texts: How to disable the MacBook trackpad click but keep the tap enabled?

texts:
I have a 3-year-old Mac and either the battery or something else is broken (does not matter because it's not worth fixing) and due to this the trackpad keeps getting stuck.

Now my question is: can I disable the MacBook trackpad click function but keep tap enabled? This is so that I can still use the mac even though the trackpad is stuck.


texts:
Sorry if this is not the right place to post this question.
I've a Gmail account configured in my iPhone and I can send and receive emails. Problem is, I can't remember the password so I cannot login on my browser. I've tried to recover my account but no luck. I can't remember a possible password and any email account I add to be verified I get:

  Thank you for confirming that you can access the contact email address you provided.
  Unfortunately, Google was unable to validate that ...@gmail.com belongs to them. Learn more about recovering your account.

Back when I've created this account I didn't add any phone nor a recover email.

Is is possible, some how, to discover the password saved on iPhone?


texts: Running AppleScript without activating the window

texts:
I have a python script to read from Messages database and forward some specific new messages to specific contacts. It works but the AppleScript below to send message is making Messages.app appear.

I want it to send the message in the background without activating or un-hiding the window. Is this possible?

on run {targetBuddyPhone, targetMessage}
    tell application "Messages"
        set targetService to 1st service whose service type = iMessage
        set targetBuddy to buddy targetBuddyPhone of targetService
        send targetMessage to targetBuddy
        set visible to false --> this throws an error on terminal
    end tell
end run


texts: Which is the correct way to obtain administrator access for the installation of Homebrew?

texts:
I usually log in to OS X El Capitan without administrator rights. Homebrew upholds the principle that packages can be installed and used without administrator/root access, i.e. without using the sudo command.
However, it seems that administrator access is necessary for installing Homebrew. Running the script from my normal non-admin user's Terminal yields

  This script requires the user [user] to be an Administrator. If this
  sucks for you then you can install Homebrew in your home directory or
  however you please; please refer to our homepage. If you still want to
  use this script set your user to be an Administrator in System
  Preferences or `su' to a non-root user with Administrator privileges.

First, unfortunately, the homepage does not say much more about how to install in my home directory and what difference that actually makes from the usual way to install.

Second, running 'su' and entering my password yields

  su: Sorry

Then, running 'sudo su' yields

  [user] is not in the sudoers file.  This incident will be reported.

This did not feel right, either. (See also Why can't I run `su`? (and how should I do?))

Third, I simply opened a shell with my administrator account 'login [user-admin]' to install Homebrew. But when I later tried to install a package as the normal non-admin user/ran 'brew doctor', I did get a number of errors about directories not being writable. Again, a fix is suggested at https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14527521/brew-doctor-says-warning-usr-local-include-isnt-writable but I was not too sure whether there is only one /usr/local on my computer, or whether there is one for every user so that the directories in question would actually be those of my admin user (and thus it might be weird to give my non-admin user access to those). Also, it were quite many directories (more than 10) which made me suspicous.

Forth, and finally, what I did was to give my non-admin user administrator rights, installed as that user, and then made the user a normal, non-admin user again.

Now, everything seems to be OK, but I wonder whether this was actually the/a correct way, since the script error quoted above didn't actually say whether I need to permanently have Administrator priviledges, or whether it is OK to only take them during the installation process of Homebrew itself.


texts: How do you force spaces preview to always use a picture in El Capitan?

texts:
Since upgrading to El Capitan my spaces previews sometimes are text only, and sometimes are full image previews. It seems to be related to whether or not I initiate Mission Control on a space that is fullscreened or not.

Is there a way to force spaces to always use a preview picture?

Desired:

Sometimes occurring:


texts: Access VirtualBox shared folders in Yosemite

texts:
tl;dr: How to access folder shared in host system from within Yosemite run in VirtualBox (guest)?

I have added a shared folder in my VirtualBox (went to virtual machine's settings, then to Shared Folder and added a new shared folder path there). But since I'm a complete newbiew to MacOS (this is actually one of the first times, I see this system) I'm completely lost, where I can access this shared folder or how can I mount it in Finder.

I have tried everything, I could come with. Tried to browse all the folders (including Shared) in Finder or is some other open dialog, tried to browse my home (root) folder etc. No effect so far.


texts: iTunes 12 fails to sync on my iPhone 6 (iOS 8.2) and also other apps

texts:
In order to fix this bug I've been trying everything I could find on the internet. Basically whenever I try to sync music or videos from iTunes to my iPhone (they have both the latest version) and during the last step of that, iTunes would randomly stop just few songs from the start and it would wait until sync timeout.

Then I've also tried to export the songs with CopyTrans Manager which is a 3rd party tool similar to iTunes, but I get the same error: sync -> then stop at a random song -> app timeout.

Then I've tried an app from the store called PlayerExtreme, and I've tried exporting song to that using iExplorer but I still get the timeout.

The only error I got was that my iPhone disconnects during the process, which is weird since I've tried using 2 different USB cables (both original) and both of them randomly disconnect during the sync and they both reconnect few seconds later.

Other stuff I've tried:

toggle sync / no sync music from iTunes
sync only selected music and videos
manually manage music and videos
delete all music from my iPhone
resetting network settings (someone got it to work with that)
airplane mode

I've also read it could be because of duplicate songs in the library but I'm sure I don't have any duplicate song.

Also I'm not a iTunes Match customer.

EDIT: I get this error quite often : "This accessory may not be supported". Especially when I'm charging it on my PC and the battery percentage gets closer to 100%. I got the same error with both my 2 original USB cables.

EDIT 2: IMO it's either an iOS 8 bug or some kind of weird problem with my USB ports.


texts: Tilde character is default to superscript version. How to restore default behaviour?

texts: I've inherited a previously used and configured MacBook Pro with Mojave (10.14.1) installed on it. I'm trying to navigate the system using the terminal but the tilde character ('~') doesn't work! Instead, what I believe to be a superscript ('˜') version of the tilde appears when I hit shift + '`'. What could be causing this, and how can I get back the default, expected behaviour ?


texts:
I just purchased a cloud ftp usb adapter for my ipad so i can access my data.
What these companies dont tell you is that the ipad must sync or download the files from hdd to ipad to access the data, which makes it ridiculous if your trying to watch video or listen to music.
My question is: Does anyone know how to stream the data from an external storage device so that accessing feel natural like a laptop?

edit: Air Video with a mac mini server pretty much did what i was looking for. Hopefully a HDD that offers something similar will be available soon.


texts: macOS 10.14: switch Bluetooth on/off based on location

texts:
I use the same laptop in 2 locations. In one location I use bluetooth to operate the mouse and keyboard, whereas in the other I don't use bluetooth at all.

Apart from the seemingly defunct ControlPlane and Macro Polo there any way to automatically switch bluetooth on/off based on my location on macos 10.14 (i.e. when I am connected to a specific Wifi), i.e. via the Automator or scripting?

PS: I'm aware that the question has been asked before (Automatically turn bluetooth on or off depending on current network (MBP running Lion)). But the URL in the accepted answer is broken and ControlPlane has numerous issue with macOS Sierra and later, as well as in the developers own words "This project is in need of assistance.". So IMO the accepted answer is no longer a viable solution for macOS. The other answer using Macro Polo has not been supported since Snow Leopard, and ControlPlane is a direct port of it.


texts: Time Machine backup on shared folder prevents automatic update

texts: I set up my MBP to use Time Machine backup on a shared folder located on a Mac Mini. For the Mac Mini when it perform automatic OS update and required a restart, the restart is prevented by a dialog "There is another user connected to this computer. If you restart the user will be disconnected." The restart will not proceed if no-one click the dialog. Both Macs are running Catalina. How can I set it up so that the automatic update would disconnect shared folder user before restarting?


texts: Copy to external HDD fails if copy dialog is in background

texts: When I try to copy 50 GB to external HDD it succeed only when copy dialog is active. If I activate another app it fails at about 10gb with error "the operation can't be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -8084)". If I switch between apps often enough it also succeed. I tried it with 2 different external usb3 drives. It looks like mavericks decides to lower priority or freeze inactive copy process which causes copy error. The error tends to appear only when copy dialog is not visible (fully obscured by another window, minimized, another fullscreen app is active). How to fix this?


texts:
What's the best solution to connect 3 iMac screens together so they're all usable as one large screen.

I currently have 2 iMac's connected together via a single thunderbolt to thunderbolt cable (Which works fine, mouse goes between the 2 screens etc).

However my 3 iMacs only have 1 thunderbolt port each so there's no spare port to connect the 3rd screen.
Similar image to the ports available on the 3 iMacs:


texts: “The Install OS X Mavericks application can’t be used from this disk” OS X 10.9 Installation Error

texts:
I am trying to install OS X Mavericks on my Mid-2011 iMac. Before you tell me to upgrade, Mavericks is my favorite version and anything after it runs like crap.
Please help me fix this!


texts: iOS 8 AppleID/iCloud says pass/id incorrect, but definitely not

texts:
I recently changed my AppleID and iCloud passwords. I can log into the services on my Mac, but my iPhone stubbornly refuses. I've already reset all the device's settings, but I still get this error.

I believe it's a connectivity issue of some sort. There are several apps I am trying to update, but they seem to be stuck. Any advice on resolving connectivity issues like these?


texts: how to install a java 1.6 jdk on my maverick mac

texts:
I have jsd 1.7 on my machine and I want to install 1.6 as well

I couldn't find a way to do so.

Anybody know?


texts: Playing videos on VirtualBox Mac OS X guest on Ubuntu 13.04 as host

texts:
I managed to install Mac OS X Moutain Lion as a VirtualBox guest OS on Ubuntu 13.04 as host.

I need to test a web app which plays HTML5 videos on Safari 6. Unfortunately, I can’t play any video on Moutain Lion (neither HTML5 one nor a .mp4 with Quicktime).

I guess it’s a codec or video card driver problem but I can't find a clue on how to fix this. Can anyone suggest an idea?


texts: Mac OS X file system and tagging question

texts:
I recently (w/in the last year) have began integrating file tagging and use of meta-data heavily into my digital organizational system, on my MacBook Pro (running OS X Lion 10.7.2). To facilitate this, I've used the software "Fresh", which is a tagging software, which I use in conjunction with Leap (both made by Ironic software).

The basic idea behind what I'm doing is that I stop worrying about where I store things and I start religiously tagging everything and I then just find anything I need using search and tags. It has made a HUGE difference in my productivity and I've cutdown on occurrences of duplicate versions of files...etc. As part of the Leap/Fresh software system, you can mark a file as "managed" after you've tagged it and it then "files" it in a set of hierarchical folder that is organized by Year>Month>Day (e.g. "~Filed Documents/2011/12/2" would be the directory for any files I "filed" today). Here is my question:

At a core operating system level, would my system/search functions operate more efficiently if I dumped all my files into a central directory and then only had to search within that folder for tags (i.e. remove the hierarchical folder system)? I've searched online extensively and I've not been able to come up with a definitive answer. Thanks in-advance!


texts: I work on media files as per my profession. I find my Mac (Mac Lion) going slower day by day. I think it will be beneficial to defrag the drive but didn't find any Apple tool for it. I want a an effective third party Mac defragmenter for my Mac drive.


texts: Iphone 6s, question about recovering photos from iCloud on to the new phone. Please help.

texts: I got a new phone and I have everything backed up on iCloud. Everything restored (apps, phone contacts, etc.) exceptfor the photos. How do I get them from iCloud on to my new phone? Thanks


texts: How do I make a Keynote bullet list build by bullet / bullet group, not by "object / word / character"

texts:
Something stupid must have happened in a recent Keynote upgrade. A bunch of my slides now won't build by bullet. They look bulletted, but they offer the options of building by "word / object / character". I'm having to copy & paste into working lists and match format which means I lose a lot of formatting. Is the some bit switch somewhere I can flip to make these lists act like lists again?
Note: this only happens with "Appear", so one work around is having it "blast" really quickly, but that's annoying.


texts: Outlook 2011 category colors - Windows Color Palette?

texts:
Does anybody know what are the RGB "equivalents" of the category colors that MS uses in the Windows version of Oulook 2010?

Just starting to use a Mac "for real work" (vs tinkering with it as a set-top player in the past). I'm setting up my Mac Outlook/Office environment "just so" and one of the things I'm missing is to be able to construct the same categories and associated colors that I have been using on Windows.

I've been mucking around, and I already have the proper list of categories loaded, but I can't figure out what are the equivalent to the MS-provided colors. The Apple-supplied palette is to "bright" for my taste. I've seen that it's possible to create new colors/palettes (while in the Windows version it's not - that's an improvement IMO), but I haven't been able to find the RGB specs of the colors themselves...

Thanks!

EDIT: To clarify, the "colors" I'm looking for are the ones you get in Outlook 2010.

I've got a screenshot of the ones I mean:

They have names such as "Olive", "Blue", "Dark Red", "Dark Maroon"....


texts: How to disable clamshell mode behaviour? Force machine lock on lid close

texts:
90% of the time I work with my macbook connected to a screen.

I want my macbook to go to preferably lock, but will settle for sleep, when I close it.

I don't care if it is doing anything, if I close the lid, I want the entire machine to lock/sleep.

This does not seem to be possible from what I can tell but I am hoping that you can prove me wrong.

Thanks for any suggestions that you can offer.


texts: iPad doesn’t know it is online unless connected to a hotspot from my mobile

texts:
My iPad 6 (running 12.4) doesn’t seem to know it’s online.

I inherited this iPad from my dad (who had no troubles with it, though I’m not sure he’d notice) and reinstalled it as my own. But things haven’t worked right since.

The situation is strange. Some apps think they are offline (mail, outlook mail) and literally NEVER connect to the internet, whereas others work normally (gmail).

This isn’t an external WiFi issue, the same problem persists if I use WiFi at home, work, or at a Starbucks. I even wiped it clean, installed factory settings and resynced it with my own profile,  but the issue persists.

Interestingly, when I connect to a hotspot, I can use a few more apps, but some NEVER work (iOS mail, outlook mail, OmniFocus)

Short of going to the Apple Store, do you have any ideas?

Thanks a lot.


texts: MacBook Pro 13in Late 2012 v.s. MacBook 12in Early 2015

texts:
I have

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Late 2012)
Processor: 2.9 GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 8 GB 1600 MHz DDR3
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 4000 1536 MB
Storage: 768GB SSD

I mainly use it for LaTeX, Mathematica and MS Office 2016 for Mac.

I am considering purchasing

MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015)
Processor: 1.3 GHz Intel Core M
Memory: 8GB 1600MHz DDR3
Graphics: Intel HD Graphics 5300 1536 MB
Storage: 512GB SSD

or a newer one, if available.

Would it (MacBook, 12-inch) run faster than my MacBook Pro?


texts: Why is my Apple TV returning errors when I watch movies rented from Apple?

texts:
Movies start, but a few times per movie, returns an error: "An error occurred while loading this content".  It will allow me to start it again, but it's really frustrating.    Internet connection seems solid enough- movies in hd start almost instantly, and nothing else on the network hiccups when it occurs.

Any ideas?


texts: How can I access 'flight mode' in iphone4 without a sim card?

texts: I am attempting to unlock an iPhone4. However, my issue seems to be that the phone doesn't recognize my SIM card. The advice I got from my previous carrier is to put the phone in 'flight mode'. This seems impossible to do without a working/recognized SIM card. Is there a short cut for accessing 'flight mode'?


texts: LDAP users in Catalina cannot log in - CRAM-MD5 error in opendirectoryd

texts:
I'm using Catalina 10.15.4 OSX as client and FreeBSD 12-1 with openldap-sasl-server-2.4.48_1 as Openldap server. I've configured the LDAP server using Direct Utility.

I can see the LDAP users on Directory Editor tab;
I can use "id user" in terminal showing the user, its groups etc;
I can use "dscl localhost -read /Search/Users/user" that shows all user info;
I can use "dscacheutil -q user -a name user" that shows all user info;
I can change to root in terminal and then "su - user" and it works (I've created the home directory and mapped to #/Users/$uid$;
BUT I CAN'T login using user.

All network users are enabled to login. I've tried using "ssh user@localhost" and at Login Window. It doesn't work.

Setting debug with "odutil set log debug" and taking a look in Console logs:

opendirectoryd  failed CRAM-MD5 authentication for authzid - '<private>' authcid - '<private>' error 49
opendirectoryd  ODRecordVerifyPassword failed with result ODErrorCredentialsInvalid
opendirectoryd  nw_path_evaluator_start [78C31F06-08D0-4EF9-B584-EB41028A814D IPv6#0d17d740.389 generic, local: IPv6#ef0057ec.49455, indefinite]
    path: unsatisfied (No network route)

On server, CRAM-MD5 is available.

supportedSASLMechanisms: SCRAM-SHA-1
supportedSASLMechanisms: SCRAM-SHA-256
supportedSASLMechanisms: DIGEST-MD5
supportedSASLMechanisms: CRAM-MD5
supportedSASLMechanisms: NTLM

What's going wrong? How to use LDAP users on OSX?

-

There are some tutorial on the Internet about editing a directory configuration file (plist). However, this had worked in later versions of OSX. For example:

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "add ':module options:ldap:Denied SASL Methods:' string DIGEST-MD5" /Library/Preferences/OpenDirectory/Configurations/LDAPv3/yourldapserver.plist
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "add ':module options:ldap:Denied SASL Methods:' string CRAM-MD5" /Library/Preferences/OpenDirectory/Configurations/LDAPv3/yourldapserver.plist
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "add ':module options:ldap:Denied SASL Methods:' string NTLM" /Library/Preferences/OpenDirectory/Configurations/LDAPv3/yourldapserver.plist
/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c "add ':module options:ldap:Denied SASL Methods:' string GSSAPI" /Library/Preferences/OpenDirectory/Configurations/LDAPv3/yourldapserver.plist

In Catalina we can't edit anymore this file (yourldapserver.plist). I've tried to usa another tool, defaults, but the file can only be altered if we copy it to another place. At the normal system location we can't edit to test these configurations.


texts: How to use auto-updatable templates with Word 2011?

texts:
I would like to have a template that I can update and be able to auto-update the documents using this templates.

Currently I wasn't able to find a way to convince Word 2011 to update a document based on the changes made to the template.


texts: Macbook permanently crashes while updating to El Capitan

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

Is there a way to reset this and download again?

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


texts: Is there an equivalent utility to Linux's tracepath for OS X?

texts:
I'm attempting to determine the path MTU from my Mac to various sites, and can't find a built-in utility to accomplish this.

In Linux, I would use a utility like tracepath, but I"m wondering if there is some sort of equivalent available for OS X.


texts:
I have a question regarding the setup of a hotspot on my Mac. I have a wired ethernet connection, which I connect to the computer. I would then like to be able to connect to that same connection (and the LAN) on my iPhone over wifi. I followed the steps here (https://www.maketecheasier.com/create-wifi-hotspot-using-mac-os-x/) which worked, however, there is a problem. Whenever I do this, the Macbook acts as a router, not allowing me to access any devices on the original LAN the Mac is connected to. I would instead prefer if it acted more like an AP, allowing communication to flow between my iPhone and everything on the LAN.

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: To clarify, the important thing here is that I can't access any devices that are already present on my LAN. I have an IKEA Tradfri hub connected via ethernet to my router. Also connected to my router is a powerline adapter. The second powerline adapter is connected to the Macbook I was talking about. So now, when I connect to the Macbook's wifi, I can't access the hub. (This is, however, possible from the Macbook - I checked via a ping request, there is no app available for mac as far as I know.) My Macbook is therefore acting as a router, where the ethernet cable is plugged in to the port which says Internet. I need it to act like an AP or a router where the ethernet cable is plugged in to a normal LAN port. I hope this clarifies the difference. Thanks again!


texts: Grow HFS+ partition at the end of harddrive without partition-manager-cd or moving to another drive

texts:
I've got two HFS+ partitions and would like to grow the latter one but neither disk utility nor the commandline diskutil allow that.

I don't want copy the whole partition to another drive and then copy it back.
I also don't want to use some kind of Boot-CD because I'm really lazy.

So are there any other options.


texts: Why is python's "easy_install" installing into the wrong directory?

texts:
I've installed python 2.7 with the dmg-installer of the official python page. After typing which python in terminal, I get this:

/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python

But when I want to install a package with easy_install, for example like this easy_install pycassa, I get the message Installed /Library/Python/2.6/site-packages/pycassa-1.1.0-py2.6.egg, what is obviously the wrong path. So when I try to use the installed package with import pycassa I get the error "no module named pycassa".

So how can I fix this issue best?


texts:
I can't download a PDF from iCloud that someone is sharing with me.

I get an email from the person with a link to iCloud.
The link opens in my browser. It says 'downloading should soon begin', although nothing happens.
I see in my Downloads folder the file name in question - but they have the format myfile.pdf, myfile (1).pdf, myfile (2).pdf, and myfile.pdf.part.
I try to open myfile.pdf and an error appears saying "This file is empty."

What am I doing wrong?


texts: Unable to join Wi-Fi network without carrier service

texts:
I have an Verizon iPhone 4s and would like to use Wi-Fi until I decide on a service provider.

The phone has been reset to factory settings and sees my Wi-Fi network, but when I enter my password and hit join it says it's unable to join the network.

Updated to iOS 7.1.1


texts: How to take care of an iPod touch with a broken screen?

texts:
I have a 4th gen iPod touch that recently managed to escape my hand and embrace the floor. While the situation was rather comical, now the glass screen is broken. Everything else works fine, including the touchscreen, but it has the so-called "Spiderman" cracks all over half the screen.

I've called Apple to see if they'll fix it, but it's too expensive, so I'm not going to do it. I also don't think I'd trust myself or an unofficial repair shop to do it. So my question is, what can I do to prevent further cracking? There are some places where it looks like pieces of glass could fall off easily. Is there any way to protect what's left of it while making sure the touch sensitivity still works on the whole screen?


texts: 2017 MacBook Pro A1708 died suddenly when connecting to USB-C power while waking from sleep

texts:
I have a 2017 MBP, it's nearly two years old, and I don't have AppleCare. I did get the keyboard serviced about a month and a half ago before the COVID closures. I am on MacOS Catalina 10.15.4.

Today, the laptop was sleeping when I touched the keyboard while plugging in the power. I use Apple's official power brick that came with the computer, and had replaced the USB-C Cable with a new official Apple cable about a month ago. The keyboard lit up, but before the screen turned on, I finished plugging in the USB-C power cable. The keyboard immediately went dark, the screen never turned on the backlight, and repeated attempts to get the laptop to boot or show any signs of life have failed.

I've tried holding down the power button repeatedly, with the cable plugged in and not plugged in, and an SMC reset 4 times, but the laptop refuses to show any signs of activity.

Because it was waking from sleep, I'm almost wondering if I had a kernel panic from the 10.15.4+SupplementalUpdate issues, and the laptop isn't resetting. (I don't know if I have the Supplemental update installed or not. I previously prevented it from installing, but perhaps it installed overnight?) This would imply an SMC problem, as my model has no T1/T2 chip (being from 2017 and no touch bar).

Any ideas on how to fix it myself would be tremendously helpful. I am a college student and have finals in 3 weeks. I talked with Apple and they said to send it to an AASP, but had no idea what it would cost to fix, which is simply too much time and money in my situation. I have a pentalobe screwdriver coming next week, so I'm hoping that disconnecting the battery will solve the problem.


texts: How do I unsync all apple devices for text?

texts: How do I unsync my iphone messages so that those do not go to my ipad.  I have unclicked the email address associated with my ipad on my iphone.   Is there something else I need to do so other people in the house do not see my text messages on the ipad?


texts: How can I use emoji on my Mac as easily as I can on my iPhone?

texts:
Is there any easy way for me to add emoji to a document or email when I’m using my Mac?

I know I can set up up an emoji viewer in the menu bar via Apple > System Preferences > Keyboard, but I find this very clumsy to use.

A keyboard shortcut would be fantastic, but when I checked the Mac Keyboard Shortcuts https://support.apple.com/HT201236 page on Apple’s website I didn’t see any emoji shortcuts listed.

What’s the easiest way for me to insert emoji on a Mac (one without a Touch Bar)?


texts:
Might sound like a subjective question, but it doesn't have to be:

How does the keyboard keypress-action (the feel of the keyboard) differ between all model-years of MacBooks (the entire line including MBP's and MBA's)?
In 2008, the MacBook line lost any option for a traditional-style keyboard in favor of the new "chicklet" style.  Which post-chicklet models have a keyboard feel most similar to the keyboard of the pre-2008 MacBook Pro?


texts: How to prevent "smart searching" in Safari?

texts:
Suppose I am trying to search for information about this file:

/etc/inetd.conf

If I paste the following into Safari's search bar:

"/etc/inetd.conf"

Safari tries to be clever and converts it into :

http://www.".com/etc/inetd.conf%22

And then tells me it can't be found.  If I do the same with Chrome, it simply searches for what I want without trying to be clever.

How can I prevent Safari from trying to do "smart searching" and instead simply search for what I want?


texts:
Is it possible to see my Advertising ID?

The Apple Support article states

  ...
  When Limit Ad Tracking is enabled on iOS 10 or later, the Advertising
  Identifier is replaced with a non-unique value of all zeros to prevent
  the serving of targeted ads. It is automatically reset to a new random
  identifier if you disable Limit Ad Tracking.

  You can also choose to reset your Advertising Identifier, in which
  case your device will generate a new random identifier. ...

This tells me it changes, but as a user and owner of a phone, is there a way to see the value stored in the Advertising Identifier?

This applies to an iPhone 7 Plus running ios 13.3.1, but could be for any iPhone running ios 13.


texts: Is there a way to replace Finder altogether?

texts:
It seems that a rather large group of Mac users considers Finder to be a product that contains a number of conceptual failures and oversimplifications.

It is however not clear whether Finder can be completely replaced with other application.

Is it possible to remove it from the OS, including thing like file open dialogs etc?


texts: How do check that uninstalling Macports won't break things?

texts: Its been over a year since I installed Macports for Ruby. I want to uninstall but I can't remember if I was using for anything crucial. Can I get a nice list of ports that was directly installed?


texts:
Who's this kid?

btw, I am also sure that, he's now not that much innocent, he grew up.

Its also noticeable that with release of Yosemite, the Preview app icon get changed.


texts: Spotlight Text file Search - Finding location of the phrase in spotlight preview itself

texts:
I'm trying to figure out a solution to this. When I search for a phrase in Spotlight, it shows me the file which contains the search phrase. However my file is around 12000 lines and I was wondering if there is a way/shortcut in Spotlight itself that can take me to the keyword in the Preview pane?
I would appreciate if anyone points in to another similar tool. I don't necessarily want a text only search tool but a more general search tool like Spotlight!
Thanks in advance.


texts:
The following message suddenly got copied to my clipboard:

{"code":200,"data":{"bizTypeCode":"gz01","bizValue":"￥Ht0fYMlkyIl￥","bizTypeName":"淘口令"},"message":"处理成功","isSuccess":true}

What does this mean? iPhone XR, iOS 12.4


texts: Retina dsiplay support on Intellj Idea for Java /JavaScript development

texts:
I have seen this question on retina display issues while working with Eclipse on Macbook . I have a latest personal Intellij Idea License and would like to know your views of retina display support for Intellij Idea 12? I am planning to buy an 11 inch Macbook Air and main purpose is normal net surfing + Java development on Intellij Idea . Are there any gotchas that I should take into consideration before buying?

P.S: I am not an Apple user and hence would like to make sure that I get inputs from experienced people before I make this investment.


texts: Just updated iTunes to version 12 and all of my music was pushed to the cloud even though I didn't select for it to do so.  Now I have no music on my MacBook Pro and have to have an internet connection in order to listen to my music.  Not happy with this.  Is there a way to reverse this feature without having to redownload and create all new playlists?  Very frustrated with Apple right now.


texts:
I just upgraded iTunes to version 12.4.1.6, and now when I right click on a song the option of "Find Album Artwork" is gone.
I use that option when I add new songs that aren't imported with it. (I don't like the "find all" option because it messes up some custom artworks I've added)
Thanks in advance.


texts:
I bought a MacBook recently. It connects to all other Wi-Fi and hotspot devices but it does not connect to my university Wi-Fi.

I have also done diagnostics; still does not become connected.


texts: How to set external display as the main one with MacBook Pro?

texts:
Someone gives me old macbook with broken screen model white 7.1.

i get this mac as my computer i use it for study programming.

as monitor i use external monitor AOC 1080p. for connecting i use mini display port

So my problem or this problem of all mac notebooks i don't know.

So when i get this mac to sleep and sometime after i try turn it on it gets black screen.

now a days when i turn it off and next day try turn on it start with low resolution it loads with grey apple and then it shows black screen.

and after NVRAM or PRAM or SMC reseting and with 2 or 3 time it only load
normal resolution and load OS.

my Question is:

it possible some how make this mac book understand that external monitor is main monitor and always load proper resolution like this be a mac mini.

later i want rebuild this macbook to look like mac mini and it bugs it's impossible


texts: List all purgeable files in macOS Sierra

texts: I disabled macOS Sierra storage optimizations and the Storage tab in About this Mac still shows over 70 GB as purgeable space. Is there a utility to display which files are considered as purgeable?


texts: El Capitan : How to disable Force Click "Dictionary Pop-ups" in Chrome?

texts:
In my Chrome Browser, whenever i "Force Click" (hard clicked by one finger) upon a Word, the dictionary lookup Pop-up is always popping out.

Like this:

I have already DISABLED the "Force Click" setting in the Trackpad Settings:

And then already Restarted the Chrome. And also did (related or not) the:

$ killall SystemUIServer

But this annoying pop-up (Dictionary Lookup) is still there. I'm sure it is not a Chrome Extension.

What should i do to totally get rid of that, please?

Thank you all!


texts: If swipe down on iOS7 gives Notification Centre, where's Spotlight?

texts:
I just upgraded to iOS 7 on an iPhone 4S. When I swipe down on any screen, I get Notification Center, not Spotlight. Anyone know which setting is wrong?

My Google search results are riddled with "Spotlight does work, you just swipe down!" articles, so no luck there. Control Center works just fine, if that helps. Disabling Notification Center explicitly on the lock screen also works, such that nothing happens on a swipe down on the lock screen if it's disabled. But Spotlight isn't showing up on a swipe down from regular screens.


texts: Is there a GUI front-end to Apache for Mac OS X (Lion)?

texts:
I am using the default Apache and PHP installs that are present in OS X Lion. But I would like to make some settings (like adding Virtual Hosts to Apache) using a GUI interface. Is there such a thing?

I know of OS X Server of course, and also I think MAMP Pro has this. But I would like to keep using the stock servers and not install another version if I don't have to.


texts: Can't boot to Mac OS volume after Bootcamp Windows install

texts:
I've installed Windows 10 with Bootcamp on a new iMac with Mojave.

Now I can't boot to MacOS volume.

1) Bootcamp tool in Windows don't see volume as bootable.

2) Option click on restart don't show a menu to choose, only when bootable usb is connected

3) If I boot to installation USB, I can see this volume, but Startup can't choose this volume: The bless tool was unable to set the current boot disk...

I read some bootloader repair guide with changing partition size, but I don't know how to do that with hybrid drive.

Any suggestions?


texts: Difference between old and new LG UltraFine 5K(4K) Displays

texts:
The Apple Store shows the LG UltraFine 5K Display and LG UltraFine 4K display marked as "new".

I have found reviews on YouTube of the same two displays dated 2 years ago.

Does this mean that there are both an old and new version of the displays with the same names?

If so, what is the difference between the old and the new versions?


texts: Able to answer—but not make—iPhone calls on Mac

texts:
Background
Among the many promising features of OS X 10.10 grouped under the label "Continuity" is the ability to make and answer iPhone calls from the Mac. The Mac uses the iPhone's connection to the carrier's voice network. I think this technology works over wifi.
Problem
I'm able to answer calls, but not make them. The error message I receive on my Mac is, "iPhone calls not available. Your iPhone must use the same iCloud and FaceTime account."
What I've done
I've confirmed that both iCloud and FaceTime on my iPhone—as well as iCloud on my Mac—are logged into the same account.
Question
What could be causing this issue, and what should I do to fix it?


texts: Run a program/script when the screen is locked or unlocked

texts:
Is there a way to run a specified script or program when the screen is locked or unlocked? Ideally a bash function or an AppleScript.

Is there an event that I could subscribe to that would allow me to do that? Or an existing app that supports this?


texts: Removing only birth years from a group in my Address Book

texts:
A lot of my contacts (600+) had somehow got their birth years set to 2000. Their birth months and days are correct, but the 2000 is wrong.

With the tremendous help I got here, I was able to get them in one group (which I called 2K).

I would like to remove the birth years from those cards, while retaining birth months and days.

On my OS X 10.8.5 it can even be done manually, but not on adayzdone's 10.6.8.

Can anybody provide a script (for 10.8.5)?

So, I would like to turn

into

using AppleScript rather than doing it manually. And not just November 10.


texts: Is there a way to use Google Sheets filter views on IOS?

texts:
I made a sheet in Google Sheets on the desktop with several filter views. Then I opened the sheet in the Google Sheets app on my iPhone. In the iPhone app menu, there is an option to create a filter, but I don't see any way to access my existing filter views.

Is this possible?


texts:
I'm opening Microsoft Word (read; Office 2011 for Mac) for the first time after installing my new Macbook Pro Retina 13". However, if I check for an update there will be one.
After I update it, there is another update.

Why don't I get the latest update right away? Is there any way I can enter my current version number and get updates for the next x-updates?

I've updated 6 times already, and it's going to bug me because I have to do the same on another MacBook.


texts: How to tile windows without going into full screen?

texts:
Currently, if I want to tile two instances, I press the green button on the top-left and place the instance accordingly.
However, each of the tiled instances always go into full screen mode. For a chrome instance, this is annoying as it means it's not possible to see the tabs.
How do I tile windows without making them go  full screen?


texts: Mission Control won't open with dual monitor

texts:
I am experiencing some really annoying issues when using a secondary display on my 13-inch Retina Macbook Pro with OSX 10.12 (Sierra).

I use two different external displays (one at a time): my iPad Mini with the Duet app and an LG M2550D with an hdmi cable. In both cases, Mission Control is not opening when I have the secondary screen plugged in. I tried disabling and enabling Mission Control, rebooting the computer, reinstalling Duet, changing the hdmi cable for the monitor and nothing has worked. I also tried using the trackpad gesture, the mouse button I have assigned for this and the keyboard F3.

Also, when I'm using the LG monitor, my mouse won't work as well (as if it is unplugged). When I unplug the hdmi cable, the mouse "starts working again". It is a Logitech MX Performance.

Can you help me? I really don't know what else to do.

Thank you very much.


texts: Trouble Connecting to SQL Anywhere through ODBC

texts:
I'm trying to connect to a SQL Anywhere database through an an ODBC connection on my Mac (running High Sierra).

I downloaded and installed the SQL Anywhere 17 Developer edition.  Installed it successfully.  I can launch it connect to my databases.  Yay!

Next, I downloaded and installed the ODBC Administrator I read about in multiple posts.  Installed it... seems to run as intended.

Next I added the SQL Anywhere 17 drivers to the ODBC Administrator (by following these steps.

Then I tried adding a DSN (tested both User and System).  The documentation on this is a little lacking from SYBASE (specifically which parameters are "required").  Depending on what version of help you're looking at, the examples use different parameters.  In the end, I created parameters for the all the variables passed in the connection string (UserID, Password, Database File).  Sadly, there's no testing function in the ODBC Administrator to test a DSN.

So I return to SQL Anywhere and attempt to connect to a database via "Connect with an ODBC Data Source".   Here, I can "Test Connection".  And I consistently get the error: "[SAP][ODBC Driver Manager] Unable to load driver libodbc.dylib"

One thing I noticed is that when I added the SQL Anywhere 17 driver, I point (per the instructions)  to:  /Applications/SQLAnywhere17/System/lib64/dbodbc17.bundle.  Now I have no idea what a bundle file is.  Does it contain a 'bundle' of drivers?  No idea.  But unless this bundle file is supposed to contain libodbc.dylib (the file/driver reported as missing) then it's worth mentioning that file doesn't even exist on my Mac;  I've searched for it.

I'm relatively new to Mac OS (I've done this a million times in Windows).  Please, if anyone can help me with what I assume should be a fairly simple task, I would be eternally grateful.


texts: Do retina screens get less bright after a few years?

texts:
I've had my MacBook Pro 15" Retina for two years (purchased summer 2014).

The last half-year, I have increasingly found myself wanting to turn up the brightness because I find the screen too dark – only to find that it's already at its maximum.

Do the Retina screens lose brightness over time? I use the device many hours every day.

This is a day-time-only problem, but I can't recall having these problems before. The sun does not have to be very bright for this problem to occur – it can be cloudy. Is my eye-sight getting worse (which could be possible), or do the screens actually degrade over time?


texts: Can the macOS keychain generalize across all iOS apps?

texts: Why can't I access my keychain in iOS apps other than safari (or OSX apps, for that matter?). How can I access my passwords across the entire platform?


texts: Windows 7 installer wont boot after creating partition for Bootcamp

texts:
I'm trying to install Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro (13 inch Mid 2012) running OS X 10.7.5
I'm using a USB drive to create the boot disk, and I also downloaded the drivers needed from the apple website.
After creating the partition and restarting, the system tells me that there is no bootable drive available. I try holding the option key and then selecting the windows partition and then it shows the same screen.

Any ideas of what's wrong?


texts: Will deleting photos from the Camera Roll also delete them from albums?

texts: If I created a new album and placed the photos I wanted in it. If I delete them from photo stream & my camera roll will they be deleted from the new album as well?


texts: How to prevent Cisco AnyConnect from disconnecting when locking screen

texts:
My Mac Book pro with 10.11.2 has this annoying feature that it disconnects Cisco AnyConnect VPN every time I lock the screen.

I found some instructions on how to prevent Wi-Fi disconnection when locking the screen, but I could not apply those instructions to the AnyConnect network. I´m usually connected with Ethernet cable, if that matters.

Is there some way to disable such feature?


texts: Convert Adobe Reader form document to general pdf

texts:
I have problems with a provider that refuses to deliver important documents in anything but Adobe Reader specific documents. I think these are with Adobe Experience Manager pdf forms. Their documents open in Preview or Skim and similar with a note stating

  "The document you are trying to load requires Adobe Reader 8 or higher".

The document isn't encrypted and is said to have been made with Adobe LifeCycle Designer 11.0 and is in pdf 1.7 format.
I have extremely few pdf documents I can't open. Theirs are about the only ones.

Are there any options for converting a Reader pdf, like this one, to a common pdf format? I tried some online tool. but I think it just copied the content.

No! I will not install Adobe Reader as it's a piece of junk.


texts:
I just recently updated my iPhone 4S to iOS7 and it was pretty much okay at first.

After I turned on the passcode for lockscreen I am now unable to unlock my iPhone. I was so sure I put the correct passcode for it because that is the only passcode I used in my iPhone for years. How can I unlock my iPhone?


texts: Will iMac boot chime play if there is no CPU?

texts: So I got this iMac from auction, as is. The iMac chimes when I press the start button but the screen remains black. Is it possible that the iMac chimes if it has no CPU? I just wanna make sure if the iMac indeed has the CPU because I noticed missing screws on the front screen. I did not disassemble the logic board as I never done it. So is it possible to not have a CPU and still have the iMac play a chime when it boots up?


texts: iPhone app that displays temperature as a notification badge

texts: I'm looking for an app similar to Fahrenheit, that gives a notification badge indication of the current temperature.  A problem with Fahrenheit that I have is that it's too slow in updating.  I need something that updates the badge at least every 30 minutes (so I don't have to open up the app to get it to refresh).


texts: How to display Google App Contacts in a separate iChat list?

texts:
I have a few accounts in iChat:

GMail
AIM
Google Apps (a custom domain)

Both GMail and Google Apps put all my contacts in the 'Buddies' list. Can I rename my Gmail list to "GMail Contacts' or something else so that both accounts dont get merged?


texts: Is there a preference file where MobileMe username and password are saved?

texts:
I am looking for a preference file that contains the MobileMe username/password couple that I would need to pass to a script that starts the MobileMe synchronization. What I am trying to achieve is to start the synchronization when some conditions are verified, and disable the automatic synchronization that is started from the Mac OS X.

Is there a preference file that contains the MobileMe credentials for the currently logged in user?


texts:
I've just downloaded and installed VS but it won't start. I don't get any errors at all, that app simply does nothing when launched (although it does load for a while). I didn't need Xcode so I didn't install it.

I am a total mac noob and have no idea how to troubleshoot this :(

Does anyone have any recommendations?

Thanks


texts: MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports) running Mojave (10.14.3 (18D42)) is does not recognize external boot drive

texts:
I just got a new Macbook Pro, I was previously using an MBP (13-inch, Mid 2012) running Mojave. I have a 1TB SSD that has a partition with a Windows 10 installation (I followed this tutorial: https://blog.macsales.com/40947-tech-tip-how-to-use-boot-camp-on-an-external-drive/) and another MacOS Journaled partition that I use for general file storage. This setup has worked for me on my old MBP (I can hold option to boot into windows). However, the Startup Manager does not recognize my external drive and only display my internal drive. Using System Preferences startup disk leads to this error: The bless tool was unable to set the current boot disk. I've tried resetting NVRAM as well.
Here is some disk information that may help:
$ diskutil list

...

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk2
   1:               Windows_NTFS BOOTCAMP                353.1 GB   disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS VECTOTECHS              671.1 GB   disk2s2

$ sudo fdisk /dev/disk2
Disk: /dev/disk2    geometry: 124519/255/63 [2000409264 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*1: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         2 -  689689262] HPFS/QNX/AUX
 2: AF 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 689690624 - 1310715904] HFS+
 3: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused
 4: 00    0   0   0 -    0   0   0 [         0 -          0] unused

My guess is that I need an EFI partition for the newer mac to recognize my drive. Would this entail restarting the entire installation process? Any information would be greatly appreciated :)


texts: Apple Mid 2012 VGA vs Apple retina late 2013 VGA onboard

texts:
I'm trying to buy a new mac book. I have two choices: one is Apple Macbook Pro retina mid 2012 with NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB. And another is new macbook late retina 2013 using VGA onboard.

I have googled but found no answer for comparison between those graphics. Does NVIDIA Graphics card is really stronger than core i5 VGA onboard (gen 4) ?

@: sub question: about SSD, I see some benchmark, and see that SSD on 2013 is faster than SSD on 2012. Does this true ?

Thanks :)


texts:
After my upgrade to Catalina 10.15 I started getting duplicate birthdays and duplicate contacts on my Mac. I was able to take care of the duplicate contacts by deleting the unneeded contact after trial and error. I ended up using the note section to put a random letter in my phone contacts and seeing which one updated on my Mac and seeing which one updated. Then I deleted the one that didn't update.

Regarding duplicate birthdays I read previous posts and on my Mac unchecked, in Contacts, "Birthdays" and rechecked it again, waited, then unchecked and rechecked it. I went back into Calendar on my Mac and the duplicate birthdates were gone. I've checked it several times since and so far so good.

Does anyone else have a suggestion?


texts:
My 2019 16" MacBook Pro with 2.6GHz 6-core i7 processor on macOS 11.3.1 is constantly running hot at ~60°C even when the CPU usage is only 8-10%.
I've checked the ActivityMonitor, but no app is using excess amounts of CPU, energy, or memory.
I've obviously tried rebooting & updating my Mac. I also make sure my fans aren't blocked so there's enough room for air flow and I have cleaned the interior from dust.
What else can I do?


texts: Manually setting backup points - alternatives to Time Machine

texts:
Time Machine automatically takes backups every hour of the last day, every day of the last month, etcetera.

I just finished setting up a new Mavericks installation, and turned it on.

It took one snapshot. 22 gigs. But then one hour later it took another one. Another 22 gigs.

What a waste of space! I didn't even touch my computer in between these two backups(even though my MacBook does seem to have doodled half a gig into existence).

This is horrible! All it is doing is copying my entire filesystem into a folder on my harddrive.  I can do that myself!  And then I can do it at sensible junctures.

For example, let's say I'm going to evaluate a dozen text editors, some of which I need to compile from the command line, involving homebrew, Mac Ports, filling my file system with nonsense that very possibly isn't going to get removed cleanly.

So I would first backup, try all the competitors out, then revert and install the winner, and take another backup.

As far as I can see, I can just create a folder on my external hard drive and drag drop my filesystem into it.  Then I should be able to, from within disk utility, "restore from Time Machine backup" and just select the folder.

This has the added bonus that I can create sensible folder names for my various backups.

Can anyone confirm, can I do this? Is there a better way?

EDIT: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rsync


texts: How much does it cost to service a MacBook Pro battery?

texts:
I have a mid 2009 MacBook Pro and I just got a message saying that I should service my battery.

I tried to reset SMC and NVRAM but the problem persists and I fear I'll have my battery replaced. How much is Apple going to charge me?

My Mac is out of warranty and I see that the battery capacity is less than 80% than it was originally but apart from that it is working fine


texts: Can my Macbook Pro run Starcraft Legacy of the Void?

texts:
The days of gaming are long a distant memory. I haven't touched games since 12 years of age. These days, my notebook is used for computational and mathematical modelling.

That said, I do enjoy an occasional gaming session during the holidays.

Here's the spec of my notebook:

MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)
2.7 GHz Intel Core i5
8 GB 1867 MHz DDR3
Intel Iris Graphics 6100 1536 MB

Can it run SC Legacy of the Void?


texts: /etc/profile not being sourced for login shells

texts:
The -l flag to sh is supposed to source the contents of /etc/profile and other profile scripts like ~/.profile, which generally provide the initial set of environment variables for a login session.

With that in mind, I run the command env -i sh -l -c env and expect to see a fresh environment plus the changes made by /etc/profile. However, /etc/profile is never sourced, despite this being the supposed behaviour of the -l flag. On other non-MacOS systems, this -l flag causes /etc/profile to be loaded correctly.

Why does this not work on MacOS, and how can I ensure that the profile scripts are correctly sourced in the right order as they would be on login? (Note that I do not want an interactive shell session)


texts: Before update to High Sierra httpd-vhosts.conf is empty

texts:
I just upgraded from Sierra to High Sierra.

Apparently everything works fine. But when testing my works in local (Web developments in PHP, etc) I see that none works.

Checking and looking for where the bug might be, I went to see that all my Virtual-Hosts were fine, and I find that the Virtual-host file, which had more than 10 configured elements, there is only 2 virtual-host of tests

The content of the virtual-host file after updating is:

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@dummy-host.example.com
    DocumentRoot "/usr/docs/dummy-host.example.com"
    ServerName dummy-host.example.com
    ServerAlias www.dummy-host.example.com
    ErrorLog "/private/var/log/apache2/dummy-host.example.com-error_log"
    CustomLog "/private/var/log/apache2/dummy-host.example.com-access_log" common
</VirtualHost>

<VirtualHost *:80>
    ServerAdmin webmaster@dummy-host2.example.com
    DocumentRoot "/usr/docs/dummy-host2.example.com"
    ServerName dummy-host2.example.com
    ErrorLog "/private/var/log/apache2/dummy-host2.example.com-error_log"
    CustomLog "/private/var/log/apache2/dummy-host2.example.com-access_log" common
</VirtualHost>

My VirtualHost file is: /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

Can I recover that content in some way? Have I definitely lost those Virtual-host configurations?


texts: Why doesn't my Mac Pro see my new 4TB SATA drive?

texts:
I purchased a Seagate ST4000DX001 4TB SATA Hybrid Drive (SSHD) and installed it into my Mac Pro (six core 3.33 GHZ MacPro5,1) in one of the internal SATA drive bays. However, the system didn't see it at all. Disk Utility didn't show the drive for me to format and the SATA Devices section under Apple System Profiler didn't show the drive listed at all.

The drive works because if I put it into a USB3 enclosure then it works, but since the Mac pro only has USB2 it's pointless for me to use it in a USB3 enclosure.

Why doesn't my Mac Pro see my Seagate 4TB SATA SSHD drive?


texts: What affects the colour of the Startup Screen?

texts:
I've seen Macs startup with a white [very pale grey] screen & some with a black screen.

random pics from interweb...

What differentiates which it will be?

My own machines here - 2 old Mac Pros, 3,1 & 5,1 are always white [grey] & have never started up with the black background.


texts:
I got an MP3 audiobook download for Christmas.

The downloaded and unzipped files are named in this manner:

01 Prologue.mp3
02 Chapter 1 - Don't start yappin.mp3
03 Chapter 2 - Stack  Exchangin your way to success.mp3
04 Chapter 3 - Don't eat that Unicorn meat and three other warnings.mp3
05 Epilogue.mp3

After syncing them to my iPhone and opening the music app I saw that they are displayed in alphabetical order by title:

Don't eat that Unicorn meat and three other warnings.
Don't start yappin'!
Epilogue
Stack  Exchangin' your way to success.
Prologue

Listening in the order they're presented in while I'm driving is bizarre.
Is there a way to sort audio by file name in the music app on iOS 5?


texts: Any diagnostic ideas for why Screen Share partially connects? (FaceTime, Messages, it works with other people)

texts:
The Problem

The scenario is a familiar one, I'm able to FaceTime and Message with someone, but we can't seem to share screens.

Here's the details that make it interesting:

Symptoms

If I initiate the request, he gets an invite, accepts, but I get a no connection error message.
If he initiates the request, I get an invite, accept, but nothing happens (he sees a no connection message).
Connection fails either way.

But These Work

I can Screen Share with other people just fine, so it's only with him.
He and I can FaceTime each other, either initiating, and on multiple devices.
He and I can Message each other, either initiating, and on multiple devices.
He can access the full of the internet, with no issues.

His Settings

His Firewall is off.
His Screen Sharing is on.  (Plus, we've toggled it.)
The 'Anyone may request permission to control screen' is on.
There so general VNC password, and that option is not selected.
His Remote Management is off.  (Plus, we've toggles it.)
I have an Admin account on his computer, if that helps.
We are on separate networks, separated by 200 miles, each behind a NAT router.
He does not have anything between him and his router, like a firewall.

Stuff We've Tried

We've checked for a NetAuthAgent process based on dated answers found here, but there isn't one.
We've signed him out and back in to iCloud... no change in behavior.
We've tried connecting to him with El Captain, Mojave, and Catalina... identical behavior.
We've both more than tripled-checked the settings on his machine matches mine. He sends me screen shots to verify.
I've verified I can Screen Share with other people, just not him.  I used to be able to.
He can't Screen Share with anyone.  We strongly suspect it's his machine.
We've tried using Messages to initiate the screen share.
We've tried using Screen Share to initiate the screen share.
We've tried initiating a screen share when running FaceTime (we know the bytes are flowing) and not running FaceTime (maybe it needs the i/o channel).
He seems to have a rock solid internet connection with no drops, latency, or errors.
We've rebooted, many, many times.
I've looked on search engines, StackOverflow, and here for ideas. Nothing stands out.

Other Useful Notes

He's Screen Shared with me several dozen times over the last decade. (He knows how.)
It used to work all the time, before he took his computer to the Apple store and they reloaded a fresh copy of the OS on it.  It wasn't working with Catalina, and they rolled him back to Sierra after discovering a performance bug in Catalina, plus he had an old 32-bit app he needed. The machine screams with performance, and hardware-wise it is the better equivalent of a current entry iMac.
Everything else, is working fine... only connecting via Screen Share.
We're both using Apple IDs to connect to one another.

Can anyone think of any other diagnostics things to try or other reasons it might not be working?

[ I'm strongly motivated to solve this, since he has Parkinson's disease and needs help when things get bad. ]


texts: How to use Applescript to open a printer app and select items within?

texts:
I have absolutely no knowledge or experience in using Applescript or Automator. I'm hoping by using either to create an app (or script) that will print a test page off my printer automatically. I know how to open the printer app (Canon iX6800 series.app), but I'm stuck from there with the dialog box not knowing how to continue to do the following steps:

Run "Canon iX6800 series" - I got this part…
Select "Settings" or Command S
Select "Utility"
Select "Print Test Page"
Click "OK"
Quit the app.

Any suggestions or help will be greatly appreciated. I can send the actual app to whoever might need it. Thanks in advance.
George


texts: Time Machine free space and capacity "stuck"

texts:
The problem

My Time Machine keeps reporting as 44 GB free of 300 GB so it can't backup. Even after I delete all the backups and the sparsebundle itself. No matter what, it always says the same capacity and same amount of free space.

What I've tried

I've given up trying to get around this and now I want to just delete it completely and start again. I've tried changing the backup target size, adding and removing it and I've tried deleting the sparsebundle completely. It still reports it as only 44 GB free when I re-add the target to Time Machine.

I've also rebooted both the Time Machine target and the Mac. Still, whenever I add the TMBackup as a source it still reports as 300 GB total size. And it still reports as only 44 GB free meaning I can't start a new backup even though it's empty according to Terminal.

When I re-add it, a new 400MB sparsebundle is created which contains Info.plist and Info.bckup files with the following data:

<dict>
   <key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key>
   <string>6.0</string>
   <key>band-size</key>
   <integer>8388608</integer>
   <key>bundle-backingstore-version</key>
   <integer>1</integer>
   <key>diskimage-bundle-type</key>
   <string>com.apple.diskimage.sparsebundle</string>
   <key>size</key>
   <integer>311385128960</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

Note the size is 290 GB which is what it should be...

But whatever I do, my Mac keeps seeing the target as being too full to backup to as though it's got "stuck" on a certain capacity and quantity free space. I'm running MacOS 10.11.5 and the target is on a NAS so I can't format with Disk Utility.


texts: upgrade this old MacBook Pro to mountain lion?

texts:
I have an "old" MacBook Pro with the following specs:

Modelname: MacBook Pro
Modell-Identification: MacBookPro5,4
Processor type: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor speed: 2.53 GHz
processer count: 1
core count: 2
L2-Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Bus speed: 1.07 GHz
Boot-ROM-Version: MBP53.00AC.B03
SMC-Version (System): 1.49f2

It currently runs OS X 10.5.8 and seems a bit laggy from time to time, which might (also) be due to the loads of crapware on it.

I have a two part question now:

What would be the recommended maximum OS X version I should upgrade this machine to, so that it still runs nice and smooth? Is mountain lion safe?
How do I do a clean (full wipe) install of the system, since the latest versions of OS X do not come with a bootable disc anymore?


texts: AppleScript application as a Safari Webpage

texts:
I currently using an AppleScript application that launches a website (phpMyAdmin) in Safari. I keep it in my dock for easy access.

What I am looking for

When clicking on the ASA (AppleScript Application) it opens to the safari page
When I move to a different window and click the ASA again, it will bring the safari window to the front instead of reopening it in a new window/tab
If I quit the ASA the safari page will close
If I X out the tab where the website is, the the ASA will quit

If anyone has any idea how to do this it that would be great!


texts:
I bought a new MacBook Pro with an M1 chip today from a third-party supplier. After all of the setup, I found that its warranty was listed as expired.
This model released earlier this year and is definitely not over 1 year old. I used Geekbench to test it and all marks looks good.
Does anyone has any idea on what I could do?


texts: Solving an "wireless tools not found" error from airmon-ng tool

texts:
I am trying to use airmon-ng on Lion, but getting this error msg.

$ sudo !!
sudo airmon-ng
Wireless tools not found

I installed aircrack with ports. I heard it is possible to use it with lion, but cannot find a solution for the "Wireless tools not found" problem.

Also, used KisMac as an alternative, but it seems to hang after fetching some packets (~50000).


texts: Why `echo -n` doesn't work in this script on mac terminal?

texts:
I am learning shell from tutorialspoint today:http://www.tutorialspoint.com/unix/unix-shell-loops.htm

And I copied this code block to a loop.sh file:

#!/bin/sh

a=0
while [ "$a" -lt 10 ]    # this is loop1
do
   b="$a"
   while [ "$b" -ge 0 ]  # this is loop2
   do
      echo -n "$b "
      b=`expr $b - 1`
   done
   echo
   a=`expr $a + 1`
done

But when excute it, I got things like:

...
-n 4
-n 3
-n 2
-n 1
-n 0
...

Apparently, the -n flag doesn't work in echo -n "$b ".

Then I move the same file to my Ubuntu virtual system. Runs it.

I got ：

0
1 0
2 1 0
3 2 1 0
4 3 2 1 0
5 4 3 2 1 0
6 5 4 3 2 1 0
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0

I'm confused, though Ubuntu use dash as its default sh, but OSX use official bourne shell as its sh, why the script failed here? How to fix it?


texts:
Manual

-p pattern
         The file is split whenever an input line matches pattern,
         which is interpreted as an extended regular expression.  The
         matching line will be the first line of the next output file.
         This option is incompatible with the -b and -l options.

Code

seq -w 1 1 10 | gsed ':a;N;$!ba;s/\n//g' | split -p '060'

which makes a sequence from 1 to 10, removes empty lines to have a megastring and then splits at 060 into two files unsuccessfully giving split: invalid option -- 'p'.

Command seq -w 1 1 10 | awk -F'060' '{print "field1: "$1 "\nfield2: 060"$2}' in comment gives

  field1: 01 field2: 060 field1: 02 field2: 060 field1: 03 field2: 060 field1: 04 field2: 060 field1: 05 field2: 060 field1: 06 field2: 060 field1: 07 field2: 060 field1: 08 field2: 060 field1: 09 field2: 060 field1: 10 field2: 060

which is not what I want.
I want to split the file at the mark 060 to two files. You can include 060 to either file.

How can you use the flag -p in BSD Split in OSX?


texts: Locating the iBooks folder in iCloud Drive

texts:
I'm using iCloud drive to sync my e-books via the iBooks app.

I noticed that the synced files show up in the All My Files view.  I tried to find out their exact location, it seems to be iCloud Drive / iBooks (via Cmd+I) but when I try to navigate there from iCloud Drive, the iBooks folder doesn't show up, even when I turn hidden files on.

Is that a bug or how come this behaviour?


texts: What does the 's' character mean in iPhone 5s and 6s series

texts: I found a similar question for iPhone 3Gs and iPhone 4s here. So what about the 's' character meaning in 5s and 6s series of iPhone?


texts: How do redemption codes work in Apple Business Manager when NOT using MDM

texts:
The small dev company that I work for has been contracted to build an app for client.  This client is using Apple Business Manager and wants us to publish to it.

I have built the app and deployed it for review to the Apple Connect.  It passed and I see it is now in the client's Apple Business Manager account.

Here is where I am confused.  Our client DOES NOT have a MDM. How can I use Apple Business Manager in this case?

From the apple site (https://developer.apple.com/business/custom-apps/), it says "Alternatively, organizations can choose to provide redemption codes to authorized users to download the app on the App Store.".

How do redemption codes work?
How does our client use redemption codes to download our app from the app store?

Our client simply wants its employees (1000+ employees) to download the app that we built (whitelabelled to the client obviously).

Does the client have to add each of its users device UIDD's to its ABM? (which would be ridiculous)!

How do these VPP codes work then?

How do they redeem these codes on the Apple App Store, and therefore install the app on their device?


texts: Where do I get a product key and ISO for Windows 8 Boot Camp?

texts:
(Please note that this is a hypothetical question as I do not yet own the computer mentioned in this post, but will be getting it next year for school)

Next year, I am going to buy a MacBook Pro Retina for school. The IST course I will be taking requires Windows for Android development. Where would I download the ISO for installing Windows 8, and where would I buy a product key? I'd like the Pro version too because I want to use remote desktop from my iPad when necessary (I already know how to do this)


texts: Where are the brightness/volume icons for BezelUI stored in Sierra / High Sierra?

texts:
As the title states. I'm using OSDisplay (as a sort of answer to my question here). I've noticed that in Sierra (or so it seems), the OS's icon for the brightness HUD changed some—longer and thinner rays, thinner inner circle, etc. I would like to change the file that OSDisplay uses so that it matches the default icon.

Apparently in the past these images were stored as PDF files in /System/Library/LoginPlugins/BezelServices.loginPlugin/Contents/Resources/BelzelUI/HiDPI, but I do not see them there any more. The Contents/Resources/ folder just contains a bunch of .lproj folders.


texts: Apache module run under MacPorts gives SQLite error

texts:
I have an Apache module, compiled from source, which works just fine with the stock Apache 2.2 on Mac OS X 10.5 through 10.7. However, under the Apache 2.2.22 installed by MacPorts, running /opt/local/apache2/bin/httpd -t errors with Symbol not found: _sqlite3_bind_text.

I've verified that MacPorts' SQLite is installed, but neither the current 3.7.11 nor 3.6.12, which is the version that Snow Leopard ships with, works. I've also changed the makefile to reference /opt/local/apache2/include and /opt/local/include instead of /usr/include. Not being to familiar with such compilation, I don't know what to check for next.


texts: Is there a fullscreen Terminal app that is faster than iTerm?

texts:
I am used to using the Terminal in full screen on Ubuntu. On Apple, the native Terminal app doesn't do full screen, and iTerm, which does, is very, very slow when you use a multiplexer like tmux in the Terminal. I'm using iTerm 0.10.

Does anyone know of an OS X Terminal program that can go full screen and that is responsive when running tmux?


texts: How can I fix my built in Mac Screen Sharing App?

texts:
Screen sharing through the app has been shoddy at best for me since updating.  I thought I had it figured out and now its not working this week.  My device on the same network is a linux machine and connecting to it from ssh works fine (always has).  But for whatever reason the screen sharing functionality is Broken.  I’ve tried to connect to server using vnc://x.x.x.x  or smb://x.x.x.x as well as without the slashes.

I’ve tried to connect using the Screen sharing app as well.  There is a weird 3rd option that sees my computer but it NEVER works to connect to it.

So Far I’ve tried to restart the machines and this:

http://forums.macrumors.com/threads/if-your-screen-sharing-stops-working-read-this.441030/

Summary says:

Launch the Activity Monitor program.
In the Process Name list, look for "NetAuthAgent". It may show as "Not Responding".
Select NetAuthAgent, and then click Quit Process (the red stop sign button at the top of the Activity Monitor window). Then, click Force Quit.

Your Screen Sharing should now work.

But that is from 2008 so I know there’s no way that they didn’t fix that by now.

Bottom Line: How can I fix screen sharing to this other device, for Good?


texts:
In my Moto G5, I can still use WhatsApp after removing the SIM card, after I successfully validated my phone number.

Would this method work in an iPhone?


texts: How to reformat hdd only viewable under (About Mac) -> (System Report) -> (USB 3.0 Bus)?

texts:
After changing to a new external USB hdd for Time Machine my previous external USB drive used for Time Machine (almost) disappeared. My old drive is a Western Digital, My Passport 25E3 for Mac (1-tb). It is not recognized in:

Disk Utility
(About This Mac) --> (Storage)
**/Volumes$**ls -l

However, I can see the old Time Machine drive here: (About This Mac) --> (System Report) --> (USB) --> (USB 3.0 Bus) -> My Passport 25E3

What can I do to reformat that old Time Machine drive and mount it as just a normal external drive? I've rebooted several times and used different cables.


texts: Free .CSV text file editor for Mac OS X?

texts: I am looking for a free editor to edit comma-delimited text files, or .csv format.


texts: How can I get e-mailed when the Apple Developer Program License Agreement gets updated?

texts:
I get lots of e-mail from Apple about WWDC and other advertisements (hey, we've just added 16 countries to the store), which act as clues that the ADPLA has or is about to update. But nothing explicit.
Surest way is to log into developer.apple.com on a daily basis and look for an alert.
Is there a setting in the Apple Developer site to get these notifications?
Is there a third party site or mailing list that keeps track of these changes?


texts: How can I monitor Neural Engine usage on Apple Silicon M1?

texts:
I'm now successfully training my TensorFlow (2.5.0-rc1) models in my new Macbook Air M1 (yay!). But, for performance optimization and out of sheer curiosity, I'd like to monitor usage and performance of the 16 Neural Engine cores, as TensorFlow should be using them profusely.
Unfortunately I can't find any way to monitor the Neural Engine. The Activity Monitor only includes % CPU and % GPU indicators, including history graphs for both, but I don't see any Neural Engine indicators. The GPU sits at 0% for TensorFlow runs, so usage is not being consolidated there, which makes sense. So probably it's being shown as part of CPU usage, which sits at ~300% during the training session, but I can't really tell.
I tried peeking into the Mach /include folders looking for any relevant headers, and the closest I got was in /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX11.1.sdk/usr/include/mach/task_info.h (on my machine), where I've only found data members for things such as ledger_tag_neural_footprint (seems  related to memory usage) and task_gpu_utilisation but no neural task/process/vm usage.
I wonder if it's an omission on their part, or maybe it's in the roadmap, or it's just not possible to get that from this hardware (I doubt it!).


texts: Artifacts from notification fade-in/out windows when using VNC/Screen-Sharing

texts:
I'm using Finder's "Connect to Server" with a "vnc://..." address to access a desktop remotely, from one Mac to another (both running the latest Catalina), and have always had an issue with notification windows (in the upper right corner) that fade-in/fade-out, leaving a "ghost" of the window behind indefinitely.  I can't click on the things behind the windows, and clicking on one of these doesn't do the thing it normally would if the window was fully opaque.  For example, this shows a couple MS Outlook/Update notifications, and an App Store notification.

And here it is with a menu opened up underneath it.  You can only click on a menu item by going in between the gaps of the windows (only the first item is accessible in this example):

I can make them go away temporarily by turning on "DO NOT DISTURB" mode for notifications.  But I'm looking for a way to fix this behavior without disabling notifications.  I don't know yet if this happens with other VNC viewers besides the one built-in to MacOS/Finder.  I can try that out later.  And I'm also planning to try turning off animations if there isn't some other solution out there.  (How to turn off all animations on OS X
)

BTW, This has been happening for me with older versions of MacOS as well.


texts: Unable to install from downloaded disk image file

texts: My Mac G4 (running OS X 10.3.9) won't install from any .dmg file I download. It keeps popping up a message: "name of setup & no mountable file system" or "application file cannot be found". Is there some setting I need to change to get around this problem as I need to install some extra programs urgently.


texts: Stuck without admin account on a MacBook Air running 10.5.8

texts:
I did a backup on my MacBook Air as I had lost admin rights and thought my best option was to carry out a reinstallation with the original disc which I obtain on purchase would assist.

When done, I loaded the updates etc, all was well until I restarted after some updates.

I lost admin rights so only had limited access as visitor, cannot go back to reload the software as keeps asking admin password.

Took my mac to BTOption supposedly Apple Authorized Service Provider (info@btoptions.com) in Colombo Sri Lanka, they are as stumped and as lost as I am, any suggestions greatly accepted.

They say I need the firmware password to reinstall the system.


texts: How can I prevent shift selection from expanding?

texts:
On Yosemite in current Chrome (and random other places, but let's try to just solve it in Chrome), if i selection some text (say the "sk differ" in "ask different"), then hold shift and press right arrow, it will expand the selection to include the next character to the right (selection becomes "sk differe"). If i then press left arrow, i'd like the selection to (again) become "sk differ". Instead, in some apps (at least Chrome), it becomes "ask differe". So it seems that it will only expand the selection, so pressing either arrow key only grows the corresponding end of the selection.

How can i make it so that it selects from a caret position that is at either end of the selection (NOT both)?


texts: Downgrade macOS 10.14 to 10.13 using Migration Assistant

texts:
I am currently running the macOS 10.14 beta on my Macbook and I wish to downgrade to High Sierra (10.13). I do have time machine backups from when I was still on 10.13, but I want to keep all my current files.

Is it a valid idea to instead just do a clean install of 10.13, then use migration assistant to transfer my files from backups when my computer was running 10.14? Can migration assistant even move files from a time machine backup running a later OS to a computer running an older OS?

I am only looking to migrate files and applications. I've done all the development work I needed in 10.14 and no longer need it. I have not added any server configurations or anything like that.


texts:
I've been looking into tools like Karabiner, which are cool, but I would like more control. In general, I'd like to remap specific keys to run AppleScript or some other code.

Ideally it wouldn't send the keystroke though to the active application.

Is there any way to do this?

At the moment I'd like to remap the numpad keys to focusing specific applications, and if possible, specific windows in those applications. A general way to run code would be best, but anything that can accomplish this would be very much appreciated.


texts:
I am running OS X El Capitan on a 15" Retina display MBP and I recently hooked up an external monitor (Samsung SyncMasterP2370HD) via an HDMI cable. The font is weirdly pixelated at any resolution available except 1600x1200 which I got by doing the force RGB work around. Unfortunately at that resolution everything is stretched wide. While I can handle the ugly font right now with 1080p and some underscan (I switched the profile back from the forced RGB to the default), I was hoping there was a work around which allowed me to pick whatever resolution my heart desires (I know the option + click "Scaled" trick, the ones I'm looking for aren't available).

So is there a terminal command I can use to change the resolution on my external? If not, is there something else I can do? I'd like to at least try to see what the display looks like at say 1680x1050.

Thanks


texts: How to fix Lion Mail.app that keeps asking for keychain password?

texts:
I am getting this message every time I start mail.app.

I've read this tech note, but neither checkbox is selected.

I've run Keychain First Aid, and no problems were found.

How do I fix Mail.app in Lion that keeps asking for keychain password?

UPDATE: Thanks everyone for the help.. I finally deleted the Keychain prefs. Re-entered passwords as required, and that worked.


texts:
I have recently sold my Apple Watch on Ebay. Before posting it i went through the following proceedure:

Keep your Apple Watch and iPhone close together.
Open the Watch app on your iPhone and tap the My Watch tab.
Tap Apple Watch, then tap Unpair Apple Watch.
Enter your Apple ID password. If you forgot your Apple ID password, you can reset it.
Tap again to confirm.

If you can't access your iPhone or Apple Watch, or if your Apple Watch isn't paired with your iPhone and you need to turn off Activation Lock:

On a computer, go to iCloud.com.
Sign in with your Apple ID, and open Settings.
Under My Devices, click your Apple Watch.
Click X next to your device.
Click Remove to confirm.

The customer has recently emailed me to inform me that he cannot connect and it is still registered to my Apple ID.  I have checked my Devices on the website and I don't have it registered to my account.

Does anyone know a fix for this?


texts: How to disable Wi-Fi temporarily with timeout on iOS?

texts: Is there an app or something to disable Wi-Fi on iOS but automatically re-enable it after a specified time?


texts: Dell U3415W monitor does not wake when I power up my Mac Mini

texts:
I have a late 2014 Mac Mini connected to a 34-inch Dell U3415W display via Thunderbolt to DP. My keyboard and mouse are connected via the monitor's built-in USB hub. There are no other displays connected to the system. I'm running macOS Sierra, but had the same issue in previous versions. I am using full-disk encryption with FileVault.

My issue is that whenever I power cycle my system, the display remains in sleep mode (monitor LED slowly flashes white versus solid white when it's on / Mac LED is solid white). No combination of keyboard presses, connecting/disconnecting peripherals, power cycling the monitor, etc. work.

The only way I can get it out of sleep mode is to type in my password and press enter with the display still blank (power save mode).

I thought of this workaround after connecting a 1280x1024 monitor to the mac alongside my regular 34-inch 3440x1440 display (second display worked). I normally only use the one display though, and it's been about a year since I've hooked up the other one thanks to this workaround. Also, I normally keep the power on so it hasn't been much of an issue.

I'm asking about this now because I recently upgraded to macOS Sierra and was disappointed to discover that the monitor would refuse to wake every time the system went into sleep mode! (not just when power-cycled)

Ultimately, I was able to resolve the sleep mode issue by powering down and unplugging the Mac (I read that this would reset the SMC). However, the issue remains when I power cycle.

Is there a way to make sure that my display always works?

I've speculated that maybe the FileVault boot screen can't handle the 3440x1440 resolution, but that seems like a serious oversight if true. Also, for what it's worth, when I boot up and the OS re-opens my windows, they are all clustered in what appears to be a 1280x1024 box in the upper-left corner of my screen.

How do I make my Mac Mini play nice with my display?

EDIT:

I tried resetting my NVRAM by pressing Command+Option+P+R on startup. I pressed it at about when the first chime occurred and waited for the second chime before letting go. After that, the password screen came up normally!

However, when rebooting (power cycling) afterwards, I still had to type my password into a blank screen. So, the issue is not resolved.

It's odd that a keystroke on startup can make the display wake up normally but that it fails without it.

EDIT:

I tried the HDMI solution below after the issue of my monitor not waking up from sleep mode started happening again sporadically, so the workarounds above were not a permanent fix if anybody was wondering.


texts: High Sierra Macs always connect to file server with AppleID, not the correct username/password

texts:
I ran into a really annoying problem yesterday. In a small office of just three workstations (and two more that connect remotely), the computers cannot automatically connect to the fileserver on boot. Instead of using the username/password associated with the shared folders, it automatically connects using the AppleID, which works because the server uses the same AppleID. The server is a Mac mini running High Sierra also.

So let me explain. In the past, sometimes this would happen, where you would click on a shared Mac and it would sometimes try to auto-connect as the same user you are using on the current computer, or using the AppleID. But you click disconnect, then reconnect, and type in the correct username and password. Checking the box to remember the password. Once the volumes are mounted, you save them to the dock, you put them in the "Login Items" folder, and BAM auto-mounting network shares.

But now that does not happen. Now no matter what, it connects to the server using the AppleID. So the shares will be working perfectly. Then when you reboot, it auto-connects with the AppleID not the username. Under the AppleID, the shares are either not available or available but as read-only.

This is a pain in the ass for me, a tech person. But for "regular" people using the file server, this is a huge hassle. I'm pretty sure they don't even understand what the problem is when I explain it. They made a whole list of all the problems they are having with the new server, not realize that every single item on the list is exactly the same, "can't write to files on the server". It needs to be seamless and easy to use, something Apple excelled at once upon a time.

Addon: Also, one of the work stations is still on El Capitan and it does not have this problem. It seems to be a "feature" of High Sierra. (No Sierra Macs to test on)


texts: Macbook Pro hangs when booting into Boot Camp Windows 7

texts:
I have a 2011 Macbook Pro 15" 10.7.4 with Windows 7 installed in Boot Camp. A few days ago, I tried to boot into Windows 7 and it just froze after I selected the Boot Camp volume on the Select Drive screen and the processor fan went into overdrive. This now happens every time. The only way to make it functional is to force-power-off and restart in OS X.

I don't understand what's happening - Windows 7 works fine when I use it via Parallels, but won't boot to the metal.

I've tried resetting the SMC and PRAM but nothing seems to work. This is extra frustrating because I need to use Windows for work.

I looked here, but it's no help:

Bootloader freezes on login screen when booting into Lion from Boot Camp


texts: What features from a typical wireless router is Airport Extreme missing?

texts:
Are there any features that Airport Extreme is missing that typical routers always have?

For example virtual servers, dmz?


texts:
I wrote a little script to automatically update my Network Location based on a couple of conditions, and have coupled that with a launchd plist to have it run every couple of minutes.

However, I've noticed that my launchd plist doesn't seem to get loaded when my computer reboots.  My plist is in ~/Library/LaunchDaemons and is fairly simple:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.davedelong.location-updater</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/path/to/my/location_updater.rb</string>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>180</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

My LaunchDaemons folder has the expected 700 permissions, and running launchctl load with my plist makes things work just fine.  It's just that when I reboot, it's not getting loaded.

I was under the impression that everything in ~/Library/LaunchDaemons and ~/Library/LaunchAgents got loaded automatically by launchd.  Is this not the case?  If this is the case (and I think it is), then why isn't my plist getting loaded?


texts: Install python3 from Homebrew vs the installer from https://www.python.org/?

texts:
Is there any advantage of installing python 3 through homebrew vs through the installer from https://www.python.org/ or vice verse (except that the installer can give me the latest version)?
I try both and I can't find the difference.
---- update ----
I now gain some insights about this question.

If I install python through the installer, the installer will modify PATH in .zprofile like following and create softlink /usr/local/bin/python3

    # Setting PATH for Python 3.8
    # The original version is saved in .zprofile.pysave
    PATH="/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.8/bin:${PATH}"
    export PATH

    # Setting PATH for Python 3.9
    # The original version is saved in .zprofile.pysave
    PATH="/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.9/bin:${PATH}"
    export PATH

    ls -al /usr/local/bin/python3
    lrwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  69 11 20 11:18 /usr/local/bin/python3 ->
    ../../../Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.9/bin/python3

if I then install python thru brew, brew will complain. Sometimes I don't run brew install python directly but install some bottle, which installs python, e.g brew install httpie will install python, then brew complains

    ...
    ==> Caveats
    Python has been installed as
      /usr/local/bin/python3

    Unversioned symlinks `python`, `python-config`, `pip` etc. pointing to
    `python3`, `python3-config`, `pip3` etc., respectively, have been installed into
      /usr/local/opt/python@3.9/libexec/bin

macOS preinstall python at /usr/bin/python & /usr/bin/python3 which remain unchanged. But since PATH is modified by the installer or brew (brew puts /usr/local/bin before /usr/bin) so preinstall python is shadowed.

I do find brew has an "annoying" feature, when brew’s Python being installed as a dependency for a bottle and then I uninstall the bottle, the brew's Python remains. For example I installed httpie and uninstalled it. But to my surprise my system python is still the one installed by httpie. It took me quite sometimes to figure out that.


texts: Can I stop getting invites in Calendar.app for events i'm not invited to?

texts:
I'm using Google Apps at work and it adds a bunch of calendars for my coworkers to Calendar, which is exactly what I want.  However I keep getting invitation notifications for events I'm not actually invited to.  In order to clear the notification I have to Accept, Decline, or respond with Maybe.

Is there anyway to stop this?  A lot of them are duplicates. What is even more confusing is some events actually behave the way I expect where they just notify me and I can only respond with OK.

For the life of me I can't figure out whats going on.  I wish I knew why some events behave differently.

Bonus points if you know of something like Event Merge for Google Calendar that works in Calendar.app. Because the duplicate events are also annoying even though I know it's just that the event is on multiple calendars.  It would be nice to collapse them.

At this point I'd even be open to suggestions for a better Calendar app provided it handled this better.


texts: Is it possible to configure Finder to report hard-links size only once?

texts:
I've created multiple hard-links to a file in a folder to illustrate the issue.
~/Test $ ln original.pdf link1.pdf
~/Test $ ln original.pdf link2.pdf
~/Test $ ls -li
403963 .rw-r--r--@ 3 80k username 2017-11-29 20:17 original.pdf
403963 .rw-r--r--@ 3 80k username 2017-11-29 20:17 link1.pdf
403963 .rw-r--r--@ 3 80k username 2017-11-29 20:17 link2.pdf

You can see above they all have the same inode: 403963.
The du utility reports the total size of the folder as the size of the actual data pointed at by those links.
~/Test $ du -sh .
 80K  .

But Finder's adds up each of the link's size (plus something else) when reporting the folder size in the "Get Info" window. If you're wondering why it says "4 items", I guess it's because it also counts the folder itself. There are definitely only those three files in the "Test" folder.

Is there any option to configure Finder to count multiple hard links to the same inode only once?


texts: Is there a way to hide malicious google results in Mac?

texts:
When I googled, some links were marked by Google as malicious that can harm my computer. Since I don't want to mis-click any of those, I would like to know whether there are any configs that just simply hide those links? Or stop Google from returning those links in the first place?

Thanks!


texts: Can I remove user's home directory folders?

texts:
I have the following scenario:

All of my files, documents etc. are saved on Copy.com.

I have installed copy on my MacBooc Air all my files went to the following directory:

/Users/username/Copy
/Users/username/Copy/Documents
/Users/username/Copy/Movies
/Users/username/Copy/Pictures
/Users/username/Copy/Music
/Users/username/Copy/Workspace

On my Mac's home folder, I want to replace the following folders with symlinks or aliases to the Copy ones:

/Users/username
/Users/username/Documents (alias to /Users/username/Copy/Documents)
/Users/username/Movies (alias to ...)
/Users/username/Pictures (alias to ...)
/Users/username/Music (alias to ...)
/Users/username/Workspace (alias to ...)

I have tried to delete a folder under /Users/username and Mac prompts:

  “Documents” can’t be modified or deleted because it’s required by OS X.

I have done this scenario on Ubuntu, that's why I want it on MacBook Air, too.


texts: How to record iPhone/iPad screen on macOS?

texts:
OS X Yosemite brought support for recording iPhone/iPad screen natively without having to using AirPlay applications like AirServer or Reflector.

How do I record the iPhone screen on macOS ?


texts:
I have a multi-function USB printer, Brother MFC-8440. Before buying a Time Capsule it was connected to a USB port on the Mac. After purchasing a Time Capsule I attached the printer to the USB on the Time Capsule. This allows printing to the networked printer from other systems on my LAN.

Note: prior to the Time Capsule the other systems were still able to print but had to print by connecting to the printer attached to the Mac; a different but equivalent functionality. But it seemed to be more trouble prone, requiring frequent setup of the printer on Windows machines.

However, after connecting to the Time Capsule, I have lost the ability to scan, as that function is not allowed via the Time Capsule. The workaround is to swap USB cables to connect the printer directly to the Mac. So I can scan, but the cable swap is annoying, and then the other machines cannot print until the cable is swapped back.

Is there a solution that would avoid the cable swap?


texts:
This question is a duplicate, I know.

Duplicate: Send audio output of MacBook to iPhone for remote listening

However the age of this question and answer is about 5 years. Mac OS and iOS updates change and so do software.

The question is again, how could I output my audio from my mac to my iPhone or iPad? The App Airfoil was suggested in the the question above however I'm sure there are better or newer alternatives.

I did check https://alternativeto.net/software/airfoil/ however I don't know how reliable this site is.

My preference of method would be over WiFi, or USB connection but anything is better than nothing.

Detailed Device Specs

iPhone 5s iOS 10.3.3

iPad 3rd Generation iOS 9.3.5

NOTE: as suggested from Streaming iMac's Audio to iPad, this open source alternative was available however it hasn't been updated. https://github.com/trenskow/AirFloat (requires iOS 9.2.1 and self-compiled with Xcode from a Mac)

Macbook Pro Retina (Model 10,1) Mid-2012. macOS Sierra 10.12.6

Even if a suggestion doesn't fit the older models above, they are welcome for others that this may help!

Thank you Ask Different community!


texts: Any point in waiting for Samsung 850 EVO?

texts:
I'm about to upgrade my MacBook Pro (13" mid 2012) with 16GB of RAM and an SSD. According to this news article Samsung's new 850 SSD series might be around the corner, and I'd much appreciate your opinion on whether I should wait for it or go with the current 840 EVO?

Is there really any more speed to be had over the MBP's SATA III interface than what the 840 EVO already delivers? The fact that the 850 series will still use SATA III would suggest so, but on the other hand this post doesn't think so.


texts: What are some alternatives to Shazam for iOS?

texts: What are some good alternatives to Shazam?