texts:
Wifi is terribly slow (between 1Mbps and 15Mbps) on my 2011 Macbook Pro running High Sierra. On all other devices, iPad, iPhone, iMac, PC it is above 80Mbps. Ethernet is slow as well. Sometimes I hit spikes of around 50Mbps for a couple of minutes, but I don't know what triggers it.

It doesn't seem to happen if I connect to my phone's personal hotspot. Both phone and Macbook come in around 30-35Mbps, although I didn't test it for long enough to see if it's just a spike as well.

I tried everything in the last couple of days:

removing wifi network from preferred networks
renewed DHCP lease
fiddling with router settings and channels
connecting to 5Ghz and 2Ghz networks
resetting network settings by deleting network files from Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration
SMC reset
NVRAM reset
scanning for malware
reinstalling OSX
installing El Capitan from the Time Machine backup of my iMac
turning off Bluetooth

Any other ideas that might help? Or is it faulty hardware?


texts: crackling and popping sounds in almost-new MacBook Pro

texts:
I have a Macbook Pro that I just bought a couple of months or so ago,
MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2020, Four Thunderbolt 3 ports)
OS Catalina 10.16.6
Anyhow recently I noticed that playing Youtube videos and listening to the speakers -- and playing a game -- there's a popping and crackling. I hooked up the headphones and it seems to calm down. Tried playing Apple Music and I don't seem to hear it much there, or at least it's nowhere near as obvious.
I am not sure if this is a software or hardware problem. I saw some stuff on a developer's site that discussed this but I wasn't in a position to understand if they were talking about the same problem and the fixes they proposed made little sense to this relatively non-tech savvy user.
Other people who noted a "popping" seem to associate it with the trackpad, but this isn't what I mean at all -- this is something that happens at a minimum on videos -- though I just switched to ABC News and I see that the sound seems ok...
One fix I read about was to turn the mic volume to zero. I just tried that. Fired up a Youtube video, volume not too high, and I hear random crackles. When this problem appeared before I tried restarting.
Is this something I should just exchange the computer for? Is it a hardware issue with the speakers? I note that Apple seems to have altered the way speakers are set up, they seem to be in the back, though I have no idea if that means anything to the hardware.


texts: Is it possible to list running processes that are not signed or notarized?

texts:
This would be interesting in general but also helpful in diagnosing the frequent appearance of MacOS error: -67062 in the Console.
Edit: in response to comments, the question is more specifically about trying to find out which processes are running that are NOT signed (or notarized).
Finding all running processes is trivial, but finding out whether their signed status seems to be tricky.


texts: macOS Sierra and (wired) keyboard broken

texts:
I've updated my macbook pro to macOS Sierra and now my (apple) wired keyboard is completely broken.

I'm using a AZERTY wired keyboard (like the one on my macbook) but even if on my macbook every keys seems correct, on the wired keyboard two keys are reversed : @ and <

Also on both keyboards when I shift + click it doesn't select anymore on anything (text, file, spreadsheet, etc.)
Same for Ctrl + click

It was working before the update.

Also some really weird behaviour, for example on Steam. When I chat with someone from my desktop, there is no problem. But when I chat with him in-game I got these japanese or chinese characters whatever key I press :

Also Shift+tab don't work to access at Steam while in-game.

And here are just a few.... I keep discovering new ones every day.

Everything was working perfectly before the update.


texts: Archived Messages Reappear in the Mail App Inbox

texts:
I'm using Gmail on my iPhone 6 (IOS 9.1). When I archive some messages (by swiping left on the message in the Mail.app), they disappear from my Inbox, then get added right back a second or two later. This has been going on since IOS 8.1 and still isn't working right since upgrading to IOS 9.1 I figured it would have been fixed, but it's not.

I tried archiving to different folder than All Mail but that didn't solve the problem. Also, there is no pattern to the messages. This is happening regardless of who the message is from or its content.

I gave up after a year of dealing with this annoyance and using Outlook for now, but I'd really like to use the Mail App on my iPhone again.

Does anyone know how to fix this?

One other possibly related and interesting note, the mail app in OS X also does the same thing (click the archive button, message disappears for a few moments then pops back in the inbox, then disappears again). Perhaps IMAP commands are being queued up, then mail refreshes and notices the message hasn't been actually moved yet, and adds it back to inbox... just my theory.


texts:
I can construct a file with variables:
set filePath to "Macintosh HD:tmp:test.txt"
tell application "Finder"
    delete file filePath
end tell

However, same thing doesn’t work for POSIX file:
set filePath to "/tmp/test.txt"
tell application "Finder"
    delete POSIX file filePath
end tell

It says “can’t get POSIX file "/tmp/test.txt"” (-1728). The syntax looks correct, because it works when I use string literal instead of variable:
tell application "Finder"
    delete POSIX file "/tmp/test.txt"
end tell

I’m running scripts with osascript foobar.applescript in case that matters.


texts: mail.app shows the wrong date for emails

texts:
I have a very long history of emails 30+ years.
Some of my old emails are showed with the wrong date in mail.app.
Example:
These are the headers after anonymizing the data:
Received: from speedy.grolier.fr (speedy.grolier.fr [194.158.97.87]) by ns.calvacom.fr (8.7.3/8.6.9) with ESMTP id OAA21857 for <*@*>; Fri, 6 Sep 1996 14:02:35 +0200 (MET DST)
Received: from *.club-internet.fr (ppp-207-54.neuilly.club-internet.fr [194.117.207.54]) by speedy.grolier.fr (8.7.5/MGC-960516) with ESMTP id OAA16943 for <*@*>; Fri, 6 Sep 1996 14:00:14 +0200 (MET DST)
X-UIDL: 842012897.000
Message-Id: <*@speedy.grolier.fr>
From: "*" <*@*>
To: "*" <*@*>
Subject: Re: Faites-vous connaitre
Date: Fri, 6 Sep 1996 13:56:38 +0200
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
X-Priority: 3
X-Mailer: Microsoft Internet Mail 4.70.1132
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

below the body of the email.

So we can see that

Received: has Fri, 6 Sep 1996 14:02:35 +0200 (MET DST) and Fri, 6 Sep 1996 14:00:14 +0200 (MET DST)
Date: has Fri, 6 Sep 1996 13:56:38 +0200

The displayed date is
So I checked with mdls
mdls  ~/Library/Mail/path_to_email/857941.emlx | grep -i date
kMDItemFSContentChangeDate = 2020-10-02 02:10:10 +0000
kMDItemFSCreationDate      = 2015-10-13 04:27:22 +0000

no useful data about the email itself. Let's check with mdimport
mdimport -t -d3  ~/Library/Mail/path_to_email/857941.emlx | grep -i date
    "_kMDItemContentChangeDate" = "2020-10-02 02:10:10 +0000";
    "_kMDItemCreationDate" = "2015-10-13 04:27:22 +0000";
    "_kMDItemExpirationDate" = "<null>";
    "com_apple_mail_dateLastViewed" = "2020-10-02 02:10:10 +0000";
    "com_apple_mail_dateReceived" = "2005-07-16 15:58:43 +0000";
    kMDItemContentCreationDate = "1996-09-06 11:56:38 +0000";
    kMDItemContentModificationDate = "2020-10-02 02:10:10 +0000";
    kMDItemDateAdded = "2020-10-02 02:10:11 +0000";
    kMDItemLastUsedDate = "2020-10-02 02:10:10 +0000";
    kMDItemTextContent = " cut the body of email ";

So I can see that "com_apple_mail_dateReceived" = "2005-07-16 15:58:43 +0000"; is the date retained by mail.app to display the date in the UI.
Now I'm trying to understand how to change that.
Even after doing a mdimport -i ~/Library/Mail/path_to_email/857941.emlx, the date doesn't change in com_apple_mail_dateReceived.
I'm testing on this mail, but I have thousands of emails in the same state with the wrong com_apple_mail_dateReceived.
Update
Using Catalina, the emlx files do not help anymore because the mails are now in a private DB. The issue now is how to change the metadata contained in this DB when they are wrong.
Update 2
Ok I probably understood where the wrong date is coming from. In the emlx file:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>conversation-id</key>
    <integer>378100</integer>
    <key>date-last-viewed</key>
    <integer>1601614618</integer>
    <key>date-received</key>
    <integer>1121529523</integer>
    <key>flags</key>
    <integer>9160621057</integer>
    <key>remote-id</key>
    <string>21</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Then let's try to convert the Epoch date to a normal date.
% date -r 1121529523
Dim 17 jul 2005 00:58:43 JST

So now, we need to figure out if we change the date of the emlx file and try to reimport it, if it fixes the DB.


texts: How do I send a Ctrl+Alt+Delete when connected from the Screen Sharing app to a Windows computer?

texts: When using Apple's Screen Sharing application to connect to a Windows computer that is running VNC, how do I send a Ctrl+Alt+Delete to the Windows computer?  I've tried a number of key sequences and none of them are working.


texts:
In my experience phones have been locked to the carrier, requiring a hefty fee and a contract payout to transfer them to another carrier. (Just because they can).

This commentator writes:

  Oh all iphone 5 and up are not sim/network locked (didn’t know that)

My question is: Is the iPhone5 and up not Network locked?

(I'm aware that Apple has patents for future Sim-less phones that will further obviate this problem).


texts: Is usr/local/bin the correct directory to place JAR files?

texts:
I have built an application that includes a JAR file I developed and I've had issues trying to run it correctly from the AppleScript application with:

set foobar to POSIX path of (path to me) & "Contents/Resources/Scripts/foobar" as text

I have thought about checking usr/local/bin if the JAR file exists and then copying the JAR from the application to usr/local/bin but I'm unsure if this is the correct place to add JAR files so I can call them from AppleScript or through terminal. Is there a better approach to do this? I do have another block that checks to see if a program has been installed by Homebrew by checking /usr/local/Cellar/ then running the rest of the AppleScript application with do shell script but I'm unsure where all installed additional programs should be placed so I can run them with AppleScript and Terminal. What is the correct way to do this?


texts: What exactly are the files . and .. on mac?

texts:
Anecdotally, files called . and .. seem to often (always?) be present inside otherwise 'empty' directories on macOS.
Example
Create a new directory (with nothing in it)
mkdir test

cd into it
cd test

and list its contents
ls -a
.   ..

What exactly are these files . and ..?


texts: How to allow my Mac OS X 10.10.4 to download from sourceforge.net?

texts:
I'm trying to install QUCS(Quite Universal Circuit Simulator) to my Macbook.  Following link, http://qucs.sourceforge.net/build.html , I used Homebrew and follow the instructions in the section, Build instructions for MacOS,   I got an error msg saying:

curl: (22) The requested URL returned error: 404 Not Found
Error: Failed to download resource "adms"
Download failed: http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/mot-adms/adms-source/2.3/adms-2.3.4.tar.gz?r=&ts=1437800272

After some investigation, I found out my Mac doesn't allow me to download any types of files from source.net.  Although I changed my preferences in "Security & Privacy" to "Allow apps downloaded from: Anywhere," but it doesn't help.   I also turned off my firewall, but nothing changed.   Does anyone have an idea what's going on?


texts: Is the current version of Messages beta stable enough to use day to day?

texts:
Is messages version 6.1 (11D1069) stable for someone that doesn't mind iChat and FaceTime currently?

I am happy with iChat and FaceTime on my mac and don't really need the iMessage integration presently. I back up with Time Machine regularly and know the general risks that beta software can have glitches or worse, lose data. I've researched all the features, so I'm not looking for why or why not the program is better - just the stability aspect of it in use.

Does anyone have specific recommendation for someone who prefers to run more stable software on their macs? I'm normally glad to help test beta software, but in this case the general buzz I'm hearing from the people that the program is still a little rough and new features are not compelling enough to run full time given the current bugs.

Would you share some specifics about why or why not the program is stable enough for use based on your actual experience with the App.


texts: What can a router do to interfere with Apple Music?

texts:
I have two routers, both connected to the same internet connection:

One that is shared with all my roommates and does not support 802.11ac, let's call it "slow".
One that I own and manage (TP-Link Archer C58), does support 802.11ac and to which both my Apple TV is connected, let's call it "fast".

Recently I kept having problems with Apple Music: songs are skipped, songs cannot be downloaded. I either get a -3150 error and “Can't activate a connection to the network” or it keeps spinning with no results.

After numerous attempts at troubleshooting, I switched back to the "slow" router: it works immediately. So I presume there's something wrong with the configuration of the "fast" router: what could it be? Everything else works perfectly.

Thanks!


texts: Is there a way to download a setup file for macOS Sierra on Windows computer and then install later on my mac os

texts:
For a long time I avoided upgrading to macOS Sierra, reason being my slow home internet connection. At my home, it predicts to take something like 1 day 2 hrs.

On the other hand, my workplace internet speed is very fast. So I was thinking of downloading the Sierra setup file at my workplace and then verifying the installation media (if there is a way for verifying mac os because Xcode does have a way of verifying) and install it on my MacBook Pro. Only problem being my workplace computers have Windows operating system. So is there a way to download the setup file for macOS on Windows? I tried searching on Developer downloads and Support downloads but the only thing  I could find there were just updates and no main setup file.


texts: How to shrink a Windows XP VMWare Fusion virtual machine?

texts:
Is it possible to shrink a VM Ware Fusion Virtual Machine, and if so how? Specifically a Windows XP guest/client?

I've found old references to procedures purported to make this possible, but they reference a VM Ware DiskTool that appears to no longer be available.


texts: I use Cursorcerer to hide my pointer, and find that I cannot turn it off completely unless I set the delay to 0 sec; otherwise it pops up when I change app &c. On the other hand, if I need it, I also need it to change the setting in the præference pane. Can the delay be changed from terminal?


texts: Safari app is not opening from dock icon

texts:
What could be happening? Was after latest OSX update.

Seems the app is not responding but is installed.

Still unsolved!


texts: Belkin Usb-C to ethernet adapter crashes Macbook pro 16"

texts:
I use the Belkin USB-C to ethernet adapter for my MacBook Pro 16" with macOS Catalina 10.15.6.
When I plug it in, especially after the Mac has rebooted, macOS struggles to perform certain operations (opening apps - bounces forever, showing the dock, etc) - it's just like a freeze but I can still interact with the mouse.
When I plug out the adapter, any outstanding operations are performed instantly.
I should mention, that after a while when the adapter is "warm", everything works as expected. No freezes and I can open Apps as usual.
In every state when the adapter is plugged in, I do have a working internet connection, even when the Mac freezes.
Have any of you experienced the same strange behavior or are there any pitfalls with the hardware and software configuration I could have overlooked?


texts: how do I get everything back to normal (partition issue)

texts:
Okay, so I've recently shifted to Mac from Windows. I was curious to check out what the Yosemite OS looked like, and hence I downloaded the beta and had it up and running. It was downloaded on the primary hd.

There were already a few backups on my time machine, so I decided to erase the primary macintosh hd and restore the backups. Everything got erased and it's all lying as a corestorage unit now. It says that there is no available space and all the options have been greyed out. I don't know how to create the partitions now and all efforts are in vain. Any help would be appreciated.


texts: Starting MySQL produces "The server quit without updating PID file"

texts:
I've literally looked all over Stack Overflow, Superuser, I cannot find a solution to my problem that I'm experiencing right now, when I want to start MySQL, it produces this error:

  ERROR! The server quit without updating PID file (/usr/local/var/mysql/My-Username.local.pid).

with the sudo mysql.server start command, however, if I simply use the mysql command, it will produce:

  ERROR 2002 (HY000): Can't connect to local MySQL server through socket '/tmp/mysql.sock' (2)

Which is also another problem I cannot fix, I did touch /tmp/mysql.sock, nothing.

I've chown'd the /usr/local/var/mysql with mysql:mysql recursively, but that didn't help at all.

I installed MySQL via homebrew on OS X 10.7.3. How can I start up MySQL?


texts:
I have an iPhone 4s still running on some version of iOS 6. Is it possible to upgrade to only iOS 7.1.2 without going to iOS 8? Apple stopped signing iOS 7.1.2, which makes me wonder if I can do this.

Thanks!


texts: BigSur Active directory connectivity issues (offline after successful bind.)

texts:
I've installed BigSur on physical machine and bind it to remote LDAP server which reside behind vpn server.
The bind itself went just fine, but when I try to login or fetch any of the AD users, it fails and although the LDAP seems bounded, the AD nodes cannot be connected (all are offline)
Name                                          State   Refs Type         External Locked Hidden
--------------------------------------------- ------- ---- ------------ -------- ------ ------
/Active Directory                                     2                          X      X
/Active Directory/MYSERVERDEV                         11
/Active Directory/MYSERVERDEV/All Domains     Offline 2    Virtual node
/Active Directory/MYSERVERDEV/Global Catalog          2    Virtual node                 X
/Active Directory/MYSERVERDEV/myserverdev.com Offline 16   Virtual node                 X
/Configure                                            1                          X      X
/Contacts                                     Online  3
/LDAPv3                                               1                          X      X
/Local                                        Online  2                          X      X
/Local/Default                                Online  6                          X
/Search                                       Online  5

from the logs I could see that the opendirectoryd keep trying to connect the nodes but they remain offline. I wonder if there's any timeout for the connection or anything else that can effect the connection, since the bind itself did work successfully. any ideas ?
[com.apple.opendirectoryd:session] /Active Directory/MYSERVERDEV/All Domains nodestate:
starting check

[com.apple.opendirectoryd:session] /Active Directory/MYSERVERDEV/All Domains nodestate:
failed to create connection

[com.apple.opendirectoryd:session] /Active Directory/MYSERVERDEV/All Domains nodestate:
failed to create connection

opendirectoryd: [com.apple.opendirectoryd:session] /Active Directory/MYSERVERDEV/All Domains
nodestate: next check in 30 seconds

[com.apple.opendirectoryd:session] /Active Directory/MYSERVERDEV/All Domains
nodestate: is still offline

[com.apple.opendirectoryd:session] /Active Directory/MYSERVERDEV/myserverdev.com
nodestate: starting check

[com.apple.opendirectoryd:session] /Active Directory/MYSERVERDEV/myserverdev.com
service discovery: timed out after 5 seconds

[com.apple.opendirectoryd:session] /Active Directory/MYSERVERDEV/myserverdev.com
nodestate: next check in 15 seconds

[com.apple.opendirectoryd:session] /Active Directory/MYSERVERDEV/myserverdev.com
nodestate: is still offline


texts: Does Xcode install the “gcc” alias automatically or do I have to install command line tools?

texts: I'm writing a tutorial for running GCC commands. After Xcode is installed on a mac, do the command line utilities have to be installed to get access to the gcc command that is aliased to the clang compiler? Or is installing Xcode the only step necessary?


texts: How to make the right side of the trackpad of a MacBook Air behave as a right click?

texts: I have a MacBook Air running OS X El Capitan. No matter where I click on the built-in trackpad, it behaves as if I am left-clicking. To right-click, I must hold control, then click the trackpad. Is there any way to have the behavior changed, so that if I click in the right half of the trackpad, it behaves as a right click?


texts: Dropped computer. Will not boot. Unable to find driver for this platform \“ACPI\” MACOSX version

texts:
I dropped my computer two days ago. At first it would not boot up at all, not even showing the grey circle with the line in it or anything at all. I did internet recovery and did some cleaning up of the hard drive but it was saying I had problems with the partition boot. It was giving me some screen saying "Unable to find driver for this platform" after booting though. I went back into internet recovery, erased the drive, and re-installed os x. It was giving me the same error at first, but then I started it in safe mode and it worked. I restarted it normally and it worked.

Did dropping it break my hard drive or some other part in my computer? It seems to be working fine now, but I can't trust it. Is there any software that I can use to run some hard ware diagnostics?

EDIT: Macbook Pro 13' 2012 version. I had Mac OS X Mavericks, but currently it is back at OS X Lion. My computer will occasionally hang with the beach ball for no reason.


texts: How I can save a screenshot of an iPhone application?

texts:
I want to take a screenshot of an iPhone or iPad application to share.

How is that accomplished?


texts: I am a gamer and I wish to record my Mobile Legends in my Mac book. Any suggestions of the tools that I could use? My phone is iPhone 7 Plus. Thanks


texts: I have Verizon and Siri is giving me a fax number for a location rather than a phone number. My friend has AT & T and it displays the phone number. Does it matter which carrier is used? Can I correct this (it is my place of business)


texts: A checklist for child proofing an iPad pro

texts:
I have gifted my 9 year old a iPad. However before I let him use it, I need a checklist of all the steps i need to do to child proof the iPad.

Configure safari so that all bad searches are blocked
All bad sites don't open
Search results don't return explicit content.

does apple provide such a list. I googled and I found snippets of information here and there. But I need a complete list of steps.


texts: Change root password to be different than Admin password

texts:
I want to change the root password so it is different than the admin password.

I need to change the password so the admin can still be logged on, but the root password to modify the hosts file through terminal with nano at /private/etc/hosts is different.
Even if the admin is logged in, he will need a different set of codes to modify the hosts file.

Is this possible?


texts: SFTP client for OS X for updating external website

texts:
I do update a website for my company, and for that I currently have the following workflow:

Make a local mirror of the external website
Update files in the local mirror that is going to be updated on the external site
Verify that the files that are going to be uploaded to the external site is correct
Upload files using SFTP

Currently I use FileZilla to upload files. To verify that the update is correct, and that nothing more has accidentally changed, I would like to see the changes between the external and the local before performing the upload.

To perform the verification I need to download the file from the external site and perform a diff on the files.

My first thought was that there must be a easier way to do this, and that it might be that there are SFTP clients that integrate this "under the hood".

Are there any SFTP clients for OS X that let you compare and see the differences between a local file and the file on the server before doing an upload.


texts: How to download iCloud library (Backup folder, e.g WhatsApp) to Desktop (Mac)

texts:
How can I download folders from ~/Library/Mobile Documents/ ?

I see that I have 10 gigabyte of files saved in the cloud as WhatsApp backup.
I want to download that to my desktop.
I know it is located in e.g. /Library/Mobile Documents/42T9237FN3~net~whatsapp~WhatsApp/Accounts/<98798799897>/backup

But I can only see meta files of type .icloud there on desktop.
I need to fetch the whole folder and all backup files to my desktop for further investigation.
Any idea?


texts: Can I temporarily disable keyboard entries on the lock screen?

texts:
I'd like to create an apple script that sends the computer to the lock screen and disables the keyboard for 60 seconds.
This is what I have so far

Lock the keyboard entries with KeyboardCleanTool
Go to the lock screen with do shell script "'/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession' -suspend"
Unlock the keyboard entries by running tell application "KeyboardCleanTool" to quit

Unfortunately, it appears that KeyboardCleanTool does not enforce the keyboard lock while the lock screen is on.
Is there another way that I can prevent users from typing on the lock screen for sixty seconds?
One solution that Im considering is to replace step 1 with sudo kextunload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCKeyboard.kext/  and replace step 3 with sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions/AppleUSBTopCase.kext/Contents/PlugIns/AppleUSBTCKeyboard.kext/.
I don't know whether Apple Script can run programs while the lock screen is on (though I suspect not)


texts: External display : why 59Hz instead of 60Hz on Macbook Pro 15" mid-2012 @ 2560 x 1440 via DisplayPort

texts:
I connected an LG 27UD88-W to my 2012 15" Macbook Pro via DisplayPort.
However, it does not seem to connect at the expected 60Hz for the 2560x1440 resolution, but instead it shows 59Hz.

One could argue "oh well, you won't notice that 1Hz" but that is not the point.
I like to understand things.

Does anyone have an explanation for this?


texts: Where can I find a list of available OS X "Extensions"?

texts:
OS X Yosemite introduced Extensions, which are listed in the Extensions panel in System Preferences. Currently, the list of "Actions" extensions on my OS X system contains only one item, "Markup".

How can I find more applications and utilities that can be installed as extensions? Is there a categorical list of extensions somewhere?

I tried searching the Mac App Store as well as Googling in general, but "extensions" is such a general term that it produces far too many unrelated results and makes it difficult to find true system extensions. Ideally, I'd like to find a list specifically about proper extensions (if such a list exists), or a better way to search for them (if there is one).


texts:
So literally out of the blue, my MB Pro is giving me the rainbow for minutes at time for 99% of the things I try to do.

I maxed out the memory to 8GB last year, and that made a huge improvement, but like I said, this afternoon it went from being a really productive machine to acting like a 10-year old computer.

I'm thinking my hard drive is about to die considering I plugged in for a time machine backup and it says 14 hours for a 210GB backup. Is that right?

A solution would be great, but just knowing what could possibly be going on would be a relief as well.


texts: Cannot download anything in Mojave from factory

texts:
I just received today my new iMac with Mojave 14.1 preinstalled.

I have pervasive issues downloading anything.  Downloads get interrupted all the time.

The connection does not seem to be the root cause.  I have a good Internet Fiber connection, browsing is just awesome.  Everything renders fast, including images.

But downloads are a nightmare, a real blocking issue.  For example:

Nearly no application can be downloaded.  If I try to download Visual Studio Code, Chrome and many other applications it always gets interrupted.
If I try to download from the Mac Store, downloads start but are eventually reset.  I only was able to download Microsoft Remote Desktop.
I was able to download Firefox.  If I try to download Chrome from Firefox,  I get the error /Users/pcondal/Downloads/rEZCkycn.dmg.part could not be saved, because the source file could not be read.
The 10.14.1 update download did not work either (could not be 'verified').  If I click Update Now to restart download of 10.14.1, it says To update, you must restart your Mac. If I restart, it abends the install and starts again.  So I cannot redownload 14.1.1 because it thinks it already has it and I all can do is restart with a damaged package.

Clearly, this is not the first day with an iMac one dreams on.

What options do I have to try to solve these pervasive download issues?


texts: Fresh Install of Mountain Lion on MacBook Pro Retina that upgraded via a voucher

texts:
I want to do a fresh install of Mountain Lion. I bought my MackBook Pro before Mountain Lion was out. Later I got my free download voucher and used it to upgrade. Now I want to do a fresh install, but I'm unsure how to download Mountain Lion again without paying for it.

I tried redeeming the code again in the App store, but I get an error saying this code has already been used.

Any ideas?


texts: How to know if MacBook Pro with LG 5K Monitor Displaying at Correct Resolution

texts:
I've got the new MacBook Pro with TouchBar and the new LG 5K monitor.  I plug it into the USB port directly (single usb-c port using provided cable).

It looks good but I can't tell if it is really showing 5K.  In About/Displays it shows 5K but when I look in the apple display app it looks like it has less resolution then the 4K monitor I have sitting next to it (when I unplug the 4K, the screen resolution does not change even after reboot which I think is to be expected).

My question is, How can I know that my 5K monitor is really working at 5K?  is there some kind of 5K test pattern I can look at?

I called apple and they had no idea how to know.  Worst support call from apple ever.  guy said he had no manager, could not escalate.  Told me it's like buying a third party product from Walmart (even though I bought it from the apple store and it was in Tim Cook's keynote)


texts:
I'm looking to buy a 15" Retina MacBook Pro, I'm looking at the website Models and they seem to be pretty inflexible (for instance the 2.3 GHz model you are locked into a 256 GB HD).

So I know this is a little preemptive, but I want to know how the hard drive is configured. For instance, on my current MacBook Pro I swapped out the standard hard drive for a 480 GB SSD. If the new thinner model has a standard SSD I will buy the 2.3 GHz model and add larger hard drive. My worry is it will use a proprietary hard drive like those found in the Air in which case I would be forced to buy the 2.6 GHz model just to get the larger storage I suppose.

Does anyone have any info on this?


texts:
I have installed Ubuntu on a Mac Mini, everything works great. I'm able to switch back and forth without any problems. After that, I used GParted in Ubuntu to resize the OS X partition. I then create a FAT32 partition from a unallocated partition which was resized in previous step.

The result look like this:

All of the procedures were done successfully without any errors, but after restart I cannot boot into OS X again, whereas the Ubuntu still alright. I tried to remove the FAT32 partition but still no positive.
How can I make OS X work again? (please don't hate me, I didn't make a backup since I don't have any significant data on OS X). I've been googling around and the solution seems to reinstall from Recovery. Is there any other ways other than reinstall?

Environment:
Mac Mini
Dual-boot: Mac OS X 10.11 and Ubuntu 14.04

Here's a little more partitions list:

sudo fdisk -l /dev/sda

This command does not show the partition 5 and 6. I don't know why

sudo lsblk -o /dev/sda

All of above commands are executed in linux.


texts: Composite video Input to 2016 MacBook Pro for streaming

texts: How do I input a composite video signal from a Data video SE-500 into my MacBook Pro for OBS streaming?


texts: Emacs-like navigation to beginning/end of sentence in text

texts:
I think it is a really big advantage of macOS over other operating systems that it supports a lot of Emacs navigating keyboard shortcuts out of the box. (^ ControlP, ^ ControlN, ^ ControlK, ^ ControlY, you name it...)
One shortcut that I am really missing is the capacity to move to the beginning or end of a sentence in a text (in Emacs this is MetaA/MetaE). I could not find a substitute yet to emulate this behavior in macOS.
If someone would know a possibility how to do that I would be really happy!


texts: Can't search for files on Mac with just file labels

texts:
Since upgrading to MacOS High Sierra, I can't search for files using just labels anymore.

For instance, I created a folder called "test", containing a folder called "folder", with the red label (called "Red"). If I select the Red dot, then the folder does not appear. But if I search for the term "folder" or if I search for "tag:Red" then it will appear just fine.

I've already tried resetting Spotlight by adding the folder, and even the entire drive, to Spotlight's Privacy tab, then removing it to force it to re-index. I indeed saw the re-indexing seem to take place, since the CPU on the mds processes spiked for about an hour.


texts: Can two almost identical apps be uploaded on Apple Store?

texts:
I want to upload two apps just with color and name difference on Apple Store.

Is it possible, as I have heard that Apple blocks similar apps?


texts:
I have a mid 2010 13" MBP that I am wanting to last me a couple more years.

It was suggested I get a SSD to replace my hard drive, so I bought it but need to know some stuff before switching to it.

I have an external hard drive that I back everything up to. After I have backed up everything, what's the best way to go about putting back the Mac OS, iTunes, Microsoft Office, Pictures, Documents, etc. that I want on the SSD? I don't want to put everything back onto the MBP, just things I use most often.


texts: Transfer external hard drive Time Machine data to a replacement

texts: My Western Digital external hard drive is full.  How do I transfer data to its replacement? I want all the data to be saved to the new external hard drive so Time Machine will continue where it left off with the backups.


texts: macOS Catalina external displays are black but I can move the cursor on them

texts:
I just updated to macOS Catalina. I have two external displays that only show a black background. I can see the cursor moving on them, but no windows or dock. If I try to move windows from my MacBook Pro on the screens, I only see the cursor on the external display.

Any ideas on how I might resolve this??


texts: Switch between ringer and vibrate based on schedule?

texts: Certain times of the week I would like the phone to be on vibrate and other times of the week I want it to be on ringer.  I would like to setup a schedule for these changes to happen automatically.  Can this be done?  If not natively is there an app that can do this?


texts:
My friend gave me a USB key that has Windows Viruses on it.

On my mac, when I try to delete them it fails and tells me that those files are "locked".
I ran an anti-virus, which also was unable to delete them for the same reason.


texts: Is my iPhone 4 touchscreen malfunctioning?

texts: My iPhone4 is weird. The bottom touchscreen can be slid (to unlock) but it's really hard to tap the app in the bottom area. It seem the bottom screen is not sensitive but I can slide to unlock. What's wrong with my iPhone?


texts: Can I still update my free apps if I change my iTunes Account Country?

texts:
If I change my iTunes Acccount country, I realize that I'll lose the ability to update apps for which I've paid.
But what about apps that were freely purchased like : Facebook, Twitter, ... Will they still get updates ?


texts: Macbook Air 2019 will not boot from USB or complete Internet Recovery, Exhausted options

texts:
Internet Recovery fails. USB Boot fails. Target mode won't mount.
Macbook Air 2019 TrueTone, ran before I deleted the SSD (stupid). Battery shot, requires power supply to run.

Tried Internet Recovery with CMD-R, OPT-CMD-R, SHFT-OPT-CMD-R. All run download with progress (about an hour), then remain at full progress bar for days until I shut down. Reset PRAM. Tried various Internet, including Gigabit speed. 20 tries or more, occasional dropped Internet error -2003F on lousy WiFi.

USB boot defaults to Internet Recovery. USB Drive is recognized, chosen, goes directly to Internet Recovery. Created several USB boots with several sticks and several apps, including manual w/ Terminal. Chose various erase formats (GUID, etc). Chose several OS installers (Catalina, Mojave). Latest USB stick with Mojave boots older 2014 iMac, but not the new Macbook.

Will not mount in Target mode. Macbook displays target mode, but will not mount on iMac. Bought a new wire.

Beautiful, new, clean laptop, hardly used, left discharged for months, thus bad battery.
Can anyone think of anything else to try? Apple Store, maybe? Would they do anything I haven't? Does a dead battery affect these things?


texts: How to Stop the copy of ALL my pictures up to Dropbox

texts:
I accidentally touched the picture icon (lower left corner) in my iPad.
It started to upload ALL 400+ pictures to Dropbox.
I DO NOT WANT the pictures uploaded. I can't stop the upload!
And it is taking forever. It keeps telling me that I need to run Dropbox to finish the upload process.


texts: How can I use iPhoto in lieu of Photos in macOS Sierra?

texts:
I really dislike macOS's Photos.app (thought I could get use to it), but would like to use iPhoto again. It's in my apps, but was replaced with a more current version when my stuff was installed onto the new Mac. When I click on iPhoto, it says it needs to update the photo library before I can use it.

I'm running macOS Sierra 10.12.6 and worry about compatibility since I'm reading some scary things. Don't want to end up in a jam or a pile of lost photos. Has anyone done this upgrade with Sierra in order to use the latest iPhoto? And has everything worked like clockwork?


texts: Is there a way to Reindex/"Reinstall" AirPlay Devices in OS X?

texts:
I'm using Airfoil as a way to broadcast my iMac as an AirPlay device on my home network. This utility does, besides creating an "Airfoil" server, also create an actual AirPlay device that can be seen under System Settings > Sound and by Opt–clicking the Sound/Volume icon in the OS X menu bar.

For some reason, the Airfoil AirPlay device (reachable in the below menu) has suddenly stopped working. When trying to send audio to it from my other Mac, I get the system pop-up "Could not connect to xxx-Airfoil".

  (Ignore the current checkmarks in this image. It's the "Airfoil" AirPlay device I'm trying to access)

However, when using the Airfoil application menu directly to access the computer via the Airfoil service (not AirPlay in the audio output tab), audio transmission works as intended. So my conclusion is that there is something wrong with what/how OS X "knows" about the AirPlay device.

Question: Is there a way to get OS X to "reindex"/reinstall the available Airplay Devices?

Something like (in pseudo-terminal command):

airplayutil --reindex devices

I've tried reinstalling Airfoil and its sister-application Airfoil Satellite, and also tried rebooting the computers. Not sure why it suddently has stopped working – I'm still on El Capitan.


texts:
When using Command-F to search in a Finder window, what is the shortcut to disable the search and return to the standard finder window?

For example:

1) Navigate to specific folder
2) Command-F to search
3) Finder window is now search specific

How can I exit from having a search specific finder window and simply see what is in the current folder?

Thanks!


texts: Confusion on Metadata | Named Forks | Extended Attributes | Resource Fork -- HFS+

texts:
I think there is some general confusion on the relation between all four of these items scattered throughout the web. I wanted to get this straightened out.

Are named forks the same as extended attributes? If not, what are extended attributes?
Is the resource fork still implemented as a fork or as an extended attribute? If it is implemented some other way, then how?
The metadata stored with a file (creator, date modified...) is there any relation or overlap in terminology between the other three mentioned. An example would be, are extended attributes just extra metadata pairs (key + value) stored on a file.

Any answers that can clarify how all four of these are interrelated, especially regarding the three question would be greatly appreciated, and contribute to settling disputes I see occurring across different resources.


texts: If someone outside of the US buys an IAP or gives a review, do those not show up in the USA app store?


texts: (How) Can I push notifications from my Mac notification center to my iPhone?

texts:
I have a 2015 MBP running OS 10.11, and an iPhone 6s with iOS 9. Can I push notifications from the Notification Center on the MBP to the iPhone? If so, how?

And I mean any notification. I'm not talking about synchronizing individual apps.


texts: Seeking text editor for Dropbox on iPad and iPhone

texts:
I've been using Hog Bay's Plain Text app to edit text files on my Dropbox for the last few years; but as of two days ago it's no longer syncing. Presumably this is because Dropbox have discontinued support for this third party app, since it's no longer available in the App Store.

I'm now looking for a replacement app with the same functionality as Plain Text version 1.7.5.
Have found one called WriteUp which may fit the bill; but not sure if it has everything I want?

I need to edit simple text files with extension .txt (not interested in richtext). Once edited the files must be saved in the same format, i.e. as .txt files.
When I open a Dropbox folder, the app must immediately download all the files in that folder automatically (so they're stored locally on my iPad), and sync them to Dropbox as they're edited. (What I don't want is to have the files download only when they're selected for editing; need the whole folder to be downloaded straight away.)

Most importantly I need a built-in search function similar to WinGrep. I.e. It must search all the files in the current folder and all its sub-folders looking for a string of text. Must search both the filenames and the file contents, then provide a list of matching text files so I can select any one for them for editing.


texts: iPhone pictures won't delete and keeps "restoring" after deletion using iTunes sync

texts:
I'm having trouble with deleting my pictures.

The initial problem is that after updating to iOS7 all my Photo Albums are stuffed up. There are like 2-3 instances of the same albums with different number of pictures. For example "Album A will have 200 pictures" and as I scroll further down I see another instance of "Album A" but this time it only has 197 pictures.

I thought that this could be the iPod Photo Cache issue as I use iPhoto to sync some albums onto my iPhone and iPod Touch. I followed the steps to remove the iPod Photo Cache from iPhoto (Show Package Contents) but this has not helped.

So I decided to do a clean restore of all my photos. I unsynced all albums and removed all pictures. And then I resynced it again with the albums which I wanted. This seemed to fix the problem temporarily. The albums will sync properly at first but I see a "Restoring" at the bottom of my photo album after clean up.

After about 30-60mins the Photo Albums will revert to the old way with doubles and triples of my albums.

I'm not sure what this error was and I keep trying to go to settings and see if there are any backups of my Photos. But I have switched off iCloud sync of photos etc.

If anyone could help me and point me in the right direction to fix this I would greatly appreciate it.


texts: Swap is growing fast, I think I know which app is causing it, how can I check?

texts:
My swapfile has been growing fast lately, and I think I know which app is responsible, but I'm not sure.

Is there a way for a non-developer to check something like that, or would you need a version of the app which has debugging enabled?

n.b. I have Xcode/Developer tools installed. Running 10.8 on a MacBook Air.


texts:
I often have my MacBook Pro in clamshell mode attached to the second monitor. On my first monitor I have Windows machine and I use Synergy-Foss software to share only one mouse+keyboard between them.

Problem is, sometimes I forget to turn on Caffeine (that prevents screen from sleeping) when I don't use Mac for a bit longer and the screen goes to sleep.

Unfortunately mouse/keyboard activity through Synergy-Foss software isn't waking the screen. Is there a terminal command which would wake the screen?


texts: How do I run BeyondCompare in X11 as root?

texts:
I used WineBottler to install Beyond Compare on my Mac.
It runs within an X11 environment. (It works great, by the way.)

But it cannot access many folders to which my user account does not have permission, e.g, in the /System folder.

How can I run BC with "sudo" permissions?


texts: timemachine doesn't start or send errors

texts:
Time Machine is stuck here in this screen i erased my drive to be formatted as journaled and it looks like this now but time machine doesn't respond after configuration

this is what i do but nothing happen


texts: Issues with /usr/lib/libcups.2.dylib. x86 applications will not execute

texts:
I upgraded CUPS from 2.0.0 to 2.0.2 on OS X 10.10.4 Yosemite for security reasons per advisement from a Nessus scan. I committed the cardinal sin of not backing up my OS before making this change. Unfortunately, many x86 apps on my system are now displaying this fatal error:

  Exception Type:        EXC_BREAKPOINT (SIGTRAP) Exception Codes:
  0x0000000000000002, 0x0000000000000000

  Application Specific Information: dyld: launch, loading dependent
  libraries

  Dyld Error Message:   Library not loaded: /usr/lib/libcups.2.dylib
  Referenced from:
  /System/Library/Frameworks/ApplicationServices.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/PrintCore.framework/Versions/A/PrintCore
  Reason: no suitable image found.  Did find:   /usr/lib/libcups.2.dylib:
  mach-o, but wrong architecture    /usr/lib/libcups.2.dylib: mach-o, but
  wrong architecture

Fair enough. So I decided to run lipo -info on the affected library, and it states that its architecture is x86_64("Non-fat file: /usr/lib/libcups.2.dylib is architecture: x86_64"). I deduced that the CUPS source needed x86(i386) flags upon configuration after a bit of research on the matter. So when I ran a new configure command:

sudo ./configure CFLAGS="-arch i386 -arch x86_64" CXXFLAGS="-arch i386 -arch x86_64" LDFLAGS="-arch i386 -arch x86_64"

Which was all well and dandy, but it executed with errors. I continued anyway with my make and make install commands on good faith, but found that now the affected applications either did not initiate at all, or still returned fatal errors. What am I doing wrong here? I downloaded the source directly from CUPS.org if anyone is wondering.


texts: Is it possible to play music streams on iOs devices

texts: On My macbook iTunes I have an internet tab which has about 4000 music channels in total. Is it possible to play those in iOS device iTunes?


texts: Setting Global Volume / Track Keyboard Shortcut with Non-Apple Keyboard

texts: Where is the option to set the global keyboard shortcuts for volume controls.  I have a non-apple keyboard and by default none of the F keys work as media controls.


texts: Where does iBooks store its documents in Sierra?

texts:
Late 2011 iMac running macOS Sierra.

I cannot for the life of me find the documents that appear in iBooks.  They are not in my iTunes folder, nor are they in ~/Library/Containers/ (in fact there is no such folder at all), nor are they in ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/ (again there is no such folder).  I do not have iCloud Drive enabled.

So where on earth are all these PDFs and epubs that I can plainly see in iBooks, can sync to my iOS devices via iTunes, etc.?


texts:
Maybe I'm missing something here, but my playlist created on my iPhone is not showing up on my iPad.

Both are up to date, even running on the same network. You would think this would be stored on the cloud, not locally.


texts:
I am using OS X 10.6.8 and I have a question regarding the address book synchronization.

Does synchronizing google contacts with apple address book send my data to Apple?

In other words, does the address book application directly sync the contacts with google or does this process goes through Apple servers and/or cloud? I am having a doubt because when I started the sync on my MacBook, the MobileMe icon appeared at the right of the menu bar. MobileMe seems to be related to cloud stuff so, is the contact book application directly interacting with google or not?


texts: How to properly download the following plugin video?

texts:
After nearly a week browsing all over the web, using Safari 5.1.10 Develop menu, Activity Monitor, etc…, how can I download the following video to my Mac:

http://screengrabber.deadspin.com/messi-opens-copa-del-rey-final-scoring-with-marvelous-g-1707941937

I can't find the video's URL to download on Safari activity monitor nor web inspector.


texts:
There are two accessibility settings (indicated by the red rectangle in the screenshot below) that allow for zooming into the screen by holding ctrl and scrolling the mouse.

Is there a way to enable those settings from the terminal?


texts: Safari not loading pages, other browsers doing fine

texts:
I have an issue many seem to have: Safari 7.0.5 (and now 7.0.6) hangs when loading web pages whereas other browsers (Chrome, Firefox) work just fine. I've ran my tests on WiFi with two different routers as well as through iPhone tethering.

Here are the steps I have taken so far but the problem persists:

re-installed my MacBook Air completely with the latest image from the App Store
Reset Safari
Disabled extensions
Unchecked "Warn when visiting fraudulent website"
Unchecked "Stop plug-ins to save power"
In the Develop menu, checked "Disable caches"
In WiFi settings, disabled IPv6
Changed DNS to OpenDNS
Deleted all Safari plist, caches, favicons cache, etc.
Turned off Safari in iCloud settings
Fixed permissions, rebooted
Disabled the prefetch setting from terminal
Emptied all my logs, launched Safari and tried to open this url: https://pragprog.com/login . Here is the (anonymised) result:

20/08/14 17:12:05.179 ubd[178]: ApplePushService: Timed out making blocking call, failed to perform call via XPC connection to 'com.apple.apsd'
20/08/14 17:12:05.681 AOSPushRelay[252]: ApplePushService: Timed out making blocking call, failed to perform call via XPC connection to 'com.apple.apsd'
20/08/14 17:12:05.909 parentalcontrolsd[271]: StartObservingFSEvents [849:] -- *** StartObservingFSEvents started event stream
20/08/14 17:12:06.112 UserEventAgent[11]: Captive: CNPluginHandler en0: Authenticated
20/08/14 17:12:06.513 accountsd[212]: /SourceCache/Accounts/Accounts-336.9/ACDAuthenticationPluginManager.m - -[ACDAuthenticationPluginManager credentialForAccount:client:handler:] - 230 - The authentication plugin for account “myname@gmail.com" (20DDC449-9F11-4479-8D9C-11BBC43D96AD) could not be found!
20/08/14 17:12:06.514 accountsd[212]: /SourceCache/Accounts/Accounts-336.9/ACDAccountStore.m - __62-[ACDAccountStore credentialForAccountWithIdentifier:handler:]_block_invoke389 - 857 - No plugin provides credentials for account myname@gmail.com. Falling back to legacy behavior.
20/08/14 17:12:06.668 com.apple.time[148]: Interval maximum value is 946100000 seconds (specified value: 9223372036854775807).
20/08/14 17:12:06.708 com.apple.NotesMigratorService[272]: Joined Aqua audit session
20/08/14 17:12:06.784 gamed[215]: CKSoftwareMap: Registering with Daemon
20/08/14 17:12:06.922 soagent[188]: No active accounts, killing soagent in 10 seconds
20/08/14 17:12:06.925 soagent[188]: No active accounts, killing soagent in 10 seconds
20/08/14 17:12:08.771 login[276]: USER_PROCESS: 276 ttys000
20/08/14 17:12:14.115 apsd[99]: Failed to evaluate trust: No error. (0), result=5; retrying with revocation checking optional
20/08/14 17:12:16.041 login[276]: DEAD_PROCESS: 276 ttys000
20/08/14 17:12:17.915 soagent[188]: Killing soagent.
20/08/14 17:12:17.916 NotificationCenter[175]: SOHelperCenter main connection interrupted
20/08/14 17:12:17.916 com.apple.dock.extra[183]: SOHelperCenter main connection interrupted
20/08/14 17:12:17.917 NotificationCenter[175]: SOHelperCenter main connection interrupted
20/08/14 17:12:17.919 imagent[194]: [Warning] Denying xpc connection, task does not have entitlement: com.apple.private.icfcallserver  (soagent:188)
20/08/14 17:12:17.919 imagent[194]: [Warning] Denying xpc connection, task does not have entitlement: com.apple.private.icfcallserver  (soagent:188)
20/08/14 17:12:21.911 Dropbox[210]: ICARegisterForEventNotification-Has been deprecated since 10.5.  Calls to this function in the future may crash this application.  Please move to ImageCaptureCore
20/08/14 17:12:23.437 com.apple.SecurityServer[15]: Session 100006 created
20/08/14 17:12:24.189 apsd[99]: Unrecognized leaf certificate
20/08/14 17:12:39.791 apsd[99]: Unrecognized leaf certificate
20/08/14 17:13:48.016 apsd[99]: Failed to send activation record to service com.apple.ManagedClient.enroll

I also deleted all the passwords in my keychain, deleted all the bookmarks and emptied the reading list, just in case there was some corruption there. Still no success. I tried to log in with the guest account as well but the problem is the same.


texts: What are the steps to transfer an iPhone to someone else?

texts:
I've seen several posts on the general process of handing off an old iPhone to someone else, but there are some details I'm not clear on. I have the following scenario to start with:

Person A: iPhone 4
Person B: iPhone 3G
Person C: (dumb phone; no data plan)

I'd like to end up with:

Person A: iPhone 4S
Person B: iPhone 4 (from A)
Person C: iPhone 3G (from B; new data plan)

Can someone walk me through the steps involved in making this happen? All folks involved have MobileMe accounts and Macs, and the 4S will probably be purchased initially for Person A. Those who start with iPhones have everything fully backed up and encrypted and password protected (so passwords will transfer).

Note: This is specifically a question about what I can do on my own, without going to the carrier's (AT&T) store.


texts: Videos have audio on right channel only, how can I make it sound through both channels?

texts:
I've downloaded m4v videos (legally if you should ask*) and played them with Quicktime, VLC and MplayerX.

They have the audio only in the right channel, is there a way I can equalize the output so I hear it through both channels?

I've tried equalizing from Audio Preferences but it obviously just decreases the volume of one channel and increases the other, but doesn't move the output from one channel to the other.

* http://www.atheist-experience.com/videocast.php


texts: iOS System Services > Time & Location uses excessive cellular data. Why? How to disable?

texts:
Since iOS 11 update I noticed that my iPhone 6s started to drain cellular traffic very fast. Before, I was able to keep within 500 MB per month but now 1 GB is not enough.

I looked at the settings and noticed: the traffic is mostly drained by the system services. And not by the analytics but by the "Time & Location". Surprisingly, isn't it?

Here is the stats for last 10 days:

479 MB totally
308 MB for system services
261 MB for time & location
26.6 MB for push notifications

Here is some screenshots:

The first question is How the f.. they do it?

I'll not be a lier if I say that I'm paranoid about this. Look, I spent only 171 MB for messengers, maps, social networks and browsing. Why time and locations use so much traffic? 261 (two hundred and sixty-eight) MB!!! What are they downloading? A sound recorded 24/7? Or videos a videos of me?

Time is so simple to synchronise through the NTP. I can't believe that it can take more then a kilobyte. And there is no need to sync time more then once per month.

Location is simply provided by GPS. No cellular data required at all. But even if Apple want to track each my step it can't take more then 1 MB of text data per day.

So, it's a big mystery where is my traffic sucked in. Apple, please, collect your data using Wi-Fi.

And the second practical question is about how to fix this trouble

I noticed a similar question: Disable system services to save data

I have disabled some of items in Settings > Privacy > Location Services > System Services. I don't want to disable the other such as "Find My iPhone" because I think they are important.

I currently use a very simple solution: I'm turning of the cellular data when I don't need it and turn it on to check messages, for example. But if forget I can easily lose 50 MB for a night.


texts: Backup Failed - Time Machine couldn't back up to "disk name"

texts: I have a 2013 MacBook Air running Mavericks. I bought a Nifty drive and a top of the line micro sd. When I shutdown my computer, turn it back on and go to backup no problem, but if the lid is shut and then opened I get the following error: "Backup Failed - Time Machine couldn't back up to 'disk name'" I then have to restart if I want to backup. Any suggestions?


texts: What is the latest version of firmware for the AirPods (first generation)?

texts:
My AirPods still show a firmware version of 3.7.2 after many months.

Is that the version 3.7.2 current in January 2019?


texts: Mac Password dialog box font missing / corrupt

texts:
Since changing my Mac's font from the default on Yosemite to San Francisco (the font on the Apple Watch for those who don't know) my Mac's password dialog box has always appeared like this. It still works once I type my password in, but it's slightly annoying.

Would anyone have any suggestion on how to fix this? Cheers!

Mac OS 10.10.3.


texts: How could I remove mysql from manually installation version

texts:
I manually installed the MySQL without homebrew

However, I still installed another mysql server by homebrew.

which mysql

/usr/local/bin/mysql

How could I remove the manual installed mysql server, thanks


texts: How to restore my Mac OS X using time machine onto a new hard drive install?

texts: I have a mid 2010 MacBook Pro and want to install a new hard drive but I'm not sure how to restore my Time Machine back ups (Yosemite) with a new hard drive.


texts:
I live in Indonesia and we use the dd/mm/yyyy date format as opposed to America's mm/dd/yyyy. Questions:

I changed my Language settings to Indonesia region so that this date format would be recognized as a date in Excel. It worked, but somehow Excel won't recognize a comma as a delimiter for CSVs anymore. How shall I solve this?
Is there a way to get Excel to recognize this date format without changing the Language settings?

Thanks


texts: What does the Key icon mean when I type in a password in terminal?

texts: When I type in a password in Terminal, it sometimes displays a key icon on top of the cursor. I thought that that meant that there was an integration with the KeyChain, but I don't seem to be able to find anything to corroborate that. What does this icon mean? Is it just an indication that something is a password? I see the icon when I type read -s ASDF as well, leading me to think it just indicates a "hidden" input.


texts: What happens at the user/OS level when an SSD finally wears out?

texts:
I have been reading up on SSD technology current as of 2011 and don't know of any first hand reports on what happens when an SSD eventually fails due to over use. I am most interested in the SSD that apple includes as a factory option - but aftermarket information is certainly welcome.

If there are no overt signs of aging and wear, might it be possible to measure how much extra storage space remains to cover for failures and wear leveling? (assuming the SSD controller will pool memory and avoid bad/overused blocks before failure)

I am somewhat familiar with failure modes of hard drive storage but looking for similarities or differences between HDD and SSD. For example, the OS can detect (presumably using fsck and journaling) problems writing new data reliably to a HDD and warns you the drive is now mounted in read only mode. Tools like Drive Genius allow all sorts of testing specific to HDD but I'm unaware of tools that dig into SSD for whatever data may be available.

Rather than guessing or predicting how long an SSD will last, are there objective measures we can take to document how storage is aging and check in on wear leveling statistics to measure what happens when SSD are close to the end of their useful lives?


texts: How do you enable retina display support on Firefox?

texts:
Firefox 16 does not have retina display support out of the box.

Is there a way to enable it?


texts: Is it possible to control the Apple TV with the LG Magic Remote?

texts:
The LG Magic Remote is a strange beast, because by default, the signals it sends to LG TVs tend not to be picked up by other IR controls (I don't know if that means it's communicating some other way, or whether the IR frequency it uses is really unusual). As a result, the Apple TV's "Learn Remote" functionality does not work straight away when operating the LG Magic Remote.

Nevertheless, there is a feature of the LG TV to configure its remote to serve as the universal remote of various inputs (i.e. select DVD player on HDMI 2, pick a make, verify it works, and then the remote will start sending IR signals whenever HDMI 2 is active).

The Apple TV is officially not supported by LG (per their phone support) and Apple does appear as a valid make when selecting a remote type. So I figured based on googling, that if I picked any nonsense DVD player, the remote would at least start sending IR signals that could be learned using the Apple TV "Learn Remote" feature.

Those linked threads report success, but in fact their advice of "rapidly mash buttons" for the Apple TV to learn the IR signal didn't work in my case, and I suspect it's a function of the newest 2017 version of the remote (I'm testing on an LG OLED65C7P). I've tried a dozen different "set top box" and "dvd/blu ray" device types, and in each case the IR signal for the arrow buttons is not strong enough for the Apple TV to register them at all.

Any ideas on how to overcome this?


texts: Hard / Factory reset iPad 3 without device password and iTunes

texts:
I have an iPad 3 which is disabled and not connected to the Internet. It says that I should connect iTunes but then I have to accept the connection. When I press "Next", it says that I have to answer the pop-up on my iPad, which is locked. Also, I've forgotten my security questions. Is there any way to Factory / Hard reset my iPad and then reset my questions?

I tried Power + Home but it won't work


texts: Can  you theme the 80gb iPod classic so the menus or the music player have a different graphical user interface?


texts: Stop Finder from creating aliases when moving Applications

texts:
In Snow Leopard, Finder treated .app files like any other application. You could drag an application between any two folders at will, and the application would be move.

At some point since then (I think in Lion), Apple changed this. Now, dragging a .app out of the applications folder and into some other directory creates an alias instead of moving the actual file. You can hold down "option" to make it copy, but this is incredibly annoying and has been bothering for years.

Is there any way to change the default behavior of Finder to stop doing this? Perhaps with a "defaults write" terminal command. Thanks!


texts: Can I use SSD Samsung 850 EVo , 250gb in Macbook Mid-2010 (Macbook 7.1) without mounting screws?

texts: Can I use SSD Samsung 850 EVO , 250gb in Macbook Mid-2010 (Macbook 7.1) without mounting screws? I got a brand new SSD but without mounting screws. There are mounting screws on my HDD currently, but I can't pull them out of it, because I don't have a screwdriver.


texts: Magic mouse smart zoom not available on trackpad

texts:
Smart zoom on the magic mouse allows to zoom on an area of page with double tap of magic mouse.

Viewing the trackpad options this smart zoom does not appear available ? Is there a workaround ?


texts: Is it possible to set opening certain apps such as Safari, iWork, MS Office in the full Window mode by default like Mail App (macOS Catalina)?

texts: The only App I can set opening in the full window is Apple's Mail App - it can be set in the App setting. I suppose other application could be set via terminal commands, but I'm not that handy with terminal commands to do so.


texts: How to download Sierra DMG file if mac can't support it

texts:
How do I download a .dmg file or Sierra (or any recent macOS)?

I have one very broken MacBook pro, and I want to make a bootable usb drive to try and fix it. I have another, older, MacBook, which unfortunately does not support Sierra, but it is the only macOS that I can find in the app store. It won't let me download it, because it doesn't run on my MacBook.

I want to either force the app store to let me download it (on my MacBook, even though it can't run it), or I want to download the file from somewhere else.

Is there no way that I can just download Sierra on my Mac that does not support it?


texts: Why does the Mobile Safari Browser on iOS not allow file uploads?

texts:
As already known, it's not possible for iOS users to select image files to upload from Safari on iPhone, because the browse button to display the "select file"- dialog is disabled. It works fine on Android, but not on iPhone...

What is the particular reason for that issue?
I heard that the browse button is disabled because there isn't a file browser on the iPhone. Someone other said that Safari just disabled root access. Is there any reliable source which explains the issue? (I need it for my thesis.)


texts: iOS App Store: Can't scroll to see more results

texts: When searching with a keyword in the App Store app on my iPhone, I unable to scroll to see more results. What could be causing the issue? I am running iOS 12.


texts: Bash not recognizing packages installed using pip-3.6

texts:
I installed pip-3.6 using Mac Ports:

sudo port install py36-pip

Then, using this version of pip, I installed virtualenv:

sudo pip-3.6 install virtualenv

Now when I tried using virtualenv, bash isn't recognizing it.

PS: I didn't want to select pip-3.6 as pip because I have pip working with OS X's version of Python 2.7.


texts: macOS Sierra - localhost stops working when virtual host is enabled

texts:
I have enabled virtual hosts on my Mac running macOS Sierra.

What I did,

Uncommented Virtual Host line in httpd.conf
Added a virtual host entry from my site in /etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf file.

After which when I try to access http://localhost it gives me a 404.

Initially I faced a 403, so I created a username.conf file in apache users directory and gave AllowOverride All for /

Now to access localhost I need to disable vhost. Any help?


texts: Gmail App on iOS shows badge count for unread Chats

texts:
At times, the Gmail app for iOS can display a hard-to-remove badge. The badge corresponds to a gchat message that was received offline. The badge is considered difficult to remove due to a series of facts:

gchat sends an 'email' to your Gmail when you receive an offline message
gchat messages do not show up in any inbox in the Gmail app; they're only visible in the browser
The "Chats" label does not show up in the side bar of the Gmail app, so there is no easy way to access the chats
Searching for "label:chats" only finds chats up to June 7th. Maybe they released an update then that stopped sending chats to iOS devices?
Being online 24/7 (for instance, using the Hangouts app) is not a good solution, as I do not want to be online 24/7.

The question is: is there any way to make this badge less annoying?

Possibilities:

Can you make the Chats label appear in the iOS app?
Can you make chats not send emails when you're offline?
Can you make chats received offline not count as unread?

My "Notifications" setting is set to "Primary Only." This affects both my iPhone and iPad.


texts: How do I force iTunes Match to re-evaluate certain tracks

texts:
I have a little over 9000 songs. Between yesterday and this morning, iTunes Match is finally done evaluating and uploading songs, and it seems to have made a few mistakes.

If I show the iCloud Status column in my song list, in a number of albums I'll see "Matched" for most of the tracks, but "Uploaded" for one or more track. If I look up that song/album/artist on the iTunes Store, Apple has those songs. I've even looked at the track info to see if they might have been encoded differently, but on the few I've spot checked they have the same encoding as the other songs in the album that were matched.

I've been able to force iTunes Match to re-evaluate songs that showed "Error" before (no errors now), but I can't seem to figure out how to force it to re-evaluate these songs that were non-matches even though they're in the store. How do we do this? Do I turn off iTunes Match and start over again? I've been reluctant to do so considering how long it took yesterday.


texts: PDF reader that restores last viewed page

texts: Is there a (free) PDF reader that could restore last viewed page when opening a PDF in OS X 10.10?


texts: What does a blank window represent in the list of apps displayed by double-clicking "home"?

texts:
When I have "Pokemon Go" running, and I double-click the "home" button, I sometimes see a blank window in the list of apps that can be scrolled through by swiping to the right. I've only seen this happen with "Pokemon Go." And, the app functions just fine with, or without it.

What does that blank window represent?

btw: double-clicking "home" not only shows running apps, but also recently run apps, right?  Yet, I've never seen "Pokemon Go" in the list other than when it is explicitly running (never as a recently run app). So, I'm a little confused.


texts: Is there a way to control dual monitor relative position from terminal?

texts: I have a weird setup for my home office that allows me to switch from a standing desk to a sitting desk. The only problem is that when I alternate positions, my laptop's external monitor switches sides. (When standing it is off to the left of my laptop, when sitting it is on the right). At the moment, every time I go from sitting to standing, or vise-versa I have to go into System Preferences -> Displays -> Arrangement and rearrange them. What I would love is some sort of terminal command that moves the 2nd monitor relative to first one. Doesn't matter how long the command is since I can just alias it.


texts: How to auto-lock MacBook when inactive (without enabling screensaver)

texts:
It is super easy to automatically lock a MacBook after a few minutes of inactivity, but this requires enabling a screensaver.

https://www.google.com/search?q=auto+lock+macbook

However, this method is frustrating, because launching any screensaver appears to take the focus away from the currently active application.

This means if I'm running Chrome, for example, and the screensaver is triggered, I will have to type in my password, and then click anywhere on the screen before I can interact with the Chrome app. If I wanted to open a new tab (CMD+T), pressing these keys on the keyboard does nothing until after I've clicked to regain focus.

Say I have a full-screen terminal window open. After logging back into in, the terminal will not accept any keyboard input until I click somewhere on the screen with the mouse.

Really annoying.

How to get around this?

Automatically locking the computer WITHOUT spawning a screensaver seems like it would work, because locking the computer manually doesn't produce the issue. How to auto-lock without a screensaver?


texts: Adding photos to iPhone programmatically without iTunes

texts:
I'd like to know how to add photos to an iOS device without iTunes nor any "iPhone explorer" programs.

I have the image files, and I have the iPhone "mounted" on a Linux machine, which means I have access to some directories like DCIM and PhotoData.

Now, how do I actually put the pictures in ? I tried dropping them in DCIM but of course it doesn't work and despite the files being there they don't show up in the camera roll. Is there any particular thing to do after copying the files, or a particular file name syntax to follow?


texts: Configure Logitech G600 mouse on MBP Catalina

texts:
I have a Logitech G600 mouse and have https://www.usboverdrive.com/ installed with the intention configuration of the G keys on the mouse.
usboverdrive works for configuring the mouse movement and speed but I can't figure out how to configure the buttons on the side of the mouse.
usboverdrive has a mode where I presumably can press the button on the side of the mouse and usboverdrive will identify it, but when I press the button it is not being identified.
This is the first time I am using usboverdrive so I am not sure if I am using it correctly.
[EDIT] I first tried to install the Logitech software (GHub) but could not find a way to configure the buttons.  I kept googling and was referred to usboverdrive as an alternative.  It is difficult to google for help with this mouse on mac because the links are dominated by windows oriented links.


texts: Can I upgrade my VMware 6.0.3 without losing my data? I already upgraded to Yosemite

texts: I have VMWare Fusion 6.0.3 and I upgraded to Yosemite. Oops. I can't open VM because its not a compatible version. Can I still upgrade the VM without losing my data?? I really need to NOT lose my data. Note: I did not backup my computer before this...


texts: How do I disable or get rid of the startup sound my Mac makes?

texts:
Everytime I turn on my Macbook Pro it makes a start up noise. This is annoying since there is no volume or ability to turn it off. I just don't want the sound to play at all.

How do I disable this startup sound?


texts: * I did an update on my Macbook Retina 13" to the most recent version of Sierra OS X. The computer never gets past the Apple logo (black screen with a full progress bar). *  This is a copy of the problem previously written up in November.  None of the solutions worked nor a few others.


texts: Is there keyboard shortcut restore desktop after show desktop and dragging file from back to some app window?

texts: My often template: I make some workspace screenshot with shift + command + 3, 4, 5. Then I need to upload this screenshot, for example? with already opened browser. Faster way for it is to use Drag-n-Drop of new screenshot from my desktop to browser window. I switch to my browser window. Then open my desktop (show my desktop) with swipe up on the trackpad with three fingers. Now I see my new screenshot png file and start dragging it. Now how to with one hand restore my browser application window to drop screenshot file?


texts: Different owners of apps in /Applications depending on installation technique

texts:
I have noticed that pre-installed as well as apps installed from the App Store located in /Applications show permissions like this:

drwxr-xr-x+  3 root     wheel  102 Jan  1  2014 Mail.app

whereas apps installed by drag-and-drop into the same folder look like this:

drwxr-xr-x@  3 johndoe  admin  102 Jan  1 15:55 Steam.app

Why do these apps depending on the installation technique get assigned different owners and groups? I am using a standard user account for installation (johndoe) if that's important. Also, why would it be a bad idea to change the owner of every app to root as is mentioned for example in Homebrew's FAQs:

  Did you chown root /Applications/TextMate.app? Probably not.

-- Homebrew FAQs


texts: Resize to size less than setContentMinSize:

texts:
It is extremely annoying when some apps set the minimal size of their window too big. Ie. viber window is huge and should be very small considering occasionally arriving messages (there are a lot of examples of this behaviour).

Is there any way to explore this parameter -  setContentMinSize: and change it? Let's say via xcode or any other means??

Many thanks for any help.


texts:
I have 2 MacOS, and 2 iOS devices on the same iCloud account. All but one of the MacOS computers sync Contacts apparently correctly. The one MacOS synchronizes the Contacts but no Groups are brought over. I've tried everything:

reboot all devices
Disconnect the problem MacOS from iCloud, reboot, reconnect it
Disconnect all the devices from iCloud, and back again
Checked iCloud on the web and seen the groups are there
Added a group to iCloud on the web and see it appear on the iOS devices and the working MacOS but not on the problem MacOS

Anyone have any other idea that I could try?


texts: Giving an app permissions to my documents folder without admin

texts:
I have macOS Catalina and I wanted to see if there was a way for me to change the setting where you give apps access to files/folders. I have a game that wants access to documents and it isn't giving me the option to grant it. When I go to settings, the plus sign isn't clickable and I don't have administrator privileges so I can't turn it on. All I want to do is give it access to my Documents folder. This wasn't a problem until I updated to 10.15 and apps started prompting me to give them permissions, but this one never gave me a prompt. I was thinking maybe I could change it in the file where the mac keeps its preferences or if there is some command in terminal or maybe I'm just being an idiot and I can do it in System Preferences.
Thanks


texts: Can I encrypt an external hard disc that is used for backup and is also bootable?

texts:
I have an external hard disk that serves two purposes:

It contains a fully functional bootable macOS installation for use should my main installation of macOS become corrupt in some way.
Since it's a 1TB disk and macOS takes only 20GB, I use the remaining space to back up folders by manually copying them over in Finder. I don't use Time Machine.

I'm thinking of encrypting this external disk, from Disk Utility (when booted from the main copy of macOS — on my internal drive).

If I do so, will both installations of macOS be able to decrypt it? Or should I leave it unencrypted if I want it to work in both the roles mentioned above?

I'm running Sierra, in case it matters.


texts: Can I use Home Sharing with an iPod Nano 7th gen?

texts:
I'm considering buying an iPod Nano 7th generation, but I want to be very sure Home Sharing will work with my iMac (OS X El Capitan) with iTunes 12.5 before I purchase one.

Can you tell me if this will work?


texts: Stop mouse interfering with Cmd + Tab menu

texts:
When pressing cmd + Tab the mouse can steal focus of a program icon. This is frustrating.

Is there a setting to make the cmd + Tab ignore the mouse?


texts: Issue with installing Windows 8 on an iMac

texts:
I own a MacBook Pro and a mid-2010 iMac.

I'm trying to install Windows 8 on a second partition on my iMac (currently running Snow Leopard), but I'm still having issues :

I tried with BootCamp, but since my DVD drive is not working, I cannot complete the process
The BootCamp Assistant doesn't display the option of creating a bootable USB (even though I tried to tweak its info.plist)
I tried creating a bootable USB flash, using Windows 7 USB Download Tool on my MacBook Pro which is also running Windows 8 (+ Mac OS X Mountain Lion), but I can't get it to work (I'm seeing the initial Boot menu, with Option, but the flash drive doesn't show up; pressing C on startup didn't work either)
Tried booting from a third partition but I'm stuck at the point of restoring the .iso to the partition (now it sees the iso as corrupt :S - whatever...)
Using Parallels/etc is out of the question since I need the 64-bit Windows 8 version purely for Windows Phone Development purposes(and that would create issues with Hyper-V and Virtualization, regarding the Windows Phone Emulator)
I even tried using some Screen Sharing software (e.g. TeamViewer) but it lags + the resolution is not properly adjusted.

So, any ideas?

I'm willing to try anything! (lol)

P.S. I've been through all of this trouble only to be able to develop for Windows Phone (and thus, using Windows 8) on a bigger screen - and no, I don't have any cable for that (nor am I sure it's doable given that the iMac has no Thunderbolt port). So, if you have any suggestions on that, they're perfectly welcome!


texts: Why is the shortcut to "select previous tab" not reliable in Safari?

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

The shortcut is ctrl+⇧+⇥.

How can  troubleshoot this problem?


texts: What can be replaced/upgraded in a late-2009 iMac to make it run like a 2014-2016 iMac?

texts:
I have a late 2009 iMac. The specs are in pic below. This machine got a new hard drive last year and is running 12GB of memory, yet it often lags and is not as zippy as I would like.

I am curious if there is anything that can be replaced or upgraded to make it perform like a newer machine or are the un-upgradable parts just too long in the tooth? Thanks for the advice.


texts:
For some reason, sometimes when I dismount/eject a physical drive, Safari launches in the background. This behavior has occurred even in safe mode, in a guest account, with nothing else running. I've experienced it happening with SD cards, USB hard drives, and thumb drives.

I've spent an hour on the phone with an Apple tech to no avail, and I've spent quite a bit of time on my own trying to narrow it down. What could be causing this, and how can I stop it?

I'm running Sierra on a 2015 rMBP.


texts:
When I try to delete some items, whether from the keyboard (Command+Delete) or by dragging to the Trash on the dock, I get a message informing me that I can only permanently delete the item.

Why is that? How can I change that? (Is it a permissions issue?)


texts: save a file to /usr using Mac's Save As dialogue

texts:
I'm using OSX currently, but I usually use Windows. One thing that's really frustrating for me is that I can't figure out how to save a file to a very specific location (/usr/local/Cellar/apache-spark/2.3.1/conf/xyz.conf)

When I click Save As in Sublime Text I get a save dialogue with only a few very limited choices (I assume this is a generic dialogue to Mac OS and not specific to Sublime). I learned to click the downward arrow next to the file name which expands the dialogue somewhat, but I still don't see how I can save the file in /usr since that folder is seemingly missing. Any idea?

See screenshot:


texts: Changing Finder preferences 'Copy 6 items' etc

texts:
I am trying to configure a left-handed keyboard layout on my Mac.

The only real issue I'm having at the moment is changing the shortcuts for copy / paste. I easily can change this for (almost) every app using the the App Shortcuts in preferences.

The problem is that Finder, when copying multiple items, will word it like 'Copy 6 items' and so in those situations my new keyboard shortcut won't work.

Is there a way I can set Finder so that it always uses just the word 'Copy' regardless of how many items there are? If I can sort that, then I imagine my shortcut will work as intended.


texts: Boot Camp installs in wrong language. How can I fix this?

texts:
I have a MacBook with an English keyboard running Lion in English. I used Boot Camp to download the WindowsSupport package and then installed 32 bit Windows 7 Ultimate, also in English.

Turns out the WindowsSupport package is in German, probably because I am currently in Switzerland.

How can I fix this?


texts: How to take music from cassette tapes to iPod

texts:
So I have this large cardboard box full of hundreds of cassette tapes with music I absolutely positively had to buy in the 1980s and '90s. If I wanted to listen to the music contained on those tapes on my iPod, I imagine I could follow a process something like this:

Put new batteries in my old Walkman®
Connect some sort of cable between the headphone jack on my Walkman and the audio jack on my mid-2011 MacBook Air
Play tapes on the Walkman and record the incoming music on the MacBook Air using some sort of software.
Use iTunes Match to upgrade the quality of the resulting audio files.
Put the iTunes Match audio files onto my iPod.

I know this workflow would take a long time (each tape would have to play its full length), and I don't know if it would work.

So my questions is, what should I do? Again, my goal is to get music from my audiotapes to my iPod without having to repurchase all the tracks. The procedure outlined above is just my guess at a solution; if your answer doesn't look much like that process, but it doesn't cost much more than iTunes Match, I'm open to ideas. I'd love a solution that worked faster than my idea.


texts: Keyboard Layout suddenly grayed out/disabled

texts:
I have been using a keyboard layout usd2.keylayout for 4 months on this laptop. After rebooting this last time (after many many other reboots..) it is grayed out.

Why might this be?  I am on el capitan

[![enter image description here][1]][1]
     $ll ~/Library/Keyboard\ Layouts/
    total 80
    -rwxrwxrwx@  1 boescst  USWIN\Domain Users  37414 Nov 15  2015 usd2.keylayout
    drwx------+  3 boescst  USWIN\Domain Users    102 Nov 29 15:53 .
    drwx------@ 58 boescst  USWIN\Domain Users   1972 Mar 21 20:40 ..


texts:
Currently I am running Windows 10 on my MBP with bootcamp. In OS X, in disk utility, there is an "Untitled" partition of ~ 450MB. Upon closer inspection using disk management in Windows and the "diskutil list" command in OS X, this appears to be the windows recovery partition that windows 10 has made.

Is it safe to delete this partition, with the "diskpart" command within windows, without harming my partition tables/making my operating systems unbootable, etc.?


texts: Is the trackpad surface different on MacBook Air than the Pro?

texts: Is the trackpad surface on a MacBook Air different than on a Pro? I found that the trackpad on my friend's 2012 MacBook Pro is much smoother than that of my 2013 MacBook Air. Is that normal or my has my trackpad gone rough by use?


texts: Apple Mail won't login after Migration Assistant transfer

texts:
I recently used Migration Assistant to bring data to a new Mac Mini from a Time Machine backup on my old Mac. After finishing, I am unable to connect to my mail account as it gives the error "unable to verify account name or password". I know for a fact that my password and account are correct, because I can still log into that mail account on my old machine using those credentials.

I have tried:

restarting
deleting the existing mail account and trying to add the account back
Removing keychains related to mail from my keychain access under 'login'

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!


texts: This content requires HDCP for playback - Airplay on iPhone 5S not working

texts:
After getting the iPhone 5S, I have been having problems with the AppleTV connection. Sometimes it just drops as soon as I start Airplay mode from the iPhone, and most of the other times some error appears about HDCP. I never had these problems with the iPhone 4S and tried updating the AppleTV and that has fixed nothing.

How do I fix this issue ?


texts: rMBP 2015: Force Click is not working for look up and data detectors

texts:
I have a similar issue documented in "Force Click Not Working on Macbook" but none of the resolutions mentioned in the discussion solves my case.

Here are my findings so far:

1) It only worked on the first day

2) I have "Force click with one finger" set for "Look up & data detectors". It still doesn't work. I switched to "Tap with three fingers" and the look up works fine.

3) I tried Force Click on other functions (eg: calendar, quicktime, dock, etc) all are working fine. This indicates that hardware is good.

4) I upgraded OS X to 10.10.3 and it does not work still.

I am totally stuck now and appreciate for any suggestion on what might have gone wrong. Thanks!


texts:
I can connect to my server in my terminal with ftpcommand. Then, I connect to my site with open xxx but I don't know how to send file from my computer (local) to this server, with put.

Can someone explain it to me ?


texts: How do I get my iTunes "Album Artwork" to add to the individual files instead of "~/Music/iTunes/Album Artwork/"

texts:
iTunes saves Album Artwork to ~/Music/iTunes/Album/Artwork/Cache/[some seemingly random folder name here]/
The problem is that if I move actual MP3 and AAC files from this computer (and/or iTunes database) to another one, I (assume that I) will lose the connection between those songs and the cached artwork.
Right now there is 826 MB worth of of cached images in 950+ files.
I am almost certain that it is possible to add album art directly to the media files, but I need a solution which can be automated (at least most of it) because I really don't want to do this 950+ times, and I have a lot more music to clean up in the future.

Footnotes:

[Non-free solutions are entirely welcome, but please let me know if your proposed solution isn't free, and how much it costs, if you know.]

I have both MP3 and AAC files, so hopefully any solution will work on either kind of files.


texts: How to run a downloaded run-only Applescript

texts:
I am trying to run an Applescript, but when I double-click it, it tries to open Applescript editor and informs me that it was saved as "run only". This is fine -- I just want to run it!

The script in question comes from here.

I did not write the script, I just want to run it. Looking at it with Textwrangler, I can see there are perl files and config XML files in it. The exact message I get when double clicking is, Unable to read the file because the script is not editable (it was saved as run-only).

I have tried using chmod to set it to executable, with no luck.


texts: Can I record a FaceTime audio call using my iPhone X on my Mac?


texts: How do I have any privacy on my mini iPad?

texts:
So my sister & her boyfriend are all into this hacking and spying and invading people's privacy and doing malicious things to the with what they gather. They have been doing it to me and trying to break up my long term relationship and have hacked into 2 of my mini iPads, an iPhone 4, quite a few windows phones as well as approx 5 androids and ruined all of them. I have a brand new mini iPad and android phone but don't want them in them messing them up too.

How do I keep them from hacking or viewing my iPad when I unbox it?

I know they use metasploit and nmaps to do their dirty work, although don't know what these things are or do. Also, we live together so we use same wifi connection. This has truly been a nightmare that has caused and they are causing detrimentally negative results. It has taken my life as I knew it and what I made of it and I trying to stop them from it, but they refuse.

So I'm hoping if I can somehow block all syncing with other devices, mirror images, keep them out of my iCloud account and maybe some security or something I can keep them out, but I know nothing about this stuff and need help.

Apple could only tell me to 2 step my iCloud account, which did no good considering they have access to my phone, all emails and my iPad. Thanks!


texts:
My iMac is on 10.14.2. Every day I come to the office there is a popup on a black background

  The update was not installed successfully.

  You can try updating again in System Preferences after restarting.

  [ RESTART ]

There is no other option. When I click it restarts and is busy for 15 minutes.

Every day.

This upgrade is like Groundhog Day with Bill Murray. How do I make it stop?


texts: Want to launch dnsmasq ony when Thunderbolt Ethernet is active

texts:
dnsmasq is installed using homebrew. Currently dnsmasq is spamming my system.log with messages like this:

Sep 26 18:22:46 Laptop com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (homebrew.mxcl.dnsmasq[14526]): Service exited with abnormal code: 2
Sep 26 18:22:46 Laptop com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (homebrew.mxcl.dnsmasq): Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.
Sep 26 18:22:56 Laptop com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (homebrew.mxcl.dnsmasq[14527]): Service exited with abnormal code: 2
Sep 26 18:22:56 Laptop com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (homebrew.mxcl.dnsmasq): Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.
Sep 26 18:23:06 Laptop com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (homebrew.mxcl.dnsmasq[14528]): Service exited with abnormal code: 2
Sep 26 18:23:06 Laptop com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (homebrew.mxcl.dnsmasq): Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.
Sep 26 18:23:16 Laptop com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (homebrew.mxcl.dnsmasq[14529]): Service exited with abnormal code: 2
Sep 26 18:23:16 Laptop com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (homebrew.mxcl.dnsmasq): Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

because i told dnsmasq to use only the Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter and when this adapter is not active, dnsmasq cannot find it, so it cannot start the service.

I want to run the dnsmasq service ONLY when the Thunderbolt Ethernet adapter is active. I CANNOT run it on all interfaces.

My current plist looks like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
  <dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>homebrew.mxcl.dnsmasq</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
      <string>/usr/local/opt/dnsmasq/sbin/dnsmasq</string>
      <string>--keep-in-foreground</string>
      <string>-C</string>
      <string>/usr/local/etc/dnsmasq.conf</string>
    </array>
    <key>Requires</key>
    <array>
      <string>Network</string>
    </array>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
  </dict>
</plist>

I cannot find any documentation on how to start dnsmasq ONLY when a certain network adapter is active.
Any ideas?


texts: How do I force Safari to show me Google search result pages in history?

texts:
Safari's history doesn't seem to include Google search result pages.

Steps I go through which re-create this issue every time:

Search for anything from Safari's omnibar.
Visit a result (by clicking it).
Optional step: do anything else in Safari.
Hit ⌘+Y to load up the history.
Enjoy not seeing that intermediary Google results page in the list.

This is really frustrating.

How can I force Safari to show me Google search result pages in history?

I'm using Safari 11.0 (13604.1.38.1.6) and macOS High Sierra 10.13.


texts: Is there a way to have the touch bar set permanently on the function keys?

texts:
I know that, using the keyboard settings preference pane, you can set "touch bar shows" to "Expanded Control Strip" to remove the per-app buttons. This mirrors the out-of-the-box configuration on non-touchbar models where the physical F-keys would execute special functions (setting brightness, sound levels, etc), and holding down fn would let you use the normal F1 F2 etc keys.

I'd like to set the opposite of this (answered in this question) - where the bar always shows the F-keys, and requires holding down fn to access the special functions.

Is there a way to configure the touchbar in this manner?


texts:
This is one of the weirdest bug that I've observed:
It seems that Mail.app's audio notifications for new mail and sending mail accumulate and play in order of occurrence when I unplug external speakers. Just now it played a series of more than 100 notifications (mostly new mail notification).

It's not big enough that I want to fix it but I just wanted to know if anyone experienced something similar.

It happened on an iMac that was upgraded to OS X Lion from Snow Leopard.


texts:
I tried installing Win 7 into my Mac so I can dual boot and use Win 7 but then again changed my mind about it but i have already partitioned a separate drive for windows. I deleted it and tried resizing my start up disk but failed in doing so. I'm using Mountain Lion OS and my lap is a MacBook Pro.

I need to reconnect the Macintosh HD with the free space below. Please help me out.

Since Im new to this forum, I cant publish images. If you guys could be kind enough to give me your email address i could mail the image to you. Thanks a lot.


texts:
It seems as though extensions in Safari can't access cookies. In firefox there is a great add-on that immediately deletes cookies from a site after you close its tab. This is really helpful for viewing sites that require cookies, but that you don't want following you all over the internet.

Is there any approach I could take to mimic this behavior in Safari? I was thinking some sort of watcher on the cookie folder or linking it to /dev/null/, but I'd still like to whitelist some cookies that I don't mind keeping around and I wouldn't want to add much cpu or battery usage either.


texts: Messages 7.0 lost ability to auto join chat rooms?

texts: iChat had the ability to auto-join jabber chat rooms, but Messages 7.0 seems to have lost that functionality. Anyone know if there is a defaults write … command to either auto join specific chats, or to re-enable the auto-join feature?