texts: Partition Type: FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF on Macbook Air; gpt add error

texts:
[Solved]

I recently installed Kali Linux onto my MacBook Air 2015, and shortly after, realized that I needed to install Refind to get the full functionality. I deleted the partition, which is 20 Gb, from disk utility in MacOS. I closed my laptop for a while, and when I came back, I was met with the Grub Rescue screen. I tried some things in Grub Rescue to no avail, so I booted into Internet Recovery Mode.

I opened the terminal and used $ diskutil list and $ gpt -r show disk0, which you can see the results of below.
I followed the directions at this post How can I make my Mac partition bootable again? I used gpt remove -i 3 disk0 and gpt remove -i 2 disk0 I then learned that I have an APFS container from dd if=/dev/disk0 skip=409640 count=3 |vis -c. Therefore, I used gpt add -i 4 -b 409640 -s 2542739416 -t 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0 as the directions specify. Of course, when I did this I got an error:

gpt add: disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0
gpt add: disk0: error: no space available on device

I researched this, and found this. I tried both gpt destroy disk0 and gpt create disk0 to which both returned an error: gpt destroy/create: disk0: Suspicious MBR at sector 0. It seems like this person had the same problem, and went down the wrong road so to speak. Perhaps I can avoid making the same mistake.

I am really not sure what to do from here. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you!

edit: So thanks to David Anderson, I was able to correct the "gpt add: disk0: error: no space available on device" error.

I then added the third partition, which I think is for recovery(?), using gpt add -i 3 -b 227212504 -s 1269536 -t 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk0. The fourth picture is the most recent output of gpt -r show disk0.

Moving on, I tried diskutil verifyDisk disk0 to which i got the error: Error: -69846: Unrecongnized Filesystem. (Also in image 4) Not sure what to do about that. In fact, that was the original error it returned when I booted into grub rescue.

Also in the fourth image is the output of diskutil verifyVolume disk0s2. Which seems error free.

------------

output after successfully adding partitions 2 and 3.

Booted successfully to my machine after deleting that third partition and holding down option at the startup manager screen. Thanks for your help!


texts: How can I temporarily turn off the Apple watch display?

texts:
The display on the Apple Watch tends to turn on and off too often.  This is distracting especially in darker environments.

This rapid turn on -then- turn off of the display that occurs when

"talking with one's hands"
general household chores (emptying the dishwasher)
moving around in a theatre (eating/drinking)

This is distracting to the listener or the speaker (wearer of the watch).

Yes, I can immediately dim the watch by covering it, but any accelerometer  motion will reactivate the display.

Preferred experience

Ideally I would like to cover the watch and have it go dark for either a custom time period, or until the screen is tapped.

Documentation or control over the actions that cause the display to light would be beneficial


texts: YouTube on Safari Very Stuttery After 11.3

texts: I just updated my Mac mini to macOS 11.e3, and it seems as if all of the videos I watch are now very laggy and stutter and I don't know why. Anyone else having this problem or know how to fix it?


texts:
I'm getting started with Byobu. I would like it to essentially act just like my regular shell (I use the bash-it framework), using my .bashrc and .bash_profile, but with the perks of the Byobu interface.

However, when I start up a terminal session with Byobu, I have to manually source .bash_profile to get my environment set up as usual. Is there a config setting or a file to modify to set this on the start of Byobu?

EDIT: AskUbuntu and Unix&Linux have a tag for byobu. If someone with high enough reputation comes across this, please edit this post to create and include that tag.


texts:
One thing i've been wondering about is how Mavericks handles flash etc....

In the demo that Craig F did on stage, he hid a browser video (or animation) behind another window and then the activity monitor usage dropped to 0 for that process.

That's all great, but my question is what if you want the animation or video to run, because it's a game you DONT want paused, or a video that you're happy for it to keep running, is it the case that now when you have a hidden window that everything ceases to run in that window?

ie. I'm watching something on youtube, if I spend 5 mins sending a mail, and I go back to youtube the video will be where it was before I started the mail? (for me this is undesirable)

Same with say flash games or animations, I may to load a page, go do something else and go back to the page, now all will pause, how does this work?


texts: How can I set up Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection for Mac to work with the Portuguese keyboard layout?

texts: Can you help me to configure the Apple keyboard in Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection for Mac so it works correctly with the Portuguese keyboard layout when connecting to a Windows 7 computer? I want to configure it to work the same way that the Apple keyboard is configured when using Windows 7 through Boot Camp.


texts: Merge two pdf to one with their pages merged alternatively

texts:
I have a PDF A.pdf and B.pdf and would like to merge them both to AB.pdf, where each page is merged alternately so that page 1 in AB.pdf would be the first page of A.pdf and page 2 in AB.pdf would be the first page of B.pdf etc.

I would like to achieve that with an handy command in bash on macOS 10.14.5. How can I do that?


texts: WiFi turning on when I have it turned off

texts:
On my Mac (2014 MacBook Pro running Yosemite) I turn the WiFi off at work. We have WiFi, and Ethernet, and I find the Ethernet faster.

Every once in a while, I see that it turns itself on, searches for a WiFi connection, and then turn itself off.

The whole thing happens in about four seconds. The WiFi icon on the menu bar will show WiFi on, and trying to connect (to our corporate hotspot), then the WiFi Off icon will show.

I get the following errors in Console:

2/10/15 4:02:31.765 PM airportd[35]: _handleLinkEvent: Got an error trying to query WiFi for power. Resetting state variables.

2/10/15 4:02:31.792 PM locationd[61]: wifi scan failed with error: Error Domain=com.apple.wifi.apple80211API.error Code=-3903 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (com.apple.wifi.apple80211API.error error -3903.)"

2/10/15 4:02:31.796 PM airportd[35]: -[CWXPCConnection performScanWithChannels:ssidList:legacyScanSSID:includeHiddenNetworks:mergeScanResults:maxAge:maxMissCount:maxWakeCount:maxAutoJoinCount:interfaceName:waitForWiFi:waitForBluetooth:token:priority:reply:]: !!! SCAN request received 1.2115 seconds after previous scan request from 61 (locationd)

2/10/15 4:02:31.800 PM locationd[61]: wifi scan failed with error: Error Domain=com.apple.wifi.apple80211API.error Code=-3903 "The operation couldn’t be completed. (com.apple.wifi.apple80211API.error error -3903.)"

2/10/15 4:22:30.940 PM WiFiAgent[577]: [EAPOLControl.c:180] EAPOLControlAuthInfoIsValid(): Ignoring SaveCredentialsOnSuccessfulAuthentication since no credentials were specified

2/10/15 4:22:32.735 PM airportd[35]: _handleLinkEvent: Got an error trying to query WiFi for power. Resetting state variables.

Seems to happen once every 20 to 30 minutes. I'm not closing the lid. I have WiFi turned off. The company doesn't use Airport.


texts: How can I change the default save location of Office for Mac?

texts:
I have Office for Mac 2011 and unlike Office PC, I can't find how to change the location where my files are to be saved.

The default position doesn't suit my needs and I spend a lot of time "navigating" to the folder where I store all my projects.

I would like to open a file, edit it's contents, and "save as" a different file name, but to the same file folder from which the document was originally opened... just like you can on a PC.


texts: Why does OS X terminal need manually sourcing to display colour?

texts:
I have the following in my ~/.bash_profile file:

export CLICOLOR=1
export PS1="$FBLU[\#]$RS--$RS{\t}$RS$FWHT\W$RS$FMAG@$RS$FRED\u$RS$FCYN\$$RS$FBLU>>>$RS"
# ANSI color codes
RS="\[\033[0m\]" # reset
HC="\[\033[1m\]" # hicolor
UL="\[\033[4m\]" # underline
INV="\[\033[7m\]" # inverse background and foreground
FBLK="\[\033[30m\]" # foreground black
FRED="\[\033[31m\]" # foreground red
FGRN="\[\033[32m\]" # foreground green
FYEL="\[\033[33m\]" # foreground yellow
FBLU="\[\033[34m\]" # foreground blue
FMAG="\[\033[35m\]" # foreground magenta
FCYN="\[\033[36m\]" # foreground cyan
FWHT="\[\033[37m\]" # foreground white
BBLK="\[\033[40m\]" # background black
BRED="\[\033[41m\]" # background red
BGRN="\[\033[42m\]" # background green
BYEL="\[\033[43m\]" # background yellow
BBLE="\[\033[44m\]" # background blue
BMAG="\[\033[45m\]" # background magenta
BCYN="\[\033[46m\]" # background cyan
BWHT="\[\033[47m\]" # background white

alias ls="ls -l"
function cd() { builtin cd "$@" && ls -l; }

When I open the terminal, I get:

[1]--{08:20:18}~@mike$>>>

which proves that the formatting is working. However, I am required to source the .bash_profile file every time the terminal runs in order for the colours to display correctly:

. ~/.bash_profile

Why is this happening? What can I do so that the colours display each time the terminal runs?

I am also running the Peppermint terminal style, although I am having the same problem without it - could this have something to do with it?


texts: Skype for Business Mac Chat History Storage Location

texts:
I downloaded Skype for Business on Mac and I have tons of Chats saved, but there is no setting for deleting them after X amount of days or a way to delete them in mass. Currently, I have have to right click then delete on every single chat.

Does anyone know where the Chat history is stored on Mac?


texts:
Context: I wanted to install Windows 8 onto my Mac by repartitioning my FusionDrive. Using the partition BootCamp provided didn't work, so I found a "solution" on Apple forums to create empty space instead and have the Windows installation media create a partition. Windows created the partition, but wouldn't install.

I went back to DiskUtility to erase the partitions it created (1 big one and 2 small ones). After trying to get rid of them I'm now stuck with a large amount of empty space in my FusionDrive and DiskUtility won't let me fill it or resize anything regarding the empty space (I've tried this in recovery mode too).

Here is what my DiskUtility looks like (ignore the 16GB USB):

The two drives my FusionDrive is compromised of are disk0 (1TB HDD) and disk1 (100GB SSD) from here:

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *120.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         119.7 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         626.1 GB   disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.1 MB   disk1s3
   4:                        EFI NO NAME                 104.9 MB   disk1s4
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *739.9 GB   disk2
/dev/disk3
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *15.9 GB    disk3
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 WININSTALL              15.9 GB    disk3s1

You can see that my FusionDrive is disk2, and shows up with around 740GB.

Here is my CoreStorage list (I believe this is helpful):

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 57932797-4AC8-4475-9836-82394CEBF536
    =========================================================
    Name:         LogicalVolumeGroup
    Status:       Online
    Size:         745750200320 B (745.8 GB)
    Free Space:   353689600 B (353.7 MB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 68F90B2B-4004-4044-AFFB-9D3854006D2A
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     119690149888 B (119.7 GB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume 9CB6C261-6817-42F0-B2EB-09F057462EBD
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    1
    |   Disk:     disk1s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     626060050432 B (626.1 GB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family 9B947A52-7496-46CA-BFA5-A87DD47249FE
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume 86417B41-6400-4F81-8F7C-43AA243CDAEE
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk2
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          739901915136 B (739.9 GB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            No
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

How can I regain my FusionDrive's empty space?


texts: Change directory in Terminal if working folder moved to Trash (in interactive shell)?

texts:
So occasionally I will be working in zsh, in an interactive shell, and will shift to the Finder (or Path Finder) and while there will throw the folder, that is the current working directory in the Terminal, into the Trash.  I'll then later go back to the shell for something else, and find that the shell is still in the now-deleted folder.

Is there a way where zsh can figure out that, if the folder's parent has changed to become ".Trash", it should, say, change its directory (in my case, ideally to the desktop folder)?  But that it should only do this in an interactive shell, as opposed to the middle of a shell script or other app?

I can Google and implement but haven't been able to find the right terms, and am more sort of what I call a splicer or a kludger than any sort of real programmer.  Hoping someone's thought along these lines before.


texts: How do I stream Linux audio to Mac computer?

texts:
Basically the reverse of this question:
How do I stream Mac audio to Linux computer?
How do I stream my linux audio (PopOS) to my Mac


texts: mysql on OSX suddenly stopped functioning, unable to locate or connect

texts:
Having been using an installed version of mysql for some time without any problem, when I attempted to start the server recently it simply failed to recognise the command.

The installation is still there and I can see my databases in the filesystem. However, I cannot start the server. See the following steps, which include trying to re-add mysql to the $PATH or the bash profile, as advised in several other answers (although I don't believe this was necessary before).

pointcloud:~ james$ mysql.server start
-bash: mysql.server: command not found
pointcloud:~ james$ cd ../../usr/local/var
pointcloud:var james$ ls
cache       homebrew    log     mysql
pointcloud:var james$ cd mysql
pointcloud:mysql james$ ls
MacBook-Air.local.err           ibdata1
MacBook-Air.local.pid           ibtmp1
Otago-2.local.err           mysql
Otago-2.local.pid           mysqld_safe.pid
Pointcloud-Matrix-3885731C.local.err    otago.home.err
Pointcloud-Matrix-3885731C.local.pid    performance_schema
auto.cnf                pointcloud.err
ca-key.pem              pointcloud.local.err
ca.pem                  pointcloud.local.pid
cameras                 pointcloud.pid
client-cert.pem             pole
client-key.pem              private_key.pem
cloudpedia              public_key.pem
flightpaths             satcat
ib_logfile0             server-cert.pem
ib_logfile1             server-key.pem
pointcloud:mysql james$ echo $PATH
/Users/james/torch/install/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/X11/bin:/usr/local/git/bin:/usr/local/MacGPG2/bin
pointcloud:mysql james$ export PATH=/usr/local/var/mysql:${PATH}
pointcloud:mysql james$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/var/mysql:/Users/james/torch/install/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/opt/X11/bin:/usr/local/git/bin:/usr/local/MacGPG2/bin
pointcloud:mysql james$ mysql.server start
-bash: mysql.server: command not found
pointcloud:mysql james$

Some of the other answers refer to a /bin or /support-files directory in the mysql directory. I don't seem to have these.

I'm not aware what has changed since I last started the server. I have installed a number of Homebrew and Python packages, but not anything to do with mysql, as far as I am aware.

Any assistance in restoring access to my DBs gratefully received.

Alternatively, if there is a way of re-installing Mysql while preserving and re-importing the existing DBs, this would be a possibility.

Installed system version: OSX 10.11.4 (15E65)

Edits:

I believe my mysql version was installed under homebrew, but it was some time ago (2yrs +) when I was less proficient, and I'm unable to recall the details.

brew list does not include mysql, so that is not the case.

pointcloud:mysql james$ brew list
eigen       ilmbase     libpng      opencv      python      x264
ffmpeg      jpeg        libtiff     openexr     readline    xvid
gdbm        lame        numpy       openssl     sqlite

Searching for mysql binaries in the file system:

pointcloud:var james$ sudo find / -type f -name mysql
find: /dev/fd/3: Not a directory
find: /dev/fd/4: Not a directory
/Volumes/Ironside II/Backups.backupdb/pointcloud/2016-11-26-201238/Macintosh HD/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.6.22/bin/mysql
/Volumes/Ironside II/Backups.backupdb/pointcloud/2016-11-26-201238/Macintosh HD/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.7.9/bin/mysql
/Volumes/Ironside II/Backups.backupdb/pointcloud/2016-12-12-110455/Macintosh HD/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.6.22/bin/mysql
/Volumes/Ironside II/Backups.backupdb/pointcloud/2016-12-12-110455/Macintosh HD/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.7.9/bin/mysql
/Volumes/Ironside II/Backups.backupdb/pointcloud/2017-01-02-114333/Macintosh HD/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.6.22/bin/mysql
/Volumes/Ironside II/Backups.backupdb/pointcloud/2017-01-02-114333/Macintosh HD/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.7.9/bin/mysql
/Volumes/Ironside II/Backups.backupdb/pointcloud/2017-01-04-122725/Macintosh HD/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.6.22/bin/mysql
/Volumes/Ironside II/Backups.backupdb/pointcloud/2017-01-04-122725/Macintosh HD/usr/local/Cellar/mysql/5.7.9/bin/mysql


texts: iTunes/Music standard music organization? & how to repair?

texts:
I don't know whether Apple changed the design, but I find that I have directories of both
…/iTunes/iTunes Media/Music/(artist) and …/iTunes/iTunes Media/(artist)
Many albums have a subset of their songs with "original file cannot be found" and if I "would like to locate it," I can find it in whichever of those two paths doesn't match where the Music app thinks it should be.  But some of the ones that are usable are duplicated in the other directory.
What could cause this, and what would be the simplest way to fix it?
I do have the preferences set to copy imports and keep organized.


texts: What causes the BBC News site to scroll up like this?

texts:
On both my iPhone and iPad (both up to date with iOS/iPadOS 14.3), if I am browsing BBC News in Safari, whenever I browse back to the main page the browser window immediately scrolls straight back up to the top. This is the only site it happens on.
Video showing problem.
It’s been doing this since at least the release of iOS 13, and I filed a bug report with Apple some time ago but obviously nothing has changed.
Given the popularity of the site, I am surprised not to find any other references to this problem on the web but I would be amazed to find this only affects me. What would be causing it? I am assuming it is a problem with the way the site is coded, but what?


texts: Flickering on certain sites with Intel HD 3000

texts:
I have a mid 2011 macbookpro 15.4 2.2ghz quad core, 16gb ram and ati 6750m w/ intel hd 3000. Mac OS X 10.9.3 & 10.10 beta.

Whenever I use chrome v35 and the graphics card is set to use the intel hd 3000, I get flickering on certain sites,
the best one to show the issue is bootstrap 2.3.2 site which shows up as diagonal lines. I have tested this on other 10.9.3 intel hd 3000 machines and it seems like its a bug in the graphics driver, also I have tested it on the yosemite beta and it is still an issue.

I have attached a png from my dropbox that should work in any browser & preview, but this will only work if you are using an intel hd 3000 on a laptop.

Test Image for flickering.

Does anyone know of a fix other than to not use chrome?


texts: MacBook keeps losing internet, while Wi-Fi is connected (Bluetooth, 5Ghz)

texts:
I have a problem which I've faced for about 3 years and it's driving me crazy!

My Wi-Fi is connected and has very good signal but after a few minutes (sometimes few hours, hard to say) I have no internet. YouTube starts spinning, any open sites just stop reacting, everything is offline even though Wi-Fi is still connected.

To fix it, I "turn off Wi-Fi" and turn it on again. And I repeat this 50 times per day.

I'm not even sure if this is a problem with the MacBook.

I currently have a 2017 MBP 13", basic model. I also have another 2017 MBP 13, 2015 MBP 15" and 2015 MBP 13".

I also have a PC which is connected via USB external Wi-Fi card (some cheap TPLINK) and I don't think it's that bad. It's also 2.4ghz

I have a few routers with included AP from my provider, I recently changed to Unify Lite and nothing helped. I have 2 separated Wi-Fi, 2.4ghz and 5hz (currently 40mhz band and I've tried different configs).

What I've noticed:

when I go to another room, also closer to the AP, it's stable
When I turn off Bluetooth, it seems to be better - but I don't get it since 5GHZ shouldn't conflict with 2.4GHZ Bluetooth. I have speakers, magic mouse and magic keyboard connected (v2)
In my office, I see this problem but not that often - also MM and MK connected via Bluetooth
My girl's MBP2015 15" and MBP2017 15" don't cause problems but she works from a different room.
Occasionally I do these tips with cleaning PRAM etc and it seems to work for few hours, but later it's the same.

Anyway, I know that the answer could be:

don't use Bluetooth anymore lol
change your room lol

I'm actually being driven crazy and I want to know WHY I have this problem so I can solve it.

What diagnostics should I run?


texts:
I am in the process of wiring up some iPad carts but they bought keyboards for the iPads that need to be charged by Micro USB.

The cart is already wired for Apple's Lightning and was wondering, is there anything aside from re-wiring the cart to go from the male Lightning connector to Micro USB or maybe the male Lightning to female USB so I can plug in the Micro USB cable?


texts: macOS Catalina upgrade install with macOS Yosemite is stuck at macOS Catalina will be installed on disk

texts:
I am installing Mac OS Catalina on Mac OS mid 2012 as upgrade install from Mac OS Yosemite It has stuck for about 3 hours now at finishing bar of macOS Catalina will be installed on disk Kindly guide what to do
screenshot of where installation is got stuck

screenshot of laptop specifications


texts: What options to mirroring iPad display to Windows 10 PC that balance cost and performance?

texts:
I would like to record a lecture for my maths students. I want to write it on my iPad, mirror the iPad to my PC laptop, and use OBS on my PC to combine the image of the iPad with the input of my video camera (+ my voice).
I am aware of these methods:

Make a zoom call to myself

Use LonelyScreen ( not free, works well )

Use Apowersoft

Use Itools4. ( This is via a USB cable, but unfortunately it lags)

Please comment on the value / performance of your solution. Even though my budget is currently limited, this will be of good use to everyone to cover all options so everyone can shop at their budget to get the best performance at their price point.
Are there better/alternative ways that don't have a lag?


texts: Automatically apply tag to folder based on content

texts:
Is anyone aware of a way to automatically apply a given Finder tag to a folder based on its contents?
For example, I can easily run a Finder search for files based on their "Document Container".
But it seems there is no way to get containers based on files they contain.  What I'm trying to do is to apply tag "X" to all folders that contain one or more files with file extension "Y".
It seems there's no way to do it directly from Finder but I haven't been lucky with Automator either as I can't seem to find a way to select a range of folders based on what they contain.


texts: What's Photoshop CS6 keyboard shortcut to call Edit - Transform - Scale?

texts:
I'm not able to see any predefined keyboard shortcut to call Scale under Transform.

If such a shortcut does not exist, is there any possibility to define one, so a specific thing will be called?


texts: Do Macs in a corporate setting behave more erratically?

texts:
I've used a MacBook Pro in my last two jobs (one was circa 2012, and my current one is 2015), and at home I have an iMac (circa 2009) and MacBook Air (circa 2013).  At home my Macs perform wonderfully - they hardly ever freeze or crash.  I use the iMac for multimedia applications such as Photoshop, Illustrator, etc., and the Air is more for general purpose internet/office apps (although Lightroom is used on it as well).

The work laptops tend to experience login times of up to 15-20 seconds when connected to the corporate network (and this tends to get worse over time), and sometimes I'll open up the laptop and find it's unresponsive.  My current laptop has 16 GB RAM, and the most memory-intensive application I use is Excel, and even then I'm not manipulating huge files.

Does anyone else have a similar experience with Macs at work?


texts: What’s going wrong with printing my mini booklet?

texts:
I’m preparing a miniature book-style document—that is, I plan on stacking the sheets one on top of the other and binding them in the center, where two portrait pages are printed on each side of the landscape US letter sheet of paper.

I’m working with 2016 Microsoft Word for Mac (version 15.24) and OS X El Capitan (version 10.11.6).

The first thing I noticed was that the Mac version does not seem to have a feature that automatically prints documents booklet style. Therefore, I edited the page setup within Microsoft Word so that each page has the dimensions 5.5” × 8.5” (exactly half of a US letter sheet). Then, I exported the document as a PDF and rearranged the pages appropriately so that I could bind the document as a booklet in the middle (as opposed to a packet with a staple in the corner).

The problem occurs when I select my paper size in print preview:

It appears that when I select “US Letter” as my paper size with “2 Pages per Sheet,” Preview automatically prints two scaled-down US letter pages on one US letter sheet rather than letting each half-US-letter page take up half of the sheet.  As a result, I have a large margin of dead space around each page of content.

Are there any ways to troubleshoot this problem? How can I ‘outsmart’ the system so that my content takes up the entire sheet?

I am not a frequent visitor on this site, so please adjust the tags if appropriate.

Edit: I’ve been meaning to order A4 paper anyways since I’m an international student and I like its dimensions better anyways. I have some coming in on Monday, and the proportions of A4 paper will resolve the issue. Nevertheless, I would still like to be able to print booklets on US letter paper, just to know how.


texts: Open the same terminal without switching spaces

texts:
I'm looking for an AppleScript (or anything, really) that will do the following:

If a Terminal window is open in the current space, bring it to the front.
If not, open a new one in the current space.

I don't want it to switch to another space if a Terminal window happens to be open there.

Using iTerm2 instead of Terminal is fine, if that makes things easier :).

I've been looking around for scripts that do this, but the closest I could find is one that opens a new Terminal every time. I don't want that, because I probably have a session that I want to return to.


texts: Mac Mini screen glitch followed by fan noise then reboot

texts:
My Mac Mini 2014 has been glitching recently. I don’t know whether its releated to the recent OSX update. Without any sign, the screen would blur as the image bellow.

The keyboard and mouse has no response. Then, there is a lot of fan noise, and later the screen goes black and then the system is rebooted.

It was able recover after reboot. However, after this issues happened several times, it cannot recover now. When power on, the fan keeps making noise, and the screen is black. There is no signal in the monitor.

Is this a graphics card issue? Can I fix it by replacing the logic board?


texts: How can I change 'history' command output?

texts:
So by default .bash_history stores 500 last used commands. I changed that to 5000 by setting HISTFILESIZE=5000 in .bash_profile It seems to work.

Now when I do history it still prints 500 commands, but now it does so not from 1 to 500, but from 36 to 535 (earlier commands are stored but not printed).

I'd like for history to print 1000 last used commands. How can I achieve that?

Also recently I tried history -a and haven't noticed anything change. What does this command do? Man history doesn't help.


texts:
I got a MacBook from my work and wanted to use the locate command, but I get the message:

WARNING: The locate database (/var/db/locate.database) does not exist.
To create the database, run the following command:

  sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.locate.plist

Please be aware that the database can take some time to generate; once
the database has been created, this message will no longer appear.

I ran sudo launchctl and waited some time... It's been two days and I still see that same message. If I ran sudo launchctl again I get:

/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.locate.plist: service already loaded

Searched for the database and:

$ ls -l /var/db/locate.database
ls: /var/db/locate.database: No such file or directory

The com.apple.locate.plist file is set with the predefined schedule to update on every Saturday at 3:15

<key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
<dict>
    <key>Hour</key>
    <integer>3</integer>
    <key>Minute</key>
    <integer>15</integer>
    <key>Weekday</key>
    <integer>6</integer>
</dict>

So, it shall update once it was executed for the first time. I'm under Mojave (v10.14.2), new MacBook with SSD and Core i7. locate should take few minutes to work on new machines, but it's not the case here.

Any ideas on why it isn't working and/or how to make it work?


texts: Is there a high quality webcam-cover solution for a MacBook Air?

texts: Questions as to the nature of my paranoia aside, right now I have a piece of sticky note covering my webcam on my MacBook Air, which, as you can imagine, doesn't really complement the look and feel. Is there a decent product that people have actually used that they'd recommend to replace such a sticky note or piece of electrical tape over the webcam?


texts:
I was wondering if anyone could tell me how many MB I can send over iMessage? And when and why messages get compressed sometimes seemingly by random. I find it very awkward that Apple made this very important information secret and nowhere to be found on the net.

iPhone 6, iOS 9.x


texts:
I have an app that has 23 ratings and 4,5 stars but if you search for the app they don't appear. If you tap on the app after searching for it, the stars appear but empty. You can only see the stars if you tap on Ratings.
It's not a problem of time, the app was released in July 2013 there are ratings from that time too.!

I'm on the Spanish App Store, and looking through the categories and there are many apps that have this same problem, only few apps have the 5 star rating under their name.

So what are we doing wrong? I would assume the ratings would appear automatically.


texts: iPhone XS Max: streaming video playback stops, restart required

texts:
I’m on iOS 13.6.  Over the last 3 months or so, I'm watching YouTube TV and in the middle of a show, the video stalls.  There's no error, the app shows a spinning circle. So I tried the usual steps like toggling WiFi, switching to cellular data only, WiFi only, quit/restart app.  Nothing works, expect restarting the phone.   Once the video stall in YouTube TV, I tested playing videos on apps like Amazon Prime Video, Netflix, TED app, videos on Twitter via Twitterrific, none would play without a restart.   This is random.  I don’t know how to reproduce.  All my apps are updated.
I have over 100GB of free storage. I can play videos from my photo roll, videos in Safari,  YouTube app. Help.


texts: Can the component AV cable and the HDMI cable mirror third party apps on TV?

texts:
So I heard of the following:

1) the component AV cable and the HDMI cable for iPad 1 cannot show the game play (3rd party apps) on TV.  Those 2 cables can only show movies and photos -- that's it.

2) The HDMI cable for iPad 2 can do 100%, exact mirroring NO MATTER WHAT THE APP IS.  Whatever shows on iPad 2's screen, it will show.

Are the above 2 facts true?  And what about Component AV cables for iPad 2, can it do 100% mirroring or is it limited to movies and photos?  thanks.


texts: How to send a Apple iCal invitation from special eMail adress when I use iCloud

texts:
I use MacOS X 10.7.3. I try to send a event invitation to colleagues. I have added iCloud to my iCal to sync my calendar with.

When I try to send a invitation and choose the "business" calendar and want to invite the person, iCloud send a eMail via my Apple-ID (Which is not my working adress) and this in a not professional layout.

My question is: How can I send invitations via my business Adresse?

Thank you


texts: Internet Authentication Service (IAS) for Mac OS X does not work on macOS Sierra

texts:
I need to connect my MacBook Pro with macOS Sierra to my company using IAS for Mac OS X. If I double-click the icon of IAS for Mac OS X (made in the year 2008) it is denied due to incompatibility (between IAS for Mac OS X and macOS Sierra).

Is there an IAS for macOS Sierra?

Or is there any way to allow the installation of IAS for Mac OS X on macOS Sierra?


texts: How to create an option in the Print menu with Automator

texts:
been trawling the forums and online articles trying to figure this out but haven't managed. I'll be very grateful if someone can point me in the right direction!

Objective:
To create an option in the print menu that will output a PDF and open it immediately in a specified application. That's it.

I believe Automator should be able to do this by:

New Automator flow created - 'Print Plug-in' - This enable the option to come up in the Print menu (success!). And the description - Print Plugin receives PDF files from the print system sounds perfect - i.e. - It will input a PDF into the plug-in flow.
...? This is where I must be doing something wrong. Tried so far:

a. 'Set application for files - 'This action selects the application used to open the specified files.' - However, when I run the plug-in, nothing happens.

b. 'Launch application' - When I use this, the application I want to output the PDF to launches, but the actual PDF output doesn't open in it.

c. A combination of a and b - ie - Launch application then set it for files - This has a similar result to b.

I'm at a loss of what to do here. I suspect it must be something very simple! Would appreciate any help.

Thanks in advance!

Update with the how-to

Added as answer..


texts: I have an MacBook Air with the OS Catalina installed. I need to change my admin account to a Standard User account.So how would you change a account from Administrator to a Standard account by using Recovery or Single User Mode, while not creating another admin account.


texts: Sources for "ping" bundled with Mojave 10.14.6?

texts:
I am interested in knowing whether the "ping" utility shipped with Mojave 10.14.6 sources are open.

man ping ends with BSD March 29, 2013 BSD, but it seems that FreeBSD's version of ping is not the same as the one I use locally:
https://github.com/freebsd/freebsd/blob/master/sbin/ping/ping.c


texts: Mounting Time Machine .sparsebundle fails

texts:
I have a Time Machine backup volume that is not mountable anymore. I tried to repair it with:

fsck_hfs -drfy /dev/disk1s2

It showed the following error:

** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Invalid catalog PEOF
(4, 0)
** The volume   could not be verified completely.
volume check failed with error 7
volume type is pure HFS+
primary MDB is at block 0 0x00
alternate MDB is at block 0 0x00
primary VHB is at block 2 0x02
alternate VHB is at block 399999998 0x17d783fe
sector size = 512 0x200
VolumeObject flags = 0x07
total sectors for volume = 400000000 0x17d78400
total sectors for embedded volume = 0 0x00
CheckHFS returned -1317, fsmodified = 0

How can I repair it and retrieve the data from the last backup?


texts: iMessage doesn't say "delivered" or "not delivered"

texts: I sent an iMessage from my iPod touch to my friends iphone on Monday. It didn't say delivered or not delivered. It was just nothing. His phone is on (I know because my other friends are iMessaging him) and my friend said her messages don't say "delivered" at the bottom but they still talk. Mine always say delivered at the bottom. So is this an error, like it didn't go through, or is he just ignoring me?


texts: Airport Express can't handle multiple devices

texts:
I have an Airport Express connected to my modem (which provides 60 mbps download speed). The Airport Express is in DHCP + NAT mode, has one computer connected to it via Ethernet, and has other devices connected to it via Wi-Fi.
For some reason, when one device on the network is using a lot of download throughput to connect to the Internet (e.g., video streaming, downloading software updates, etc.), the other devices are unable to get more than minimal throughput to the Internet (e.g., simple webpages barely load). The device using a lot of throughput could be connected via Wi-Fi and even the computer connected via Ethernet will get little throughput.
Has anyone experienced this before and know how to ensure all devices have reasonable throughputs? I assume the issue is with the Airport Express. I have tried restarting the router along with reseting it and setting up the network again.


texts: How can I get unblocked from Apple CheckCoverage?

texts:
Apple has a website that allows you to check warranty coverage/AppleCare status by entering the serial number of an Apple device.

I was recently updating inventory records at the office where I work, and I think I used this tool too many times in a row because now I'm blocked. Since a week ago, every time I visit I am presented with this error message:

  403 Forbidden

  Apple

Who should I contact, or what can I do to get unblocked from this? And is there a better way for businesses to check warranty status on a larger amount of devices/serial numbers?


texts: May I have a list of "System" group names, and their respective gid(s)?

texts:
I know there are group names such as "Staff" and "Admin", but are those the only ones? I suspect that the root user should also be assigned in a group. Using the command dscacheutil -q user tells me the gid of root - 0. And if a user account is an admin, then isn't it in both "Admin" and "Staff" group(s)?

By running the command ls -la /Users, I get the following output:

Nicholass-MacBook:~ Ee$ ls -la /Users
total 32
drwxr-xr-x  12 root     admin    408 Nov  3 15:11 .
drwxr-xr-x@ 35 root     wheel   1258 Oct 29 20:21 ..
-rw-r--r--@  1 root     admin  12292 Oct 27 09:02 .DS_Store
-rw-r--r--   1 root     wheel      0 Aug 25 16:58 .localized
drwxrwx---   5 root     admin    170 Nov  3 08:00 Deleted Users
drwxr-xr-x+ 21 Ee       staff    714 Nov  3 08:06 Ee
drwx------+ 84 root     admin   2856 Oct 26 06:49 Ee (Deleted)
drwxr-xr-x+ 11 EeJ      staff    374 Nov  3 15:07 EeJ
drwxr-xr-x+ 14 900      admin    476 Oct 24  2012 Ee******** (Deleted)
drwxr-xr-x   3 root     admin    102 Oct 27 06:50 Old Ee (frm Snow Leopard)
drwxr-xr-x+ 11 ParAcnt  staff    374 Nov  3 15:11 ParAcnt
drwxrwxrwt   6 root     wheel    204 Nov  1 18:18 Shared


texts: How to stop iOS11 from constantly asking to accept iCoud terms and conditions

texts:
Since I upgraded my iPad to iOS11 it is constantly popping up a little window asking me to accept the new iCloud terms and conditions. When I view the terms and conditions and DISAGREE (I have never used iCloud; signed up for iCloud; or want to use iCloud) it just goes back to popping up the little window constantly.
How can I get rid of this obnoxious window?

Any help greatly appreciated,
Ted


texts: Which font is shown in the Visual Studio 2015 OS X sample code?

texts: What is the name of this font shown in Visual Studio 2015 for OS X?


texts: Is there a fix for action extensions to appear consistently in a contextual menu (in the same context)?

texts:
I'm running macOS Mojave (10.14.6) and can’t seem to get action extensions to appear consistently in a contextual menu (right-click menu). One of the best-known action extensions is Apple's "Markup", which can be invoked on any image.

Now, I have an app called Clean Text which includes an action extension that can be invoked via contextual menu on a text selection in an app, and which includes filters that can strip extra spaces and returns. The problem is that when I invoke a contextual menu on a text selection, much more often than not, I see a standard contextual menu (with cut/copy/paste and services list), but not "Clean Text".

In case it helps with troubleshooting this, when this extension does appear, the contextual menu also indicates that there are 4 new ones with a badge, but opening System Preferences > Extensions > Actions does not corroborate this. Any idea how to troubleshoot?

Here is a screenshot taken from a different text-based app (Drafts), where the standard contextual menu appears:

And here is the action menu that appears on the same text:

Finally, here is what System Preferences > Extensions > Actions looks like. Notice no blue dots indicating newness?


texts: Yosemite keeps dropping WiFI connectivity

texts:
After upgrading to Yosemite, my Macbook Air drops off the WiFi connection many times a day. The following ping test demonstrates that restarting WiFi leads to a successful reconnection.

$ ping 8.8.8.8
PING 8.8.8.8 (8.8.8.8): 56 data bytes
Request timeout for icmp_seq 0
Request timeout for icmp_seq 1
Request timeout for icmp_seq 2
Request timeout for icmp_seq 3
Request timeout for icmp_seq 4
Request timeout for icmp_seq 5
Request timeout for icmp_seq 6   (Turn Wifi Off, Turn Wifi On)
Request timeout for icmp_seq 7
Request timeout for icmp_seq 8
Request timeout for icmp_seq 9
Request timeout for icmp_seq 10
Request timeout for icmp_seq 11
Request timeout for icmp_seq 12
Request timeout for icmp_seq 13
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=14 ttl=49 time=68.005 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=15 ttl=49 time=203.014 ms
64 bytes from 8.8.8.8: icmp_seq=16 ttl=49 time=227.464 ms

Why does Yosemite keep dropping Wifi? Mountain Lion was working great. My iPhone is connects to the same Wifi network without a problem.


texts: How can I disable the music player on an iPhone 4S lock screen

texts:
How do I disable the music player controls on the iPhone 4S lock screen?
I've tried setting the "triple click home button" to "off", but it didn't help.


texts: Mac Partition won't boot after Bootcamp Partition Resize

texts:
I made a huge mistake. I resized my Bootcamp Windows Partition and messed up with my Mac partition; without any data, since my sister needed my backup hard drive for something urgent.

To recover the data, I tried to install a new Mac partition onto the Bootcamp partition.

Now I try to recover the original Mac partition.

These are the outputs:

Testdisk:

     Partition                  Start        End    Size in sectors

 1 P EFI System                    40     409639     409600 [EF]
 2 P Windows Recovery Env      409640  400800263  400390624 [Ma]
 3 P Mac HFS                400800264  488965175   88164912 [Apple_HFS_Untitled_2]
 4 P Mac Boot               488965176  490234711    1269536 [Recovery HD]

diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2: DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC               205.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                  Apple_HFS BOOTCAMP                45.1 GB    disk0s3
   4:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s4
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *252.9 GB   disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Ohne Titel              252.5 GB   disk1s2
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *31.6 GB    disk2
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 UNTITLED                31.6 GB    disk2s1
/dev/disk3
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *21.0 MB    disk3
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         32.3 KB    disk3s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS rEFIt                   20.9 MB    disk3s2

sudo gpt show disk0
Password:
      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  400390624      2  GPT part - DE94BBA4-06D1-4D40-A16A-BFD50179D6AC
  400800264   88164912      3  GPT part - 48465300-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  488965176    1269536      4  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  490234712          7
  490234719         32         Sec GPT table
  490234751          1         Sec GPT header
Thomass-MacBook-Pro:~ Thomas$


texts: Should you power down your iphone before charging in order to prolong battery life?

texts:
I've just had to replace a second battery on my iPhone 6 in under a year. The batteries were most likely damaged due to overheating. I talked to the repair person about the best way to prevent this in the future. He gave me three suggestions:

Avoid charging your phone for more than 4 hours at a time (ie- don't charge over night).
Remove from the case before charging or whenever it gets hot.
Power down the phone before charging.

Based on many posts in this forum, #1 is incorrect #2 seems like quite a good idea. I might even purchase a different case that would give the phone better breathing room.

However, I am unsure about #3. Does powering down your iPhone before a charge help make the battery last? Does it do anything positive?


texts: How to change date format on menu bar without extra apps?

texts:
This is how it looks right now

These are my "Language & Region" settings

There is clearly a bug involved. I don't want use an app to solve such ridiculously simple prolem. It should be reading this format from somewhere right?


texts: Since I have osxfuse installed it would be nice if I could use it. There are a lot of (heavily) outdated articles here, saying that it is not possible. Is this still the case?


texts: Unable to merge partitions or reinstall OSX

texts:
I have 1 SSD disc in MacBook Pro mid 2009 with 2 partitions and I would like to make a clean installation.

So.. using Disc Utility I have erased both partitions (OS X Extended - Journaled). So far so good. Now I wanted to merge both partitions and when I do that I get "Operation failed.. Couldn't unmount disk". When I click done I see both partitions are unmounted.

When I try to merge partitions again I get instant error "The volume Macintosh HDD 1 is not journaled. To enable journaling click Enable journaling in the File menu". I did that but no luck. Still the same error.

So I gave up merging partitions and tried to install OS X. But no luck.. there is no partition to select during the installation process. Only the recovery partition is visible.

I tried to unmount discs from terminal using diskutil but none of partitions can be unmounted.

Please help me! Thank you.


texts:
As I know you can find a limit of shortcut in system preference > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcut
where you can find other shortcut and how must change it? for example if I change the cmd + O to enter where can I go? is there any software that can do it for me or I must do it in terminal (How?).

P.S: I read some where that list of shortcuts for each apps save in Localized.rsrc but I have 2 problem?

I check and in snow leopard I don't have this file.
How can find general shortcut related to which apps? like capture image or copy & pase or ...


texts: Is there any differences in what will be backed up between an encrypted and unencrypted Time Machine Backup?

texts:
I do make encrypted Time Machine backups to my Synology NAS which works exactly how I want it. But I recently had to restore from that backup and it's obviously very slow.
Since this was a planned restore I thought next time I'll do an unencrypted backup to my external SSD right before restoring and will have a much faster restore.

Am I right that restoring from an unencrypted backup will be faster?
Is there anything that Time Machine does not include into an unencrypted backup which would be included into an encrypted one?


texts: How to work around the issue that I can't access some iStore apps of a different country?

texts:
My family is spread across the world and I live and work in a different country than my native one.

My iPhone and Apple ID are registered to my country of residence.

On a few occasions, recently, I tried buying apps that were available only in my home country (I don't know exactly why) - but I got an error message saying I couldn't buy apps in that country with my current Apple ID.

First, I am not entirely sure I understand the rationale for such a restriction. Is it some kind of trade embargo?

Anyway, the main question is what can I do to circumvent this pointless restriction and still buy apps that are present only in my home country?

P.S.: I saw there were a few similar questions, but I am addressing specifically the ability to buy/download the app and not just view it (I can already view it!).


texts: Question Regarding Bootcamp and Windows 7

texts:
I am possible going to install windows 7 on my iMac using the standard bootcamp setup and have a question about this setup.

I will store all of my large movies on the mac and will need good access to them, once windows 7 has been installed is it able to access HFS+ partitions at a reasonable speed and more importantly, will i be able to create an SMB share of the folders on the mac through windows?

Thanks for any feedback.


texts: What is the normal temperature for a Retina 15" unibody mid-2015 MBP?

texts: The CPU and GPU temperatures while browsing the web.


texts:
I have an iPad Mini (64gb wifi only model running iOS 6) and it will periodically drop the WiFi connection and will take some time to reconnect. My other devices (laptop and iPhone 4 [iOS5]) do not seem to suffer from this issue. (I wonder if the iPhone does have this issue, however, when wifi drops the cellular data kicks in and I do not notice the drop). I am left to wonder why this is happening and what I can do about this issue?

My router is an Actiontec C1000A (ISP is Century Link).


texts: How come Google Maps isn't available to App Store accounts from Israel?

texts:
When I browse to Google Apps for iPhone with my iPhone and click on Google Maps, I'm redirected to the App Store but receive the following note:

  Your request could not be completed. The item you've requested is not
  currently available in the Israeli Store, but it is available in the
  U.S. Store. Tap Change Store to view this item.

When I click Change Store, I get:

  Cannot connect to iTunes Store

How come?


texts: Can I (or should I) use a MacBook charger on my iPhone?

texts: I recently got a MacBook with the USB-C charger. It comes with a 29-watt power brick, and I was wondering if I should use this to charge my iPhone. I've heard that the iPad power brick (I think 10 watts) charges the phone faster. I don't expect to be able to charge the phone proportionally faster, but would the MacBook brick damage the phone? I would rather only have to carry around one charging brick around campus. Also, I have a USB to USB-C converter.


texts:
First, some background:

For those of you who edit photos using Apple software, you may have encountered AAE sidecar files, which are generated automatically by the Photos app (for iOS or macOS) when you export an edited image. These sidecars contain the data representing the edits made to the original image, such as crops or recoloring. Following an export, these AAE sidecar files will usually be located in the same directory as the original, exported image/JPEG file.

Theoretically, edits made to an image using the Photos app (on iOS or macOS) are "non-destructive," meaning that you can always revert to the original image anytime after editing.

Now, the problem:

For the life of me, I cannot understand if these AAE files are actually good for anything once they exist. If you try to import an original image file and its AAE into the Photos app, you only see the original image. The edits don't seem to transfer.

Likewise, advice from Apple and user forums regarding the transfer of edited photos suggest that you use iMessage, AirDrop, or other methods to copy the edited image itself to the new destination. This process, however, defeats the idea of non-destructive edits since it will prevent you from ever reverting to the original image.

Finally, the question:

Does the AAE sidecar file serve any purpose? If so, what does it actually offer a user or program once it exists? Can we do anything with it?


texts: Directory in my mac filesystem has sub directories with greater size than parent directory

texts:
I have some weirdness on my mac's filesystem nowadays.

I have a dir in my home dev to store my programs and git repos. Size of the dev is 630 MB. Size of the dev/todos is 637 MB and there a re some other sub dirs in this dev of 175MB and so.

What is the reason for that. Is my mac going crazy or it is git or something?


texts: macOS Sierra 10.12.6: Quicktime Edit options unavailable

texts: I am unable to do anything meaningful in Quicktime, as the Edit options (as well as those from other tabs) are inaccessible. Any thoughts?


texts: Can't access root from remote desktop when root is already logged in

texts:
I can access all users even root using remote desktop from Windows to Mac with the TightVNC Viewer.

The problem is trying to access root from my PC when someone in Mac already logged in root, then TightVNC Viewer freezes and I have to close it.

This only happen to me since Mac OS X 10.8, 10.9, and 10.10.

I gave permissions to every single user.


texts: Mac mini fan replacement: amperage rating

texts:
I have a 2011 Mac mini server (quad-core i7, 2.0GHz) and the fan is going bad.

The current fan, part no. 610-0164 is rated 12V 0.66A.

The widely available replacement fans on eBay are rated 12V 0.5A.  They are marked as part no. 610-0069.

Does anyone have evidence that the replacement 0.5A fans are suitable for this computer, or should I try to find an exact replacement?


texts: Broken Command Line Tools on Sierra, can't install Node.js native packages, build Python etc

texts:
I'm on macOS Sierra 10.12.1 (16B2555) with Xcode 8.1 & Command Line Tools installed but I can't install any Node.js native add-ons, I can't compile Python etc.

I've tried removing Xcode and Command Line Tools (the latter via removing /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools) and then reinstalled Xcode from App Store and Command Line Tools via xcode-select --install but the problem is still there. For example, this is what happens if I try to install the contextify npm package on Node.js 7.2.0 or 6.9.1:

$ npm install contextify

> contextify@0.1.15 install /Users/mgol/_/node_modules/contextify
> node-gyp rebuild

gyp WARN download NVM_NODEJS_ORG_MIRROR is deprecated and will be removed in node-gyp v4, please use NODEJS_ORG_MIRROR
gyp WARN download NVM_NODEJS_ORG_MIRROR is deprecated and will be removed in node-gyp v4, please use NODEJS_ORG_MIRROR
gyp WARN download NVM_NODEJS_ORG_MIRROR is deprecated and will be removed in node-gyp v4, please use NODEJS_ORG_MIRROR
  CXX(target) Release/obj.target/contextify/src/contextify.o
make: ccache: No such file or directory
make: *** [Release/obj.target/contextify/src/contextify.o] Error 1
gyp ERR! build error

It works fine on a colleague's machine with the same OS.

I sometimes see App Store notifying me of a Command Line Tools upgrade for Xcode 7.3 which seems off, maybe my setup has some leftover from the old Xcode?

Any ideas? I feel lost in what else I can try.


texts: How easy is it to reinstall MacOS and change my disk setup?

texts:
I have a 2012 MacMini running Mojave. Originally MacOS was on the built-in 1Tb HDD but I got an external SSD and set this up as the main drive for OS, applications, etc. Given the Mac will no longer boot without the external drive, I believe I must have removed the original OS from the internal drive.

I would like to revert to booting from the internal drive, in a way that causes as little disruption as possible. Ideally I would be able to move installed apps rather than lose them, and certainly not have to format the drive. The external drive would be removed or become just a data drive.

How can this be achieved?


texts: iMac in recovery mode, can’t install macOS no matter what I try

texts:
My wife and I purchased an desktop iMac A1311 from Facebook market place. It was perfectly functional but the seller hadn’t removed any of their personal info before selling it so my wife erased it (I believe it was a factory reset that she did). The computer now only boots in recovery mode, and we are unable to reinstall the operating system because it’s requiring the password of the person that sold it to us. We’ve tried contacting them for either a password or even proof of purchase to bring it to Apple, but they will not reply.
So currently we are trying to reinstall the macOS from a bootable thumb drive. I succeeded in making the drive from another computer, but that’s only lead me to more hiccups. For one, I can’t get the computer to start up in the boot menu. No matter what keys I hold down at it opens in recovery mode.
I thought I figured out how to work with this when I went into the operating system installer and saw my thumb drive as an option, but when I click on it, it says the disk is locked. So I’ve been trying to figure out how to unlock it, including the verify and repair, but when I clock repair it says it cannot be done.
So help with any of this would be greatly appreciated. Either getting to the boot menu, unlocking the disk, or even better if there is some other easy solution to getting around the issue with the password to get macOS up and running!


texts: Is it possible to route traffic from the outside to a virtualbox VM on the inside of a macOS Mojave?

texts:
I have a Mac (hermione, IP 192.168.2.86) that runs a Virtualbox VM with address 192.168.97.1. netstat -rn on that machine says:

192.168.97         link#23            UC              2        0 vboxnet      !
192.168.97.1       a:0:27:0:0:2       UHLWI           0        4     lo0
192.168.97.100     8:0:27:f0:e0:3e    UHLWIi          1        2 vboxnet    961

When I'm on that Mac, everything is fine, I can ping 192.168.97.1 (VirtuaBbox itself) and 192.168.1.100 (the VM).

Now, I want to be able to reach these from the outside. So on another Mac (luna) I've tried setting up routes to do that, e.g.

sudo route -v -t add -net 192.168.97 192.168.2.86

or

sudo route -v add -host 192.168.97.1 192.168.2.86

Telling luna to route traffic for 192.168.97.1 to 192.168.2.86 (the IP address of hermione).

But traffic won't get through. Is macOS capable of this at all and if so, what am I doing wrong?


texts: I want to have magic move animate cropping and image/changing its mask

texts:
This would essentially enable me to do things like:

simulate scrolling a web page
prezi style panning (without it having to be for the whole friggin presentation)

It does not seem possible to annotate image properties? (crop/mask position)


texts: Convert Apple iCloud Notes to Google Docs

texts:
Is it possible to convert some of my Apple Notes that are currently in my iCloud, over to Google Docs?

I use about 7 iMacs a week for work but the network here at work has been odd with letting me login to iCloud. Apple's server has issues connecting.

But all I really need is my Notes to come over to Google Docs so I can view and edit them whenever I wish while on the web. I've tried copy & paste but the format gets lost. Any ideas on how to bring those over along with the text format?


texts: Hardware replacement to fix not-working MacBook keys

texts:
1 1/2 weeks ago I had the glorious idea to clean the keyboard of my white MacBook Mid2010 with a wet cloth. Now, several keys are not working anymore, and I guess there might be a close-circuit hardware issue.

When the MacBook is open, I cannot enter the sleep mode, since it awakes itself immediately. So, I am using my MacBook for almost 2 weeks as a home computer now: keeping it closed, hooked up to a screen with bluetooth mouse and keyboard.

Right now I cannot afford it to send it to Apple, because I am authoring a book that is due end of April. But immediately after this is done, I might want to send in my MacBook to Apple to get it fixed.

Now, I am wondering if someone had similar issues and sent it to Apple? It would be interesting how long such a repair might take (within a week?) and how much it approx. would cost? Because maybe it's not worth repairing this Mid 2010 MacBook, and maybe I should get a used MacBookPro instead?


texts: iMac 21.5" Late 2009 and external monitor at 2560x1440 with MDP-DP cable?

texts:
I just want to know if someone has tested if an external monitor works at 2560x1440 with an iMac 21.5" Late 2009 connected via Mini Displayport - Displayport cable. I can't find anything certain on the web.

Thanks


texts: Intermittent AirPort issue on MacBook Pro Early 2015

texts:
I have an Apple MacBook Pro Early 2015, with AirPort issues.

The problem is extremely complex, but effectively it means I get page time out intermittently.

I've reinstalled macOS from scratch, without backup, twice.
The issue only happens on Wi-Fi.
It happens when on WPA Personal Wi-Fi, but not Enterprise, unsure about Unsecured and WEP.
It happens on 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz on any wireless channel, regardless of interference.
I can still ping local devices, but HTTP requests to the router's config page for example do not work, and internet requests either.
It isn't DNS related as I've tried 3 DNSs and tested with IP addresses
There is no Firewall, or tools like LittleSnitch running
I can see when the issue occours by pinging 8.8.8.8
Other devices on the same internet connection both wired and wireless are unaffected.
The issue is resolved by a reboot.
I've reproduced this at other locations, as well as trying a new Router from my ISP, Virgin Media, and buying a Ubiquiti UniFi AP-AC-LR
We've run Wireless Diagnostics, which Apple Engineering has looked at and not found anything.
They have changed the AirPort card
Tried PRAM and SMC resets, and most the stuff on this thread:
Wifi Keeps Dropping Macbook Pro 13in Retina Early 2015

I'm completely out of ideas, Apple are refusing to replace the Mac, and my work colleague has the identical issue on a newer but same model of MacBook Pro.

Does anyone have any idea how to proceed, I have been waiting for Apple to deal with this and they seem to have no idea, what the issue is.


texts: Does macOS Sierra do mac address randomisation? I know that iOS does it

texts:
Does macOS Sierra do mac address randomisation?
I ask if because wonder if I need to run SpoofMAC when in hotel or foreigns hotspots (mobile MacBook Air)

brew install spoof-mac
spoof-mac list
sudo brew services start spoof-mac
sudo spoof-mac randomize en0


texts: Does the time machine backup include the backups of my iPhone?

texts:
I have taken a full backup of my iPhone on my MacBook (about 200GB), which has taken my MacBook storage to 90%! Then I have taken a backup of my MacBook using Time Machine on my external hard drive. My question: does the time machine backup in my external hard drive include the iPhone iOS backup?

I want to know because I want to delete the 200GB iOS backup from my MacBook. Both my iPhone and MacBook are running the latest OS.


texts: Is it safe to delete .pkg/.dmg files after installation?

texts: Can I delete a pkg dmg zip file after I install its content? I mean if this is a little app can I delete the installation file without breaking the installed application?


texts: Disable MacBook Pro 2018 Mojave Keyboard

texts:
Simply put, I was wondering how I could disable my MacBook's keyboard temporarily.

It used to be possible in earlier versions of macOS by following this answer. This no longer is the case.

I have a MacBook Pro 2018 on macOS 10.14.6.


texts: OS-X: How to copy files according to their file types from an external hard drive onto an OS-X computer?

texts:
I have a lot of files (music, pictures, documents) on an external hard drive that I want to copy into the respective folders on OS-X. I would like to automate the copying process and put all .bmp, .jpg and .jpeg into the pictures folder on OS-X, .mp3 into music and so on for all the different file types.

How can I automate this and what software could I use?


texts: Automator workflow - connect to server when locked onto a specific network (Wi-Fi/Ethernet)

texts:
I'm trying to get Automator to complete the following workflow:

1) IF Wi-Fi network is "Network_Name1" or "Network_IP1" (or any other way to identify a specific network connection):

TRUE: Jump to 3
FALSE: Jump to 2

2) IF Ethernet Thunderbolt Slot network is "Network_Name2" or "Network_IP2" (or any other way to identify a specific network connection):

TRUE: Jump to 3
FALSE: Workflow complete (nothing will happen in this case)

3) Complete the following actions:

Get specified server
Connect to server

I don't know how to complete arguments/expressions 1 and 2. Anyone able to help please?

When identifying a network, could you please outline the most relevant way to identify a specific network?


texts:
I have a 16GB iPhone 4 running iOS 7. In Settings > Usage > Storage, it says I'm using 13.3 GB and have 240 MB left, but I added up all of the space the apps/their data take up and it comes to 9GB (and thats rounding up!).

I listen to and download a lot of podcasts and for the last few months I've been sitting at ~1GB of free space, with the podcast app having trouble downloading anything after there's less than 600MB free. Over the last day though, I've been downloading a bunch of podcasts that fail to download, but take up space. For example, I had ~400MB and tried to download a ~100MB podcast. It failed but in settings it says I now have ~300MB of free space.

I've looked around for answers online, but I couldn't find anything that seemed to relate. I've tried turning it on and off again a bunch but that didn't help.

Has anyone else had this problem? Is there an easy solution?

Thanks in advance.


texts: How can I transfer Clash of Clans data into Game Center?

texts: I was transferring stuff from a 4s to a 5s and accidentally deleted Clash of Clans off of Game Center. It is still stored on my old phone, but not in Game Center. Is there any way that I can transfer it? I have put a lot of time and some money into that game.


texts:
I used to have a AppleScript snippet which convert my date to this format : 08/25/2017 (MM/DD/YY)
The source date format changed and I don't managed to make it work

e.g :

set creationDate to "2013-04-03"

set [M, ordinal, Y] to the words of creationDate

set the text item delimiters to {"st", "nd", "rd", "th"}
set cardinal to (first text item of ordinal) --> "2"
set cardinal to text -1 thru -2 of ("0" & cardinal) --> "02"

set the text item delimiters to space
set date_string to {M, cardinal, Y} as text

-- date -j -f '%B %d %Y' 'June 02 2012' +'%d/%m/%Y'
set command to {¬
    "date -j -f '%B %d %Y'", ¬
    quoted form of the date_string, ¬
    "+'%d/%m/%Y'"}

The creation date is an example but it's taken from a webpage and it's not fix.

here the result I received

  {"date -j -f '%B %d %Y'", "'2013 04 03'", "+'%d/%m/%Y'"}


texts: What key command is this keyboard sending

texts:
This iPad keyboard has a keyboard button that unhides the on-screen keyboard when the keyboard is connected.

What command is this sending?

I've tried a keylogger on my laptop, but no joy.

Thanks.


texts:
I have scoured the web trying to figure out how to install XGboost. A simple pip or conda install does not work, even though it worked for many of my colleagues. I went to the installation guide which directed me to run the following to install gcc:

brew install gcc --without-multilib

To confirm I already have it installed I tried again and received the following message:

Warning: gcc-7.1.0 already installed

So I should be good there.
Then I clone the repository with:

git clone --recursive https://github.com/dmlc/xgboost

and then run the following:

cd xgboost; cp make/config.mk ./config.mk; make -j4

and run in to the following errors:

  c++ -std=c++11 -Wall -Wno-unknown-pragmas -Iinclude   -Idmlc-core/include -Irabit/include -O3 -funroll-loops -msse2 -fPIC -fopenmp -MM -MT build/learner.o src/learner.cc >build/learner.d
  c++ -std=c++11 -Wall -Wno-unknown-pragmas -Iinclude   -Idmlc-core/include -Irabit/include -O3 -funroll-loops -msse2 -fPIC -fopenmp -MM -MT build/logging.o src/logging.cc >build/logging.d
  c++ -std=c++11 -Wall -Wno-unknown-pragmas -Iinclude   -Idmlc-core/include -Irabit/include -O3 -funroll-loops -msse2 -fPIC -fopenmp -MM -MT build/c_api/c_api.o src/c_api/c_api.cc >build/c_api/c_api.d
  c++ -std=c++11 -Wall -Wno-unknown-pragmas -Iinclude   -Idmlc-core/include -Irabit/include -O3 -funroll-loops -msse2 -fPIC -fopenmp -MM -MT build/c_api/c_api_error.o src/c_api/c_api_error.cc >build/c_api/c_api_error.d
  clangclang: : errorerror: : unsupported option '-fopenmp'unsupported option '-fopenmp'

  clang: error: unsupported option '-fopenmp'
  clang: error: unsupported option '-fopenmp'
  make: * [build/c_api/c_api_error.o] Error 1
  make:  Waiting for unfinished jobs....
  make:  [build/logging.o] Error 1
  make: * [build/learner.o] Error 1
  make: *** [build/c_api/c_api.o] Error 1

I can't make sense of what the issue is, but really need XGboost to run through Python on my computer!

installation guide:
http://xgboost.readthedocs.io/en/latest/build.html

system version: macOS Sierra Version 10.12.4


texts:
some time ago I ran into problem, sometimes when i try to shut down mac it won't shut down loading wheel is just spinning and I have to shut down with the button. I tried SMC and PRAM reset, the problem keeps occurring. I am guessing it's some kind of problem with the apps, because it happens EVERY time if i press ,,reopen apps'' at the shutdown pop-up (when it happens only sometimes without that box checked). How can I solve this problem?

P.S. I don't have Parallels installed, I know it sometimes causes the problem.


texts: Macbook white screen of death not able to boot

texts:
My macbook 2011 17.5" won't start.

I tried all options listed here https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201255 on how to boot with different keycodes. Only single user mode seems to work everything else ends in white screen a few seconds after the apple logo. I can choose the startup disk and tried booting from a backup but that also resulted in whitescreen.

Is there anything else I can try?
Maybe reset the system completely somehow?


texts: Startup disk only shows: Mac OS X Base System

texts:
A 2010 Macbook Pro was dropped. It will not boot in recovery mode. when I boot from a USB with Mountain Lion on it I can see only: Disk 1 -> Mac OS OX Base System.

I was hoping to get data off the drive.

I have installed Mountain Lion on an External USB HDD and it will boot and run from that. In Disk Utility no other drive shows up.

Only when booting from the USB drive do I see: Disk 1 -> Mac OS Base System.

The only option is to "Verify Disk" and it checks ok. Repair Disk options are grayed out.

Would something like DiskWarrior be recommended?


texts: Macbook Pro 17 Early 2008 - Mountain Lion - SSD Slow Performance

texts: I have noticed significant performance degradation on my Samsung EVO running on an Old Macbook Pro, Intel Core 2 duo. Are there any SSD tips that I should apply to this hard drive? Will Trim Enabler make things quicker?


texts: Can't delete folder - operation not permitted

texts:
I try to delete the folders in my update directory /Library/Updates, because my updates are corrupt and are failing. I need them to get downloaded again.

I tried it with the terminal like this sudo rm -Rf 041-57076 but it does fail with operation not permitted.

The output of ls -lO /Library/Updates/ is:

drwxr-xr-x 9 root wheel restricted 288 27 Mai 15:54 041-57076
...

I only posted the relevant line


texts: Why does Powerpoint for Mac not preserve filenames with a slash (/)?

texts:
I am designing lectures in Powerpoint (the latest released version this year) for a class I'm teaching soon, and created filenames based on the date that I will give them:

But if I open 9/22.pptx (or any one of the other files) in Powerpoint, it does not preserve the filename:

(See that the 9/ part was removed.)

Is there a reason for this? If I open the presentation in Keynote (the latest version), the name is preserved:


texts: Mail, Automation can't be configured after Time Machine restore after OS re-install

texts:
ENVIRONMENT: MacPro 4,1, 56GB RAM, running Mojave via DosDude's patch kit.
SYNOPSIS:

I unwisely installed the latest Mojave full update (Mojave Security
Update 2021-002 10.14.6). Afterward, my second monitor did not work
at all (Apple Cinema HD Display on NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 512 MB).
I went back to DosDude's post-install patches, and tried to
re-patch the "Legacy Video Card" patch. Still no joy.
I tried to re-intall the complete DosDude system, but it refused to put an older
system on top of a newer one.
I made sure I had a good Time Machine backup, then wiped the disk, re-intalled the original DosDude system (ticking "Legacy Video Card") and voila — second monitor worked again!
I then used Migration Assistant.app to try to put things back how they were, using my Time Machine backup.

When the restore finished about 16 hours later, I re-booted and logged in. First thing I discovered is that Mail.app no longer works. It wants to be completely re-configured. When I try to configure gmail, it says Google "didn't authorize" — after successfully going through the linked login procedure!
Then I tried connecting to my local IMAP/SMTP server, using the same credentials that are working on a similarly-configured laptop. It accepts my credentials (after many minutes of thinking about it!), and then asks which apps I want to use with those credentials, including Mail and Notes. No matter how I tick those boxes and click "Done," it presents me with the same dialogue with an endless "Next" button that apparently doesn't do anything useful.
While digging deeper, I noticed that many of my custom enhancements (Albert, Carabiner, Default Folder, etc.) no longer work. They ask for access to Automation in System Preferences, but then there is no way to change anything. (These were all working before I did the restore.)

My guess is that something in the restore has messed up permissions, ACLs, or attributes for some of the files that System Preferences uses. But /System/Library/PreferencePanes looks exactly like it does on my fully-functioning laptop, running the same OS and patch kit:

Any thought on what I should try next, short of another complete re-install?


texts: Macbook Pro Superdrive Only Works With DVD-ROM

texts:
I have a 2007 Macbook Pro with a Superdrive. However, whenever I insert anything other than a DVD-ROM, it waits a moment and then ejects it. It should be able to read and write DVD-R, -RW, etc. - below is an excerpt from System Information:

MATSHITA DVD-R   UJ-857E:

Firmware Revision:  ZA0E
Interconnect:   ATAPI
Burn Support:   Yes (Apple Shipping Drive)
Cache:  2048 KB
Reads DVD:  Yes
CD-Write:   -R, -RW
DVD-Write:  -R, -R DL, -RW, +R, +R DL, +RW
Write Strategies:   CD-TAO, CD-SAO, DVD-DAO
Media:  To show the available burn speeds, insert a disc and choose File > Refresh Information

Thanks in advance!


texts: TestFlight review process vs. App Store review process

texts:
Is it possible to pass the TestFlight review process and then fail the App Store review process with the same build?

In other words, if my build successfully passes the TestFlight review process, is it re-reviewed with more stringent requirements before being accepted into the App Store?


texts: Why does my iPhone 5c say it cannot take new photos even after I delete 100 or so?

texts:
I tried to take a photo but got an error message saying storage was full.

So, I deleted about 100 photos (from both Camera Roll and Recently Deleted), but I still get the same message.

On top of that I also deleted about 40 mp3s and 3 or 4 apps and restarted the phone, but it's still the same.

Whats the deal?


texts: Why is my HomePod making a very loud buzzing noise and reboots?

texts:
I've recently acquired a 2nd hand HomePod in seemingly spotless condition. However, after setting it up and listening for a while I've noticed a very disturbing issue.
A very loud <1sec long buzzing noise broke the playback. This happened after a couple of songs in while listening to Spotify on my MacBook via AirPlay. Also happened after listening to a podcast directly initiated on the HomePod via Siri. This even happened after all this, while it was just sitting idle for a couple of more minutes.
After calling up Siri it might have said it had trouble connecting to the internet, but that was surely temporary, and in any case, it shouldn't cause this freakish noise. However, it doesn’t respond for a while so I assumed it even rebooted itself after the noise.
The only other thing I've noticed was the almost uncomfortably warm top glass (it's a hot summer's day with 28°C indoors).


texts: What is a Secure Token and how do I get an admin users that has one

texts:
I have an iMac 2017 with a FusionDrive on which FileVault cannot not be enabled.  The situation is summed up in this reddit post.  The problem boils down to: I have no admin user who has a secure token and it seems like I cannot get one.  This can be confirmed by running:

sysadminctl interactive -secureTokenStatus USER_NAME

for every user.  It always comes back with

Secure token is DISABLED for user USER_NAME

The first setup from factory settings did not result in a user with a Secure Token, and I tried to:

Delete /var/db/.AppleSetupDone to setup a new admin account. Result: A new admin account that slo does not have a token.
Reinstall MacOS High Sierra: First created admin user does not have secure token.

It seems that this is either intentional (because of the Fusion Drive?) or a bug in High Sierra.  With exactly the same procedure on a Macbook Pro 2017 I get an admin user with a Secure Token and that user can manage FileVault and give secure tokens to other users.

Since I want to use FileVault, I also tried to reformat the main disk with an encrypted file system, reinstalling MacOS and restoring from time machine backup. This worked, FileVault is enabled, but now I have to enter the disk password every time the computer boots (before the login screen).  I don't want this, I want to unlock the disk with a user password.

What can I do to get an admin user with a secure token?


texts: My iPhone is saying I need to do billing but there is not a none button by the credit cards what do I do I need to download a app for my cheerleading


texts: How do I reliably get the file name of the current background picture?

texts:
Latest Lion update broke a simple Geeklet osascript that used System Events to lookup of Background picture names.  Running the associated command from the terminal returns the same name, every time, even though the picture is changing every minute.

The code below worked for the primary display on my two headed Mac until this last update:

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get value of (property list item "LastName" of property list item "default" of property list item "Background" of property list file ((path to preferences as Unicode text) & "com.apple.desktop.plist"))'

The secondary display has a hard-coded id where "default" goes;  I've used the numeric IDs, everything I can think of.

What is particularly annoying is a dump using just 'property list item "Background' in the above script shows the new file names with the appropriate "LastName".  But running the script above always returns the same two names, the initial files shown in the Desktop/Screen Saver preferences.

I'm not an AppleScript or System Events/plist guru, and any help would be appreciated.

--UPDATE--

Modifying the “Spaces” plist on OSX to set default desktops and some experimentation with the "defaults" command led to the following (less than ideal due to the embedded ids, but...) workaround:

osascript -e 'tell application "System Events" to get value of (property list item "LastName" of property list item "722492885" of property list item "" of property list item "spaces" of property list item "Background" of property list file ((path to preferences as Unicode text) &amp; "com.apple.desktop.plist"))'

I'm certainly open to more elegant solutions but they must reflect the changing filename with "Random" set in Desktop Preferences.  I'd even like to see a more readable version of what is posted above - all one line.  I'm sure there's better ways to lay this out!


texts: ad-hoc (IBSS) network cross platform leaves macOS unreachable

texts:
So I wanted to use an ad-hoc network that uses both Linux and macOS. However, the macOS device says to be connected, but is not reachable.

Network is created via the wireless hotbar on macOS or via iwconfig on linux. If the network is created on Linux with a WEP password, it is visible on macOS and when joining it on macOS a functional password field pops up. After filling it the right password, macOS says to be connected to the ad-hoc network.

However, when connected, the macOS device is not reachable; it can't ping anybody else and nobody can ping it.

So far, I tried

Manually setting my IP
Manually adding routes for the other IP's (sudo route add -host 192.168.0.2 -interface en1)
Manually enabling / disabling arp (ifconfig en1 arp)


texts: How to delete an iOS app you can't find in Springboard?

texts:
I have way too many apps on my iPhone, so many that I can't find any given app in the folders and pages of the Springboard Home screens any more.

If I can't find it, how do I delete it?

I don't want to use iTunes for this if there's any way at all to avoid it.


texts:
What's the time formatting in the CPU Time column?

so for example 1:07.75

Is it hh:mm.ss?
or is it 1min 7sec 75ms


texts:
Is it possible to open a terminal window from a Safari webpage?
I have found a way to open a ssh terminal window, but is it possible to only open the terminal window without pre filled commands?

I have tried to search on google but i only find solutions for opening Safari from terminal.

To open terminal with ssh from Safari i put the following link on a webpage:

ssh


texts: When opening a DMG file, how do I get it to open up in front of the windows?

texts:
Whenever I download a .dmg file and then open it (usually from the download bar in Chrome), it opens up in the background. Is there any way to get it to open up in front of my window?

Edit

To clarify: I want the DMG window to pop up as the active window.


texts: Is there a way of "re-locking" an internal FileVault 2 encrypted partition?

texts:
As an alternative to using encrypted disk images, I created a FileVault 2 encrypted partition in Lion for some important data on the SSD in my MacBook Air. The password is not stored in a keychain. Once it is unlocked, I can unmount and mount it again without authenticating, even after logging out and back in again. Nothing short of restarting seems to lock this partition again.

Re-locking an internal encrypted partition while logged in is possible in other implementations of whole-disk encryption, and for FileVault 2, according to the man page for diskutil, specifically, for the command diskutil coreStorage unlockVolume,

  "This verb unlocks an LVF by providing that authentication; as the LVs are thus appear
  as dev nodes, any file systems upon them are automatically mounted. To "re-lock" the
  volume, make it offline again by ejecting it, e.g. with diskutil eject"

While this does work as it should with encrypted external drives, it does not seem to work on my encrypted internal partition. I can eject the logical volume, which is
/dev/disk1, but it does not get locked. Trying to eject its containing Logical Volume Family, Physical Volume, or Logical Volume Group, results in errors, even using administrator privileges. I tried variations, using unmount, unmountDisk, referring to the device UUIDs, with no luck. What am I doing wrong here?


texts: MacBook Pro does not boot after Sierra update

texts:
I've been using my MacBook Pro for years and it was still working fine. For the last year or two I was using Yosemite, it was working without any significant problems.

Yesterday I decided to update to Sierra. Mid 2010 MBP supports this version, so I decided to have a try.

The latest OS X version was downloaded from the AppStore, unarchived, installed. The installation (that claimed to last 34 minutes) took longer - about 3 hours.
Finally it rebooted and loaded to the screen where I was asked to login with AppleID. However, there was no login/password field, only the label "login with your AppleID" and two disabled buttons ("back" and "next"). There was some empty space to fit the textfields for login and password, but it was just the empty space. I waited for some time, tried to do something, but there were no variants. So I powered my Macbook off.

When I turned it back again, I noticed that the loading (white screen, Apple logo, progress bar) took longer than usual. It slowed down reaching the half of the progress bar, but finally reached the end and stopped. I waited for another hour. Nothing happened. Apple logo and the full progress bar.

Tried to Safe Boot. It took a while, but finally I saw my desktop, a popup window with the new Sierra features, etc.

I decided that the first freeze was just a one-time error and turned the Macbook off again.

Since then I am unable to boot in either the normal mode, or SafeBoot mode.
The only things I am able to do are the Recovery mode, the verbose mode and the single-user mode. I was not able to perform the hardware diagnostics mode (which is called something different in 2010 MBP) either.

I've tried reseting PRAM and SMC - no changes, the frozen Apple logo and the progress bar are still there.

Since I was able to access the recovery mode, I have tried the Disk Utility's First Aid. It told me, that everything is fine.

I tried to reinstall the OS, as I thought it will roll me back to Lion (or what was there by default..?). But the Sierra installation popped up again. I waited for another full round of Sierra installation. It rebooted, but with no luck. It still does not get past the boot part.

Finally here is what I get in the verbose mode. The Macbook was left overnight, and now I can tell there are a few stages.

Firstly it scrolls through some lines, which are different. There are some things, that look like errors to me. Like:

Then the lines begin to appear slower:

After that it comes to a very long sequence of AMFI exceptions. Like that:

This goes on for a while. The number before "because" is increasing. And after a few hours this AMFI exceptions become rearer. The number in brackets is more than 4000 now.

The final stage I witness right now is the following:

There are looping blocks of lines about GTK, SmartBattery, "_peerManager is missing", and some rare AMFI's.

I really don't know what to do, Everything was working just fine before I tried to update. Now it  is a mess. I tried to search the web, but all I found were some unanswered questions.


texts: Is it possible to turn off all animations on OS X?


texts: Toggle between different touch bar modes?

texts:
I currently have the touch bar set to display the expanded control strip by default, and the app controls when fn is pressed down.
However, it would be a lot more convenient if I didn't have to keep the fn key pressed down in order to access the app controls.
Is there some way to make it so that hitting the fn key (or some other key) cycles through the different touch bar settings instead of having to hold it down?
(I have BetterTouchTool, maybe there's some way to do it using that?)


texts: Can I set my Mac to auto-accept Bluetooth file-transfers from my phone?

texts:
Transferring photos from my Android smartphone to my laptop via Bluetooth is really easy, but the laptop always pops up an "Incoming File" dialog asking if I want to accept the file-transfer. I can choose an "Accept all" checkbox, but that only seems to apply for the current connection -- not future connections.

Is there any way to set my Mac to trust my phone and automatically accept transfers?


texts: "Open in Low Resolution" - what does it actually do?

texts:
The application information panel on retina MacBooks features a checkbox "Open in Low Resolution" with you are supposed to use when you experience e.g. visual problems (according to Apple).

But what does this box actually do? What happens to the application, what does the window manager do differently?


texts:
I have this crash on Preview and TextEdit happening every time I use the Print command. cmd+p = spinning ball... It's only on these two apps, as far as I know. Ie: Mail app prints fine. Both MS Office and Acrobat Reader print okay.

Printed installed: Canon MF4360-4390 using driver Canon MF4360-4390 UFRII LT (UK); version 2.0

Current OS: 10.7.2

On 10.6 it worked fine.
I already deleted the printer and installed it again but got the same result.

Thanks for any help.


texts: Yosemite upgrade fails at late stage, unable to get out of re-try loop

texts:
I was running Mavericks on MacBook Pro (mid 2012 model). I started upgrade to Yosemite. All seemed well on download, and the laptop re-booted to complete the install. The installation screen with OSX logo appears, and progress got to over 90% complete, with "2 minutes remaining" displayed. It remained like that for around 2 hours, before I decided something was likely wrong.

I have started the machine a few times, and by default it boots back to try the install again, and stops in the exact same place.

I have also started the recovery disk ( cmd-R ), checked for and repaired some permissions errors (that looked unrelated), and have also run a full install of Yosemite from the menu, which apparently succeeded. However, the machine still boots to same attempt to complete the install - I'm assuming this is the original upgrade that still expects to be completed.

I have not been in this position with a Mac before, and am not sure what my next steps are:

1) Is there any safe way out of the installation loop?

2) If not, is there any way I could connect a USB drive in recovery mode, so I can retrieve some local files before wiping the disk for a complete re-install?


texts:
I'm using a Canon MX882 printer with Mavericks.

I can set and save printer presets and review them under show presets. All settings are saved as expected, but when actually selecting to use the preset just before printing thing don't quite work as expected. On my next attempt to use a preset, even though the "show presets" still shows the settings were saved as expected, the reality is quite a few of the settings will stick with the default settings.

For example, I will set Layout to 2 pages per sheet and set Duplex Printing and Margins to print two-sided. "Show presets" shows the setting were saved as expected, but when I exit and re-enter to print and select this preset (show preset still shows correct settings), the duplex printer setting won't take affect.  That is, when I print it will only print single-side, despite 2-side duplex being enabled. The layout will be 2 pages per sheet, as expected.

If I manually set the printer settings as I want and print (without saving it as a  preset) the document will print with the setting I chose.

Also, after selecting a preset I notice none of the printer settings actually change if I dive down into each setting. I'm not talking about the "show presets", but the settings below. I would expect those to change in conjunction with a preset change. This seems really strange, because I don't see how you could modify a duplicated preset or any other existing preset. However, visually the image in the page preview and page counts will change based on the preset I chose.

The only other similar problem I could find out in the net concerns getting the paper size setting to save in a preset.  None of the solutions for this problem seemed to solve my problem. (I've seen Safari/print backgrounds not save into the preset, but that one is not a big issue for me.)

I've used the Mavericks/Apple provided drivers and those from Canon's site, but they both behave the same.

I've tried creating presets that work for only one printer and all printers, without any difference in behavior.

The one thing I have yet to try is to create separate printer drivers each with their own set of default presets by configuring the default printer settings via CUPS. I tried one experiment to use CUPS to modify a second copy of the printer driver with duplex enabled by default, but it seems the print utility still had the old print default preset settings (without duplex enabled). Not sure if I needed to reboot for the setting to take affect.  I might have to revisit this workaround again.

I would really like to use the printer presets, is there something I am missing?

Right now I'm at my wits end. I'm very new to Mac, so I'm probably missing something.


texts: Installing from a .pkg or .mpkg file on Mac OS X Lion

texts:
I have a strange problem since upgrading to Lion: Some .pkg and .mpkg files won't open the installer but instead will open the terminal, and no installation takes place.
The most recent example is the Microsoft Office 2011 Update 14.1.2.

Does anyone know of that problem?


texts: Mac terminal command: how to 'ls' for some specific files?

texts:
My question is about the ls command. If I have too many files in a folder, I might need either:

ls files with a given type only or;
ls files within a range, i.e., files with names a* to b*.


texts: I have an iPhone 4 with iOS 5.1.1, and the other day I found that it had downloaded on its own the iOS 6 update and it was sitting there in my phone, ready to be installed and taking about 2 GB of space. Since I have no interest at all in iOS 6 right now, I'd like to delete that update, but I don't know how. Does anyone know if it can be done?


texts: How do I configure Time Machine to backup my Macs to iCloud?

texts: I have the 2 TB iCloud storage plan and back up my iPhones and iPads there. How do I configure Time Machine to do the same with my MacBook Pro's and Mac Mini's?


texts: script to get PDFpen to OCR multiple PDFs at once

texts:
I'm trying to create a simple Automator workflow to find all non-searchable PDFs then OCR them with PDFpen. I can't make much sense of the one or two other posts here (like this one), nor do I have Hazel.

Outside of Automator, I can use Finder to show non-searchable PDFs by searching "kind:pdf NOT intext:"a"" but I don't know how to translate that to an Automator workflow, pass those files on, scripting, etc.

Thanks for any help!


texts:
How can I type Mongolian Cyrillic on an iPhone?

I'm currently on version 7.1.2, and if possible, I'd like to use an Apple-produced solution (eg downloading keyboard info from Apple if that's possible) rather than a third-party app.

Additionally, I'd be curious to know how Apple decides what languages and scripts are made available. As Mongolian Cyrillic is written left to right and has a small alphabet, I would have thought it'd be easy to implement even if the audience is fairly small.


texts: Why isn't my 3 finger swipe left/right working after Sierra update?

texts: Ever since I updated to Sierra a couple days ago, my 3 finger swipe, which gets me to my screen with the widgets like weather, clock, calendar, calculator, sticky notes, etc....is not working....at all. It seems my other gestures are working fine...but not my 3 finger to the left and back to the right. I have tried rebooting, all my boxes for gestures are checked...tried unchecking and rechecking. I am at a loss...and googling I couldn't find anything. Thank you!


texts: Extract some IPA from iPhone to USB Memory without jailbroken/download from App Store without iOS Device

texts:
How can I copy an IPA (iOS App Store Package) from my iPhone to a USB memory, using Linux, macOS, or Windows OS?
Alternatively, How to download IPA directly to my Laptop from App Store without iOS Device?