How secure is Apple File Protocol from Airport Extreme How secure is the file sharing feature for use over WAN on an Airport Extreme? i.e. Are the content and/or passwords encrypted when accessed over the Internet?

AFP (Apple Filing protocol) is unencrypted for the most part. Authentication is the only place where encryption is used, and it is negotiated between client & server. I believe that the Airport Extreme offers DHCAST128 and DHX2 UAMs (User Authentication Methods), both of which encrypt the user's password with CAST-128 (they differ in how they come up with the key used to do the encryption, DHX2 is better).

AFP with either of the above UAMs is susceptible to Man in the Middle attacks and I would not recommend it for use over the Internet. AFP can be tunneled through SSH for better security, but I don't think the Airport Extreme supports that usage.


How do Apple Enterprise certificates and their expiration dates work? I have a question that I wanted clarity on. As shown below, I have an Apple Enterprise account that has a membership expiration date of March 13, 2020

And within that membership, I have a Enterprise certificate that expires 2020/06/21, and another that expires 2022/10/01

This means that any provisioning profiles that I create will have to fit between now and a year out.

So if I make a provisioning profile that is linked to the certificate that expires 2020/06/21, given this is less than a year, the provisioning profile will expire on the same day the certificate expires (2020/06/21).  So this would be a bad idea.  However, a provisioning profile linked to the 2nd license of 2022/10/01, would expire a year from today-1.  So it would expire Oct 15, 2020.  This is the better idea.

And …. if I do not pay the membership fee of $299 on March 13, 2020 though, will both the certificates above also expire.  I would assume so.

Is my understanding correct?

Edit:  I don’t know about enterprise certs what i said applies to normal developers but my understanding is that it is the same.

Certificate ls always expire in the date they say they will expire.  Your provisioning profile isn’t really important, you can delete and create them at will when ever you want. If you do not renew the $299 you cannot generate a new cert after your renew date.  Which means you won’t be able to create provisioning profiles either.

You can create new certs and provisioning profiles as often as you would like until your membership ends so these dates don’t really mean much. If both expire and you are still a member just create new ones.


Is it possible to remove the battery from MacBook Pro (A1502) and use in a different MacBook Pro? My MacBook Pro battery is faulty, it never charges past 2%. As I'm unable to work I've purchased a new battery but it will take 4-5 days to arrive

Could I remove the battery from my MacBook Pro (A1502) and run it in my other MacBook Pro? This would enable me to work.

Typically, no.  Batteries are not interchangeable.

The exception being that they have both the same model (i.e A1502) and the same EMC number (found on the bottom lid).

Model numbers can be reused from one generation to the next, however EMC numbers are unique manufacturing codes.  If those numbers don’t match, your batteries likely won’t match up


"file not sent" from Android to Macbook, whereas they're paired I'm trying to send a file from Android to Macbook via bluetooth. I pair them successfully and when I'm sending a file from Android, it just ends up saying "file not sent". In the Macbook does happen nothing at that time, no pop up window or something.

That's it.

In System Preferences > Sharing > Bluetooth Sharing, ensure that Folder for accepted items is set to something. If it isn't set, incoming file transfers are rejected automatically.


Messed up fonts on Mavericks retina Macbook Pro secondary monitor Just got my first Mac and am loving it except for the extremely annoying fact that fonts get messed up on my secondary monitor.

The strange thing is that when I drag a window over from my laptop monitor, the fonts look fine on the secondary monitor until I finish dragging, then they get all messed up... some kind of driver issue?

Here's some samples. In both images the left hand side shows how the image looks on my secondary monitor while it's in the process of being dragged over from my laptop monitor, and the right hand side shows how it looks after I drop it:

Any ideas what the hell is going on here? I've tried changing the font smoothing with defaults write -g AppleFontSmoothing -int <1-3>, no dice.

You're moving from a retina display to a non-retina display, which changes how things are rendered.

If you didn't have this issue pre-Mavericks, it might have to do with the new "Displays have separate Spaces" setting. Try disabling this in System Preferences => Mission Control.


How do I use a showroom model of an iPhone 4S? A friend of mine bought an iPhone 4S. It was a showroom model and it came with his limitations. You can't delete or move around apps. What does he need to do to get rid of this demo-modus. Or is it irreversible?

EDIT:
He bought the iPhone in Belgium (so, it has no sim lock)

I would suggest doing a DFU restore. You can do this by:

Plug your iPhone into a computer running the latest version of iTunes.
Hold the home button and the sleep/wake button for exactly 8 seconds.
After this 8 seconds is up, release the sleep/wake button, but continue to hold the home button until iTunes recognizes your iPhone.
Then, choose the Restore option (this should be the only option) and wait for iTunes to download the necessary software and restore your iPhone.


External iSight microphone audio not working I'm using a 2003-era external iSight "Autofocus Video Camera + Noise Suppression Microphone" with an Apple Cinema Display and USB-C MacBook Pro running macOS 10.15.
It's connected via a long succession of dongles:

iSight > FireWire 400 > Apple Cinema Display > FireWire 800 > Thunderbolt 2 > Thunderbolt 3

It still works great for video, if a bit low resolution, and you can't beat the design:

However, the iSight camera's microphone does not appear to be working. People cannot hear me when my laptop is in clamshell mode, despite being on video via the external iSight.
In System Preferences > Sound > Input I only see "MacBook Pro Microphone":

System Information shows a FireWire iSight device, as well as an "Unknown Device". When I unplug the FireWire cable/dongle, both devices disappear.

This iSight is running the 1.0.2 firmware; I'll try to update it with 1.0.3 and test:

How to update external iSight firmware?

Why isn't the iSight mic working? How can I use an external iSight as an audio/video webcam in modern versions of macOS?

Related threads that seem to be experiencing the same issue:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/250914849
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251255964
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251293054
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252233406

The FireWire iSight audio driver has been omitted from recent macOS releases.
A Mac Rumors contributor has posted a download of the driver from his backup.
Download iSightAudio.driver there, or find the same driver from your own backup.
Place the file in /Library/Audio/Plug-Ins/HAL/
In case there were any other inconsistencies from the original I used a copy from a backup of OS X 10.13. A Finder copy and authentication worked without any permissions issues.
This worked for me on Catalina 10.15.6 on a 4,1->5,1 cMP.


How to add a Google Drive directory to my computer I downloaded Google Drive, clicked on it and dragged the application to the Applications folder. When I clicked on it, it opened up in my browser. There was no further installation process. It didn't add a Google Drive directory to my computer. How can I add such a directory to my computer?

Note: When you install Google Drive, you must run it from the actual application in the application folder. Launchpad is just a URL shortcut.

To change your settings:

Click Google Drive, the icon is in the menu bar at the top right of
In the top right, click Menu .
Select Preferences.

Folder can be seen here as well:


prevent Mail from checking for mail if VPN is down My employer insists on using a VPN when people access email via Exchange. Is there any way to prevent Mail from checking for mail if the VPN is down?

Have your employer block access to the IMAP server from non VPN connections. That way Mail can check all it likes but it won't get anywhere. As long as Mail is using a secure connection for the IMAP server it will reject most any nefarious attempt to hijack the attempted connection.


iTunes fails to subsribe to a podcast I am using iTunes 10.2 on Windows 7 32bit
I am trying to subscribe to a video podcast (Tekzilla) and I am getting an error message.

I've been trying to do that for a couple of days and I'm getting the same error message so I guess the problem is on my side, somehow....

Try subscribing directly to the feed.

Under the "advanced" menu, select "subscribe to podcast…". Then, enter one of the feeds found on Tekzilla's website.


Can I make my own kernel extensions on El Capitan? I have recently heard that a feature called rootless that is going to be on El Capitan. This means that folders such as /System cannot be modified by the root user and only signed kext (kernel extensions) can be installed on the computer.

I have not thought about it before but now I have I would like to make my own kext extensions. The only issue is I am not a paid developer so therefor I cannot sign my kext extensions.

When I upgrade to El Capitan would I be able to make by own kexts and install them on my system while still being able to boot my computer and not having to join the $99/Year Apple Developers Program?

Rootless can be completely disabled on OS X El Capitan (though not on iOS, for hopefully obvious reasons). Therefore if you don't mind foregoing the ostensible benefits it provides, you can essentially revert to Yosemite's security model - which is to say, unsigned kexts can be used, but it requires preparation to do so.

It may not be able to be disabled in future versions of the OS, but for now it can be turned off.


Numbers error: not enough space in iCloud I recently maxed out my iCloud storage for a few weeks, meaning things like backups and photo uploading would not work. Eventually, I deleted some unwanted files, and now there is plenty of free space (>20 GB).

During this time, I made some edits to a Numbers spreadsheet that is stored and shared via iCloud. Now, whenever I open the document in macOS, I get this error (next to the word "Shared" on the title bar):

  There is not enough space to save this document to iCloud. Purchase additional storage or remove some documents from iCloud.

I can dismiss the error, but it comes back every time I open the document.

There is also a dotted cloud with an exclamation mark that appears next to the document in Finder.

I can make a duplicate of the spreadsheet and delete the old one, but doing so will invalidate existing shared URLs, etc.

Is there a way to force iCloud to refresh its "not enough space" check?

macOS: 10.13.6
Numbers: 5.3

If it's relevant, I'm using shared family storage—my account is not the one that purchased the iCloud storage.

This sort of weirdness sometimes comes about with versions and saved application state where the application doesn't want to let go of some data you added.

Do you have a Time Machine backup of the file in question? If not - be sure to copy out any data or log into the cloud version of numbers to be sure you have a cloud version you can live with.

Then clear the saved application state for Numbers by moving this file to your desktop or placing it in the trash can:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.iWork.Numbers/Data/Library

If you don't have a good backup, I'd get one before deleting anything from your Saved State folders in ~/Library and if the Autosave Information and Saved Application State folders are empty you may need to delete the entire container.

If you're not sure about navigating to ~/Library which is hidden or restoring these files from a backup - Apple Support might be a good place to reach out to, but if you're familiar with moving things from the Library - I've seen clearing these help with oddball errors that you know aren't correct anymore.


Make the screen always be off when having a call Very often when I'm talking on the phone, the screen turns on and my chin and ear presses all the buttons. Often this starts facetime, turn off the sound, and is just very annoying. Is there any way to make the screen always be off when I'm talking? I'm using a regular iPhone 6.

Sounds to me like a bad ambient light sensor and/or the proximity sensor. Both are a part of the front facing camera assembly, and you cannot buy them separately.

It should be covered under warranty, but if it's a result of a drop or water damage, then it's not covered under the standard warranty and you may have to have it repaired, either by yourself or a pro.

If you feel comfortable with the repair, here are some tips:

When removing the digitizer assembly (touchscreen) with a suction cup, take extra care to avoid severing the digitizer and LCD cables.
If you damage the home button or its cable, then TouchID will no longer work.
Here's the guide

Of course, you could always take it to a pro, just be prepared to pay likely $100+, unfortunately. Maybe even $150+, depending on where you go.

If it's not under warranty, though, wait until the iPhone 6S comes out in less than a couple of weeks, as once the iPhone 6 is no longer the newest, parts and repair costs should be lower.


Is it better to purchase 1password from agilebits website or the app store? Is it better value to purchase 1password from the https://agilebits.com/ website or the app store?

They cost different amounts, does the app store version include all future versions of 1password?

Which is the best option for consumers based on the license terms of the Mac App store versus a third party license where you buy an app directly from the vendor?

(I have checked the agilebits.com website, but cannot find this information)

There are benefits to both sides:

The Mac App Store's 1Password has iCloud syncing whereas the AgileBits store distribution method can't include iCloud syncing since an app must be distributed through the Mac App Store to use such Apple services.
The AgileBits store's 1Password is updated more frequently since the updates don't have to go through Apple's approval system. This also means you can get beta updates that aren't on the Mac App Store due to Apple's guidelines on beta distribution.


defaults write display detect I have a mac mini connected to a TV that is on during the day and switched off at night.  This displays a web page with stats during the day.  When the TV is turned off the resolution readjusts to I am guessing "defaults" then when the TV is reconnected it readjusts.  During this process the safari window shrinks and whenever I turn the tv back on I have to readjust the browser window.

This is mac os x snow leopard server.

Is there any way to:

Disable screen resolution detection and always keep the res at the one i want

Always have safari go full screen (no full screen option in safari snow leopard as far as I

This is kind of a wild guess / work around but its something to try. Set up VNC aka screen sharing on your mac mini. Log in from another mac /computer , while the TV is off, and set the resolution while no display is attached. If you set that resultion to one that is the same as your attached TV, then when your TV powers on there should be no screen re-size after effects. This would effectively set the default no display resolution if such a thing exists.


Bash script for creating symbolic links I am relatively new to bash and am having some trouble with a script I am trying to write. After spending the last hour or so researching and trying new techniques, I am still unable to do what I would like.

My goal is this: I have a folder /Volumes/Server\ RAID/Photos where I keep all of my pictures. Each folder is titled YYYY-MM FolderName where there are sometimes spaces in FolderName. Within these folders are three folders: Raw, Edited, and Final. My goal is to, with a single bash script, create symbolic links on my Desktop for each Final folder AND rename it to its parent folder. Example: I would like /Volumes/Server\ RAID/Photos/2016-10\ Fleet\ Week/Final to have a symbolic link on the Desktop named 2016-10 Fleet Week.

I have tried many different varieties of the code I have posted down below, but the code I have included was the most concise code (although it didn't work).

Code description:

cd to Desktop so that symlinks are created there
use for loop to loop through folders
create symlink - here is the problem: I need to include the folder name in the file path somehow, but also add \ before the spaces so that the command doesn't fail. HOWEVER, I have been getting error messages saying that there is no place called RAID/Photos which makes me think the script is stumbling on the first space, even with the backslash.
Change name of Final symlink to the folder name. (I assumed I didn't need full directories here because I'm already in Desktop

cd Desktop
for f in /Volumes/Server\ RAID/Photos;
do ln -s /Volumes/Server\ RAID/Photos/"$f"/Final
mv Final $f
done

QUESTION: Can someone please help me flush out this script? (I am mainly concerned with part three, but I wouldn't say no to help with the rest of it, either).

When running into troubles with shell quoting, it always help to add echo statements in suitable places in your script to see what's going on.

Let's look at this line by line:

for f in /Volumes/Server\ RAID/Photos;

This only runs once, and sets f to Volumes/Server RAID/Photos, which probably isn't what you want.

do ln -s /Volumes/Server\ RAID/Photos/"$f"/Final

f is set to the full path (see above), so this expands to

ln -s /Volumes/Server\ RAID/Photos//Volumes/Server\ RAID/Photos/Final

which (again) is not what you want to see here.

mv Final $f

See above :-)

There are various ways to tackle this, but in your case I would to something like the following (to get around the challenge of having to extract the directory name from the source path)

cd /Volumes/Server\ RAID/Photos/
for f in *; do
    if [ -d "$f" ]; then
        if [ -d "$f"/Final ]; then
            ln -s "/Volumes/Server RAID/Photos/$f/Final" ~/Desktop/"$f"
        fi
    fi
done

The two ifs cover the cases where there are files in the source directory or the Final directory is missing.


Import passwords from Safari to Chrome I am just switching from Safari to Chrome in my MacBookPro and first thing I did was to import bookmarks from Safari.
Now I would also like to import passwords from websites, logins etc.

In Chrome > Settings > Sign In > Advanced Sync Settings, I have already checked every available sync option, however just google account passwords have been imported, not Safari's.

I also tried Chrome>Import Bookmarks and Settings>From Safari>Import, but still no results.

Does anyone know how to import Safari/Keychain passwords to Chrome?

I Think these depend on you Gmail account or which account you used for Sync your passwords... so in chrome you just add you same Gmail or other account and you get your Sync password automatically.


Why does Mail.app keep sent attachments open? Sending a pdf as an attachement leaves open the original file according to
lsof | grep my.pdf
How can i prevent this rather unpleasant behavior ?

OSX 10.6.8 - Mail Version 4.6 (1085)

UPDATE:
I filed a bug at apple and the guys at apple actually responded saying this is a know bug (duplicate of #4023875) which is still open.

I can't speak for why anything Apple has done, but three things come to mind for changing the open file status:

file a bug http://bugreporter.apple.com
quit mail
patch the Mail program to fix the bug

Unless you have some third party Mail plug in, it seems you've identified something that hopefully Mail eventually releases since you might have problems deleting a file that's still open.


APFS Volume Total Shows Less Free Space Than Container and How Can I Reclaim Space So I have a bootcamp volume which has windows installed on it. I used MiniTool partition wizard to shrink the bootcamp size from 60 GB to 40 GB to reclaim 20 GB for my Macintosh HD.

That operation successfully executed and as you will see, container for APFS is at 190 GB now. But my Macintosh HD is still occupying 165.4 GB. I tried resizing using (/usr/sbin/diskutil apfs resizeContainer /dev/disk1 0) but to no avail. Does anyone know how I can reclaim the 20 GB space I freed up before and use container to its max capacity?

What surprises me a little is that this freed 20 GB doesn't show up in UI of disk utility but can be noticed in cmd output of diskutil list:

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         190.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:         Microsoft Reserved                         134.2 MB   disk0s3
   4:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                42.9 GB    disk0s4
   5:           Windows Recovery                         471.9 MB   disk0s5

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +190.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            165.4 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 21.1 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                519.0 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      2.1 GB     disk1s4

Thank you so much for all your help in advance!

The results from the math shown below is about 17.3 GB of unallocated space.

 250.0     Total drive space
   -.2907  EFI partition
-190.0     APFS container
   -.1342  Microsoft Reserved
 -42.9     BOOTCAMP
   -.4719  Windows Recovery
_________
  17.2842  Unallocated space

I assume this unallocated space is between the Apple_APFS and Microsoft Reserved partitions. If so, then the correct command to add the free space to the Apple_APFS partition is given below. Before using this command, open the MiniTool application and confirm the free space is between the Apple_APFS and Microsoft Reserved partitions.

sudo diskutil apfs resizeContainer disk0s2 0

From the information you posted, I am guessing the free space will between the Microsoft Reserved and Microsoft Basic Data partitions. If this is the case, then you will first need to move the Microsoft Reserved partition partition to the end of the free space. Below is an outline of the steps to follow.

The MiniTool can not move this partition. Instead you can make a copy of the partition.
The copy of the Microsoft Reserved partition will have the wrong partition type id. You will need to use the MiniTool application to change this id to Windows - Microsoft Reserved Partition.
The new partition will need to be assigned the GPT_BASIC_DATA_ATTRIBUTE_NO_DRIVE_LETTER attribute bit. Basically, this is bit 0x8000000000000000. Unfortunately, this can to be done using MiniTool. You will have to use the diskpart command from a Administrator Command Prompt window.
After exiting diskpart, you will need to reboot Windows.
Use the MiniTool to remove the original Microsoft Reserved partition.

A final note:

You posted the following question.

  That operation successfully executed and as you will see, container for APFS is at 190 GB now. But my Macintosh HD is still occupying 165.4 GB. I tried resizing using (/usr/sbin/diskutil apfs resizeContainer /dev/disk1 0) but to no avail. Does anyone know how I can reclaim the 20 GB space I freed up before and use container to its max capacity?

Answer: Basically, the question makes no sense. The APFS container has a size of 190 GB and the Macintosh HD volume is using 165.4 GB of this container's space. If you enlarge the APFS container, the size of the Macintosh HD volume will not change.


Parallels vs VMWare for Mac I use Parallels on my iMac and Macbook Pro.  It seems to run fine on my iMac but kind of causes my MBP to become a little sluggish and fans to get pegged.  I was speaking with someone that runs several VMWare VMs on their Macbook without any problems at all.  They mentioned my MBP should have more than enough resources to handle several VMs.

Does VMWare generally perform outstandingly better than Parallels on Macs?

Here are my machine specs (both running OS X 10.10.3):

iMac
3.2 Ghz Intel Core i5
16GB DDR3 RAM
NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M 1024 RAM
500GB SSD w/25GB free space
VM is allocated 2GB of RAM

Macbook Pro
2.7 Ghz Intel Core i7
16GB DDR3 RAM
Intel HD Graphics 4000 1024 RAM
500GB SSD w/47GB free space
VM is allocated 2GB of RAM

Parallels on Mac has a better performance. It integrates with OS X in a way which is not possible with VMware. I am using parallels with multiple VMs without any problems or sluggishness. I have allocated 3 GB RAM to each VM. Check how many CPU cores you have allocated to your VM.


Default contact group for new contacts in iOS 10 I use an iOS 10 device together with an Exchange server and several contact folders (some of them shared). When I create a new contact on the phone I have no control in which group it goes and this is really annoying. Back in older versions of iOS, I had the option to set a default group for new contacts (and then manaully sorted them in the correct folder).

Now in iOS 10 my phone is just putting the new contacts in one folder, which in my opinion it has chosen random.

Any idead how the default folder is determined and how i can set a default contact group?

Hey you can do this in settings, then contacts, then default account - change it to whatever account you want!


Apple Watch mute only notifications and not alarms Is there a way to mimic the Do not Disturb mode found in the iPhone on my Apple Watch?

I'd like to receive notifications but without any sound nor haptic feedback. I know I can use the Silence mode, but that silences my alarms and notifications too!

So, once again I'd like to mute only the notifications (not alarms) but still receive them.

You could try enabling Do not disturb on the Apple Watch, and turn off "Mirror iPhone" under the Do Not Disturb section of the Apple Watch App, General > Do not disturb > Mirror iPhone. This was you keep DND separate from the phone as I assume you still want notifications on your phone to alert you.


Can I avoid windows snapping to main screen when I briefly lose my second screen? I have a Macbook Pro and almost always use it with an external, larger monitor, which I have set up so that it is right above the MBP's built in screen.  I have this same setup at home and at work.  This is my arrangement:

with the Dock at the bottom of the lower (built-in MBP) screen.  Usually I have most of my important windows positioned in the upper (external monitor) screen.  This provides the best ergonomics for me because I can look straight ahead instead of down.

When I leave one of these locations the MBP goes to sleep.  Then when I plug in at the other location, there is usually a moment (maybe 5 seconds) where the external monitor is not plugged in.  If that moment is too long, then all my windows reposition into the lower, built-in MBP screen.  Sometimes the windows end up shrunk in height to be very short as well.  So then, if I want to get back to where I was I have to drag all my windows (for umpteen apps) back up into the upper screen and expand the shrunken ones.

Is there any way to avoid this?  For example, can I cause the windows to have a preferred location that they could snap back to when possible?

I'm on OSX Lion (10.7.5).  This is a 15-inch MBP, new in spring 2011.

Stay should solve this for you.  It's not free, but it's not expensive either.


How can I prevent the iPad from getting my iPhone texts or calls? Updated my iPhone and iPad to IOS 8.0.2 and now when I get a text or phone call on the iPhone the message appears on my iPad. Can I undo or unlink this feature?

On the iPad simply go to 'setting', then 'messages', then slide 'iMessages' to off.  You will not receive texts from anyone.


Developer of a tool says I need to run an exe file and chmod it on mac I am trying to use a tool written to help convert output of one program to a file useable by another.
The tool when downloaded is a lot of files and a .exe file.
I assumed this is not the Mac version, but the developer says that it runs on Mac OS and I need to CHMOD +x it and it will run.
I can't even get to the stage of trying that as my mac defaults to use the Unarchiver for  .exe files. I have tried both SwiftDefaultApps and RCdefault apps to try and de-allocate the unarchiver to those files, but neither works.
I've changed the suffix manually to .app and tried to run that but am told "You can’t open the application because it is not supported on this type of Mac."
I have dug into the terminal and think I have chmod -x the file.
Is there something I should be doing, or is it just that an exe just never going to work on a mac?
I'm a bit confused.
Thanks for any pointers.

I have downloaded the program and can confirm that the exe file is indeed an ordinary exe file - and definitely not a script file for Linux or anything of the sorts.
I would assume that when the author mentions that the project is cross-platform, and allows running on Linux and macOS - he means that you could install the Mono Project and run the program that way.
However executing the exe file via mono like this:
mono dxDD2RenPy.exe

doesn't actually work. It does work with other .NET cross-platform exe files though.


How can I save state of tabs in Safari? I am macOS rookie and now have difficulties with Safari, I would like to find how I can save tabs?

For example some tabs were open, than I close Safari and turn off laptop, next time when I turn on laptop and open Safari I would like my tabs restored and open again...

To see your entire history, select Show All History on the History menu, or press Cmd-Y.

To restore your tabs after each restart, open Preferences from the Safari menu, go to the General tab, and select Safari Opens With All Windows from Last Session.

The main advantages to using Safari over Chrome are its better system integration, which you may or may not care about. Examples of this are proper use of the Notification Centre, ability to AirPlay (some) videos from your browser to other AirPlay devices, iCloud password and bookmark syncing between devices, and Handoff when you want to open a page on your Mac, and continue reading it on your iOS device (or vice versa).

Historically, Chrome has also been a bit of CPU hog compared to Safari, which ultimately impacts your battery life. I haven't checked recently whether that's still the case.


When try to I open a .jar I get "The java JAR file could not be opened" Found this error:Could not find or load main class E Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: E

I am trying to install Forge so I can load mods for Minecraft.

Those jar files are not executed by double-clicking. You have to place it in .minecraft/versions folder and run it from launcher I think.


Our iPad is locked and we're not sure of the Apple ID / iCloud password My Granddaughter has lost/forgotten her ID and passwords for her iPad. When the iPad powers on, it goes straight to an iCloud password request and I cannot get past it.

I have installed iTunes on my laptop but it fails to connect to the server (error 310).

I installed iCloud control panel and tried a restore but that failed because of "Find my iPad" was active, which I cannot turn off because of the original password problem!

This is driving me crazy. I just want to reset everything now so that I can hand it back to her. Can anyone help?

If the iPad is a recent gift, Apple offers free support to guide you in reclaiming access to her iCloud account. You can't unlock or restore the iPad with iTunes as the device is truly locked until her password is remembered or reset.

https://getsupport.apple.com to see if you get free support
https://AppleID.apple.com to self service reset the password
http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5818 how activation lock works and what to do in your case to recover use of the device

If you don't know how the account was set up, realize that too many wrong guesses will lock that account and make her go through more questions / answers and possibly have to review purchase history with Apple before getting someone to assist in resetting things.


MBA 13" 2011 (with TB) as a display for PS3 I wonder if I can use my new MacBook Air 13" 2011 as a display for PS3 (of course with the help of some adapter, e.g. Kanex XD/Belkin AV360™)? I know it sound weird, but that's my situation.

You'll need to look for HDMI capture boxes. The best one for your situation would seem to be these Blackmagic products, specifically the Thunderbolt one (it says "shipping in January").

I doubt there'll be many (if any) HDMI-USB capture boxes, except maybe USB 3.0, which your Air doesn't have.

Of course, if what you want to record (and maybe watch) is HDCP protected, you won't be able to. Be aware that any digitizing solution will introduce lag so this is not at all an optimal solution for gaming where you might care about reaction speeds.


AppleScript to Option-click on the Dropbox Menu Bar Icon I have an AppleScript that does a simple "mouse" click on the Dropbox menu bar icon (Menu Extra or Menulet). It works well.

tell application "System Events"
tell UI element "Dropbox"
    tell menu bar item 1 of menu bar 2
        perform action "AXPress"
    end tell
end tell
end tell

I want to edit this code so the action that will be performed is a click while the Option (alt / ⌥) is pressed down.

I've done an extensive search for a solution but didn't find any.

Thanks in advance.

Using terms from the (FREE) AppleScript Toolbox scripting addition, this code will handle your question.

The code in this updated answer will automatically get the coordinates of the DROPBOX icon in the status bar...  Whether it's location stays the same or changes

tell application "System Events"
    tell its UI element "Dropbox"
        tell its menu bar 2
            set originalCoordinates to position
        end tell
    end tell
end tell

set itemOne to (item 1 of originalCoordinates) + 10
set itemTwo to (item 2 of originalCoordinates) + 10

set dropboxMouseLocation to {itemOne, itemTwo}
AST set mouse point location dropboxMouseLocation
AST click at dropboxMouseLocation holding modifier key ast option key

UPDATE

This is following version of the code will return the mouse to where its original location was before clicking on the Dropbox status menu icon

set originalMouseLocation to AST mouse point location

tell application "System Events" to tell its UI element "Dropbox"
    tell its menu bar 2
        set originalCoordinates to position
    end tell
end tell

set itemOne to (item 1 of originalCoordinates) + 10
set itemTwo to (item 2 of originalCoordinates) + 10

set dropboxMouseLocation to {itemOne, itemTwo}
AST set mouse point location dropboxMouseLocation
AST click at dropboxMouseLocation holding modifier key ast option key

AST set mouse point location originalMouseLocation


opened malicious attachment from scam email- what to do? My mother-in-law bit on a fake email ("Your USPS package...") sent to her AOL account and opened the attachment with her iMac. She's on 10.5. She called us shortly after she realized that the attachment wasn't opening. No symptoms yet. What is the impact? What diagnostic/recovery/protection steps should I take? (other than making sure in the future she's up-to-date with her operating system and has an antivirus)

No antivirus. There's a partial backup but it's on a hard drive that's connected; can I trust it?

There is a rather high chance that the attachment was primarily targeting Windows system and didn't actually trigger anything on the Mac. Nevertheless the risk isn't zero.

What I would do in a similar situation if I wanted to reduce the risk and had a lot of time at my hand:

Tell her to shut the Mac down
Get an external drive big enough for the whole disk (an iMac with 10.5 is rather old, so make sure you get one with the right ports. USB2 isn't really advisable here)
Pay her a visit, boot the iMac from DVD and backup the whole disk to the external drive. If you can get the user-installed applications back easily you can also just backup the user folder(s)
Detach/eject the external drive
Reboot normally and log in to take note of

accounts configured in Mail etc.
usernames/passwords stored in Keychain

Reboot from DVD again and make a full reinstall of the OS from DVD
Upgrade to whatever macOS version you want to/can upgrade to (make at least sure to install all security updates)
Install an antivirus software (for what it's worth) and make sure the signature files are up to date
Attach the external drive again and run a virus scan on it
Create new user(s) and get the data back from the external drive
Enable Time Machine


How do I remove .sparsebundle files in my home folder from being excluded by Time Machine? I have a problem in that any .sparsebundle I create in my home folder tree is not getting backed up to time machine.

It is like an 'exclude by path' but I can't remove it or see where it is defined.

# whoami
root
# tmutil isexcluded /Users/andy/atest.sparsebundle /Users/Administrator/atest.sparsebundle
[Excluded]  /Users/andy/atest.sparsebundle
[Included]  /Users/Administrator/atest.sparsebundle
# defaults read /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist ExcludeByPath
(
    "//Users/Shared/adi",
    "/Users/Shared/adi",
    "/Library/Application Support/Microsoft/PlayReady"
)
# ls -l@ /Users/andy/atest.sparsebundle
-rw-r--r-- 1 root staff 0 18 Oct 20:54 /Users/andy/atest.sparsebundle
# xattr -l /Users/andy/atest.sparsebundle
# rm /Users/andy/atest.sparsebundle
# tmutil isexcluded /Users/andy/atest.sparsebundle
[Excluded] /Users/andy/atest.sparsebundle

Any ideas?

Have you tried removing the exclusion with the tmutil command?

  tmutil removeexclusion /Users/andy/atest.sparsebundle


MacBook Pro Sluggish boot My MacBookPro has been extremely slow at the startup. Is there something similar to Window's System Registry that I can see all the boot files and uncheck what I don't need?

I'm running Mac OS X Version 10.6.8

Model Name:  MacBook Pro
Model Identifier: MacBookPro7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.4 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus Speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot ROM Version: MBP71.0039.B0B
SMC Version (system): 1.62f7

try clearing temporary files and prefs (Note: do it within your user library not on system library. I had a bad experience with it before).


Can I automate location changing so I don't have to drive the choice manually? Wondering is anyone knows of an application that can change settings on my Macbook Pro depending on the wireless networks it detects?

Ie, If I was at work, connect to the Work Wireless, Change default printer, chance location, change wallpaper etc.

I seem to remember seeing an app at one stage, however after much Googling I cannot find it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

AirPort Location** takes snapshots of the system settings you select and re-applies them the next time you use your machine at that location.

** Update Oct 2016: Airport location appears to be no longer maintained, but still available at [MacUpdate.com][2]. It may be limited to older versions of OS-X. The same site suggests [ControlPlane][3] provides similar functionality; I have not used it.


How effective is a Time Machine backup? I'm having a problem with Office not installing correctly and not being able to update. I have one last resort which is Backing up and formatting my system.
However I would like to know how effective is Time Machine for the following two points :

Will I be able to restore "EVERY" application without the need of re-installing items ?? For example, I have python installed with many modules that take ages to get them all working together. Would I need to repeat this process after cleaning my machine and using the backup to restore ?
Office has been corrupted after deleting it. Now it fails to install correctly and update. What is the chance that the corruption would be copied over to the backup file, rendering the whole process of formatting my machine to "fix" the issue useless ?

Whoa, that's a way last resort. You don't have a computer problem, you have a Microsoft problem. Move all Microsoft preference files (plist and plist.lockfile) from both ~/Library/Prefences and ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost, and from /Library/Preferences, to the Trash.

Any Ofice apps in Applications or the whole Microsoft Office folder, move to trash or zip and store in /Users/Shared. Same with Microsoft folder in /Library/Application Support. Start with a clean state.

Log out, maybe even Restart, and try installing again. Sometimes just getting a fresh copy of  Microsoft AutoUpdate into /Libary/ApplicationSupport/Microsoft/MAU2.0/ gets it all working, along with letting the apps build fresh Preferences--let MAU find and install updates.


Is it possible to assign a ringtone to a group of contacts? Without individually setting the ringtone for each contact in that group.

Maybe there are other apps that manage contacts and have this feature.

Basically, I want my iPhone to ring the same when contacts from a group call.

This is a feature that I want Apple to support, but hasn't yet. The "Group" mechanism in Contacts is a distribution list and only allows you to group contacts but has no editable meta information for you to change (for example, to change the default ringtone).

On an un-hacked iPhone, your only option is to edit individual contacts, and assign the new ringtone for each of them.

I have never hacked my iPhone, so there might be alternative methods available that I am not aware of. I will let someone else with a hacked iPhone answer that part.


Apple Developer Pay Out Currency When selling an app or in app purchases in the Apple App Store and having customers paying in USD, EUR, GBP etc, does Apple do the conversion and then pay you in your native currency i.e. for me £GBP as I am based in the UK or do they just pay out in $USD?
Can you select which currency you wish to be paid out in, or can you connect multiple bank accounts to be paid out in each currency?

You get paid in the country where you legally sign your developer agreement - you get one bank account for Apple to pay in your revenue. It’s up to you to handle the accounting if you choose to move money to different accounts in different locations.
Apple publishes tiered pricing charts online and announces upcoming changes as developer news, so you can watch for the periodic changes if you wish to schedule price changes.

https://developer.apple.com/news/?id=ul8i5to3

You will want to track which regions withhold taxes and which don’t and Apple provides you the exchange rates in effect when your account clears.
Read up on this at the Managing Agreements, Tax, and Banking Information section of

https://developer.apple.com/support/app-store-connect/


What are next steps when fsck reports "could not be repaired after 3 attempts"? My Mac Book Pro 13.-" doesn´t get past the grey booting screen with the apple and the spinning wheel (The loading bar appears but when it´s done nothing happens)

I have 220 GB in one single Partition (Macintosh HD) and there is all my work my music and the only copy of ALL MY PHOTOS. I´m so stupid I don´t have a backup of anything but know I have an external HD with 300GB space. I would like to repair my HDD but more important I need to save my files but I don´t know how to do it in Disk Utility Mode. I read there is a Diskwarrior but I don´t know how to install it without booting the mac. Please help!!!

When I start on Single User mode and enter /sbin/fsck -fs this appears

Executing fsck_hfs (version diskdev_cmds-557-393)
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
The volume name is Macintosh HD
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file
Incorrect number of thread records  (4, 23745)
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy
Invalid volume directory count (It should be 175703 instead of 175701) Checking extended attributes file.
Incorrect number of extended attributes (It should be 340062 instead of 340064)
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
The volume Macintosh HD could not be repaired after 3 attempts.

*****The volume was modified *****

What are the next steps if fsck fails to repair a drive?

You can try this but please make sure you backup first:

Boot to single-user mode, hold down the command (i.e. cloverleaf or Apple) and "s" keys as the system begins to boot.

To Debug, Repair, Force (and fix errors automatically)

/sbin/fsck_hfs -drfy /dev/disk0s2

To scan for bad blocks:

/sbin/fsck_hfs -S /dev/disk0s2

Assuming disk0s2 is the one you are looking to repair. (Usually the default "Macintosh HD" drive.)

This should get you back inside your OS.

This link may help too:
http://www.westwind.com/reference/os-x/commandline/single-user.html


Can't update or install apps iOS 10.3.3

This question is similar to this, but the apps aren't even starting to update and I don't have the blue dot next to the app name on the homescreen.

I have 15 apps available for update on my iPhone SE, but when I attempt to update them, it doesn't work.

When I try to update apps, the spinning wheels show up but don't change to the ones that show progress. Even after a while the app updates are still spinning. I can still use the apps while this is happening. The "Update All" button also doesn't work properly. Clicking on the spinning wheel just launches the app.

When installing new apps I have the same problem.

Sideloading apps seems to work fine.

Storage space is not the problem as I have more than 1 GB free. I don't have restrictions enabled either.

Troubleshooting:

Restarting
Clearing App Store cache(tapping navigation bar 10 times)
Hard resetting(home button + power button)
Signing out and signing back in
Updating each individually
Turning on automatic updates

This is a software issue. What I suggest is backing up your iPhone with iCloud backup (Settings -> Your Name -> iCloud -> iCloud Backup -> Backup Now - Unless it has already recently backed up), then make sure you get your wifi password and Apple ID password.

***If your Apple account sends you verification codes all of the time you need to add another number to your account in Settings -> Your name (or iCloud) -> Password & Security -> Edit to add trusted phone number (you wont be able to get the code when you sign back in)>.

After you've backed up. Sign out of iCloud, erase the iPhone (Settings -> General -> Reset -> Erase all Content And Settings) and then set up the phone, but restore from the iCloud backup. You'll need wifi, Apple ID account login (and a verification code from another trusted number if your account sends you verification codes). Once thats done the phone will look the same, messages, apps, photos, notes, calendar events, etc.

After that, then try to update your Apps.


How to copy/paste parts of a text in Messages.app I am pretty sure I used to be able to select and copy text in Messages.app like in any other app (click + drag, double-click, etc.)

Right now I don't seem to be able to do this.

I am not sure what updated last, I am on macOS 10.14.6, Messages.app 12.0

Use case:

How do I copy the code from the message?

It does have an odd behaviour, but one that's easy to work round.
If you click-hold, the 'reaction' pop-up will appear, so the trick is just a short click.
If you click once straight onto the message bubble, anywhere, the text goes grey. At this point any interaction is with the entire message. If you directly double click or right click whilst the text is initially black, it doesn't go to grey, you can interact directly.
Basically, don't do that first click. You can do anything else & it works as individual words - so right click, double-click or click-drag works, for instance.
If you click outside the message bubble, the text goes back to black & you can now interact like any ordinary text.
BTW, verification codes like that will be found by Safari & will click right into the web page.
Examples

Grey text - handled as a single item for copy/paste.

Black text, can be individually selected.

Same in dark mode (first message is selected)

Smart fill-in feature in Safari


How do I move my iPhoto library to an external drive available through Time Capsule? Like many others, the number of photos that we are storing these days is growing.  Also, we have multiple iPhoto libraries on various computers.

So it makes sense to consolidate photos into a single library on an external drive and have every computer reference this library.

For starters, I moved the biggest iPhoto library to the external drive.  Then, using the hold-down-option-button method, I changed the referenced iPhoto library for the iPhoto app.  Aside from some expected extra latency, all seems to work.

The problem lies when I attempt to attach a photo to an email or upload a photo to the website.  The file chooser dialog's media browser does not seem to work with with the new iPhoto library location.  In other words, when I go to the Media section and select Photos, I do not see my photos.

Is there some extra step that I am missing?  Or does the media browser only work with local files?  I cannot seem to find the answer to this question, though I know many will probably run into this.

I am currently using the iPhoto Library Manager to rebuild the iPhoto library, however it is taking a long time.  I'm uncertain whether it will even work once its completed; probably should have tested with a tiny library to see, but I didn't.

Any help or references to resources would be appreciated.

Couple of things:

What format is the external?  iPhoto needs to have the Library sitting on disk formatted Mac OS Extended (Journaled). Users with the Library sitting on disks otherwise formatted regularly report issues including, but not limited to, importing, saving edits and sharing the photos.
Is that a wireless connection to the disk?  A strong warning: If you're trying to edit the Library (that is, make albums, move photos around, keyword, make books or slideshows etc.) or edit individual photos in it via Wireless be very careful. Dropouts are a common fact of wireless networking, and should one occur while the app is writing to the database then your Library will be damaged. Simply, I would not do this with my Libraries.


How to reset Apple ID PW without knowing original PW and answer to security question? I cannot use iCloud since I forgot the password for my MACBookPro original APPLE ID. The email address associated with this ID is no longer valid and the security question was never set up. How do i reset the password? I want to change the ID and use new PW to access icloud.

"If you forgot your Apple ID password" on Apple's support website provides the steps to reset your password, however you have stated you do have not access to the original email address and a security question was not set up.

Therefore you will need to contact Apple directly. "Contacting Apple for help with Apple ID account security" provides a country-by-country list of contacts for Apple ID password issues.


How to troubleshoot WLAN WPA2/WPA not working after updating to OSX 10.8.4? I've tried to update my macbook pro to osx 10.8.4. While my macbook rebooted, it said, that the update failed. After this failed update, my Mac will no longer connect to my TL-WR841N router.

I clicked the OK button and waited until it completely started. Then I tried to connect to my wlan (with no success). I got a "Connection timeout.". So I disabled/re-enabled my wlan, removed the wlan interface in the network panel, rebooted my macbook, added the network panel and got rid of the connection timeout. But it wasn't working: I got the error, that I couldn't connect to this network. I tried a lot: Repaired the access privileges in the utility program, changed my location in the network panel. I also reseted my router, but this was not the problem, because I could connect to it with my iphone without problems.

Then I discovered that I can connect to every network that has no encryption or has WEP encryption. I changed my wlan security settings in my router to "NO" and "WEP" (just for testing) and I could connect. But when I change it to WPA or WPA2 I can not connect (Yes, the password is right)..

What can I do now? How can I solve that? OSX 10.8.4 log says that it improves some points concerning wlan, so I think it has something to do with that. However beside the wlan my macbook is working great and (in contrast to the error message when updating), the "About Mac" panel says OSX 10.8.4.

Since the update told you it failed, you might need to re-apply the update by connecting to a wired network or downloading the whole update from another computer if yours is off the network.

Be sure to download the 10.8.4 Combo updater and re-apply the update to be sure the drivers all installed properly and no pieces of your software were missing or corrupted. Since normal updates are a delta (only the changed items get written), it's a slim chance that something odd happened and a re-install of the patch might help fix things up for you.

Once you've gotten the OS X update installed, should the problem persist, you can troubleshoot it as normal. The two avenues I would pursue to troubleshoot this would be to dig into Wireless Diagnostic first to see if it can identify your issue.

/System/Library/CoreServices/Wireless Diagnostics.app

This tool is substantially better on 10.8.4 than it was on previous versions (when it was called Wi-Fi Diagnostics) and it has helped me solve several tricky network issues already.

The second would be to go into the Network preference pane and clear all known wireless network settings:

Network Preference Pane
Wireless
Advanced
Delete all preferred networks
Then make a new "test" location and try re-joining the affected network (or joining another network to ensure this isn't just a coincident failure of the wireless card and not related to the update)


How do I prevent the permissions denied message from being displayed when I do a find command? I'm trying to run a find command, aka:

find / -name "some_file" -print

and my results are full of permission denied messages:

find: /.DocumentRevisions-V100: Permission denied

How do I prevent them from showing up in my search results?

Three ways come to mind:

run the command as administrator: sudo find / -name "whatever" -print
discard all error output: find / -name "whatever" -print 2>/dev/null
filter "Permission denied" messages: find / -name "whatever" -print 2>&1 | fgrep -v "Permission denied"

The key difference between the second and third option is probably that the second discards all error messages while the third will not show any files/folders where the name contains "Permission denied" (which is probably highly unlikely).

In addition it may be also worth noting that you shouldn't use the third option if you plan to further process the output of find via a pipe. The reason here is that standard and error output are sent via two different channels (and only visually combined afterwards by the shell). If you pipe the output into another command only the content of standard output will be inputed into the next command.


How to download older version of an app from AppStore if you have older version of iOS? I just got an iPhone 5 which has iOS 10. But some apps need iOS 11 or higher. I knew that these apps can be used on iOS 10 before, because of my friend. I found several solution if I downloaded the app before with my Apple account, I could download it to old iOS from purchased section on AppStore. But I couldn't find any solution if I didn't download the app before. How can I download an older version of an app in this situation?

Okay I done it with using this method:

I found a friend who has a newer iPhone which has a newer iOS version.
Go to AppStore on her phone and click avatar picture to go to profile.
Scroll all the way down and you will see the "logout" button. Click that.
Now, go to up of this page and you will see an input area that you can enter Apple ID and password. Login with using your Apple ID information.
After that, search the app you want to download and install the app. If your friend's iPhone already has the app you want to download, you have to delete it before, so you can download it with using your Apple ID.
Then you can logout from your friend's AppStore and you can search for the app on your older iPhone.

When you try to download, now it will ask that "this is not compatible app for that iOS version, do you want me to download the last compatible version of this app for this iOS version?". Confirm and voilà!

But I don't know why Apple push us to login from our friend's iPhone just for one time.


autocomplete in zsh after `npm run tdd` command I'm using OS X 10.10.3, I have installed zsh. And every time when I want to run a specific test I configured in package.json to execute npm run tdd followed by the test file.

In linux systems if I press tab after this command:

npm run tdd ~/

will show me the folders or will attempt to autocomplete the instruction, however this doesn't happen in zsh on OS X, it just makes the noise like there are no recommendations for this.

How can this be fixed?

Add the following to your .zshrc:

autoload -Uz compinit
compinit

that should get you going. Now, read

man zshcompsys


Is it possible to switch the desktops of multiple displays without moving the mouse? (Mavericks) I have been loving Maverick's new "Displays have separate spaces" functionality; however, I have just one issue with it. I usually use a keyboard shortcut to change spaces (i.e.⌘ + → and ⌘ + ←), and this action changes the space of whichever display the mouse is on. When I am working, I dislike having to think about where the mouse is, so I was wondering if it is possible to have something like four keyboard shortcut: two for left/right on the internal display, and two for the left/right on the external display? Or if there was any other convenient solution to this little annoyance?

Keyboard Maestro can do this using a macro such as the following:


Are there any hidden settings to modify default system sleep conditions? Is it possible in some way to modify conditions when OS X will go to sleep?
In my opinion the time delay of system sleep is insufficient.

Imagine the situation that we are in the middle of downloading some large file over http, after leaving MBP for e.g. 4 min cause a system sleep therefore all tcp connections will be broken. It is not only anoying.

The caffeinate command can be used but it will implicit prevent OS X from sleeping.

Does anyone have cure for that?

Applications that download files should create a power assertion to prevent idle sleep. But for ones that don't, you can add something like this to the crontab (EDITOR=nano crontab -e):

* * * * * pgrep -x uTorrent && caffeinate -t 60

You haven't missed the energy saver settings, right?


Some User Accounts Won't Remember Screen Resolution Okay, so I have a system with multiple user accounts setup, and I have two monitors. The first monitor is fine on its native resolution, but the second is too small, so I've been setting a lower resolution to make it more readable.

The problem is that this change is only being remembered by some of my user accounts; the others continue to switch it back to its native resolution.

I'm assuming the problem is with a preferences file somewhere, but I can't seem to find it; the only path I was able to lookup was ~/Library/Preferences/ByHost/com.apple.preference.displays.<UUID>.plist (where UUID is an identifier for your Mac) but that may have been for an older version of OS X, as I can't find such a file on these user accounts.

Is there a different location for this file under newer OS X versions? Or anything else I can try to make the resolution change stick? Currently I have to switch it again every time an affected user account logs in.

So your question was asked ages ago, but before I was able to get my setup to work, I was searching for possible answers myself and happened across this page.

The key in my case was that an admin user was able to get resolution changes to stick, but non-admin "standard" users were not. Once I changed it with the admin user, all of the standard users would keep the resolution.

If that doesn't solve things for you, you mentioned trying a PRAM reset unsuccessfully. Have you tried resetting NVRAM, which newer Macs use rather than PRAM to store some display resolution info?


Can I disable iMessage on an a computer I no longer have access I recently left my ex, he still has access to my iMessages on the Mac we shared. How can I remotely disable his access to my messages?

All you have to do is to change your Apple ID password.


Is there a way to make Siri play BBC radio stations? Is there a way (legitimate method or an ugly hack) to enable streaming of bbc radio (four) simply by saying a voice command to Siri?

On Amazon’s Echo, saying “play radio 4” begins streaming bbc radio 4 from tunein.

Maybe there’s a clever way using Launchpad, or Workflow, or some other app?

Long story short I don't think there is an official way at the moment.

Third-party developers like the BBC can add support for Siri to their apps now, but that is only allowed for certain use cases, and streaming radio stations doesn't seem to fit into any of them. The closest option is the CarPlay option, but that would only be useful to you while you were in the car and if your car supported CarPlay. People have asked the BBC in the past whether they plan to support CarPlay, but the BBC didn't respond.

List of allowed use cases for SiriKit from Apple's Developer site:

VoIP Calling - Initiate calls and search the user's call history.
Messaging - Send messages and search the user's received messages.
Payments - Send payments between users or pay bills.
Lists and Notes - Create and manage notes and to-do list items.
Visual Codes - Convey contact and payment information using Quick Response (QR) codes.
Photos - Search for and display photos.
Workouts - Start, end, and manage fitness routines.
Ride Booking - Book rides and report their status.
Car Commands - Manage vehicle door locks and get the vehicle's status.
CarPlay - Interact with a vehicle's CarPlay system.
Restaurant Reservations - Create and manage restaurant reservations with help from the Maps app.


Looking for a typing tutor app Years ago, I learned typing by a program named Typing Tutor, on DOS. XD

Now, my son is using a MacBook and I am teaching him how to type. What software/website you recommend to learn typing on a MacBook?

The Typing Cat

I like it because:

it's free
fast
gives nice progress
supports multiple layouts (qwerty, dvorak, colemak, workman)
looks good
You don't need to install anything - it's webapp
i'm creator and i'm proud of it and made it as sideeffect of teaching myself Colemak. But I can be subjective u need to try it yourself to verify my statements :)


Does copying a migrated iPhotos library use extra space, given that iPhotos and Photos Libraries are hardlinked? If I have migrated an iPhoto Library to Photos (on an external disk, so independent of the computer with the apps), and then make a copy of the iPhotos Library, will I be using additional disk space?

I understand (now, but not when I did this) that the iPhoto Library and the Photos Library in effect share space because the photos referenced as being "in" both are hard linked to the same location (see Does migrating to Apple's new Photos app actually double my storage requirements? and  If I've migrated from iPhoto to Photos, can I safely delete the migrated photo library?). If I make a copy of the iPhoto Library, does that make a copy of the hard links in the iPhoto Library or does it make a copy of the underlying photos as well? The copy is on the same volume, but may or may not be in the same folder (i.e. both alternatives apply).

If copying does copy the underlying photos, is there any way of telling which libraries are now sharing linked photos?

(The problem arose because I had migrated an iPhoto Library to Photos under Yosemite. I then opened the Photos Library under High Sierra, which migrated it to the new HS Photos format (something I had not anticipated), without also creating a pre-migration (Yosemite) version. The problem is that I want to use this Library on an older computer under Yosemite/El Capitan. I then tried to do my own investigations about whether the various libraries contained the same data, not being entirely sure whether there had been any changes made to the Photos Library.  Additional complication: I think there were already two iPhoto Libraries: iPhoto Library.migratedlibrary and iPhoto Library copy.)

The short answer is, of course, yes, making a copy of a library makes a real copy including new copies of the underlying photos.

A neat test to show this and to identify which libraries are linked is given by nohillside in How can I verify that my Photos and iPhoto library are hard linking to the same disk data?: compare a photo from each library using

ls -li /path/from/old/app.jpg /path/from/new/app.jpg

This will show the inode number at the beginning of each line of output. If the files are linked, they will have the same inode.


My MacBook gets stuck but still has 44 GB of storage left My MacBook has 125 GB storage space (other 125 GB is for Windows). It still has more than 44 GB available but it gets stuck every two hours. I have tried all the methods I can find and have deleted what I can delete. But it still doesn't work! Now I can't write my final paper in Word!

When it starts up it still has 44 GB available

Less than 2 hours later it would be like that

And then all the application paused and I have to re-start.

You have  memory leak somewhere and it's causing your system to essentially supplement ram with hard drive.

Open activity monitor, go to the memory tab, and sort by usage. See if you can figure out what program or combination of programs is gobbling up all your memory.
Also that same tab will show you used memory, swap space, etc.


MacBook Pro 17" Early 2011 running without the AMD GPU Well, after my Discrete GPU failed for third time, I decide to eliminate it from the system, and followed the instruction from LangLangC in:

GPU problem - Boot Hangs on Grey Screen

All works fine except when opening applications that need GPU acceleration, like Photos.

In that situations glitched zones appear on the screen until the application quits.

Will upgrading RAM provide more shared memory for the HD Graphics 3000 to access?

At this time, after hack the shared memory to the GPU reached 1536 MB, as is shown in About This Mac.

The Terminal commands for this are:

Add more VRAM

@arqueox try these steps they 100% work this time to increase from stock 512 MB to 1536 MB VRAM:

cd /S*/L*/Ext*/AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.kext/C*/M*

sudo cp AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB.backup

sudo perl -pi -e 's|\xC7\x45\xD0\x00\x00\x00\x20|\xC7\x45\xD0\x00\x00\x00\x60|g' AppleIntelSNBGraphicsFB

sudo touch /S*/L*/Extensions

Thanks to @arqueox for having tested the Info.plist
before reboot/restart you have to edit this file:

/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelHD3000Graphics.kext/Contents/Info.plist

Adding after these strings, this part:

<key>VRAMMethod</key>
<integer>0</integer>
<key>VRAMOverride</key>
<integer>0</integer>
<key>VRAMSize</key>
<integer>1536</integer>

After edited the plist from Terminal type:

sudo chown -R 0:0 /System/Library/Extensions && sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions

sudo kextcache -i /

sudo reboot

Adding extra memory to the system is not going to improve the graphics, I'm afraid.

The Intel HD3000 has a hardware limitation of approx. 1.7 GB of system RAM it can use for video ram. So even though you add 8 GB of extra system RAM, you're not going to be able to use more of it for video ram.

As far I know it is possible to set the VRamSize to 2048, which would indicate 2 GB - but in reality only ~1.7 GB would actually be used.

If you want to try that, please change the x60 in your command to x80, and the VRAMSize from 1536 to 2048.

I wouldn't expect that to alleviate the problem with zones of glitches however.


JDiskReport is damaged, can't be opened I have tried downloading and running JDiskReport 1.4 a few times now, and after unzipping it and clicking on the executable I get the message:

"JDiskReport" is damaged and can't be opened.  You should move it to the Trash

Why is it not working?  I'm running 10.8 Mountain Lion on a MacBook Pro.

Just tried this myself and confirmed that the executable gives the error you mentioned:

"JDiskReport" is damaged and can't be opened. You should move it to the Trash.

I was able to get it to run setup by Ctrl-clicking JDiskReport.app, clicking Show Package Contents and navigating to Contents/Resources/Java/jdskreport-1.4.0.jar.  Ctrl-clicking this .jar file will allow you to click Open and bypass Mountain Lion's default 'unidentified developer' error.  I did not go completely through Setup (only confirmed that it ran), so try this and let me know how it goes.


How to remove duplicate icons from Launchpad? I have two identical Xcode icons in the Launchpad. I guess the second icon appeared after installing Xcode beta.
So here my steps for reproducing this issue:

Install Xcode 7.
Install Xcode 8.
Install Xcode 7 again.

I tried this but it didn't help me. I have OS X El Capitan 10.11.6.
How do I remove the duplicate icon?

This helped me. Try to move the Xcode App to Trash and put it back.

https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12519772/two-xcode-app-icons-in-launchpad-after-4-5-install


Logitech C920 - Follow my face support for OSX 10.14 I have had a Logitech C920 sitting on my shelf for over a year now and I just unpacked it to try it out.  I thought I would try the Follow My Face feature out because I noticed it working on other users (Windows) systems during some Skype meetings.  I am running OSx 10.14.6 and I installed the latest Logitech Camera Settings version 2.6.2. I opened Camera Settings up to find that Follow My Face doesn't seem to be supported.  Any suggestions (Maybe another application?) to get that feature working for Skype and Facetime?

I'm surprised their own suite even recognises it - it didn't when the C920 was new…

From Logitech's C920 page

  Compatible with:
  Windows® 10 or later, Windows 8, Windows 7

  Works in USB Video Device Class (UVC) mode with supported video-calling clients:
  macOS 10.10 or later
  Chrome OS™
  Android™ v 5.0 or above
  USB port
  Internet connection

So for anything other than Windows, there's no specific support, only as a generic 'UVC' device.
Many Mac users have complained about this over many years… as I got mine in 2012, I doubt it's anything they're going to be adding any time soon.

You can get a lot better than Logitech's basic support with a 3rd party app called Webcam Setting [$7.99] & though it can't do 'follow my face' it does make the camera considerably more useful. It also hasn't been updated in 5 years, but then neither has the camera.
It works well up to Mojave. I can't test on Catalina, but at least it doesn't get the "May not work in future OSes" warning at launch.


How do I kill the "server connections interrupted" window/process? When my MacBook wakes up, away from a network it was previously connected to, it shows the "server connections interrupted" window. When I click "disconnect all", I get a spinning beach ball of death. Restarting the finder doesn't help. Logging out and restarting is not possible anymore. The only thing I can do is a hard reset.

Or is there a way to kill the process from the terminal or from the activity monitor?

Strange fact: when the interrupted connection window is beachballing, I'm also unable to invoke the 'About this mac...' command in the apple menu. Nothing happens...

If the issue is not common enough to find a solution on the Apple Knowlegde Base then it is most probably a rare issue caused by a corruption in the operating system or a 3'rd party application. Under these circumstances I would recommend one of the following:

Reinstalling OS X (after performing a backup, preferably with Time Machine).
Find someone else with identical hardware and software to see if their laptop does the same thing under the same circumstances (might be a compatibility issue with your wireless access point or router?)
Make a reservation at the Apple Genius Bar, they are great troubleshooters and will be able to tell you if there is something wrong with your laptop hardware or software.
A lot of troubleshooting information can be written to the OS X Console. Just have it running (and visible) while replicating this issue and it might print some information related to the issue.

I hope one of those steps can help you diagnose the issue, as it does not seem to be common enough to find a single solution for :-)

UPDATE: Since it appears that you are running "ADMitMac" which probably integrates with OS X in a significant way, and considering your issues are network related, there is a rather large red flag surrounding this software. I would strongly recommend uninstalling it as a trial to diagnose the issues you are encountering.


Check Past Orders on iTunes Online I've purchased a few games for my iPhone, via App Store. I understand that I can check my past orders via iTunes program downloaded on my PC.

But is there anyway to check what are my past orders online, without going through iTunes the Desktop Program?

Unfortunately, there's no way built into iOS or the App Store that will tell you what your past purchases were. However, whenever you buy something from the iTunes Store, Apple emails you a receipt of the purchase. You don't get a receipt for free items, but you should be able to keep track of your past purchases anywhere you can get access to your email.


AltGr keyboard shortcuts on MacOS? Is there any way to enable Windows-style AltGr symbol shortcuts on Mac OS? I.e., AltGr+V should be mapped to "@", AltGr+F to "[" etc. AltGr being, in this case, the right Option/Alt key.

I am using a Croatian keyboard layout and the current way for entering those symbols is horrible to say the least. I've tried fixing this using KeyRemap4MacBook, but even though the changes are applied, key mappings remain the same.

You might have better luck building a new keyboard layout with Ukelele.


Speech Recognition/Dictation Crashing Process:               com.apple.SpeechRecognitionCore.speechrecognitiond [8448]
Path:                  /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SpeechRecognitionCore.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/com.apple.SpeechRecognitionCore.brokerd.xpc/Contents/XPCServices/com.apple.SpeechRecognitionCore.speechrecognitiond.xpc/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.SpeechRecognitionCore.speechrecognitiond
Identifier:            com.apple.SpeechRecognitionCore.speechrecognitiond
Version:               2.2.7 (2.2.7)
Code Type:             X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:        ??? [1]
Responsible:           com.apple.SpeechRecognitionCore.brokerd [738]

OS Version:            Mac OS X 10.11.4 (15E65)

Crashed Thread:        2  Dispatch queue: com.apple.root.default-qos

Exception Type:        EXC_BAD_ACCESS (SIGSEGV)
Exception Codes:       KERN_INVALID_ADDRESS at 0x00000000000cf0ac
Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Dictation fails without notification, system log reveals above crash.

Steps to resolve the crash:

Turn off enhanced dictation under the dictation system preference pane
Turn off dictation
Delete en_US.SpeechRecognition/ in /System/Library/Speech/Recognizers/SpeechRecognitionCoreLanguages/
Turn on dictation and enhanced dictation, the recognizer is downloaded again
Kill the speechsynthesisd and speechrecognitiond processes if dictation popup shows loading indefinitely


AppleScript to export script editor script as application I have a binary that I want wrapped up as an Application, so I thought this was a good use case for AppleScript.

I want to automate how Script Editor lets you export an AppleScript as a .app bundle. This is what I have so far, I'm confused about how to read the libraries dictionary for the script editor.

tell application "Script Editor"

set command to "do shell script " & "\"APP_PATH\""
set innard to {contents: command}
set Tallgeese to make new document with properties innard
save Tallgeese as "application"

end tell

You must specify the full path where you want to save this application.

Here is an example that saves it in the "Applications" folder of the user.

set appName to "someAppName"
set thePath to (path to applications folder from user domain as string with folder creation) & appName & ".app"
tell application "Script Editor"
    set command to "do shell script " & "\"/bin/ls\""
    set innard to {contents:command}
    set Tallgeese to make new document with properties innard
    compile Tallgeese
    save Tallgeese as "application" in thePath
    close document 1 -- close the document
    -- quit ---- quit the editor
end tell


Which version of Mac OS X was the first to support RTL (right-to-left) languages? Apple – Press Info – Mac OS X Hits Stores This Weekend (2001) listed seven languages for 10.0. From an archived Apple knowledge base article Mac OS X 10.6: Changing the direction of text I know that Snow Leopard included support for right-to-left and bidirectional text. From the knowledge base:

  … When using certain right-to-left writing systems such as Arabic, Hebrew, Yiddish, Persian, Pashto, and Urdu, you may need to quote words from left-to-right writing systems, such as English. When right-to-left text is mixed with left-to-right text, it is called bidirectional text. …

However:

I can't tell which version of the operating system introduced support for RTL.

Apple - Mac OS X Snow Leopard - Technical specifications doesn't list Arabic or Hebrew amongst the languages, so (by implication) whilst operating system localisations at that time did not include those languages, the OS did support RTL.

Another archived article, Hebrew & Arabic Language Kit: System Direction Issues, reminds me that for less recent versions of the OS, Apple's installer offered language kits (more recent installers include those languages by default).

I tried searching domains such as mellel.com, redlers.com and www.apple.com/pr – e.g. https://duckduckgo.com/?q=languages%20%22Mac%20OS%20X%22%20site:www.apple.com/pr/ – couldn't find an answer.

If it helps: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellel states that development of Mellel began in 2002 (and I recall Mellel being renowned for RTL support).

It was introduced in 10.2, Jaguar, and greatly improved in 10.3, Panther. See this article from MacOSXHints for evidence and more details.


Can't boot Windows 7 USB Install on iMac 8,5 I would like to install Windows 7 with Boot Camp on my 20 Inch iMac 8,5 from late 2008. My Superdrive seems to have failed, inserting a DVD or CD just results in it spinning a bunch clunking about and spitting it out. So I need to use the USB method to install.

I have tried the following methods of creating a bootable USB to various USB devices in s 4GB & 8GB and had zero success in booting them:

Boot Camp USB Creator directly from Boot Camp (I edited the .plist to allow this)
Unebootin (Linux distros won't boot either)
Windows USB Maker from a Parallels install of Windows 7 (the same ISO)
Terminal "sudo dd..."
Disk Utility converting the ISO to an IMG and successfully restoring it to the usb partition
WinToBoot and various other Windows applications to wipe and write the iso via Parallels Windows installation
rEFIT both directly on my mac and as a bootable usb, the bootable usb is recognized and sees the Windows usb but when launched it simply says no bootable device

I have also tried to do a simple linux install usb with Unebootin with no success in booting. I have created a bootable Mac OS install usb using Disk Utility which is recognized when holding Option.

I am starting to wonder if it is my computer or EFI firmware? All the USB ports work fine with other peripherals and recognize the usb devices when Mac OS or parallels is open.

As of yesterday I am running Mountain Lion (I'd hoped perhaps updating would make something work) made no changes.

I think the problem is the way the computer is locked, if your computer has a Super Drive, your Mac is automatically configured/locked to boot from that drive and ignore the USB.

Their is no amount of reconfiguration or software tricks that would change that, what you can do is take out the Super Drive, or try cleaning it with a CD cleaner - the one with the brush.


SuperDrive - one in five dvds won't mount I recently turned my 2009 mac mini into a mediacenter.
It appears that about one in five of my dvds will not even mount. I suppose this has to do with some copy protection. Same goes for my music CDs.

I would be willing to buy an external drive - but I'm worried that in the end it will have the same issue (and I won't be able return a "functional" drive). And so far I don't know which "feature" will be required to play all DVDs.

Web search only gave me info on failing drives that won't read any media. But as I can reliably read some media I don't think these apply to my case.

I hope someone can shed some light on this issue.

Some additional info

About the mac mini - in the course of turning it into a media center I did a fresh install of mountain lion with latest updates. The only additional software installed is XBMC and VLC. So I doubt this might be a software issue.

Before that I hardly used the drive. I think I only used it like a dozen times. Also didn't burn any disk.

DVDs won't open in the Mac DVD player software and not even mount as data disc.

It would be good to know if the one in five is the same disk each time, or if it's more a case of roughly every 5 attempts the mount fails.  If it's the same discs everytime, then you could further troubleshoot by trying them in other devices.  If it's random discs, then it's likely your drive that needs troubleshooting.

Does it make any weird grinding noises, or excessive head seek operations before giving up on mounting?  And does it sometimes fail to eject the drive if it has failed to mount?  I ask because this is exactly what my iMac superdrive (2009 era) did.  Sometimes it would read, sometimes if would make awful noises, sometimes it wouldn't eject because it said there was no disc when there was.

I eventually removed it and replaced it with an SSD instead, and for the price of a few dollars on eBay I bought an external USB case for it to see if I could get it working at all - it's worked fine ever since!  Maybe just being rough with it and being able to shake it about and stuff when I removed it (in a way I couldn't so when it was internal to the iMac) helped?

If it is the drive, you have limited repair options other than percussive maintenance, a monster clean with a vacumm nozzle right down the slots, and re-seating the cables etc.  You could try putting your Mac Mini on it's side when inserting discs - sounds daft, but I've know this to work with failing drives.

As for replacing it, then any DVD drive is going to be absolutely fine if you just want to read discs.  Frankly you will struggle get a DVD-ROM, and anything you buy will be a writer also, but there is no need to go for the fancy options like dual layer burning, lightscribe lazer etching, Blu Ray playback etc etc.


Macbook 5,2 Black Screen Issue Macbook screen goes black a few seconds after been woken or started up. I've tried everything outside of opening it up or bringing it back to the hive.

Has anyone else run into this issue, or am I a lonely sailor sailing up a creek of sticky brown paste that's not chocolate?

It's a Macbook 5,2 (early 2009, 10.5).

A couple of things to try would be:
Reset the PRAM

Restart your Mac

As soon as you press the power button to turn it back on, hold the
⌘ +  ⌥ + P + R keys until you hear the startup chime twice

Reset the SMC

Shut down your Mac

Remove the battery and unplug the power cable

Hold down the power button for 10 seconds and then let go

Restart your Mac normally

These steps may not resolve your issue, but it's worth a shot. If they do no resolve the issue, it is likely related to the inverter board, which sends power to your display backlight. It's relatively common in this model MacBook.
It shouldn't be to expensive to repair, but I would not recommend doing it yourself. It's taken me hours to do that repair, and that's in an Apple Store with all the right tools, Apple Technician Guides and the proper training.


Block unwanted/pop-up Ads on iOS browsers So these gift-card Ads seem to be giving me trouble for some reason lately, and it seems like its okay on Safari on iOS but on Google Chrome on iOS,  there seems to be no way to get rid of them.

Other than tapping Ok (which I don't think I have ever done with one of these scam popups) - what do I do?

The best suggestion here is to not open sketchy sites.

Alternatively, you can install one of the many available content blocker or ad blocker apps on the app store. Starting with iOS 9, Apple has started approving Ad blocker apps on the iOS App Store.

Search for "Ad Blocker" on App Store. There are various such free and paid apps available on the App Store.


App Store sometimes can't install apps, iCloud icon appearing instead of INSTALL icon App Store sometimes can't install apps, iCloud icon appearing instead of INSTALL icon, as in the attached screenshot. If i click iCloud icon it buffers some seconds & come backs to iCloud symbol.

Please tell me how to make the INSTALL icon appear again for these apps, instead of the iCloud icon? It usually appears for some apps that I've uninstalled before and I want to install again.

An iCloud icon means that you have bought this application before and this is the only different between showing this icon and GET/INSTALL icon.

You can not change the iCloud icon because it is bought and it can't be undone. If you are unable to get the application, maybe there are network issues. Try change the network you are connected to a more reliable network, and reboot your device.


"Instagram could not be downloaded at this time. No matter how I try I am not able to download the app. Pls Help So I currently have an iPad 3 and I download Instagram regularly using the iPhone only option option in the AppStore. I've downloaded it many times before but this time I keep getting the same message over and over
(Other apps I have been able to install as usual it's just this one)
I've tried a VPN,I've tried a reboot, I've tried changing the date/time
If there are any solutions to this please do help.

That particular site could be temporarily out of service. I'd wait about 15 or 20 minutes and try again.  If that doesn't work I'd check using your iPhone if you have one. If you've downloaded Instagram once it should remember you and if you try a 2nd time the Get button on the link will become an Open button. See the image below from my iPad.


Siri: How to add an item to specific Reminders list AND set a reminder time? TL;DR: Is there a way for Siri to create an item in a specific list, and add a timed reminder to it?

iOS 9 Siri is able to  add an item to a specific Reminders list in this fashion:

  Hey Siri; Add bread to my shopping list

However, I am struggling to find a 'syntax' that will add an item to a list, and set a timed reminder. Here is one example of my attempts:

  Hey Siri; Add book laundry time to my todo list and remind me in one hour

Siri doesn't seem to understand the "latter part" about the timed reminder. It also happens that that Siri will not place it in the correct list, but instead interpret the whole sentence as the string content of a reminder placed in the Inbox.

Check this question for the sentence structure you need to use to achieve this:
How to add a reminder to a specific list and time via Siri

Add "list name" reminder "new item" on "date and time"
Example: "Add activities reminder basketball practice on friday at 2pm."


Lacie rikiki (500GB) Time Machine I have a Lacie rikiki (500GB) harddrive that runs on Time Machine, and have been backing up for a couple of years. It now says it is full, and that it will delete old backups in order to make space to backup my current computer data. Does this mean that I am possibly losing important files (from two years ago) that I will therefore never again have access to? How does Time Machine decide what to delete?

It deletes the oldest backups, as well as deleting all old backups each day, to make one backup each day. Unless you don't want to backup any more, older backups must be deleted. If you really have important files, why are they just on the Time Machine drive?


How to join/merge .wmv files? I have ten .wmv video files that I want to join them as one big file.

Some tutorials indicate this can be done using QuickTime. However, it doesn't work for .wmv files.

Is there a way to join these files on a Mac?

You will first want to use HandBreak (free) to convert your .wmv files to .mp4, which can then use according to your tutorial.


I maintain my Unix website on, presently, a Mac. Can I maintain it from a (not jailbroken) iPad 3? I have a website at JonathansCorner.com, which for the most part is a static collection of files, mostly HTML5, served up by a Linux Apache server. Maintaining it is mostly a matter of creating new HTML5 files and of updating existing files on my computer, used partly as a staging site, before being sftp'ed over to the server. Technologically the site is not particularly interesting; it's the content if anything that draws people.

Moving from maintaining my website on a Linux server to keeping it on a Mac was a piece of cake; Mac is my favorite Unix.

But I wanted to ask: Can I maintain, expand, and update my website on any iPad that has not been jailbroken? I recognize that the wrong way to go about the problem would be to go to search for the closest the App store has for my favorite editor, and for providing or emulating a heirarchy of files, and then sftp over. That may not be possible even on a jailbroken iPad, and it has the character of what woodenly word-for-word renderings are criticized for in translations that try to preserve the Greek word order or what have you as far as possible without pointedly breaking English grammar. What I have outlined may be appropriate on a Mac, but if the question is "How can I best use an iPad," it's barking up the wrong fire hydrant.

What I did want to ask is whether there is some dynamic equivalent that would be possible on the iPad. At very least the iPad should have multiple good options for composing something you're writing and emailing it to someone, perhaps to yourself. And composing in a nice editor and then converting plain text to HTML is a significant offering, or the pedestrian route of making a webmin interface to my site and try to optimize it for my iPad, and I imagine something like these might constitute the best way afforded by my iPad to pursue this interest, but maybe something better is available.

What are the best iPad offerings to facilitate "Compose it with your iPad and then post it as a handcoded webpage?" (What would you do if you wanted to use an iPad to expand and maintain a website consisting of an extensive collection of HTML documents and other static content, such as JonathansCorner.com?

Sounds like Diet Coda would be right up your alley. It's an iPad rethinking of the highly regarded Mac App Coda.

Basically it's everything you need to do hand coding of websites in one app package — a text editor for coding, (S)FTP for file management, and SSH for any server-side tasks. That's a pretty bare-bones description, there are a lot of well polished details that you may appreciate, I suggest checking out the site for more information.
You may also be interested in reviews from Macworld and Macstories.
Backups
It's worth noting that Diet Coda doesn't store the site resources on your iPad (it may cache some for performance reasons, but no permanent storage), all editing is done directly on the server. For this reason, it's probably best to have a backup of your website stored elsewhere if you don't already. This could be your Mac, but you could keep it all online by using something like Amazon S3. From the looks of your site (it appears to be just HTML and images, no big downloads, etc.), you could almost certainly keep a backup there for just over a dollar per year. It would be easy enough to set up an rsync script to automatically back up your site on a regular schedule to S3, and even keep snapshotted versions, you wouldn't really have to do anything beyond the initial set up.


How to change encoding on iPad or iPhone mail? I use Mac OS X, iPad and iPhone.

There are occasions when I receive mails send from people who uses Outlook written in different asian languages (Japanese, Korean, Chineses etc.). I could read them OK on my Mac, but if I reply to any of them, other people would sometime receive gibberish characters.  On my Mac OS X's Mail.app, I have to set each email I reply to encode in UTF-8 Unicode to make sure the receiver can read it (note: if I am compose a new email then without setting the encoding, the receiver read them ok. Only on replying their email they receive gibberish).

But on my iPhone and iPad I cannot find how to set the encoding of the email. How to solve it? That is, when I reply email with asian characters, how can I ensure they do not changed to gibberish?

I seldom use Unicode characters but, as far as I can tell, it seems the Mail.app sets the encoding based on what you're typing. So if you don't type any Unicode characters it will asume a different encoding (based on the language defined in your device).

Try to add an Unicode character to your replies as a workaround (maybe in your signature)!


How to add a track to Library in Apple Music using Apple Script I searched through a few posts online and most of them say to use this:
tell application "Music"
    duplicate current track to source "Library"
end tell

...but I get the following error:
"Music got an error: Can’t set source \"Library\" to current track." number -10006 from source "Library"
Did Apple change/remove adding a track to the Library? I can't find any update on this and Apple's docs on this are nonexistent.

I'm not in front of a Mac at the moment, so can't test this, but what happens if you try the following:
tell application "Music"

    set newFile to (choose file with prompt "Select track you want to add...")

end tell

Of course, you can change the 'prompt' text to whatever you want.
Also, in case you're wanting to, you should be able to get the script to add the track to a specific playlist by adding the following line after the set newFile line:
add newFile to playlist "Newly added tracks"

Of course, you can change the 'playlist' name by changing the text within the quotation marks to whatever you want.


IR won't activate screen on 10.8.3 Mountain Lion Mac Mini I use my Mini for home theatre, but the IR won't active the screen.
Using Screen Sharing will activate the screen.
I see others have reported this issue with 10.8.2 that went away with 10.8.3. Alas 10.8.3 didn't cure this problem for me.
Originally I suspected it was due to sleep/hibernate, but this looks to be false as I can ssh into the Mini and use it fine. Also I ran the Plex home theatre app under "caffeinate", and it didn't help.
Prior Research: I have read many man pages, forums, articles (see refs at bottom). Tried many combinations of settings, but to no avail. I turn to StackExchange for guidance.

My previous Mini running Snow Leopard worked just fine, but I don't wish to install Snow Leopard on my late model mini.
I have tried the NVROM/PROM reset 4 times. Hasn't helped.

My machine:
Mac mini - Late 2012 - Software  OS X 10.8.3 (12D78)
Reference Sites:
Mac Mini won't wake after sleep with Mountain Lion

Don't know how to get the display to wake up using your IR remote, but @wuc provided a great workround since you said you can ssh into the machine.

Step 1: SSH into your Mac.

Step 2: Run this command: pmset schedule wake "01/01/2012 20:00:00" (with a date of your choosing, of course).

Here's a bit of background on the new "features" Apple added to Lion and Mountain Lion that make it harder to wake up your display.


iTunes or other RSS/podcast reader that can retrieve whole podcast, I.E. transversing pages? I listen to a podcast* which is in Atom RSS 2.0 format.

I subscribed with iTunes, the feed presents 5 entries in each page, and pages are accessible by appending ?page=n, n being the page number.

But iTunes doesn't seem to see farther than the first page, is there an option for iTunes to retrieve the whole podcast instead of just the first page?

Is there another RSS/podcast reader that can?

* http://venganzasdelpasado.com.ar/posts.rss

I don’t know of an app that supports this.

Perhaps you could add more than one feed:

http://venganzasdelpasado.com.ar/posts.rss
http://venganzasdelpasado.com.ar/posts.rss?page=2

And have iTunes handle it that way?

Alternatively, you could create your own RSS feed based on the website’s HTML, rather than use the one the website is offering which is limited to 5 items. That way, you could have more entries in the feed. This can be done using FeedWeaver, a free online web app.


How does iBooks determine the category of an EPUB? I've been using the Perl module EBook::EPUB to create ebooks to read in iBooks.  But I can't figure out how to set a category for the books I create.
When I sort by categories in iBooks, it doesn't seem to do anything.  As I understand it, that should show each category as a heading with those books listed underneath it.  But it seems my books don't have categories.

How do I set a category when creating an EPUB book?

You can set the category in iTunes, using the info window (Cmd - i). No need to use Calibre.