texts: Can I tell whether "Erase data" is enabled from the lock screen?

texts:
iOS has an option to erase all data after 10 failed passcode attempts. Is it somehow displayed on the lock screen?

Are any warnings about this options shown while the wrong codes are being entered?
Is any notification or progress bar shown while the data is being erased?
Is it possible to tell whether the data were erased when the phone shows "iPhone is disabled - connect to iTunes" screen?


texts: How to uninstall software that is running when the mac logs in

texts:
I get this every time I log in

Which is an application that I downloaded a while back. But I can't locate it in my applications folder and I also cant see it in this:

How should I go about preventing this?

In /Library/LaunchDaemons:

In /Library/LaunchAgents:


texts: Apple TextEdit - where is the file being saved?

texts:
I used to use Save As… to remember the directory I was saving a file in, but that seems to have disappeared with the latest OS.

I have a file open in TextEdit. How does one go about finding the directory that this file is currently being saved to? I can see the name and I can "open recent" (which just displays the name), but, once open, I can't actually figure out how to determine where this file is located.


texts:
My Macbook Pro has a lit keyboard.

I can change the intensity of the keyboard light using Fn F5/F6 on the Macbook's keyboard.

My Apple Wireless Keyboard, Third generation (A1314), has no markings on F5/F6 for changing the keyboard light.

Sure enough, pressing Fn F5/F6 on the wireless keyboard does not affect the keyboard light.

(Fortunately, changing the Macbook's display intensity and volume both work fine on the wireless keyboard, where the inscriptions on the keyboard say they should.)

Is there a way to configure the wireless keyboard to control the keyboard light?


texts: Homebrew installed libraries, how do I use them?

texts:
I'm a bit confused.

I've installed a bunch of libraries (e.g. vtk, gsl,...) that I need for a  c++ project for school. I used homebrew to install them (luckily there were formulas available).

My question is, does Homebrew link these into /usr/include or something comparable? Or is this something I would need to do manually?

Homebrew usually does this kind of stuff for executables, yet I can't seem the find the libraries anywhere other than in the /usr/local/Cellar/... directories. I have a bunch of libraries installed so I can't simply use -L/... for each of them.


texts: Will this optical drive work with my MacBook 13in mid 2010

texts:
Hi I have a 13" MacBook mid 2010 and the optical drive went out so I've been looking for a new one. I found one that I'm interested in but was needing to know if it will work with my MacBook I provided the link to the one I'm looking at.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/2nd-9-5mm-SATA-SSD-Hard-Drive-Caddy-Bay-for-MacBook-CD-DVD-ROM-Optical-Bay-/131975475287?hash=item1eba59f057:g:IdkAAOSwpLNYBwIq


texts: Macbook not restarting/rebooting after completing a "successful" installation of Catalina OS

texts: I have tried installing Catalina OS 3 times now. The installation completes and when I click restart for the OS to take affect it closes all applications and doesn't restart. I tried restarting the computer myself, but it doesn't take affect. After trying multiple times installing it again and again - I'm not sure what else to do.


texts: Macbook Pro Upgrade - 16GB RAM or 128GB SSD

texts:
I am asking myself which constellation is better: should I stock up my RAM up to 16GB (from 8GB), or should I buy a SSD with 128GB??

I really dont know :/

Cheers!

BTW: My macbook supports 16GB RAM, i already checked this ;)


texts: Renewing the Developer Program Membership after it expires

texts: My Developer Program Membership (along with the iOS Distribution Certificate - it seems) expires in a couple of weeks. About a week ago, Apple sent me an email implying that I must renew the certificate before it expires in one month. However, I expect to submit some apps in at least a couple of months, and I would prefer to wait until this time to renew my certificate. Can I do this long after it has expired, or must I renew it before the expiration date?


texts: I'd like to upgrade Firefox to the new version but I don't know if I'll still be able to read pdf on it with this this plugin. Is there another way ?


texts: Find out which network user is using a file, causing "The operation can’t be completed because the item ... is in use"

texts:
So, normally, if you run into the error "The operation can’t be completed because the item ... is in use" while trying to modify a file, you look up what is using the file with sudo lsof | grep <filename or part of filename>.

I'm having a problem where this doesn't work. The file in question is on a shared network drive (Active Desktop I believe, or something like that). The file is not in use on my machine - the above lsof Terminal command gives nothing. So it seems that something else on the network is causing the file to be in use.

Nothing I've tried (lsof, Get Info, rebooting, force-quitting Finder, opening the file in its own application...) helps or gives any clue about why it's locked like this.

How can I find out who or what on the network is using a particular file?

Background for my specific case: for me, the file in question is one of those hidden ~$whatever.xlsx or ~$whatever.xlmx 'ghost' temporary files that Excel for Mac likes to create, which cause Excel files to become uneditable when people inevitably disconnect from the network without closing Excel.

Normally, the easy fix is to delete the ghost file. This normally works fine - but at the moment it's not working with the above error and there's no clue I can see why not.

Also, normally, opening Excel files that are locked by a user gives a message like "Locked for editting by <username>". There's no such message for this, which is unusual (but maybe just Excel for Mac being glitchy, probably not related to the general question).

On a Mac Pro running Lion (Excel for Mac 2011 in case that is relevant).


texts: Is there any way to make Universal Clipboard in High Sierra reliable?

texts: I just don't find it reliable. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. I have a MacBook Pro (mid-2015), an iPad Air 2, and an iPhone XS. I've tried logging all of them out of the same iCloud account, restarting, and then logging them in again, but that only seems to work for a while. Both iOS devices are running iOS 12.0.1, Wifi and Bluetooth are on, the devices are near each other. Does Mojave improve the reliability?


texts: I found all my emails into my brother's icloud settings

texts:
6 months ago I was surprised when my brother could connect to my wireless network without giving him the wifi password.
We live in two completely different cities and I just moved to that house recently. I didn't stop at this even though I kept thinking about it the whole time.
Today when I was fixing something with his contacts sync, I found all my emails, business emails in his [Settings -> internet accounts]
We have two completely different iCloud accounts, how could that be possible?


texts:
I have a Macbook 1.83ghz.

I installed Snow Leopard and the WiFi crashed (?)

It was barely functioning before, but now all it can do is detect names of routers.

I haven't done anything as I don't know what to do.

How do i run a diagnostic before I have to buy a new WiFi card?


texts: iPhone 4s not connecting to the Internet using the sim and heating up in standby

texts:
I purchased an iPhone 4s on eBay. The phone is as if permanently locked in 'Searching... ' mode (the top left hand corner of the display). The phone is not connecting to the Internet, or the WiFi, and neither does it seem to connect to phone services through the SIM card inserted. And while the phone is in this state, it is heating up on the right-hand side, with display facing upwards, and gets drained of battery in about 40 minutes, even when it is in standby mode.

I have replaced the battery, and then the antenna, but to no avail.

What could be the problem? Please help!


texts: How to move bookmarks *with icons* from Firefox to Safari

texts:
I dumped my old Dell for a new MacBook Pro. Firefox looks gawdawful on my retina display, so I'm trying Safari. I had 20+ bookmarks in FF's Bookmarks Toolbar. Each had it's own icon, either grabbed from the target domain or from a picture I had saved... so I was able to give each one a one or two character name, so I easily could see them and select the ones I wanted. Upon the import, Safari ditched the icons.

Is there any way to move bookmarks with icons from FFx to Safari?
Is there any way to even show icons on the Safari toolbar?


texts: How to view my complete purchase (just apps, not IAP stuff) history on Apple App Store?

texts: I have tried many ways but failed to view a full list of my purchase. Does any one know how I can view them all? My first purchased should happen in early 2010. Thanks very much,


texts:
I have a few spiritual yoga and madras related mp3s on my MacBook's iTunes that I would like to listen to on my iPhone.

How can I sync it through iCloud? Normal good old iTunes library sync does not work anymore as I experienced.


texts: I have a problem with folder naming in macOS — I need to name a folder with *.Menu in the end. But if I do that Finder thinks it's some sort of a system file and not a directory. The same goes with *.framework. Is there some setting in Finder to turn off this behaviour?


texts: How to stop Siri from playing undownloaded purchased songs

texts:
Here is an interesting one:

I have 264 purchased songs downloaded on my iPhone
If I go "Songs > Shuffle" it goes 1 of 264
If I go "Siri > Play songs shuffled" it goes 1 of 456

So basically, if I use Siri, it keeps shuffling through every song I have purchased rather than just the ones that have been downloaded onto my iPhone.

I have already tried:

Settings > Music > Show All Music Off
Settings > iTunes & App Store > Show all music off + Automatic downloads music off
Settings > Usage > Music delete + iTune sync to put back only the songs I wanted

How do I stop this?


texts: Meaning of "FD" in /dev/cu.usbmodemFD211?

texts:
Normally when I plug a CDC serial USB device, I get a device like /dev/cu.usbmodem1411. A remote user I'm supporting who's having difficulty with a serial device is reporting a device with FD in the name: /dev/cu.usbmodemFD211 (on a Macbook Air of unknown vintage running 10.13.4)?

What's the meaning of the FD? I've done a websearch but turned up nothing, though some people mention a lower-case fd instead. I know the digits just signify the controller, port, etc.


texts: iMovie 10.0.7 How do I mark my "favorite" part of a video and move it into the timeline

texts:
Under the old version you could make the part of the video clip you liked and it would show GREEN after you moved it into the the timeline. This version shows the make area in the menu, but does not work. The menu is light gray and there is no "heart" icon on the screen for the "favorite" part of the clip. What am I doing wrong?

Thanks for the help.


texts: Need help making Windows bootable after installing Linux

texts:
I used this questions's answer to install Linux(I installed Mint, however, not Ubuntu) and followed along.

I do believe I didn't follow the answer properly, as I still have a placeholder partition unused, but Linux installed and works perfectly. I did have to use the diskutil resizevolume disk0s2 140G 3 jhfs+ part1 800M jhfs+ part2 200M jhfs+ part3 200 command differently as I am on High Sierra, and I have APFS containers. I gave 4GB for Linux Swap

Linux Mint works perfectly, but when trying to boot into Windows via the option boot menu(on startup), the built-in boot manager freezes. If Windows is set to the default startup drive, I get a blank screen.

The Bootcamp partition has next to no important information, I can format/reinstall it if necessary.

The following is my diskutil list output. BaseQi is a exFAT 64GB SD Card.

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         120.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Linux Swap                         3.9 GB     disk0s3
   4:           Linux Filesystem                         64.1 GB    disk0s4
   5:                  Apple_HFS part3                   200.0 MB   disk0s5
   6:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                61.8 GB    disk0s6
   7:                        EFI NO NAME                 500.2 MB   disk0s7

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +120.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume macOS                   15.4 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 65.3 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                1.0 GB     disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *64.0 GB    disk2
   1:               Windows_NTFS BaseQi                  64.0 GB    disk2s1

Below is the output for diskutil info disk0s6

    Device Identifier:        disk0s6
   Device Node:              /dev/disk0s6
   Whole:                    No
   Part of Whole:            disk0

   Volume Name:              BOOTCAMP
   Mounted:                  Yes
   Mount Point:              /Volumes/BOOTCAMP

   Partition Type:           Microsoft Basic Data
   File System Personality:  NTFS
   Type (Bundle):            ntfs
   Name (User Visible):      Windows NT File System (NTFS)

   OS Can Be Installed:      No
   Media Type:               Generic
   Protocol:                 PCI
   SMART Status:             Verified
   Volume UUID:              163F7FD4-C9A1-4E82-BA76-8FDA822A9A52
   Disk / Partition UUID:    0721D35A-134A-4C99-B221-43CDD77F19B4
   Partition Offset:         189210296320 Bytes (369551360 512-Byte-Device-Blocks)

   Disk Size:                61.8 GB (61789437952 Bytes) (exactly 120682496 512-Byte-Units)
   Device Block Size:        512 Bytes

   Volume Total Space:       61.8 GB (61789433856 Bytes) (exactly 120682488 512-Byte-Units)
   Volume Used Space:        14.8 GB (14825717760 Bytes) (exactly 28956480 512-Byte-Units) (24.0%)
   Volume Free Space:        47.0 GB (46963716096 Bytes) (exactly 91726008 512-Byte-Units) (76.0%)
   Allocation Block Size:    4096 Bytes

   Read-Only Media:          No
   Read-Only Volume:         Yes

   Device Location:          Internal
   Removable Media:          Fixed

   Solid State:              Yes
   Hardware AES Support:     No


texts:
MacBook Pro (16-inch, 2019)
2.3 GHz 8-Core Intel Core i9 16 GB 2667 MHz DDR4 AMD Radeon Pro 5500M 8 GB

USB-C > ethernet :

Hyper Drive GEN2 12-in-1 USB-C
USB C Hub 8 in 1, uni USB-C Hub
Anker USB Type-C to Ethernet

I bought a MacBook Pro in July, but I'm getting an issue with the top right USB-C (thunderbolt 3) port.
I initially thought the issue was with the adaptor, which I replaced three times, then got a more expensive USB-C hub, but same issue.
I realised that plugging to the port next to it was solving the issue ...
As you can see, I'm getting 930Mbps +, but when plugging inside the faulty port, this is dropping to 127Mbps,  Example with speed test (same issue with iPef3).

Sometimes I get the full speed with the top right port but most of the time it's dropping drastically.
I swapped the cable, connected to another ETH port, another VLAN, connected the same hub inside another computer (it was working fine).
I first reset PRAM and SMC, same issue, so I erased the partition, installed macOS Big Sur again (11.11 20C69), installed the developer version 11.14 but same issue.
Is there anything else I should know? (I remember reading for example that the power cable should be plugged in the top right port of the MacBook Pro) by the way, the hub I'm using at the moment with ethernet also has PD 100w.
I can arrange to send my Macbook pro for servicing with Apple, but I don't know would that be just a waste of time


texts: Should this hardware piece look like this?

texts:
In the image you can see the hardware part of the battery (I think) and it looks weird with all the white things. Is this normal, because the Mac was recently bought. This is a MacBook Air 2019.

Would be interesting to know what this is.

EDIT:

Added an image with circles to see the white things I am talking about. Also on those "bloated" metal things is some thin white layer, seems like the same thing like the other white stuff.


texts: What is the fastest device to use to restore a timemachine date based backup on a mid 2015 mbp?

texts:
The fastest port on this machine seems to be the Thunderbolt 2 interface at 20Gbp/s.  Are there any drives that would get anywhere near that?

It seems like the SSD in a 2015 MBP would be limited to about 2.2Gbps write speed so does it make sense to try to get anything faster than that?

Is a 3.1 USB thumb drive good enough or would a standard SATA III SSD drive work faster?

I just did a 150 GB Time Machine restore which took 9 hours.  Is there a way to make it faster than that?


texts: Mojave and its non-respect of the AppleLocale preference

texts:
This is a new (Mojave) version of a question posted two years ago here.

Being a French speaking bilingual Canadian, I have always had my macOS computers configured in English (because I prefer using computer systems in English) with a French Canadian Locale (number formatting, time/date, month/day names etc...). With earlier versions of OS X (until El Cap), this was a user-configurable setting in the Language and Region preference pane.

With Sierra and High Sierra, the GUI for this setting has been removed from the pref pane, but it was still possible to set the locale with the defaults command:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleLocale -string fr_CA

Then came Mojave...
I am now running a clean installation - not an upgrade - of Mojave (10.14 18A391) and setting the AppleLocale with the defaults command works but the pref doesn't seem to get applied anywhere.

Here are the Canadian English default Language & Region pref pane, the clock area of the menu bar, and the AppleLocale preference read by the defaults command.
￼
￼

￼

To change the locale with the defaults command, I quit the preferences app and enter the command:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain AppleLocale -string fr_CA

When I reopen the Language & Region pref pane or read the pref with the defaults command, it appears as though the preference has been applied, like it did with previous versions of macOS. The pref pane displays the correct locale and the correctly localized dates and times. The defaults read command returns fr_CA. However, the menu bar clock and all apps that use locales (calendar, finder, etc…) are still in en_CA. Logging out/in and rebooting don't seem to change anything.
￼
￼

￼

Would anybody know if Apple has changed the way Locales are being used in Mojave, or if this is simply a bug?

Thanks!


texts: Can I purchase regular DDR3 RAM for my MAC (not from an iMac store?)

texts: I know that buying and installing RAM from a regular computer shop will be cheaper for me. I was just wondering if a Macbook Pro 17" early 2011 model uses specific 'Mac' DDR3 RAM or if I can get away with any DDR3 RAM?


texts: How do I reassign numbering of Displays when you have more than 2 monitors connected to mac mini

texts:
I have three displays connected to my mac mini. (I have used Arrangement to make sure they are connected correctly left to right, so mouse movement works correctly.) The leftmost is the primary with the dock. However, the middle display is call "Display 3" and the rigtmost is "Display 2". Even if I swap the cables, it still stays the same, so OSX must remember the displayid. This is a problem because Desktop numbering (in Spaces) are out of sequence rigt to left across the displays. It is also confusing that when you assign an app to a display, you have to remember that 3 is the middle display. I know I could just physically swap display 2 and 3, but can this be solved through macOS Display settings? :-)

Any suggestion on how one can reassign the numbering of the displays?


texts: Parsing folder for pairs with bash or AppleScript

texts:
I edit RAW photos in Photoshop using Adobe Camera Raw. The way the edits work is any time I work on a picture, Photoshop creates a text file with the same name as the picture to which the edits were made. However, sometimes when I delete an image, or use it in a Photomerge, the XML file stays behind. Thus I now have  a folder with ~1100 RAW images (.NEF), ~1300 text files (.xmp) and a few photoshop files (.psd, .psb).

I would like to parse this folder, using either AppleScript or a bash command, and either mark or delete the .xmp files that do not have a companion RAW file. Logically, the code would be: for every .xmp file, check for a .NEF file with same name. If .NEF does not exist, delete or mark the .xmp file. If .NEF does exist, do nothing.

I am not familiar with AppleScript, and although I am familiar with ffmpeg, diskutil, and basic cd/ls and rsync commands in terminal, I have never attempted something like this and do not know where to start.

So, I was hoping someone on here could:

Help decide whether bash or AppleScript is more appropriate here AND
Help me write the sequence OR point me to some good resources where I could learn enough (either bash or AppleScript) to write the sequence myself.


texts: Why aren't nasdaq.com and yahoo.com removed when I clear Safari website data?

texts: When I clear website data in Safari (Preferences --> Privacy --> Manage Website Data... --> Remove All), nasdaq.com and yahoo.com remain in the list.  Is this a known issue, and how can I fix it?


texts: Mac chooses wrong date/time which is 7 hours ahead of the timezone chosen

texts:
I have chosen to set date/time automatically based on location:

The time now is 2:28 PM but Mac shows it as 9:29 PM:

On Terminal app, date command shows the correct time:

date
Sun May 31 14:29:26 PDT 2020

However, Mail, Calendar, Outlook etc., all show the wrong date which is 7 hours ahead.  How can I fix this problem?  The menu bar shows the wrong time as well:

I tried resetting NVRAM but that didn't help.


texts: Identify if an iOS In-App Purchase is a consumable or non-consumable?

texts:
I need a small help to know if what I propose in my iOS app is a consumable currency or not.
From the Apple Developer In-App Purchase webpage:

Consumable
Users can purchase different types of consumables, such as lives or gems in a game, to further their progress through an app. Consumable in-app purchases are used once, are depleted, and can be purchased again.

Users can buy a currency that has a name, such as "bucks", for example: 100 bucks can be bought for $1.
User can receive or send this currency to another user. When desired, he can convert this virtual currency to money = for example: $1 for 95 bucks.
This currency is like a cryptocurrency and my app is not a game.
So is this currency a consumable or non-consumable? I need help with understanding to prevent my app from getting rejected.


texts: can not enter setup to receive code to move to ios from android

texts: iphone se was purchased from Verizon. Verizon setup the phone. i want to use Move to IOS. I have downloaded Move to IOS on my android device but  I am unable to access setup on the iphone. What is the solution?


texts: Bidirectional Sync of iPhone/iDevice Photos and Albums to Third Party Clouds

texts:
It is a complete mystery to me why this challenge has not been dealt with and solved, and why not more people are complaining about it on the web:

I use my iPhone as my main camera. I use it to snap photos and subsequently sort them into albums on my phone. I also have an iPad and a PC laptop, but do not use the latter frequently to edit photos.

What I (and I assume many other people out there) would like, is a simple functionality on  your iDevice (iPhone/iPad/etc) that basically two-way syncs pictures and albums between all devices. So, when I take a picture on my iPhone or iPad it should automatically be sent to a cloud (SugarSync, Google Drive, Dropbox, a private cloud, or similar) and from there be reflected on all my devices. Similarly, if I delete or modify a photo on one of my devices, that change should be reflected automatically on all the other devices.

With most paid-for clouds (such as SugarSync and Dropbox), you have one-way synching functionality of pictures. So when you take a photo, it is backed up to the drive. Sadly, it is not bidirectional, so if I delete a photo on one device, it is not reflected on the other devices.

As for Photo Stream and iCloud the problems are as follows.

It does not sync the albums you create on your device.
You actually have to open iPhoto and make sure the images are imported to your computer, to avoid that they get deleted after the 30 day photo stream period is up.
You are stuck with iCloud, so if you decide to buy an Android phone, you will encounter a road block.

Anyone have any information or thoughts on how to tackle this challenge? One thought would be to just use an alternative Camera and Photo app on the iPhone, that works with other clouds than iCloud. If you know of any such tools, please shout out.


texts:
I recently bought a new iPhone 6, because my iPhone 5 had some weird battery issues: when I was on 3G or 4G, the battery would literally go down from 50% to 10% in like 10 minutes. On the Wi-Fi, it was pretty OK.

Right now, with my new Phone, I was expecting way better battery results. But weirdly enough, it's still pretty bad, though the phone is new.

I went to the Apple Store a couple of weeks back with my iPhone 5 and the guy told me that it may be a software issue (related to my backup, which I put on my iPhone 6) and not a hardware issue (don't worry I didn't buy the new iPhone just because of that).

Anyways, I was wondering if that could be a logical explanation?
And then, I would like to try completely factory restoring my phone to check but there are some settings like the wifi passwords, etc. that I'd like to keep...how can I transfer them without the backup?

Thanks a lot!


texts: macOS BigSur keep booting from external backup disk (made with CCC)

texts:
My Mac is on BigSur and I am using Carbon Copy Cloner to create a one on one disk which is bootable also. I have this setup running for years now and never noticed any problems – also on BigSur it worked.
Now my Backup Drive crashed and I bought a new HDD. I have exactly build this HDD (one 1 TB partition for CCC for the one on one copy and another 1 TB partition for TimeMachine). But two major problems: The clone partition is the one that get booted after a restart – I also cannot choose another startup disk from system preferences since I only can see the actual booted one. So when I had booted with system SSD only this disk is shown and when I booted from the backup disk only this ons is shown. But the mac should boot from the internal disk by default, what could happened here?
The Drive was always plugged in in a Thunderbolt 3 Dock. I also recently switched to an eGPU (Razer Core X Chroma) which now operates as my dock where the HDD is attached. But I think the problem occurred since the new replacement disk. Also when I plug in that drive directly on my macbook this drive get booted on restart.
Another issue is that the TimeMachine partition of the disk get mountet sporadically and is making intense work but not running a time machine backup. I tried to disable the volume on spotlight which presents an error (time machine backup cannot be excluded since they are always excluded – something like that) but disabled it by command line with sudo mdutil -i off "/Volumes/TimeMachine". Now I think its better...
Maybe you have an idea.
Thanks!
-- Update
The regular automatic TimeMachine backup is disabled – I have an own task that runs every hour that mounts the volume, do the TM backup and unmount it. That also worked for years now.


texts: Applescript and iTunes: enable shuffle by song or album and play?

texts:
The documentation for shuffle/shufflable in the iTunes Applescript dictionary is really confusing, at least for me. As I read it shuffle seems to be a property of a playlist (not a state of the program itself) but in the regular UI there is no such property for playlists (I would love to have it so I could set some playlists to always shuffle by album while other should always shuffle by song).

Anyway, I want an Applescript that enables shuffle by song/album and plays the currently selected playlist. How do I write the shuffle part of such a script?


texts: Will updating contacts with Facebook or Twitter overwrite pictures?

texts:
In iOS Settings, you can "Update All Contacts" with Facebook and Twitter. According to the explanation in the phone this will update photos and user names for all matching contacts. In addition, you can allow Facebook to use your contacts.

I have a lot of contacts and many of them have already got pictures that I have chosen myself. The contacts (and pictures) are synced with my Google Apps account.

If I do "Update All Contacts" with Facebook and/or Twittor or allow Facebook to use my contacts, will this overwrite existing pictures? (And thus change what is in my Google contacts?)

(For bonus points, please explain exactly what else will be changed.)


texts: The AppStore doesn't download full pack apps, which were previously bought

texts: I bought a new IPad. Started to download all my previous purchased applications, however I get only the basic versions, with an option to pay and unlock the rest of features. HOWEVER, I already purchased the full packs on each application on my previous IPad and paid a lot of money. So how can I get my full pack apps back? It's outrageous if I have to pay all over again for something I already bought.


texts: Is there any efficient way to make a shortcut to an Apple Book?

texts: While you can make shortcuts, Home Screen shortcuts and ask Siri to do things like play a specific song or open a certain URL, I do not know of any ways to open a specific book. Is there any way to quickly open a specific book, while you are working on something in a certain app?


texts:
I have a mid-2010 27" iMac with macOS 10.12.5 and an external DVD - USB SuperDrive (the internal DVD drive is broken).

I can't install Windows 7 from DVD with Bootcamp. After downloading support software to USB flash drive via BootCamp Assistant, I get an error on restart:

  No bootable device -- Insert boot disk and press any key.

What can I do?


texts: Music.app quits unexpectedly on macOS Big Sur when trying to move the app window to an external Monitor

texts:
I have a 2019 Macbook Pro with Big Sur 11.2.1 and an external monitor connected via mini DP.
When I try to move the Apple Music window to the external monitor, Music.app "Quits Unexpectedly". Can anyone offer some other suggested troublshooting steps?
The Apple Communities thread is https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252048247?answerId=254539570022
Apple had me try to use a newly created user account without success.  They passed me on to third level support, but they failed to keep their appointment.
Here is some info from the Problem Report for Music window:
Crashed Thread:        0  Music main  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:        EXC_BAD_INSTRUCTION (SIGILL)
Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000001, 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Termination Signal:    Illegal instruction: 4
Termination Reason:    Namespace SIGNAL, Code 0x4
Terminating Process:   exc handler [1399]

Application Specific Information:
dyld3 mode
Crashing on exception: The window has been marked as needing another Layout Window pass, but it has already had more Layout Window passes than there are views in the window.
<ITNSWindow: 0x7fc7a6e1ed20> 0x67e (1662) {{457, 1065}, {980, 400}} Music en


texts: macOS network extension fail to load on method of startVPNTunnel

texts:
I'm writing some VPN agent, and in order to connect with my remote vpn server I run the following command after setting the connection object (from type NEVPNConnection)
try tunnel.connection.startVPNTunnel(options: [:] as [String : NSObject])

It looks like the connection establishment is failed, and from the logs I see the following relevant messages :
2021-05-10 08:43:00.621853+0300 0x6924e    Error       0x6cbc0              678    0
neagent: [com.apple.networkextension:] NEAgentSession: failed to create the delegate

...

2021-05-10 08:43:00.622039+0300 0x693d2    Error       0x6cbc0              251    0
    nesessionmanager: [com.apple.networkextension:] com.company.vpn-client-mac[678]: Tearing down XPC
connection due to setup error: Error Domain=NEAgentErrorDomain Code=2 "(null)"

I've made sure that the network extension sits in the bundle of my application under subfolder Plugins, but I cannot understand from the logs why did it fail to load the extension.
Any idea how to debug this ?


texts: Using AppleScript to change text color in Keynote

texts:
I am tired of clicking through the color wheel to get custom colors and I would like to use AppleScript to automate with BTT a simple button to change the selected text color to a set of company standards.  I have been able to get as far as opening up the Color Picker in Keynote with AppleScript, but I can't figure out how to click the pencil.  Here is what Accessibility Inspector shows:

This is my code so far, but the selection to click Blueberry pencil keeps complaining that

  System Events got an error: Can’t get window "Text Color" of application process "Keynote".

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Keynote"
        tell radio group of toolbar of window 1
            -- This prevents it from toggling the button when already selected
            if value of radio button "Format" = {{0}} then
                click radio button "Format"
            end if
        end tell
        tell scroll area 1 of window 1
            click color well 1
        end tell
    end tell
    tell application "System Events"
        tell window "Text Color" of application process "Keynote"
            tell splitter group 1
                tell radio group "Pencils"
                    click radio button "Blueberry"
                end tell
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
end tell

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.


texts: show sender name from mail headers in Apple Mail

texts:
How to configure Apple Mail.app to show name from mail headers "From: " field and not from Contacts.app???

Apple Mail.app shows me always the name from Contacts.app (card is a read only download from global catalog), e.g.:

"Service Address" front-desk@ourcompany.net

But we have more than one who use this address. And this people configure there clients as follow:

name: "person1 first last" / address: front-desk@ourcompany.net
name: "person2 first last" / address: front-desk@ourcompany.net
name: "person3 first last" / address: front-desk@ourcompany.net

When I look to the mail headers, there are the correct names inside, but in Apple Mail.app the list view shows only:

"Service Address" front-desk@ourcompany.net

So I'm not able for differing the sender of mail without reading this.

And I do not want to manage a private address card for this address, because the people behind this address are changing all 4-6 weeks! The version I use before has done this correct, is El Captain a downgrade or have I to change to Thunderbird?


texts: Looking for a video player with capability to maintain a long list of Recent Items

texts:
I've tried VLC and MPlayerX and I was disappointed with their "Recent" menu. VLC maintains very little history and it sometimes even randomly erases itself.

I switched to MPlayerX -- it doesn't erase at random, but there are only 6 items in "Recent".

I watch multiple TV series and this lack of more "Recent" history sometimes leads me to lose track of what is the most recent episode I've watched on the particular series.

Does anyone know a video player that supports adjusting that to 25 or more items in it's "Recent" menu


texts: Open and focus file browsing dialog from command line

texts:
I'd like to open the native file browsing dialog from the command line, focus the dialog, and then get the full path of the selected file.

The following works nicely, but the dialog is not focused and therefore can't be controlled via the keyboard:

osascript -l JavaScript -e "var app = Application.currentApplication();
    app.includeStandardAdditions = true;
    app.chooseFile().toString();"

Thanks for any help.,


texts: to change the date based on exif data since export from Mac Photos shows date of export using exiftool

texts:
I used the following to change the Date Created to the actual date the photo was taken because exporting from Photos showed the date of export.
"for file in *; do SetFile -d "$(exiftool -p '$CreateDate' -d '%m/%d/%Y %H:%M:%S' "$file")" "$file"; done"
I got the following warning:
"Warning: [minor] Adjusted MakerNotes base by 46 - IMG_1369.JPG" -- what does this mean?
I found the above suggestion at this thread:
Export from Mac Photos app while keeping date created data?
Also what is the cmd to change "Date Modifed" using exiftool?
Thanks.


texts: Lock iPad into single folder view with pdf files

texts:
I have a requirement, to have an iPad locked to a single folder view, with 1 level subfolders, each with a list of pdf files:

.
├── Bob Dylan/
│   ├── file1.pdf
│   ├── file2.pdf
│   ├── file3.pdf
│   └── file4.pdf
├── Eric Clapton/
│   ├── file1.pdf
│   ├── file2.pdf
│   ├── file3.pdf
│   └── file4.pdf
└── Led Zeppelin/
    ├── file1.pdf
    ├── file2.pdf
    ├── file3.pdf
    └── file4.pdf

I think of some pdf viewer which can allow one to create this tree, so that when iPad is locked into that app, one can only browser this simple tree and open these files, and nothing else.

So tried a number of pdf readers, but still did not meet the one which does it.

As I'm not native to Apple ecosystem, and not an Apple user myself, I thought maybe someone happens to know an appropriate app for this.


texts: How do I reset a locked Apple Watch in Airplane Mode?

texts:
Through a series of events the passcode entries on an Apple Watch has been exhausted and the watch is locked with this message:

  Wrong Passcode

  Open the Apple Watch app on your iPhone, go to
  Passcode, then tap Re-enable Passcode Entry to try again.

But when I go to Passcode on the Apple Watch app it just spins probably because the watch is in Airplane Mode.

When I try to reset the watch through the Apple Watch app I get this error message:

  Could Not Connect to Apple Watch

  Make sure your Apple Watch is nearby, powered on, and not in Airplane
  Mode.

But I can't turn off Airplane mode on the watch because it locked. Do I have any other options besides taking to the Apple store with proof of purchase?


texts: Combining Finder's File Open/save dialog with Alfred

texts:
Finder's Open/Save File dialog is actually very dumb (in terms of flexibility). When I look for a file or its location, I can probably find it much faster using Alfred.

However, in many cases, you just have to use that dialog. Not particularly when you open files, but for example when you specify the place to save them.

As I'm a keyboard-only user (at least for 99% of the time), I find it tedious to launch Alfred, and reveal the file/directory in Finder and drag it (or its proxy icon) to the dialog in order to open/save it.

Is there any way I can get a keyboard-only, fuzzy-matching style file/folder selection mechanism for this dialog?

I could imagine using Alfred and AppleScript for that, but I don't know where to start. The end result would be that I could just select the appropriate file or folder via Alfred.

Note that:

I have the Alfred Powerpack, so AppleScript is possible.
I know Alfred has an "Open with…" action. This is not the same.
I know I can go to folders with ⌘⇧G, but it's weak in comparison to what a real shell offers.
I know you can Spotlight-search in that dialog, but I prefer Alfred's capabilities.

Update, 5 years later: I came looking for a solution for this and stumbled upon my own question. I also found this thread in which people have suggested several workflows, but the only one that would actually directly work is now a dead link (don't you just love it when text-only stuff is hosted on someone's Dropbox?).


texts: How to keep data from an old Mac to restore later

texts:
I have a new Mac, and I want to selectively move files over from an old Mac.
I've sold the old Mac and need to ship it today, so what I really want to do is simply take a complete copy of the HD in the old Mac before I erase and reinstall for the new owner.

I have a 500gb usb 3 disk I was going to use for this, I don't want to create a bootable clone, instead just want a complete copy of the old disk maybe as a dmg etc, any ideas?

Not thinking CCC, or restore using dskutil as it's overkill.


texts: Can't connect to Android hot-spot: Invalid password

texts:
Today, my MacBook Pro (mid-2012) running High Sierra has decided to fail to connect to the hot-spot from my phone which is located a few feet away. It claims this is due to an Invalid password. I've verified that the password I've given it is the correct one for the network. A Linux machine in the same room is able to connect using that same password.

I've taken the steps recommended in this answer: removing the Wi-Fi service, rebooting, and re-adding the Wi-Fi service. That did not help. I changed the network password on both the Android and the Mac; this also did not help.  I've also changed the Wi-Fi network and password since rebooting.

Edit: since posting my question I have been able to use the network for a while, and since then it has again stopped working.  I've switched over to Ethernet, which seems to be functioning correctly so far.

How can I make the Wi-Fi go?


texts:
Is there way to export a specific email from Mac Office 2011 in PDF (or some other portable document format)?

I don't want to export a whole archive, just a particular e-mail to attach to a ticket.  External services are not an acceptable solution.


texts: How to execute this brew installed tool 'gigtools'

texts:
My goal is to to run this 'gigtools' folder which extracts and converts .gig [audio] files into .wav files.
Website: https://command-not-found.com/gigextract
So I've installed the commands with Xcode- and the 'instructions' say this :
SYNOPSIS

    gigextract [ -v ] GIGFILE DESTDIR [SAMPLENR] [ [SAMPLENR] ... ]

I'm not good at basic level coding by any means, but I would love an example string to type into terminal to properly execute this, assuming my .gig files are in my /Downloads folder for reference.


texts: com.apple.hiservices-xpcservice results in frequent hangs and freezes in my mac

texts:
Update (2019): The issue still persits even in macOS Mojave, tried everything I could find, nothing seems to solve the issue as of yet!
Problem:
com.apple.hiservices-xpcservice hangs repeatedly ever since I upgraded to macOS Mojave 10.14.1. Now,everytime the process hangs it is indicated by red colored fonts in the Activity Monitor. Due to the frequent hangs my system slows down and it's barely usable due to extremely slow performance.
What I have done so far:
I have already Googled it (The Process) and also contacted Apple regarding the usage of this process and the reason behind it's frequent hick-ups. Alas! they couldn't help much.
So, I terminated the process.
Temporary Solution:
As soon as I terminated the process (com.apple.hiservices-xpcservice) my mac started running fast once again.
But, whenever I restart the system or leave the mac idle for a few minutes and then if I start using it once again! out of no where, the process (com.apple.hiservices-xpcservice), shows up once again in the activity monitor resulting in slow performance issues along with hangs and freezes across macOS.
System Info:
Model
iMac (27-inch, Mid 2014)
Processor
3.5GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.9GHz)
Configurable to 4.0GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 4.4GHz).
Memory
8GB (two 4GB) of 1600MHz DDR3 memory; four SO-DIMM slots, user accessible
Configurable to 16GB or 32GB.
Storage
1TB Fusion Drive
Screenshot Of The Process com.apple.hiservices-xpcservice


texts:
Suddenly, since today (not having installed todays OSX Update to 10.6.8, so still running 10.6.7), my Google Calendars ('delegates') have disappeared from iCal.

Strangely, I found them in the Window menu, where they are all listed. When I clen one of them there, iCal opens a new Window with only that calendar showing.

I want the combines view back, as it always was - where all calendars are shown at the right and can be selected for being displayed in the main pane.

Any ideas?


texts: Removing location metadata when sharing voice memo

texts:
The Apple voice memo app offers to geotag recordings.
When I want to share a recording I'm not offered any sharing options at the top of the share sheet, which I normally use to strip location data from pictures and videos.
How do I strip geolocation data from audio recordings when sharing one?
iOS 14.4
iPhone 8


texts: Change OSX Folder Icons (Working on OSX Lion)

texts:
I have a certain PNG I'd like to replace a folder icon with.

I noticed that when i Command-I this .png file, it will preview on the bottom, but not on the top left part (generic ".png" text appears instead).

I also noticed that only images that DO appear on the top left side of the "Get Info" window can be successfully Command-C'ed + Command-V'ed into my target folders' "Get Info" top left area - so that the image is replaced.

My question: is there some kind of standard for images that makes or breaks their compatibility with changing a folder's icon?


texts: User permissions problem after restoring from Time Machine to a new user Mac OS X El Capitan

texts:
My old MacBook Pro died so I did a restore from a Time Machine backup to an iMac. I did the restore to a new user so the info already in the iMac would not be lost.
Everything went smoothly and I have a clone from my MB Pro in the iMac.

But now when I try to save a PDF from Safari, the dialog box will not let me create a "new folder" (the button is "greyed out"?) and when I click return a dialog box appear with "Safari cannot export XXXX PDF because you don't have the permissions to do it".
I also later found out that it is asking for my password every time I want to move a file from one place to another, or if I want to change a file name.

How do I give full permissions to the new user?


texts: This screen came after I entered my credentials to login, and stayed here for a long time. I have tried reinstalling the os and clearing nvram, tried booting into safe mode and run diagnostics and tried updating the OS, but nothing has worked. How do I get to log in?


texts: MacBook Pro mid 2012 logic board swapping

texts: Question here is I have an MBP with this IDs: Model id : MacBookPro9,2 and apple model number : A1278. It is MacBook Pro mid 2012 with I5 right now. I am thinking if there is any chance that I can upgrade/swap this logic board for better one but not for that what is used in other mid 2012 with I7 as it is only dual-core. Is there any chance that I can fit some logic board with quad-core I7 processor? Somewhere I have read that some logic board from 2015 can fit into it and it is quad-core.


texts:
I'm looking at getting a LaCie 5Big Thunderbolt unit for archiving purposes. I would like to get a second one and use Disk Utility to create a Mirrored RAID Set from both of them so that I have a backup of my data. Both LaCie units would be set to be RAID 0 so that I have maximum space available. Am I able to do what I intend to do?

My next question is, assuming I can set them up as a Mirrored RAID Set, would I then be able to swap out a drive on each of them (one at a time, giving the RAID time to rebuild) to increase storage capabilities?

I'm currently planning on getting two 10TB units as that will supply me with enough storage for quite some time. However, I would like to be able to swap out the smaller drives with larger ones in the future.


texts: How can I cleanly start and stop VirtualBox VMs using launchd?

texts:
Does anyone have a working macOS 10.15, Catalina, shell script for cleanly starting/stopping VirtualBox VMs using launchd?

It seems macOS 10.15 has broken the standard solutions you find when searching for this. I suspect a proper solution would have some instruction to run this shutdown command first, before other shutdown scripts activate.

I have a launchd job that runs VirtualBox via a shell script I've written. The "stop" part of my script fails uses this trap SIGTERM function:

function shutdown()
{
  while (true) ;
  do
    found=$( ps -ef | grep -v grep | grep $VBOX_PID | grep -c $VM );
    if [ "$found" == '0' ]
    then
        break
    fi
    VBoxManage list runningvms
    VBoxManage controlvm my_vm savestate
    sleep 5
  done
}

The whole thing works fine when I try load/unload:

launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/home.vbox.plist
launchctl unload /Library/LaunchDaemons/home.vbox.plist

I can repeat the above and the VM will appear, then stop saving its state, then reappear where it left off and so on. However, when I actually shut down my computer, the VM is killed after the exit timeout and starts fresh on startup (no saved state). I used the StandardErrorPath/StandardOutPath to save the output to a file and discovered that the VBoxManage commands fail to run during system shutdown. Instead of running they repeatedly log:

Killed: 9

Adding some logging, I also noticed that it seems that other parts of the OS have already stopped (e.g. the whoami command returns the numeric UID instead of the user name. I suspect that the reason I cannot perform a clean shutdown is because VBoxManage requires some part of OS X that is already disabled at this stage (which explains why it works fine when I do load/unload without actually shutting down, but fails during an actual shutdown).

UPDATE: I've set up password-less login using a host-only network interface and tried to have my shutdown function run ssh root@10.5.5.1 shutdown -H -P now to initiate the shutdown from the guest side. I discovered however that you can't even launch the ssh client during shutdown! Instead I got the error No user exists for uid 502 which indicates that some directory service has shut down causing problems in creation of processes...


texts: What is a good service to back up my contacts on my iPhone?


texts: Failed to open/create the internal network 'HostInterfaceNetworking-en0' VirtualBox?

texts:
I download VirtualBox 5.2.10 r122088 (Qt5.6.3) On my macOS High Sierra. I set up my virtual machines but I cant have bridged adapter apparently. it was working in the last one but in this one, it just Gives me an error whenever I do AttachedTo: Bridged Adapter, Name: en0: WIFI(Air-Port) and in the advanced Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop (82540EM)

And when I start I get an error: Failed to open/create the internal network 'HostInterfaceNetworking-en0' (VERR_SUPDRV_COMPONENT_NOT_FOUND).
Failed to attach the network LUN (VERR_SUPDRV_COMPONENT_NOT_FOUND).


texts: I want to create a separate library for Christmas music that is not on my main iTunes library. The plan is to wipe my iPod of regular music and replace it with Christmas music just for the season, then wipe it again and return to normal music. Any ideas?


texts: Can Automator's 'find finder items' ignore subfolders when searching?

texts:
I am using the Apple Automator to build a simple program that opens all the documents that belong to a project. All files are in the same folder and can be identified by the first characters of the file name; I am using the 'Find finder items'-action to find all these files, and then open them. However, there also files with similar names in a subfolder, that I do not want to open.

I would like the action to search only in the main folder, and to disregard the content of any subfolders. Is there a way to do this in Automator?


texts:
My problem is that I can't enable Facetime on my iPhone 4. I've searched this problem on many forums and they all say Facetime needs to be turned on in the Phone app's settings, or enabled in some other settings. The problem I have is that I literally have 0 Facetime settings, anywhere on my phone. (please see screenshots).

I have an iPhone 4. It was bought second had and the previous owner said he bought it from the UK. It is on iOS 6.1.2. When I bought it, it was on iOS 5 which I upgraded to iOS 5.1 and I did not have Facetime at the time either. I jailbroke my phone and used this Cydia tweak to get Facetime. http://www.iphonehacks.com/2010/10/how-to-enable-facetime-on-iphone-4-in-unsupported-countries-using-facetime-hactivator-middlewhat.html

It worked. My problem now is that I don't want to jailbreak my phone. I am on iOS 6.1.2 and it is likely that iOS 6.1.3 will not be jailbreakable. I want to get used to the idea of not having a jailbroken phone and I need a solution to my Facetime problem. I can provide any other information required.

This is what my settings look like:

Would really appreciate a solution.


texts: Syncing messages between iPad and iPhone

texts: My messages on my iPad won’t sync to my phone. I have tried all of the suggestions. My messages are listed as top conversations in my iCloud storage on iPad. They will not sync. Is there a way to download these to my phone


texts: System Preferences search no longer highlights possible matches

texts:
Spotlight would mark matches when searching in system preferences are no longer appearing. I have "System Preferences" enabled in Spotlight prefs. I have searched for a solution to this, no luck. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

Screencapture showing the issue


texts: How can I run a 2010 iMac 21.5” without a graphics card?

texts:
My ATI Radeon graphics card has crashed, which stops my iMac 2010 from booting, except in safe mode. There is an excellent post elsewhere on the site by @historystamp, which gives instructions on how to disable the GRU so that all graphics are processed by the CPU, thereby solving the problem. How to determine if the graphics card is at fault on an iMac?.
I have got the Mac up and running again. But it’s pretty awful on the graphics front. Some apps don’t load and some websites are a mess, so it’s not really useable.
My question therefore is does anyone have experience of solving this problem? I am only running 4GB of ram - an upgrade is on the way. Will 8gb do it? Or should I go for 16gb? If that is not enough, how about an SSD? Or do I really have to strip the iMac down and replace the graphics card (or bake it in the oven, which apparently can bring it back to life)? I am running High Sierra, don’t play games and just need this mac for the kitchen to do emails, play the radio and surf the internet, plus a bit of MS office stuff - and zoom calls of course!


texts: How to figure out what's causing a jailbroken iPhone to crash?

texts:
My iPhone 4 runs iOS 5.0.1 and is jailbroken. It has recently become unstable: it often crashes and restarts in safe mode. Then, in safe mode, I can choose to restart and it will often go right back into safe mode again. Clearly, some little cog has come loose inside.

I haven't found a definitive action that always causes a crash. They occur sporadically, but they occur most often when I am trying to purchase or upgrade an item in the App Store.

How can I discover what causes the crashes?

Is there a more elegant way to determine it than going into Cydia's list of installed packages and uninstalling the topmost one; then wait and see if it's stable now; otherwise uninstall the now-topmost package? This would probably work out eventually but it's certainly neither fun nor efficient.

No, I don't keep a list of which package was installed at what date. That would make it easier to roll back a month at a time.

Permanently reverting to a non-jailbroken device is not an option for me. The Cydia tweaks are way too convenient.


texts:
Whenever I open up FaceTime/Photo Booth/Discord etc., they come up with an error that my (internal) webcam cannot detected. The way I fix this is to reset the SMC , which does work but only for a few minutes, and then we are back to square one.
I have tried sudo killall VDCAssistant and sudo killall VDCAssistant to no avail.
I am running macOS Mojave, 10.14.3 on a mid-2012 MacBook Air

Does anyone have any idea on how to fix this?


texts: My OS X Mac Mini server crashed - How can I restore it?

texts:
I have a 2011 Mac Mini Server. It is the unibody model that has two hard drives and no optical drive. I got this second hand so I don't have anything other than the machine itself.

The way I understand these things to be set up is that one drive is the primary drive and the second drive does time-machine backups.

The primary drive is starting to go bad, I connected it via USB to another Mac and ran Disk Utility which tells me:

  Verifying volume “Server HD”
  Checking file systemError: This disk needs to be repaired. Click Repair Disk.
  Verify and Repair volume “Server HD”
  Checking file systemVolume repair complete.Updating boot support partitions for the volume as required.
  Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.

It looks like the secondary drive (Time Machine backups) is fine.

I believe the operating system is OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server.

What do I do?

Replace the primary hard disk and try to boot it?
Connect the time machine volume and a new (blank) HDD drive to another mac and try and run Disk Utility / Time Machine?
Replace the primary hard disk in the Mac Mini Server and then Boot up an OS X install via a USB Drive?

If number 3, do I need to get a copy of OS X Snow Leopard Server server that I can boot from - or can I just use the Mountain Lion USB boot stick that I already have?


texts: Chax with Lion: downgrading iChat to 5.0.3?

texts:
I wonder if this could allow us to have Chax functionality on Lion.
I've got iChat 5.0.3 from a Snow Leopard install: the next step would be to install Chax over it.

The thing is that the Chax installer doesn't allow it (Snow Leopard only).
How can one modify the installer so that it runs on Lion?


texts: Hit a key to "move and resize active window"

texts:
I'd like to bind a key to an action that "takes the active windows and moves it to screen S, coordinates X,Y resizes it W,H". The S,X,Y,W,H variables can be hard-coded.

I don't know where to look for, is this doable? Do I need to mess with ActionScript or create an app or what?

(I'm a programmer but I don't know anything about programming/scripting for OS X)

Update:

I found out SizeUp which happily does exactly that:

a single keystroke, to resize the active window to a pixel specified layout

Now, while I'm happy about that, I'd like to know if there was a program which allowed more than one layout (SizeUp allows only one if I'm not mistaken). It would still have to be single-keystroke and possible to insert pixel precise values.


texts: Should I buy Ram memory DDR3 1066MHz for Mac mini (Mid 2011)?

texts:
I got a Mac mini last year and now I want to update the ram memory. I was looking for it and I just found this (spanish). The guy is selling  what you see on the picture and I'm worried if I get those memories my Mac won't run ok. The guy says it works without problem on Mac Mini (Mid 2011) but I'm not sure because the image says "Laptop memory".

This info is about my mac:

2.3 GHz Intel Core i5
2 GB 1333 MHz DDR3
And running OS X Lion.

Would you suggest to buy that memory? Or the should be X GB 1333 MHz DDR3?

Thanks in advance!


texts: Access application submenus with AppleScript

texts:
I am trying to learn to access any menu item within an application with AppleScript. I can orient to the actual menu tab, and then access clickable menu items, but I can't access menu items within submenues that appear if they are hoovered over or RightArrow is pressed.

In the code below, "Zoom" is this type of menu item, and can't be found using the term 'menu item'. What term should I use instead so I can access "Zoom in"?

1 tell application "Firefox"
2   activate
3   tell application "System Events"
4       tell process "Firefox"
5           click menu item "Zoom in" of menu item "Zoom" of menu "Tools" of menu bar 1
6       end tell
7   end tell
8 end tell

Note: "Zoom in" has, by chance, a shortcut "CMD" and "+", but this is not a solution.

Additional question: How do I pick "the first", "the last" or the "n:th" menu item?


texts: WeChat: "Voice call may be compromised and incur charges on current network"

texts: In a WeChat video call, I periodically see the following message: "Voice call may be compromised and incur charges on current network.", even after I press OK. What does this mean? How can I stop this message from re-appearing?


texts: How can I turn off "Swipe between pages"?

texts: I went into system preferences and completely unchecked the swipe between pages button for my magic mouse, but it still does it.  Why won't this feature turn off?  If you're going to tell me my question is a duplicate, please tell me where I can find the answer to this duplicated question because I still have no answer!!!  thank you


texts: Official Unlock after Jailbroken Unlock?

texts: I jailbroke and unlocked my 3GS (4.1, baseband 06.15.00) a few months ago to use it in another country. However, my 2-year German contract is up and I could ask my former carrier to ask Apple for the official unlock. Would this work on a jailbroken/unlocked phone? I want to upgrade to IOS 5 without needed to jailbreak to unlock the phone again (I don't use jailbroken apps, really, just used it for the unlock).


texts: What are the advantages and or disadvantages of calling Handlers from a Library Script with “use Statements“ vs. the “Load Script” command?

texts:
In the first scenario, I have a script containing all of my handlers and snippets.  The filename for this script is “Jimz_Handlerz.scpt” and it is located here… /Users/Smokestack/Library/Script Libraries

Calling the handler from a new AppleScript file requires me to declare my script library (line 1) and then I can call the handler at anytime I want with the second line.  Like this:

use myHandlerz : script "Jimz_Handlerz.scpt"

myHandlerz's get_fileExtensions()

In this next scenario, I am using the “load script” command to load the exact same file as the first example but this file is located on the desktop

property jimzHandlerz : load script ¬
    (alias "Macintosh HD:Users:Smokestack:Desktop:Jimz_Handlerz.scpt")

jimzHandlerz's get_fileExtensions()

This is the actual handler containing the command I am calling from both different scenarios..

on get_fileExtensions()
    tell application "Finder"
        set theDownloadsfolder to (path to downloads folder)
        set theFiles to the name extension of every file of theDownloadsfolder
    end tell
    AST copy list theFiles without keeping duplicates -- Needs AppleScript Toolbox 2_0_8.osax Scripting Addition in /Users/"Name"/Library/ScriptingAdditions
end get_fileExtensions

So I guess my question is,  are there situations I would rather use scenario one and other situations where scenario two would be better?

Update:

Here is a cool little tidbit of information: Using the scenario of calling handlers from a script library script or script bundle file as in the first example of my original question.. If the current script, that we are calling on an external script from a library, is a script bundle and we include a folder inside the “Resources” folder called “Script Libraries” containing the script or script bundle we are calling our external handlers from, if the file in the system “Script Libraries” folder cannot be found, then this script will not throw an error because it searches the resources folder also for script libraries.


texts: Sleep button broken. How do I find out which part is affected?

texts:
The sleep/power button of my iPhone 4 is broken; it suddently didn't really "click" anymore and just hardly reacted on my actions. For some hours by clicking really firm it still worked, but then the button refused to do any job.

I found out about a way to lock the phone via the touchpad, but when my battery is empty or the device switches off by any other reasons, I will not be able to switch it on anymore. So I did some research as I want to repair it on my own. I found out that the button itself can be affected (and replaced), and there is the holder for this button, which can also be affected.

How can I find out, which one of the two are broken - ideally without opening the device?


texts: How to access photos on disk image from "Photos"

texts:
With the iPhotos app on my Mac Mini I was able to access a specially created disk image for all my photos.  I have upgraded to Yosemite and now iPhotos reports it is no longer valid and I must use Photos.  The issue is that Photos refuses to import.  How can I access the content of my disk image from Photos?
If I choose to "Show Package Contents" on the image I can browse through the "Masters" folder so I see everything is fine.  As well, "Verify Disk" reports everything is fine.

I did try to follow the instructions here How to migrate from iPhoto to Photos but it just reports that the library could not be opened.

Mac newbie here so any directions are helpful.


texts: iPhone 6 storage, iCloud usage in general lists 2 phones

texts: I need to know why there are two phones showing up on my iPhone  If you go to General , storage & iCloud it lists two phones, mine and another below ? I have only one and to my knowledge I'm not linked to anyone else's. thank you


texts: If I change my Apple ID's country, would I need to re-download everything in order for all my apps to update naturally?

texts:
Let's say I decide to change the country in my Apple ID, and I only have free apps that are available in both my previous and target country. Would I need to re-download everything in order for all my apps to update automatically?
Would all my previous apps be considered to be from the previous country?


texts: macOS Sierra, kernel_task running taking more than 400% of CPU

texts:
After upgrading my MacBookPro to macOS Sierra, CPU is running very fast. When I tried to debug the issue, here is what I have found.

Solutions that I have already tried.

Reset SMC
Reset PRAM
Tried to delete model identifier files (OS is not allowing).
Removed all login items, and all automatically starting apps
Removed all items in /Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchDaemons, /Library/StartupItems.
Removed all installed software

But still no luck, any leads will be highly appreciated.

Thanks


texts: How to get rid of iOS 7.x (downloaded but not installed) from 6.x

texts:
As I've pointed it out in the question title, my 16 GiB iPhone 4s is getting out of memory due to the fact that it has self-downloaded iOS 7(.1.2) without I'd never asked for.

As long as it weights several GiB, there's any way to get rid of it ?
I've tried to navigate the file system through an app (for OS X) called "iFunBox", but there's no way to locate it.

Thanks in advice!


texts: Files synced by Synk Pro have wrong owner on both synchronized Macs – how can I fix it?

texts:
I sync some folders within my Home folder between two Macs (running Lion and Mountain Lion) using Synk Pro, a commercial live file sync application. I have the same account name on both computers.

After syncing, some of my files on both computers are read-only, and they also aren't owned by me, but by the macports account – why?

To be able to modify files, I've used Get Info to change permissions of some files to read/write for 'everyone', and I used the app Permissions Reset to reset permissions back to original, but it doesn't change the permissions of sub-folders/files, and I have a huge file tree, so doing this manually is practically impossible. And Disk Utility does nothing to user data.

How can I fix this?

--
Added info:

As suggested, I ran the commands id -u and id -u macports on both computers. The result is that on the MacBook Pro, my account has uid 501 and macports has uid 502, and on the iMac it's the other way around.


texts: Play Youtube HDR videos without any issue

texts:
While playing Youtube HDR videos on Chrome, bright colors are abnormally too bright and causes a loss of details in bright areas. For more information about this issue you can see the posts below:

https://www.reddit.com/r/applehelp/comments/mcselq/color_problem_on_macbook_pro_16_2019/

https://www.reddit.com/r/chrome/comments/jk7g8u/chrome_macos_not_displaying_youtube_hdr_content/

Is it normal for everybody? I there any way to overcome this problem? As of now I can't see any other way to play Youtube HDR content on Mac. There's no Youtube app on Mac, and Safari does not support HDR.


texts: Will the 4G LTE used in an iPad bought in England also work in Sweden?

texts:
If I buy a new iPad with 4G LTE in the United Kingdom, will the 4G LTE work in Sweden (with a SIM from a carrier offering 4G LTE obviously)?

I am asking not least because of statements in this article that 4G LTE uses different bands in different countries.


texts: I have a 2010 Macbook Pro with Intel Core 2 Duo and I usually use it for gaming. I wanted to Turbo Boost it but how do I do that?


texts: recentsd process has very high memory usage (almost 2GB) - how to fix?

texts:
Right now, activity monitor shows that a process called "recentsd" is using 1.82GB of memory (1.08GB compressed, 752MB private) on my MacBook Pro running macOS 10.13.1.

Some googling has lead to the conclusion that the process is somewhat related to the Mail.app and GMail (which I am also using):

Memory leak in recentsd and Mail eating up all my RAM (from 2014)
Issues with 'recentsd' using all of my RAM (11 months ago)
macOS runaway process "recentsd" (also mentions 100% CPU load which I don't experience)

The links also give some ideas for a solution (deleting the "com.apple.corerecents.recentsd" folder and reconnecting the gmail account).

However, despite doing that, memory usage of recentsd is still very high (after some time - so it seems to be a continuous growth).

Any idea what else I could try?


texts: How do I know when my HD is under maintenance?

texts:
I work with several large movie files, almost all with 150+ GB. And sometimes I experience a harsh slow down on my iMac's speed which is accompanied by a writing/reading HD noise. So I'm pretty sure the disc is defragging or doing some kind of maintenance. According to this article:

https://www.macworld.co.uk/how-to/mac/how-defrag-mac-why-you-dont-need-3600241/

"That's not to say that a manual defrag is never needed; it's just rare. People (usually creatives) that have hundreds of films/audio/multimedia files larger than 1GB may need to defrag a Mac."

So I wonder if:

is there a method to find out if my HD is under maintenance?

Can I took control over this process? Like changing the schedule of the task, maybe using one of the listed tps of the article?

Further info


texts: Macbook Pro 2015 Crashes when plugging and/or unplugging HDMI

texts:
It's a brand new 2015 and I move from office to classroom all the time, plugging and unplugging HDMI. Fairly often the machine either goes black or literally hard crashes with the multi-lingual crash message.

Is this a known issue? Is there a different/better way to deal with changing from one HDMI to another one?


texts: Is FileVault distinct from Finder's "Encrypt ..." command?

texts:
I'm confused by the variety of methods for encrypting drives in Mountain Lion. There are at least four methods,

FileVault in System Preferences;
Finder's "Encrypt..." command;
Disk Utility's "Erase" command, specifying an "Encrypted" format; and
Disk Utility's "New Image" command, specifying an "Encrypted" format;

but it's not clear to me what the differences among them are.

I understand that the first two allow for in-place encryption, but I'm not clear on the differences among products of these different methods. Specifically,

Is the encryption the same for each?
Is (1) just a version of (2), applied to the boot volume?
Why does the password entry dialog for a volume created with (4) differ from the dialog for the others?
Why is the format for disk images created using (4) not "encrypted" (though it is at least a familiar Mac OS format), while mounted encrypted drives created with (3) are (though the format is an unfamiliar "Logical Partition")?


texts: apple software is not working in the app store

texts:
I cannot update my updates in the apps store for apple
the user id is locked (untitled projects@gmail.com)

I understand why the id field is locked under this user id

How can I resolve this issue I have a 15 in Mac Book Pro using OS X 10.10.5

thank you,
Jonathan


texts: Help Me Remember: A Developer Reference App

texts: everyone. I'm trying to remember a macOS application that I used to use. It could be opened with a keyboard command within almost any application or the Finder, and it would pop up a dialog to search reference material for different developer languages, frameworks, tools, etc. I thought it was Alfred, but looking over the website, that doesn't look familiar. Any ideas? Thanks!


texts: socketfilterfw and repeating error messages

texts:
Every two seconds I get the following messages via Console:

Standard    13:47:41.404793 +0100   socketfilterfw  MacOS error: -67065
Standard    13:47:41.405321 +0100   socketfilterfw  UNIX error exception: 3
Standard    13:47:43.393518 +0100   socketfilterfw  MacOS error: -67065
Standard    13:47:43.393927 +0100   socketfilterfw  UNIX error exception: 3

And they keep on and on.  Turning off the firewall, they disappear, of course.  Now I wasn't able to find the meaning of the mentioned error codes.  Does anybody know what goes wrong here?


texts: Why does Fluid open Google links instead of sending them to my default browser?

texts:
I have Fluid apps for Trello and for MSO chat. Trello's URL whitelist consists only of *trello.com* and Chat's is similarly limited:

Clicking links to any other URL opens the page in Chrome, my default browser. This works perfectly in all cases except with Google documents. Fluid always tries to open Google docs in another tab in its own window, instead of sending it out to my default browser.

I can't figure out where this behavior is coming from. Has anyone else ever experienced it? What's the fix?


texts: Safari: Picture in Picture stopped working with no reason

texts:
I've got used iPad mini 2 in good condition, fully erased.

After setting up the device, youtube had minimized into small window on clicking home button, which I could move.

It worked for me for 2-3 hours, now it does not. iOS is 12.1.1 and I did not updated it, I hadn't changed any settings which could potentially affect that feature, also I hadn't done any mindless clicking.

What could I do to solve this problem? I am considering returning this iPad now


texts: How do I change the iCloud Photo location in Win10

texts: The iCloud settings allow me to change the location of my Shared Albums, but not the location of my iCloud Photos.  How do I change it?


texts: Macbook pro boots to a black screen after a few seconds of use

texts:
A clip of what exactly is happening: https://drive.google.com/open?id=19FSU3wFnCi9QjXQRO4UrTT-KxuooOYLu

I've tried all the tips here: https://ugetfix.com/ask/how-to-fix-mac-booting-to-black-screen-error/
including SMC reset, PRAM reset, etc.

An important note is that the computer itself is on - i.e. I can type the password and go on terminal, play music successfully, etc. but the display stays off (not completely off, it's slightly lighter than when the computer is completely off).

Edit:
Huh. After a few days, the problem completely disappeared randomly. I ran the Apple Hardware Test and no problems showed now. Very weird, but at least I'm glad the problem is resolved. Thank you for your help.


texts: How do I record a GPS track (including height) and audio simultaneously on an iPhone (iPhone 8 / iOS 11) in a way that I can later see which time of the audio relates to which GPS position?


texts: Connecting FAT32 USB Flash Drive on Sierra

texts:
I currently own a 32 GB SanDisk flash drive with a FAT32 file system. It's been reliable for years, and on my MacBook Air 2013, I've never had any issues with it. However, I am unable to connect it to my MacBook Pro 2016 with Touch Bar running macOS 10.12.6. After some further investigation, I found that the FAT32 file system seems to be causing the issue, considering that ExFat-formatted flash drives successfully appear in Finder while my own FAT32 drive does not.

I could reformat my flash drive to an ExFat file system, but before I do so, I'd like to know if it's possible to mount FAT32 drives on my MacBook Pro, since I cannot realistically reformat every flash drive that I'd ever like to plug in in the future (whether it be someone else's drive that I'm using to exchange files with them, or their Samsung phone, whose file system seems to be incompatible with Apple's new APFS). I've tried installing Fuse, but have not yet had any luck with it. I've also found a Fuse FAT32 file system extension, but am unsure of how to install it.

With all of this in mind, how would I connect my FAT32-based flash drive to my MacBook Pro without reformatting the drive?


texts: why is my Macbook pro(2015) stuck on loading screen after Disabling SIP?

texts:
I was trying to change some system files in my macbook pro and tried to make the system folders writable, first I disabled my SIP in recovery mode by
csrutil disable

and then I booted and ran these in the terminal
sudo mount -uw /

sudo chmod 777 *

on the target folder to make the directory writeable but it didn’t work, though I checked the permissions of the folder and they changed to Read/Write for all groups but, I wasn’t able to make the changes in the folder.
After that when I gave up and re-started the mac, its stuck on the apple logo loading bar.
I was able to go into recovery mode and enabled SIP and repaired the volumes and the container but I still can’t boot, its stuck on the loading screen.
Is there any way to solve this without reinstalling a fresh copy of catalina on my mac?


texts: How do I turn off "shuffle" on my iPod Nano 7th Generation?

texts: I'd greatly appreciate help with learning how to shut off "shuffle" on my iPod Nano 7th Generation?


texts:
I'm trying to clear the history of commands that have been run on Terminal, I found an article which said I can do it with rm ~/.bash_history

However, I am still able to see the previous commands that I've ran by pressing the up arrow


texts: I know how to move YouTube and other material from my iPhone into the Apple TV. But, as I've just purchased a Mac Mini, I'm wondering, how can I move material from the Mac Mini into the Apple TV?


texts: Update OS X recovery USB stick with Mavericks

texts:
I've got a Snow Leopard 8GB USB stick that I got from my MacBook Air. Now that Mavericks is available, I'd like to update that USB stick with Mavericks.

I can't seem to be able to format that disk:

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *8.1 GB     disk1
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         30.7 KB    disk1s1
   2:         Apple_Driver_ATAPI                         2.0 KB     disk1s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS Mac OS X Install        7.7 GB     disk1s3

I've tried the Disk Utility, it recognises the USB stick as an optical disk, and it refuses to erase it (I guess because my MacBook Air doesn't have an optical drive).

I've tried the following:

$ sudo fdisk -i /dev/disk1
fdisk: could not open MBR file /usr/standalone/i386/boot0: No such file or directory

    -----------------------------------------------------
    ------ ATTENTION - UPDATING MASTER BOOT RECORD ------
    -----------------------------------------------------

Do you wish to write new MBR and partition table? [n] y
fdisk: /dev/disk1: Permission denied
$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk1
dd: /dev/disk1: Permission denied
$ sudo diskutil eraseDisk jhfs+ newdisk /dev/disk1
Started erase on disk1
Unmounting disk
Error: -69877: Couldn't open device

What else can I do? I'd like to erase it and format it as HFS+ (journaled).


texts:
I have problem when I used brew to install aircrack-ng. I found out that it cover path

/usr/local/Cellar/aircrack-ng/1.1/bin

but it couldn't find commands after I tried tab-completion in path

/usr/local/Cellar/aircrack-ng/1.1/sbin

What should I do? Do I need to add another path?


texts: What is the default partition type (case sensitive or insensitive) in Macbook pro 2020 (BigSur)?

texts:
I have two questions which I can not find an answer by googling:

What is the default or recommended partition type for the latest MacOS (Big Sur)? APFS case sensitive or case insensitive?

What is the partition type if I buy a latest Macbook Pro (2020)? APFS case sensitive or case insensitive?

The question focus is whether the recommended and default partition type on the latest MacOS is case sensitive or not.
Some background: I am a Linux user so I use case sensitive partition everyday. But for MacOS, I am kinda confused what the current standard is. In the past, I knew MacOS recommended to use case insensitive parition. But does it change in the latest OS Big Sur? I heard some apps may not work well in case sensitive environment in the old days.
Thanks a lot.


texts: How to drag window from anywhere on the window without using the title bar?

texts:
I have made iTerm borderless, like this:

So, how can I move the window from anywhere inside the window and not just the title bar?


texts: Stop accountsd + Mail.app from completely obliterating my CPU when the internet drops

texts:
When I have Mail.app open, and I leave Wi-Fi range or my internet connectivity drops, the fans whirr up and CPU usage completely spikes (accountsd is using all the CPU, not Mail.app itself) and my laptop becomes too hot to touch.
How do I prevent this from happening?


texts: Can I use my Time Capsule with other OSes?

texts: I have two Macs at home which use Time Machine to back up to a shared Time Capsule.  Does anybody know of any tools or methods for other operating systems to perhaps make use of that back-up facility?  That is, does anybody know of a Windows or Linux client for a Time Capsule?  (Even if it's a very limited one.)


texts: How to prove this is a 42mm or 38mm Apple Watch?

texts:
I want to convince someone that this image belongs to the 42mm Apple Watch.

However I couldn't distinguish between them yet.


texts: What kind of performance can I expect from Mid 2015 Macbook pro connected to two external 4k displays -- I mostly do development?

texts:
I have a Mid 2015 Macbook pro.
It is currently connected to two 1080p external monitors (I don't use the built in display).
I am thinking of upgrading to two 4k external monitors - I use my macbook pro as a big Terminal server for development - all the processing is done externally on the cloud or on a virtualization box I have sitting next to my macbook pro.
Question:
Can my macbook pro handle the 4k displays
I have noted a significant degradation in performance of late with all the Zoom and similar apps I have to use in this new world of virtual teams.
Detailes Specs

MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2015)
2.8GHz quad-core Intel Core i7 (Turbo Boost up to 4.0GHz) with 6MB shared L3 cache.
2.5GHz - 512GB Intel Iris Pro Graphics
AMD Radeon R9 M370X with 2GB of GDDR5 memory and automatic graphics switching


texts: Acmen5030 appearing in shared computer tab on mac

texts: I have this mystery Acmen5030 (PC) appearing on the shared computers section on my mac's side bar. I am just worried that someone might have access to my files. I have checked the sharing options but everything is unchecked, how do I remove this mystery computer from my shared computer section?


texts: how to prepare two SSDs after upgrade (merge to fusion drive or not, terminal commands)

texts:
I just upgraded the CPU of my 2015 27" Retina iMac and while I was in there I took out the 1TB HDD and replaced it with a 512GB Samsung 850 Pro SSD. Now I'm ready to set it all up, but I'm not sure how to best proceed.

I know the SSD will be on a relatively slow SATA III bus
I know the blade SSD is 24GB and on a faster bus
I know I could use external Thunderbolt for a faster experience (should have considered this but too late)
I've read mixed opinion on merging the two SSDs into a fusion drive, but most people suggest against it, since:

the speed of both drives will be reduced to the slower of the two
if one drive fails I will lose everything

I currently think I should keep them separate and use the 24GB SSD for the OS and use the other SSD for the home folder. Does this seem like a good way to proceed?

I am not sure which file system to use (APFS?)

I am not sure if I should be doing something with TRIM to extend the lifespan of the drives

If anyone can help guide me I would appreciate it. Thanks.


texts: Refurbished Macbook pro's localhostname set to "Toms-AppleWatch" on fresh OS reinstall / Harddrive wipe

texts:
I bought a refurbished 2013 Macbookpro off of ebay and made sure to CMD+R, reset the OS and unmount/recreate the main 512 SSD harddrive.

On setting up my computer again, when opening 'terminal', the prompt displays

Toms-AppleWatch, when the user I put in for the mac was "Darren".

Why would it show this name?  I've tried

scutil --get ComputerName
scutil --get HostName
scutil --get LocalHostName

and none of them show Toms-Applewatch.

I think someone named Tom was in my house a couple months back and DID probably have an applewatch (he is very Techie).... is this a weird coincidence or did his watch somehow set some placeholder on our local wireless network that my macbook picked up on? Or is it something with the previous owners data somehow still uploading to this mac?  I signed in on my own ICloud account so it cant be that (and i reinstalled the OS!)

edit:

In
System Preferences --> Network --> Wifi --> Advanced Settings --> WINS

It shows a "NetBIOS Name" equal to TOMS-APPLEWATCH.... not sure how that got there or what set it to that.


texts: Apple News+ channel not findable in the App

texts:
I'm in Canada.

My Apple News channel (KNITmuch) is not findable in the App. I've already tried to change my Apple ID region from Canada to USA, nothing happened.

If I go to my channel's Analytics in the iCloud dashboard, I'm getting some traffic from Canada, Australia, and UK but it's VERY VERY low compared with USA.

How is this possible?

Is Apple News and Apple News+ the same thing? I was able to find my channel a few months ago, now I noted the App name, icon and everything is different.

Could it be "available" in Apple News, but not in Apple News+?


texts: Command and Option keys not working on one keyboard (not hardware)

texts:
I am using a PC keyboard on my Mac. Today, it stopped recognizing the Command and Option keys.

This likely happened because I experimented with Karabiner and Yosemite Modifier Keys yesterday.

I have tried:

Resetting modifier keys to defaults.
Checking private.xml through Karabiner (blank).
Undoing my settings on Karabiner.
Uninstalling Karabiner entirely.
Restarting OS X.

None of these things have worked. Keyboard Viewer is not registering key presses on Cmd (Windows key) or Option (Alt). Any ideas?


texts: In Safari if I open a misoriented PDF is there a way to rotate it so that I can read it without having to rotate my head and end up dizzy?


texts: How do I delete music thats not downloaded?

texts: How come when I deleted all my music off of my phone, there is still music on it that just isn't downloaded? And how can I delete that music?


texts: How do I manually uninstall the Developer Tools?

texts: I installed the Developer Tools way back in Tiger or Leopard and I'd like to uninstall them now. I have Xcode 4.0.2. How do I uninstall them manually?


texts: What setup allows a Windows 7 client to use OS X 10.6.7 server VPN with L2TP?

texts: I'm trying to get my Windows 7 laptop to connect to my OSX server VPN via L2TP. I understand that Windows 7 has some issues with NAT-T and I was wondering if anyone has a fix for this. Or has gotten this combo to work.


texts: MacBook Pro 13-in/2018 Clicking Sounds w/ audio

texts:
Often when I listen to music/audio from places like YouTube I get a very repetitive clicking sound which overlaps the audio/music. It seems to follow closely the volume of the audio itself, as when the music ends, the clicking stops. It sounds like it comes from BOTH left and right speakers.

It's when I'm using Safari- and when I notice it the most is when I'm listening to the audio WHILE in a separate tab  on a different webpage. I've noticed Some webpages trigger the sounds more than others.

I want to know if there is a way to fix this. Any help is much appreciated- Thank you

Edit: Oh and one more thing- the "antidote" I've been using that's been working for me is going to System Prefs>Sound>Sound Effects> And changing Alert sound (while the clicking is happening)... that seems to stop it, but only temporarily


texts: Bless EFI/GPT Windows installation on separate HDD to boot on startup

texts:
There is a Windows 10 EFI/GPT installation on a separate drive in my MacPro next to my disk with the OSX installation.

The Apple Startup Manager shows the Win10 disk labeled as "EFI Boot". I can boot to Win10 there.

I cannot set the default startup disk in system preferences.
If I choose the Win10 HDD I will get "No Bootable Device -- Insert boot disk and press any key" error upon next boot.

As soon as I bless the OSX disk again through system preferences OSX will boot again as standard.

How can I "bless" the Win10 disk as the standard disk to boot upon startup?

There is no EFI partition present on the Win10 disk.

Thanks.

diskutil list output:

/dev/disk6 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *250.0 GB   disk6
   1:         Microsoft Reserved                         16.8 MB    disk6s1
   2:       Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP                249.5 GB   disk6s2
   3:           Windows Recovery                         471.9 MB   disk6s3

/dev/disk7 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *256.0 GB   disk7
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk7s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            255.1 GB   disk7s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk7s3

UPDATE:
Windows installer seems to have used the EFI partition on disk7 to copy the boot files to. I managed to "repair" the startmanager with this guide here. Windows now boots on every startup of the MacPro. I can also access the Apple Startup Manager and choose my Macintosh HD or the Recovery Partition. As soon as I mess around with choosing the startup disk in osx system preferences it will break again with the "no bootable device error". OSX or the Startup Manager does not seem to be able to find the Windows OS on the other disk6 without EFI Partition.
Interesting also is that even when I disconnect the windows disk7 I will still see EFI Boot in Apple Startup Manager. Choosing it will get a Windows Error screen not being able to boot of course.

As soon as I have more time I will continue to experiment further...
Maybe somebody with a better understanding of the Apple EFI Startup Manager can give a hint in advance how to make it possible to switch startup disk from OS side in a "normal" way.

Next step to try: Add EFI partition to Windows disk6 put the Win startup files there and link to the installation on the same disk.


texts: I cannot find the public urls: not in iCloud.com, not in my iPhone and not in my Aperture (OS X). So where are the public urls for the shared photo-streams?


texts: Is there a Mac text editor that has live display of unique word count?

texts:
That is, it shows, while you type, the count of unique words. Not a count of all words.

If the document had the words:

  The cat is in the hat which is in Toledo.

It would show a count of 7.

I know I could write a short shell script to do this but I'm looking for real-time display. If you know of an editor that allows writing such a real-time plugin that would be helpful as well.


texts: is it possible to use a USB hard drive with the iPad 3? Do I need to download an app to use it (assuming I have the camera connection kit)?


texts:
So, my MacBook Pro froze three times today, two of which about two minutes after startup. I could hear fans making noise. When I say 'freeze' I mean that both input an UI don't work.

I tried Apple Hardware Test (not the extended test, the quick one). The first time it reported an error, then I detached all the peripherals (that is, an iPhone), retried it and it said "no trouble found". Tried it a few times again and it reported nothing, even with the iPhone attached.
The error code was 0xae81a618, but apparently it doesn't show up on Google, so I can't do much with it.

A while ago I had to use iDefrag because the computer was slow as hell. Apparently the hard disk was very fragmented; after using iDefrag it got fast again.

And by the way it just froze again, I'm now using an iPhone to write this. This time there was no fan noise, and I only had Chrome running. What do you suggest? Do you suspect it is an hard drive problem? Or a RAM problem?

Meanwhile I'm doing the extended hardware test, I'll post the result here as soon as it's done.

Update The extended hardware test 'froze' (input still working though) at about 25% so I just shut down the computer. Then turned it on after a while and it still hasn't frozen since then.

Update 2 Here's a copy and paste of the latest lines (which I think may be relevant) in system.log after a freeze (and subsequent hard-reboot). This time I had just put it to sleep.

 Jun 11 16:56:02 pt2ph8 SubmitDiagInfo[963]: Cleaning up expired diagnostic messages database at path: /var/log/DiagnosticMessages/2011.05.12.asl
Jun 11 16:56:02 pt2ph8 SubmitDiagInfo[963]: Cleaning up expired diagnostic messages database at path: /var/log/DiagnosticMessages/2011.05.11.asl
Jun 11 16:56:04 pt2ph8 system_profiler[964]: could not convert interface name
Jun 11 16:56:05 pt2ph8 SubmitDiagInfo[963]: CFReadStreamCopyError() returned: The operation couldn’t be completed. (kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork error 2.)
Jun 11 16:56:05 pt2ph8 SubmitDiagInfo[963]: Failed to submit crash report: /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/HWNetCfg_2011-06-09-234746_localhost.crash
Jun 11 16:56:05 pt2ph8 SubmitDiagInfo[963]: CFReadStreamCopyError() returned: The operation couldn’t be completed. (kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork error 2.)
Jun 11 16:56:05 pt2ph8 SubmitDiagInfo[963]: Failed to submit crash report: /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/HWNetCfg_2011-06-11-140841_localhost.crash
Jun 11 16:56:07 pt2ph8 SubmitDiagInfo[963]: CFReadStreamCopyError() returned: The operation couldn’t be completed. (kCFErrorDomainCFNetwork error 2.)
Jun 11 16:56:07 pt2ph8 SubmitDiagInfo[963]: SubmitProblemReport() failed with error (2)
Jun 11 16:56:07 pt2ph8 SubmitDiagInfo[963]: SubmitDiagInfo failed to submit diagnostic messages!
Jun 11 17:01:57 pt2ph8 loginwindow[46]: loginwindow SleepWakeCallback WILL sleep
Jun 11 17:04:43 localhost com.apple.launchd[1]: *** launchd[1] has started up. ***
Jun 11 17:04:51 localhost DirectoryService[11]: Improper shutdown detected

Update 3 Yesterday I was running Windows (installed through BootCamp) and it froze again. Then I rebooted with Mac OSX and watched a movie for about two hours, then after about half an hour it froze again. So I guess it must be an hardware problem, right?

Update 4 it has been working without freezes for about three days now. Played games, watched movies from both Mac OSX and Windows. Should I still send it to Apple? And if so, now that I'm unable to reproduce the problem, what should I tell them?


texts: Do iCloud email addresses ignore periods like Gmail?

texts:
In a Gmail email, you can put periods in your email, but in the end, the address is seen without them.
So dave.tess@gmail.com is also seen as davetess@gmail.com or even d.a.v.e.tess@gmail.com.

My question is, does iCloud handle emails this way too? If I have an address with periods in it, could I send an email to the same address without periods and receive it?


texts: I want to upgrade to 4.3.1 but wonder whether Locktopus 1.1 still works ... thx.


texts:
I'm trying to create commands for a specific website context (Gmail). However, the commands aren't being recognized. I have tried the following URLs for the website context:

 https://mail.google.com/
 https://mail.google.com/*
 *mail.google.com*

I watched this video for instruction, and I don't see where I'm going wrong.

I'm testing it with just a simple command: saying "New tab" should issue the key-combo Command ⌘+T. However, with the cursor in a text box in Gmail, the words "New tab" simply get written out like standard Dictation mode; they aren't recognized as a command.


texts:
My podcasts played fine two days ago, and sound works on other apps.

My podcast episodes are fully downloaded. One I listened to two days ago and was halfway through when I paused it, but now it suddenly won't play sound anymore. It is actually playing as the seconds tick down

There are no updates for the podcast app.

Is this a virus?

Update:
Weirdly, someone else came in and edited the wording of this post after I published it. I find it strange that this website doesn't allow people to speak in their own voice. All the information is the same but there was re-phrasing. Why? What are you guys trying to control here?  Very odd.