isn't really considered professional-grade. It's brilliant for what it is, and I still use it, but I highly recommend pairing it with something like a weekly full disk clone (off-site if possible) for a more comprehensive backup strategy.


How do you type a true minus sign (not a hyphen) on a Mac? I'm looking for one of those ⌥+? shortcuts to type a minus sign (−) from the keyboard, without touching the mouse.

I'm looking for the minus sign (−). It should have the same width as a plus sign (+), and its Unicode code point is 8722 (x2212 in hexadecimal).

What I'm not looking for:

The hyphen minus (-), already on the keyboard, is not the typographically correct symbol for subtraction.
The em dash (—, ⇧+⌥+-) is used to signify a break in thought and is far too wide to be confused for a minus sign.
The en dash (–, ⌥+-) is used for ranges of values or relationships and connections and shouldn't be used in place of a minus sign.

There's a way of entering Unicode values on the Mac: go to System Preferences, then Language & Text. In the Input Sources tab, scroll to Unicode Hex Input, check it.

Then if you switch to Unicode Hex Input in the Mac menu bar, you can press
⌥+2212 for the minus sign. Here's what the input switcher looks like:

If you want to switch between your input and hex input via keyboard, you have to click "Keyboard Shortcuts..." in the same window, disable "Show Spotlight Window" in the Spotlight section, and maybe activate "Select next source in Input Menu". ⌥+⌘+space will then swap input language. (You can check this in the menu bar.)

(Alternatively, there's the low-mouse-use option via Special Characters:
Go to Edit > Special Characters...;  in there, select the Unicode tab, and Code tables (or however it's called in English) at the top.
Next, scroll down the list until you see 00002200 in the Unicode column. Click it. Down below, look for the row that begins with 2210, and it should be the 3rd char.)


The simplest way to transfer photos from an iPhone to PC selectively (not sync-all) Windows 7 user here, though access to a Mac (in case that'd be the only way to do this) wouldn't be impossible.

I know I could download iTunes and sync all the photos, but I have nearly 4000 of them and I'd only consider that a last-resort option. What would be simply perfect: Can I just browse them in Windows Explorer on my iPhone? If not Windows Explorer, some App. If I could even get a list of Albums part of my dreams would come true.

Windows 7 should see your connected iPhone as a Photo Camera. Just use the same software that you'd use for importing individual photos from a regular USB-connected camera. Also make sure to have your phone "trust" your computer by turning on the phone and selecting "trust" from the pop-up.

On OS X, you can use the built-in Image Capture utility (or iPhoto or Aperture if you have those).


Is it possible to run 10.6 and 10.7 side-by-side and share a user profile? I would like to know if it possible to share an user profile if you have both 10.6 and 10.7 installed on the same machine (different partitions).

So far my experience was not a good one but maybe I did something wrong.

I am interested mostly in sharing iTunes library, Outlook 2011 database and other user setting.

You can specify the same home folder, but I'd suggest leaving them separate since you'd potentially have incompatible preference, cache, and other "Library" files between the two versions of OS X.

Perhaps symlink the corresponding preferences for the apps that you want to share data.

iTunes Library is easily shared, just hold the Option key when launching iTunes the first time to specify the library to open (it will remember it subsequently).

Since Office 2011 wants to use the Microsoft User Data folder within ~/Documents, you'll likely have to symlink this folder from one of the profiles.


Cannot export vCard on iCloud I need to export my contacts to my Google account but whenever I select all of my contacts and click export vCard, the website does not do anything.

It can work using Google Chrome and Microsoft Internet Explorer :

With Chrome: do a right click on the menu option 'export vcard'

With I.E.: do a SHIFT-Click on the menu option 'export vcard'


Upgrade OSX GM to final version I want to install OSX Yosemite GM, but final version will release soon, can I upgrade Yosemite GM to final through Appstore when apple release final version?
or I have to download another 5GB ?

You don't need to.

Apple is regarding the last GM and last public beta as the final release of Yosemite and not offering an update path. Instead, wait for 10.10.1 and the Mac App Store will include this as an update path putting you back on track.


Why does iTunes sync take so long? I am trying to sync my iTunes music to my iPhone. It takes a really long time (> 20 mins) when I try to do so.

a) Has anyone else run into this ? How did you fix it in that case?

b) Is there a way I can work around the iTunes sync process to copy media to my iPhone?

Assuming there is nothing wrong with your setup and that there isn't anything causing additional delays to your sync, you might want to consider two things that impact the iTunes sync speed:

Encoding of audio files as they get loaded on to your iDevice.
Speed of USB 2.0 interface @ 480Mbit/sec.

The first one would only apply if you are syncing new audio files to your device and you have the option enabled for downsampling AAC/MP3 files. It is convenient if you want to minimize space, but you can tick a box that says any audio file you put on your iDevice will be adjusted down to a (say) 128Kbps bitrate to save space on the iDevice. If you have this, it does the encode single-threaded while you're syncing and thus adds time to the sync but for the obvious benefit of taking up far less space on the iDevice.

The second point is the far more likely culprit since you're probably moving megabytes or gigabytes of data around. Pictures on a recent iPhone take a few MB each, videos you captured can run into the hundreds of MB and naturally DVDs/iTunes movies probably take closer to a gigabyte. If iTunes is deciding to take a backup as it does periodically, that could be the size of your phone (16GB/64GB/128GB/etc.) Now pumping this through a 480Mbit/sec USB 2.0 interface would theoretically get a maximum of 48MB/sec, though USB overhead probably chops 20% off of that so maybe you're getting 40MB/sec so for a backup of 16GB of iDevice data it would take nearly 6 minutes.

Presumably the lightning interface can handle USB 3.0 speeds, but only the iPad Pro as of 2015 apparently has that capability, though I don't think Apple has officially enabled that yet (as of May 2016) so we don't know how fast it could go and I don't think Apple has published the specs. For all your other devices, you're at the speeds mentioned above.

iTunes is a bit of a dog and capping at USB 2.0 speeds isn't going to help things. The best I can suggest is to enable WiFi sync (if available) so that you can at least have your iDevice sync with your computer while not tethered with a Lightning cable.


Print adressbook from iOS without computer My father is switching from a PC to an iPad - everything works perfectly and no problems so far.

But he still keeps a laptop where he has his addresses in a spreadsheet which he can print. He would be happy to move his contacts to the iPad, but he still want's to print them to put them next to the telephone.

I only found solutions which involve a pc or Mac or the iCloud website to print contacts, =which adds complications to the process.

Is there a way (possibly an app?) which makes it possible to print the adressbook to an aiprint printer?

'A2Z Contacts' app does that. Free version allows printing 5 addresses, so you can try it out. Full version costs $1.99.


Command Tab to show a 'hidden' app With Command W you 'hide' most of the apps excluding the ones with tabs.

But then when you do Command Tab, the hidden app doesn't show up.

How come?
How do you quickly bring back focus?

Command+W doesn’t hide the apps; it closes the current active window. That's why you can't show them up using Command+Tab, because the window is no longer exist.

You can hide application using Command+H. This shortcut won’t close the window, so you can bring all the hidden windows of a application back by using Command+Tab and selecting the application.


How to access the equalizer in iTunes 11? How do you access the equalizer in iTunes 11?  Or is just gone?


Editing System/Library files with Property List Editor (PLE) I want to update the schedule in /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.locate.plist.  I have unlocked the file in Finder but the Property List Editor is giving me:

The file "com.apple.locate.plist" could not be unlocked.

Could not add write permission to the file because you do not own it.  Try modifying the permissions of the file in the Finder or Terminal.

I don't want to make myself the owner of a System file.  Is there a way to edit this file without manually changing the permissions?

Couldn't you just use a code editor? At least TextMate and TextWrangler can convert property lists from binary to XML and authentificate as root in order to save files.


What is the max number of SMS & MMS messages that the iphone can store? iOS currently has a limit of 100 phone calls that can be stored in the call log. Is there a similar limit for SMS or MMS messages? If so, what it is? Where is this documented?

If there is a limit apple has not posted that information on the web as I've not been able to find anything related to that.  I did turn up a few threads back from 2011 and the iOS 5 release that claim the SMS limit is 75,000 messages.  Whether that is accurate or not I do not know.

In my research I also found this application that you can use to download messages off your phone and onto your computer.  You could use this to archive old messages if you are concerned about message limits.  This can be used for SMS and iMessage.  Haven't tried it myself but it looks like a neat tool.

http://deciphertools.com/tm-mac2.html


Check if iTunes account has credit card linked I received a message this morning saying an unknown device downloaded an app which costs $19.99. defending crowns or something like that, and the message says that if it wasn't me, I should click a link, I did, and now it's asking me to verify my credit card information and once that is done, I will receive a full refund. Sound suspicious to me, and I didn't think I had a credit card linked to my iTunes account as I always purchase gift cards instead. How can I check if my account has a credit card linked to it?

The email is spam.

You can check if you have a credit card linked by opening iTunes and going to iTunes Store → Account (right sidebar), authenticating and looking at the payment method section.


Change arrangement of iPad used as Sidecar Display I have an iPad Pro (2018 3rd Gen) that I'm using as 2nd display with my Macbook Pro (2018).  I can enable it and it works well, but it's on the wrong side of my Macbook and there's no options in Sidecar to change the display arrangement.

How do I change the monitor arrangement of my iPad relative to my Macbook?

Sidecar has no settings to change monitor arrangement. You only enable the iPad as an additional display in the Mac's System Preferences.  You still have to go to "Displays" in your Mac's System Prefs to change the arrangement of the iPad as a display relative to your Mac.

After (2) days of dragging things in the opposite direction to the iPad display it finally occurred to me to check Displays...  D'Oh!


What privacy setting must be enabled to use Night Shift's Sunset to Sunrise option? I'm trying to enable the Sunset to Sunrise option for Nightshift. When I do so, a pop-up informs me that it "requires location for time zone to be enabled," and offers a button to send me to the appropriate privacy settings page. Here's a screenshot of the pop-up.

But the privacy settings appears to have no option corresponding to what's referenced in the pop-up. Here's two screenshots showing my privacy settings:

As far as I can tell, all privacy settings are enabled, but Night Shift still refuses to enable sunset to sunrise. Does anyone know how I can enable it?

Update: Rebooting isn't required! See response below. The rest of this answer is correct.

Rebooting didn't help and I couldn't get Apple's official instructions (https://support.apple.com/kb/PH26239?locale=en_US) to work, either.

I ended up unchecking "Setting Time Zone", rebooting, and then rechecking "Setting Time Zone" after the reboot. Selecting Sunrise to Sunset was then accepted without complaint.

Here are the complete instructions, using variations on Apple's official instructions:

Uncheck the Setting Time Zone option: Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Security & Privacy, then click Privacy. Select Enable Location Services, scroll down to System Services, click Details, deselect Setting Time Zone, then click Done.

Optionally, reboot (Although I'm not sure this step is necessary, it's what I did. [Users have reported this is not required])

Check the Setting Time Zone option: Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Security & Privacy, then click Privacy. Select Enable Location Services, scroll down to System Services, click Details, select Setting Time Zone, then click Done.


Safari, open in another panel When I open a link on Safari, it opens another tab overlapping the original, so to go back to the previous I have to browse all the other tabs. This is uncomfortable because in case I want to read the new link later, I have to make that passage. Is there an option to change card management?

You should do so:
Settings -> safaris -> open links -> in the background


How is the "Memory" column calculated in Activity Monitor? How is the per-process "Memory" column calculated in Activity Monitor? The name is quite vague and I haven't found anyone say anything about it aside from stuff like, e.g., "Memory used in RAM." I can't quite tell the relation between it and real memory, shared memory, private memory, dirty memory, etc.

FYI, I'm talking about this column:

The Memory column is overall memory consumption, excluding compression, etc. going on.  The Compressed Mem column is how much memory is being saved by the operating system's memory compression algorithm.  The Real Mem column essentially shows Memory - Compressed Mem to give you an idea of how much actual memory is being consumed by the process.  Private Mem shows you how much memory is being consumed by this particular process that is not being shared by any other processes and of course then Shared Mem would be what's being shared with other processes.

As far as actually tracking the memory consumption itself, I would have to dig a bit more into the developer documentation as I don't know off the top of my head how Xnu/Darwin tracks memory consumption on a per process basis to actually report such figures.

Please let me know if you're looking for any additional details or clarification as your previous question is slightly vague with regards to whether you're seeking specific acquisition details or just what the columns mean...


Why shift-cmd-n fails as a custom shortcut for Firefox "New Private Window"? I created the shiftcommandn shortcut for Firefox in Syst Prefs to match other browsers' behavior.

It registers in the Firefox Menubar.

But pressing the shortcut opens a new non-private window, and it loads there the first item in my "Top Sites".

I imagine I could create another shortcut to override this behavior, but what is this behavior? I don't see anything highlighted in the Firefox Menubar when I hit the shortcut. Or might there be another solution (other than using a different shortcut to open new private windows)?

Problem exists on both Mojave and High Sierra. Default Firefox shortcut (shiftcommandp) still opens a new private window.

This has been a known Mac Firefox bug for years and years.  Because Firefox is not truly a native macOS app, it carries over odd behaviors, one of which being that you cannot fully override its pre-defined keyboard shortcuts.

Firefox 55 addressed this partially as Mozilla bug #429824, which allowed new keyboard shortcuts to be created via System Preferences.  Overriding existing shortcuts like "New Private Window" or "Paste" or whatever is still not completely possible, but progress (or lack thereof) is being tracked by Mozilla bug #1333781.  In any case, you get all sorts of weird, undefined behavior if you try to override those shortcuts anyway.

Before the great extension purge in Firefox 57, Firefox extensions like keyconfig let you work around the problem by remapping those shortcuts within Firefox itself.  After Firefox retired all legacy extensions, this once again became impossible.

Since Firefox 57 (being so annoyed by some of its default, un-Mac-like shortcuts) I've compiled Firefox from source code just so I could patch its keyboard shortcut configurations.  Not something I'd recommend to most people, but it is one potential workaround until the bug is fixed upstream.


My screen is flickering purple and cyan My screen has a bunch of purple and cyan flickering bars on it. Does anyone know if there is a fix for this? I have tried resetting my nvram. I closed my lip for 15 minutes and then when I opened it, these lines appeared. I also run a diagnostics, but there were no hardware issues found.

Sorry to say that looks an awful lot like a hardware error.

It could be a bad video card, issues with the screen itself or the connection between the two (cables, connectors, etc.).

If you boot into recovery mode is the issue still present? That would rule out an issue with your OS if it is still there.

My advice, seek the help of a qualified Apple tech. Either at an Apple store or a good 3rd-party Apple certified repair center.


How Do I Know If A File Has Been Successfully Synced To iCloud Drive? I am trying out iCloud Drive as a potential replacement for Dropbox. One of the nice things about Dropbox is that it produces little green checkmarks on file and folder icons to let the user know that a file or folder has been synced with the Dropbox server:

When I copied several gigabytes of files to my new iCloud Drive folder, there was no indication that files were syncing nor was there any indication of what was and wasn't synced. I did manage to login to my account on iCloud.com where I saw files being added. This solution however is no where near as convenient as seeing the status in Finder. It also does not let me know if an updated existing file has been updated on the server.

My question therefore is, how can I tell if a file has been synced using Finder or any other tool on my computer?

OS X 10.10.2 now has graphical upload progress bars:

When things get stuck, or you have a slower upload, there is a brctl tool that ships with Yosemite to monitor changes in all iCloud backed documents. Open terminal and type the following command:

brctl log --wait --shorten

On macOS Catalina 10.15 use the following command:

brctl log -w --shorten

It will show you a brief summary of the sync changes both up and down. The wait causes it to run continuously until you close the window or issue Control+C to quit brctl process. If you are familiar with the grep command line tool, you could filter the results to just show upload progress, but most iCloud accounts are quite low volume in terms of changes, so your upload of many files will likely dominate the results.

https://www.icloud.com/#iclouddrive

Also, the empirical way to tell if a file is synced is to log in to iCloud drive on the web interface and verify a file and/or folder is up there in the clouds.


HDMI Stop working after Macbook OS Update HDMI Stop working after Macbook OS Update to Mojave Version 10.14.3.  Was working perfectly. I tested cable and monitor and it works on other laptops.

So after some Google searches I found one fix that worked. Update the Display Link Driver located here:  https://www.displaylink.com/downloads/

Not sure what happened during the new Mojave Update to version 10.14.3 but after installing this new driver, my HDMI port to second monitor is now working.


How to generate list of Homebrew formulas/packages sorted by "most recently updated" (by package provider)? How can one generate a list of Homebrew all formulas/packages sorted by "most recently updated" (by package provider)?

I see no such sort/report at https://formulae.brew.sh/analytics. Maybe I missed something?

I can effectively generate some version of this report ever time I run a brew update... but that only provides me the updated-formulae since I last brew updated-ed, I think? I want to instead visit a website or run a command-line command (or some similar gizmo) that shows me a reasonably-updated report of all-most-recently-updated formulae.

Similar but distinctly-different questions:

List all Homebrew formulas?
List most-popular Homebrew formulas (#1)?
List most-popular Homebrew formulas (#2)?

Open this folder in Finder:

/usr/local/Homebrew/Library/Taps/homebrew/homebrew-core/Formula

⌘ ⇧ G in Finder will bring up a “Go To Folder…” dialog box. You can then paste the path from above into the box.

Then press ⌘ 2 to switch to list view and then click “Date Modified”.


How can I set the display settings using command line I would like to configure the 'Scaled' property of my Macbook Pro display using the command line. How could I do that?

Use screenresolution on newer os versions

 git clone https://github.com/jhford/screenresolution.git
 cd screenresolution
 make dmg
 ./screenresolution set 1920x1080x32@60

csreen did not do any thing for me on os x 10.10.5. These steps worked for me.