texts: Time Machine affects wrong external drive

texts:
I have 2 external HD and everything is set up correctly as you'd expect. The one called "Time Machine" is set as the destination, and other drive, called "External HD", is in the exclusion list, and is not a target.

Yet TM continues to make Backups.backupdb folder appear on the other drive. This dir is very hard to delete. If you Trash it and try to empty the trash, it says it's in use, and every other error message you can think of, including that some files are protected by System Integrity Protection. The last time I had to turn off protection via csrutil and reboot just to finally empty the trash.

Additionally, "External HD" still shows the TM drive icon as well, just like the real TM drive. I know there're online workarounds for how to fix the icon, but my problem obviously goes beyond that.

For background, I'm on Sierra, 10.12.1. Also, as far as how this happened, I used to have a crappy USB hub, and drives would give out. When the TM drive wasn't available, TM would just take it upon itself to use the other external HD that was available at the time. So there're probably some system files that make it seem like a TM drive, although I'm not seeing anything obvious with ls -la.

Finally, reformatting is not an option for me, as I don't have enough space on the primary drive to move everything over from "External HD" just to wipe it.

To sum up, I think I need to 1) Remove any trace of TM from a drive and 2) fix its icon. Thanks in advance for any help.


texts: How can I access emails in Apple Mail programmatically?

texts:
I have an iMac running OS X 10.6.8 and use Apple Mail version 4.5.

I need to access specific parts of specific emails programmatically using Mathematica (others of course could do this more generally with any other programming language, I need to use Mathematica).

I need to find the specific eMails, which I can arrange to identify by either the:

"From" and/or
"Subject"

fields.

I then need to read either a string of numbers and characters from either the:

"Subject" or
"Body"

fields of the eMails.

So,

Can one do this?
If yes, how are emails in Apple Mail kept (flat file, database file, csv, unique format, other)?
What is the name of the above file?
In what directory can I find it?
How do I access the file and the relevant information in the file?

Thanks in advance.


texts: how to change the date format 20200219 to 2020Feb19 and use it as a filename in automator?

texts:
I'm doing a simple "Image to PDF" service on automator.
The output file requires a name so I put the name as a "."
I then rename the file to a date and the result is 20200219..pdf

I would like the file name to be 2020Feb19..pdf
It will be even better if I can remove the extra "." in the filename and make the final filename 2020Feb19.pdf.

I can't seem to find the option to change the date format in automator from 20200219 to 2020Feb19.
I can't seem to find a way to remove the extra "." in the filename.
Do I need a script for that?
Would appreciate some help.
Thanks


texts: Cant copy because file is too large for format

texts:
I too was getting the error that I could not copy some files as there were over 4 GB.  I was attempting to transfer .avi files.I reformatted the the thumb drive to Mac OS Extended(journaled) however then when I plugged thumb drive in to television set, the TV did not recognise the thumb drive or the files on it.

Is there another format i can use to t enable me to transfer the bigger files and so the television recognises the drive?


texts: Brew update on macOS Catalina it fails with: “fatal: could not read Username for 'https://e.coding.net': terminal prompts disabled”

texts:
I am using macOS Catalina 10.15.2 and when I run brew update I get this issue:
$ brew update
fatal: could not read Username for 'https://e.coding.net': terminal prompts disabled
Error: Fetching /usr/local/Homebrew failed!

I have tried the suggestion from this website:
git config --global url."git@github.com:".insteadOf "https://github.com/"

But it still doesn’t work for me.
When I run:
brew doctor

I get this error:
Error: could not get runtime dependencies from /usr/local/opt/libmpc@0.8/.brew/libmpc@0.8.rb!

Warning: Some installed formulae are missing dependencies.
You should `brew install` the missing dependencies:
  brew install python@3.8 xz

Run `brew missing` for more details.

But when I run brew missing I get this error:
$ brew missing
Error: could not get runtime dependencies from /usr/local/opt/libmpc@0.8/.brew/libmpc@0.8.rb!
libxslt: xz python@3.8


texts:
Except for my iCloud account, which gets very little traffic, I only use POP3 email. I prefer it because it means I don't have to store 17 years back catalogue on every device I own.

I get all my mails on my Mac & have done since time immemorial.

My phone I only ever need to check for mail if I'm out & about for a long period of time.

So, I always had it on 'manual check for emails'.
This seems to have disappeared since iOS 11 & now I have 2 phones with hundreds of emails I don't want. I've already read them & dealt with them... yet still they're pouring in to my mobile devices.

Is the old manual-only method still there somewhere, or did someone decide I am no longer master of my own destiny?

BTW, I have my POP3 server usually delete 24h after fetching, to keep the potential backlog short if I fetch on another device.


texts: I was watching a programming video on YouTube and the instructor had the extension below installed. It looks very useful – instead of just showing open apps, it shows a wide range of default and customizable items.  Does anyone know what it is?


texts: Why does Spotlight display an app icon with a strike through warning?

texts:
When I search Spotlight for an app (see screenshot) it displays the app icon with a white strike through or unavailable icon. In this case the app in question is VLC. When I initially installed VLC, El Capitan could verify the identity of the developer but I was able to run the app anyway. Finder displayed the app icon correctly but fearing some corruption in the download/install process, I uninstalled the app using Terminal and downloaded it again and this time OS X verified the developer identity and all was good. So I'm assuming it has something to do with the issue from the initial install and Spotlight has cached an error with the first install.

Could this be the issue? I do not have any issues with VLC, nor did I before, but it's just one of those things that annoys me as I'm an avid Spotlight user.


texts: iPhone is not finding Outlook calendars from other profiles

texts:
I am trying to sync an iPhone 3GS with Outlook calendars on my PC (Windows XP, MS Office Professional Plus 2010).

In Outlook we have several profiles set up for different emails. At first the sync didn't appear to be working - until I realised that iTunes was syncing with the calendar from the default Outlook profile.

On the Info tab of iTunes only one calendar is listed under "Selected calendars". Similarly, only the email from the default profile is shown under "Sync mail accounts" section (though I'm not intending to sync mail).

How do I get iTunes to see the calendars from other profiles?


texts:
I can't figure out how to download a book to my iPhone 7 iOS 13.6 that's currently stored in iCloud.
How can I download the book so that I can read it offline later?


texts: How to create a USB installer for multiple OS on an OS X system?

texts:
I would like to be able to create a disk image (that I can transfer via Disk Utility.app to a large USB storage thumb drive) which is a multiboot installer for provisioning various operating systems from a single USB drive.  I need to be able to create the image in one step to include multiple bootable OS installers (various multiple versions of OS X/Windows/Linux/Linux based Recovery Platforms), all from a single OS X machine.

I found a nice tutorial for creating a multiboot usb thumbdrive via Linux that will boot OS X on a Mac, and Linux or Windows on PCs or Macs, and obviously, if I already have a Linux virtual machine, I could use YUMI as indicated in the tutorial (and I have seen other, similar tutorials that use a similar utilities to do this from Windows like SARDU and XBOOT), but I am hoping to discover a similar OS X native method or application that accomplishes the same thing.

I am aware of and own the commercial application iPartition, and obiously have access to  fdisk and gpt amongst other command line utilities available for use which likely could do the job. If I knew exactly how to set up and where to place the specific individual platform partitions, then I might be able to use one of them. I'd be relatively satisfied with an answer with suggested examples of how to set up this complex partition table, with any explanation on what is particular or different about the types of partitions needed and where they go, and maybe some example syntax for the command line utilities as well.

Adding this not to answer my own question, but to help whomever answers, and I hope with even easier instructions. Maybe it can be done another way? Maybe following a guide to create a multiboot Mac would work, except instead of using the internal harddrive, install on a USB drive as though it were the internal drive, and solve the desire to be able to do this without actually having access to Linux and Windows machines. See here, here, and here. I really want instructions my mother could follow.


texts: Managing and sorting home movies and shorts in iTunes?

texts:
I currently have a large collection of short movies from Youtube and quite a large selection of home movies.

What is the best way of managing all these files? I need to keep them separated from my iTunes purchases and DVD rips...

I'd like to sort them in separate pools (movies, shorts, home movies) but also categorize them even the home movies (vacations, weddings, paintball events...).

I would like to access them from the Apple TV, sync to iPhone etc... So I'm stuck with iTunes.

How should I proceed to organize them.


texts:
My wife and I both run into a problem with some regularity on our iOS phones where the dictation (via the microphone button off stock iOS keyboard) will get duplicated. Often we dictate 10-25 words and suddenly it has inserted them all twice, as if we repeated what we had said a second time. Really annoying and have seen this for at least a year. We have seen it with both emails and texts. Appreciate any suggestions or a link to a public Radar ticket we can up-vote.

iOS version 12.4.1 currently, but has happened on earlier versions.

(There was a laughable suggestion on Apple support community that sounded like a Windows support call from 2002: "reboot phone, then reinstall iOS, and see if that fixes it.")


texts:
I probably just don't understand how APFS snapshots work, but this seems odd to me:

~ $ mkdir /private/tmp/snap
~ $ pwd
/Users/dmd
~ $ ls foo
ls: foo: No such file or directory
~ $ tmutil localsnapshot /
Created local snapshot with date: 2020-02-28-191657
~ $ tmutil listlocalsnapshots /
Snapshots for volume group containing disk /:
com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-02-28-191657.local
~ $ mount_apfs -s com.apple.TimeMachine.2020-02-28-191657.local / /private/tmp/snap
mount_apfs: snapshot implicitly mounted readonly
~ $ ls /private/tmp/snap/Users/dmd/foo
ls: /private/tmp/snap/Users/dmd/foo: No such file or directory
~ $ touch /Users/dmd/foo
~ $ ls /private/tmp/snap/Users/dmd/foo
/private/tmp/snap/Users/dmd/foo
~ $ ##### WHAT? WHY IS FOO IN THE SNAPSHOT?  WHY DID THE SNAPSHOT CHANGE?
~ $ rm /Users/dmd/foo
~ $ ls /private/tmp/snap/Users/dmd/foo
ls: /private/tmp/snap/Users/dmd/foo: No such file or directory

Note that the file /Users/dmd/foo is being created on the 'real' disk, but when it is created and deleted those changes are also showing up in the mounted snapshot.

Why?


texts: How do I type the euro value sign € on a Mac?

texts:
I've tried bashing on my keyboard with the ⌥ alt/option key pressed with the ⇧ shift key pressed but I do not seem to be able to find how I can get the euro value sign.

⇧ shift+4 gives the dollar sign: $

What keystrokes do I need to use to get the euro € sign?


texts: I upgraded my CC programs and now they are no longer on the dock. How to get them there?

texts: I upgraded my Creative Cloud programs and now they are no longer on the dock. How may I get them there (Photoshop, Illustrator, Muse, etc)


texts: iPhone X (unlike my old iPhone 6s+) photos not synced to Win7

texts:
I use iCloud software for Windows 7 (with the latest update).

GOOD: My old iPhone 6s+ photos are all downloaded to iCloud PC app.

PROBLEM: New iPhoneX (iOS 12.0.1) pics do not sync (few thousand of them). If I try to redownload pics from 2018, it only downloads 6s+ photos again and then it stops.

HELPFUL INFO:
1. ALL my pics are visible on iCloud on the web.

In Windows iCloud app:

My Photo Stream is not selected
iCloud Photo Libarary, Download new Photos and Keep High efficiency original are selected.

On iPhone X:
iCloud Photos is clicked, Optimise iPhone Storage is selected, Download and keep originals is not and Upload to my Photo Stream is not. Shared Albums is on (though I don't use it).

(I no longer use the old iPhone, but preserved the same iCloud account)


texts: Is it possible to delete a monitor or change the name as shown in Display Preferences?

texts:
I have a pair of the same model and size monitors at home, as I have in the office. They're all named "Company Model (1)" and "Company Model (2)".

It seems like the setup I have at home has them physically arranged from L -> R: 1 -> 2, but in the office, however, it's 2 -> 1.

The result is when I work from home, or work from the office, I need to constantly set the Display Arrangement in Preferences.

Is there a way to delete the displays, so I can reintroduce them to the computer in the right order, or just rename them so the one physically on the left is always 1, and the one on the right is always 2?


texts: Preventing Icon Previews on Network Volumes

texts:
Anyone that's tried to connect to a remote drive with a lot of images or movies on it knows that the Finder just falls to pieces when you do, as it hammers the server with requests to generate all the previews, usually crippling the connection into the bargain.

I can create .DS_Store files in specific folders on writable drives to disable icon previews, but this doesn't help with read-only drives, or with new folders that don't contain the file.

Is there any other way to prevent icon previews for the entire volume, without disabling them on the local machine? I mean, even when the "remote" drive is a NAS on a gigabit LAN, these previews just don't do usability any favours.


texts:
I am experiencing strange issue with my MacBook Air (2011, with Mavericks):

I don't like to turn off my machine, so I usually just close the lid and put my laptop to backpack before I go to sleep
I take it off the bag in the morning at the work, do only basic work (email etc. - no suspicious things in Activity Monitor), but my MacBook Air will get to high temperatures (90℃ for CPU, runs fan at 6000 RPM).

I can 'solve' that by putting computer to sleep, wait a while (~30 sec), wake it up again and temperatures will get back to normal. I already tried resetting the SCM.

Notes:

I don't keep MagSafe connected to my Macbook Air during the night
I usually have plenty of running apps on my laptop (4GB of RAM, but Virtual Memory usually tops 10 GB)
I always run 1 instance of CentOS in VirtualBox (with Oracle database)


texts: Downloads folder shows Access Denied icon

texts:
Starting this morning Chrome, Safari et all started showing my ~/Downloads with an access denied icon. Finder does not show this icon. I suspect this is something Code42 CrashPlan did overnight (it's a work issued MBP with some pre-installed apps). Now, the question is, how do I make my downloads again available?

adding read/write myself and everyone via chmod +ai
adding read/write myself and everyone via Finder -> file -> Get Info

ls -el shows that ~/Downloads is missing some attributes compared to other folders like ~/Documents:

drwx---rwx+  6 xx  yy   204 Jan 11 19:15 Documents
 0: XX-AE59E7573812 allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity
drwx---rwx+ 25 xx  yy   850 Jan 27 08:35 Downloads
 0: user:xx inherited allow list,add_file,delete
 1: group:everyone inherited allow list,add_file,delete
 2: group:owner inherited allow list,add_file,delete
drwx---rwx@ 51 xx  yy  1734 Jan 24 16:41 Library
 0: XX-AE59E7573812 allow list,add_file,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,readattr,writeattr,readextattr,writeextattr,readsecurity

The existing ACLs on ~/Downloads are the one I added myself. Still, the browsers show it as Access Denied. Attempt to save a download fails silently (no error, but no file either).

OS X El Capitan 10.11.6


texts: Is there a way to receive notifications from StackExchange sites in the Notification Center in OSX?


texts:
There was an error in the dependency specifications which somehow triggered a major failure in AppStore.app.  Most of those problems are now fixed, but while wrestling with it, I discovered /var/log/install.log

Every time I go to the Updates panel in AppStore, that log shows a detailed record of the scan for updates.  This record always ends with a list of seventeen available updates: 16 Voices and a Gatekeeper configuration.  Yet AppStore still says no updates available.

How can I get those items to update?  For the voices, I could probably deselect them and re-add in Preferences, but that seems pretty silly and doesn't help Gatekeeper.  Update: Don't have to deselect voices.  Selecting customize from the voice menu in Speech prefs shows the ones selected, and just clicking OK starts the update.  I'm going to file a bug report that Software Update won't do it.  And I still don't know about Gatekeeper.  That's probably some other obscure location in the preferences.

By the way, part of the AppStore fix was a reinstall of the OS without a disk wipe.  So why did not these items get updated during the reinstall (by internet with Recovery partition)?


texts: How do I remove the Cmd+Shift+I shortcut?

texts:
Command+Shift+I launches the Mail app (which can't be removed), but I can't find that shortcut in System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Shortcuts.

Where does that shortcut come from, and how can I remove it?


texts: I have photos on my phone that I can't delete

texts: My photos are taking up 5 GB on my phone and I only have about 100 of them. I do have a bunch of ghost photos that I can't delete though. They are from my old phone which is not an apple product and I am having storage issues because of it.


texts: Network/Wifi priority setting on Mac 10.13

texts:
I am using Mac 10.13, and I arranged my networks in the following order:

May I know which is the computer supposed to connect to if both AndroidAP and SINGTEL-9A62 are available to connect? I was expecting SINGTEL-9A62, because I thought the networks are arranged from highest to lowest priority. Am I correct? It seems that AndroidAP is always connected to, rather than SINGTEL-9A62 though, if the computer has the choice.

If this doesn't seem to be correct, how do I fix this?


texts: Facebook iOS app won't connect unless wi-fi enabled

texts: I recently download the Facebook app for iOS. It doesn't connect to the internet unless wi-fi is enabled. All other apps are able to connect to the internet with wi-fi disabled, just not Facebook. I am running iOS 9.3.


texts: My Macbook can connect to ethernet over Ubuntu but not OS X

texts:
I'm currently dual booting Ubuntu 14.04 and OS X Mavericks (10.9.4) on my 2014 Macbook Pro. When running Ubuntu, I can plug in the Ethernet cable and instantly be connected. But when running OS X, there's no Ethernet connection detected.

Since I was able to connect on Ubuntu instantly, I shouldn't have the issue of having to set up additional configurations, such as a PPoE connection. Since I'm dual booting I'm obviously also using the same laptop, the same Ethernet cable, and the same Ethernet port so it doesn't seem like there should be a hardware issue either.

What could be the issue here?

When I run "ifconfig" in my terminal while booting OS X, this is what I get:

lo0: flags=8049<UP,LOOPBACK,RUNNING,MULTICAST> mtu 16384
    options=3<RXCSUM,TXCSUM>
    inet6 ::1 prefixlen 128
    inet 127.0.0.1 netmask 0xff000000
    inet6 fe80::1%lo0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x1
    nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
gif0: flags=8010<POINTOPOINT,MULTICAST> mtu 1280
stf0: flags=0<> mtu 1280
en0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    ether 80:e6:50:16:b0:c0
    inet6 fe80::82e6:50ff:fe16:b0c0%en0 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x4
    inet 192.168.70.245 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 192.168.70.255
    nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
    media: autoselect
    status: active
en1: flags=8963<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    options=60<TSO4,TSO6>
    ether 72:00:05:04:94:20
    media: autoselect <full-duplex>
    status: inactive
en2: flags=8963<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,PROMISC,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    options=60<TSO4,TSO6>
    ether 72:00:05:04:94:21
    media: autoselect <full-duplex>
    status: inactive
bridge0: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
    options=63<RXCSUM,TXCSUM,TSO4,TSO6>
    ether 82:e6:50:61:cb:00
    Configuration:
        id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 hellotime 0 fwddelay 0
        maxage 0 holdcnt 0 proto stp maxaddr 100 timeout 1200
        root id 0:0:0:0:0:0 priority 0 ifcost 0 port 0
        ipfilter disabled flags 0x2
    member: en1 flags=3<LEARNING,DISCOVER>
            ifmaxaddr 0 port 5 priority 0 path cost 0
    member: en2 flags=3<LEARNING,DISCOVER>
            ifmaxaddr 0 port 6 priority 0 path cost 0
    nd6 options=1<PERFORMNUD>
    media: <unknown type>
    status: inactive
p2p0: flags=8843<UP,BROADCAST,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 2304
    ether 02:e6:50:16:b0:c0
    media: autoselect
    status: inactive

After reinstalling OS X I can no longer see the rEFInd screen and thus cannot boot Ubuntu. However, I remember when I ran "ifconfig" earlier I saw an item that started with "eth0"


texts: Deceive Logitech Control Center so that it think my mouse is another model?

texts:
I know that this is a difficult question.

The Logitech M525 is a simple mouse with two buttons and a wheel. Backward/forward buttons are implemented as left/right tilt of the wheel. There is no special buttons or features on this mouse. Logitech V470 is also very similar to M525 other than it is a Bluetooth mouse.

On Windows/Linux, backward/forward mouse buttons are supported natively, so those buttons of M470/M525 work out of the box without any special driver or program. OS X, on the other hand, does not support them natively. It seems Logitech Control Center has extra modules to receive the backward/forward button inputs from hardware and send back/forward messages to programs.

The problem is that the Logitech Control Center supports V470 but not M525. So, the backward/forward buttons of V470 works but not those of M525. Personally I do not find any technical justification for this. To my contemplation, that should be very easy for Logitech to support backward/forward buttons, because all the logic is in the Logitech Control Center itself, not in the hardware. But for some reason, Logitech has refused to support M525 on OS X.

I guess the hardware signal code for backward/forward from M525 must be the same as V470, because they work without drivers on Windows. So, if I can deceive Logitech Control Center so that it thinks my M525 to be a V470 (or any similar model that is supported by it), the backwards/forwards buttons should work.

Is this impossible? Of is there any way to achieve this?

PS: I tried third-party general mouse backward/forward enablers, and they did not work well.


texts: how can i extend my 8gb memory space on iphone 5c

texts:
Can i use an external USB (like an OTG for androids) on iphone 5c along with an usb adapter(lightning to micro usb port)?

Can iphones read external USB devices?


texts:
I've been searching for this for a while without satisfactory results.

One way to share internet from the PC to the iPad is by doing an ad-hoc network, if the PC allow us to do so. Otherwise, I have two questions:

If the PC is connected to internet, How can we share internet from the PC to the iPad via USB?
Suppose the iPad is connected to internet by means of some wireless network, How can we share internet from the iPad to the PC via USB?

I have an iPad Version: 5.1.1 (9B206), Model: MB292LL (the first ones).

Alternatively, if the iPad is connected to some wireless network, is it possible make it an access point, so it extends the range of the network?


texts:
I am repairing an iMac 27" , late 2009 model (EMC 2374), 2.8 gHZ.  It has a bad video card causing stripes on the screen and problems booting.  The video card is an AMD ATI Radeon HD 4850 Video Card.   This model is very hard to find and very expensive.  Does anyone know of any other compatible video cards for this model apple machine?

thanks


texts: Can I access a voice memo file that's attached to an email stuck in my iPhone's outbox?

texts:
Is there a way to access a file that's attached to a message stuck in my iPhone's Outlook outbox, unsent?

I attempted to send two large voice memos to an email recipient as attachments, but the server rejected the email (I suspect due to the size of the attachments) and it remains unsent on my iPhone.

[The original voice memos in my voice memo utility have since been damaged (my fault, long story) and I'd really like to retrieve these two files if possible.]


texts: Add note to emails in Mail App or alternative Mail app?

texts:
I just found http://www.indev.ca/MailTags.html but I will not pay 30 bucks just for adding some notes to my mails.

Are there some free extensions or alternative mail apps that support adding notes to emails?

That would be awesome. I searched a lot but didn't find a good alternative.

The point is: I want to add a simple comment/note on my mail so I directly can identify the state (e.g. 'waiting for response with data')


texts: Can you listen to music using AirPods without an Internet connection?

texts:
I hate smartphones, don't own one, but have a 6th gen iPod touch with iOS 12.
I want to listen to music with it using AirPods without an Internet connection using the Bluetooth connection. I want to double check that this is possible.


texts: Why can't I place desktop icons everywhere when snapped to grid?

texts: The area marked in the image cannot be used for desktop icons.


texts: Text to speech won't work in Chrome anymore

texts:
I like to use Apple's "Text to Speech" option (under System Preferences → Dictation and Speech) to have my computer read things to me like articles and whatnot. However, the keyboard shortcut to make this happen just suddenly stopped working properly in Google Chrome.

Normally, you just select some text with your mouse, then press the keyboard shortcut (which I have set to Option + Tab), and then the computer voice reads the selected text to you.

This keyboard shortcut still works in other applications like Finder and Firefox, but when I do so in Chrome it doesn't read the selected text - instead, it reads the <title>Web Page's Name</title> and that's it.

If I highlight the text, right click → Speech → Start Speaking, then it'll work like normal and read the text aloud.

So if that works, then why can't I use the keyboard shortcut to use text to speech anymore?


texts: Mac Pro: UI hangs, all background processes fine

texts:
I have a Mac Pro that has an issue I haven't seen with any of my other Macs. Occasionally, once a week or so, the UI will hang and beachball while the rest of the machine will keep running. Skype calls continue, music keeps playing. I can ssh in and use the terminal. Everything works except the UI is completely frozen. I have to power cycle. I'm running the latest macOS, but previous versions did it all well.

Do you I diagnose the root cause of the issue.


texts: Trying to create a bootable USB drive for Mac Mini

texts:
I have a Mac Mini Late 2012.

Trying to create a bootable USB drive. I have a USB Yosemite install drive. It has worked, many times to load Yosemite to an internal drive.

I plugged this in to the mini, and a 64GB USB drive (a thumb drive), and proceeded to install Yosemite to the drive. I return to the computer, and the process seems complete, but on trying to boot to the newly created boot drive, the startup freezes halfway through.

I was hoping to use this USB drive for the occasion boot to use old software that no longer runs on newer OSes.


texts:
Is it possible, say with Lion recovery partition or any other way, to access individual files on the hard drive to copy them before reformatting it to do a clean install?

It is not possible to boot Mac OS in "any flavor" as it always fails loading kernel - including safe mode or single user.

It is an early MacBook Air, so it is not possible to use "Target Disk" mode.


texts: Bootcamp assistant hides partitions to windows?

texts:
macBook pro mid 2014, High Sierra, Windows 10, Ubuntu

I used Bootcamp assistant to resize one unique partition to make space for  Windows NTFS partition, then I used Windows disk manager to resize the NTFS partition and made place beyond for NTFS shared partition, linux partition, etc. All went OK and all systems had read/write access to shared NTFS

Later I reused Bootcamp to reinstall Windows on its specific NTFS partition (in this case Bootcamp does not pass through resize step). Mac and linux still have access to NTFS share, but not Windows. Moreover windows Disk Manager does not shows the remaining partitions (share, linux, etc) beyond its install partition, instead it shows one unique big unallocated partition.

As if Bootcamp install prevents Windows to correctly see disk space beyond its installation partition. Is there a way to repair this ? Disk utility does not see any problem on any partitions.


texts: Permanently swapping option and command keys on a non-Apple keyboard

texts: Whenever I plug my Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard into my MacBook Pro, I have to swap the Command and Option modifier keys.  How can I prevent these keys from reverting to their default settings whenever I unplug the keyboard?


texts: How I was able to play Apple Music in the car with disabled cellular data?

texts: I'm travelling outsude my home country and my data roaming is turned off on my iPhone, the car is rented Mini Cooper Countryman 2017. I usually connect the iphone via USB or Bluetooth and the car multimedia is paired with it. I don't use Apple Car Play (the multimedia screen looks like native Mini Cooper multimedia).  The strange behaviour that I figured out is that I have no music downloaded on my iPhone (doublechecked it, i have big library though) but while connected to the car multimedia I'm able to navigate the music library from car display and listen arbitrary music from the library. This music is not downloaded nor the mobile internet icon is showing up on the iphone status bar. How can the car multimedia play music?


texts: Keys not registering on the iPhone while typing fast, does it happen to you or just me?

texts:
I've tried this on all major OS versions of the iPhone, and on an iPhone 3G and 4. It's been around for at least a year.

I've noticed that when I'm typing really fast (over 70 wpm) on a portrait keyboard, sometimes a key will not register as being touched. I think what's happening behind the scenes is that the fingers are moving so fast that it thinks that it's the same finger that moved from one side of the keyboard to the other in a dragging motion. (Normally when you drag a key, it won't send the first key you were on and will only send the last key you released on.)

This only happens when you are typing a word where the letters alternate between the left and right fingers such that both are touching the screen at the same time. One word that it happens on is the word with where the t does not get registered and you end up with wih.

Here's how it's supposed to work:

You press your left thumb down on the t, the popup appears showing that you're going to send a t, a click sound plays. Note: the finger hasn't released the t yet, and the t hasn't been sent yet.
You press your right thumb down on the h, the t is sent, the popup appears showing that you're going to send an h, the click sound plays.
If you move your left thumb, around the keyboard, nothing happens since it's considered a dead touch (my terminology). You must release this finger before it will register again. When it is released, nothing happens. Again, this is correct behavior.
When you release your right thumb on the h, the h is sent.

What I believe it is registering when the bug happens is the following:

It detects a tap down on the t, plays a sound, shows the t popup, but doesn't send it yet.
It detects that the finger has moved to the h, and shows the h popup.
It detects that your finger was released, and it sends the h key.

Notice how in the second scenario the t key was never sent and that it thinks that it's one finger rather than two. Notice, also, that in the first scenario you hear two click sounds and in the second, you only hear one. This is actually the way I know when the bug happens, by listening for missed click sounds.

Although the example I gave with the word with may seem like it's much more likely since the t and h keys are very close by, this is actually not the case, and it frequently happens even with letters that are on opposite sides of the keyboard, such as n and d.

Note that it never happens when I type slow, since I believe touches are processed much more accurately when they aren't being sent fast. This bug doesn't happen too often (e.g. 1-5% of the time), but it's still annoying.

I'm wondering if this is a known bug or not. Has anyone else noticed this behavior? Before reporting it to Apple, it would help if I knew if other people have this issue too.


texts: All the sudden my passcode doesn't unlock my iPad Mini. The iPad is not synced to any computer. How can I get back into my iPad without resetting it? What could have happened?


texts: Getting launchd to read program arguments correctly

texts:
I have a launchd script where the command I'm trying to run is erroring (apparently that's not a word, it is now), complaining of improper usage.

The specific error I'm getting is the command's usage text dumped to the system log. From this I infer the other info (path to the command, timing etc.) in the plist is being parsed correctly, just not the command's options.

After the command usage I have one last line:

18/11/2013 09:30:00.101 com.apple.launchd.peruser.501: (fake.lable.seti[33833]) Exited with code: 1

But that just means "I exited with an error".

I know launchd splits the command from its options and in the man page tells you about ProgramArguments: "...Please note: many people are confused by this key. Please read execvp(3) very carefully!.."

Well I read execvp(3) and I'm none the wiser, so I'm asking you lovely lot.

Normally, running the command from the terminal it'd look like this:

/Library/Application\ Support/BOINC\ Data/boinccmd --host localhost --passwd gobbledygook --project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ update

This works a treat.

And this is how I've split it in the Program/ProgramArguments section of my LaunchAgent plist:

<key>Program</key>
    <string>/Library/Application Support/BOINC Data/boinccmd</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>--host localhost</string>
        <string>--passwd gobbledygook</string>
        <string>--project http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/ update</string>
    </array>

(for the record, I originally had the path to boinccmd \escaped out, but that doesn't work, launchd escapes spaces in the path for you)

I've tried splitting the arguments down further:

<key>Program</key>
    <string>/Library/Application Support/BOINC Data/boinccmd</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>--host</string>
        <string>localhost</string>
        <string>--passwd</string>
        <string>gobbledygook</string>
        <string>--project</string>
        <string>http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/</string>
        <string>update</string>
    </array>

But that didn't seem to work either.

As ever, I'm very sure I'm missing something so simple.

Thanks.

ANSWER:
The first line of ProgramArguments needs to be the path to the program. This is what was tripping me up and indeed what was probably meant by the "...Please read very carefully!.." comment :)
I also found I had to split the arguments down to their component parts. When I had all that in place the whole thing works a charm. Thank you very much.

<key>Program</key>
    <string>/Library/Application Support/BOINC Data/boinccmd</string>
<key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/Library/Application Support/BOINC Data/boinccmd</string>
        <string>--host</string>
        <string>localhost</string>
        <string>--passwd</string>
        <string>gobbledygook</string>
        <string>--project</string>
        <string>http://setiathome.berkeley.edu/</string>
        <string>update</string>
    </array>

A final edit to say for an easy to understand explanation as to WHY this should be, see SirPavlova's explanation.

~W


texts: How can I shut down using keyboard shortcut and not reopen windows on login?

texts:
I upgraded from OS X 10.6 to OS X 10.8 a few days ago. I find that when I use the keyboard shortcut (⌃ ctrl + ⌥ alt + ⌘ cmd + ⏏ eject) to shutdown, on startup all the previously open applications are reopened automatically. When I shut down from the Apple menu, there is an option "Reopen windows when logging back", but there isn't one when I use the keyboard.

So how can I shut down my Mac Pro using the keyboard shortcut and not reopen windows on login?

I don't wish to disable the feature as described here but I will if I have to.


texts: iPhone 4 cannot connect to internet after iOS6 update

texts: Ever since I updated my iPhone 4 to iOS6, I'm not able to connect to the internet except when I have a WiFi signal to connect to. Any suggestions about the cause or solution?


texts: Torrent clients for Mac other than uTorrent

texts:
Can someone recommend a good torrent client for the Mac, other than uTorrent?

[The only problem I have with uTorrent is that occasionally it doesn't respect the upload limit. This is a known issue, and no setting seems to fix it in my case.]

I am looking for these features:

Ability to select files to download (in case of multi-file torrent) BEFORE the download begins
Show transfer rates in the dock icon
Assign relative priorities to files within a torrent
Good, clean UI (optional)
No bloatware/adware like a built in media player, ads, yahoo-search-plugins, etc (optional)


texts: How to use AppleScript to make Siri shortcuts?

texts:
Is there a way for me to configure my MacBook with AppleScript so that Siri will tell me my schedule for the day and other relevant information I want to know?

I would like to be able to write multiple commands into a single question like this:

Q: "Siri, what is new this morning"

A: "The weather is currently 70 degrees. The S&P 500 index is trading at $2800. You have 5 activities planned for the day..."

Essentially, I want to be able to have Siri answer a lot of questions she would normally answer by asking only one question.


texts: iOS 9 alarm icon in status bar behaviour change?

texts:
I just updated to iOS 9.0.2 direct from iOS 8.4 and this morning (a Sunday) I noticed the alarm icon in my status bar.

I have two repeating weekday alarms, and I thought the previous behaviour was to show the icon if you had a pending alarm on the same day, but now it seems to be present if there are any upcoming alarms active, even if they're days away.

Similarly I thought that if I dismissed a repeating alarm and there were no other alarms active that day, the icon would disappear for the rest of that day. This doesn't happen now.

I see a possibly related unanswered post on Apple Support Communities: Why is the alarm icon showing with no alarm set?

The iPhone User Guide for iOS 8.4 on page 15 says the icon means "an alarm is set", which could mean either really.

Is this new behaviour, or am I misremembering?


texts: Confirming rendering behavior of this jsFiddle tabs example on an iPad 2

texts:
I would be very grateful if someone with access to the new iPad2 could confirm whether the [Glossary] tab in the jsFiddle link here is truncated around the letter -G- or -H- or is being completely rendered, i.e. all the way to the letter -Y-.
On the original iPad the content is getting truncated.

I was talking about the document that is rendered in the Glossary tab. The glossary is being truncated at the letter -H- (i.e. at the rubric for words beginning with the letter 'h').

I had an opportunity to test this out at the Apple store recently, and the iPad2 renders the documents in the tabs correctly, i.e. without truncating their content (cutting them off at the bottom) just as the iPad1 used to be able to do.

However, I cannot be absolutely certain from this one test that the problem is limited to iPad1, because as the cache content grows with use  maybe the problem would eventually arise on the iPad2 as well. I am just speculating about the cache being implicated-- just trying to think of reasons why it used to work on the iPad and then stopped working, though I hadn't changed a thing. The iPad I test with belongs to my wife and I believe she may have upgraded the O/S after my original tests when the pages were working correctly.


texts: Spotlight not finding .app created with appify

texts:
I've used a script called appify described here https://mathiasbynens.be/notes/shell-script-mac-apps to create /Applications/Emacs.app that runs the actual Emacs.app at /usr/local/Cellar/emacs/24.4/Emacs.app installed by Homebrew. I did this because Spotlight was not indexing the symlink I previously had, and while it did index the Finder alias, it was quite down there in the search results, which is far from idea for launching an app frequently.

Is there anything special that the Spotlight indexer expects from an .app container in order for it to be allowed to be indexed?


texts: MacBook Pro mid 2012 screen flicker occasionally

texts: My MacBook Pro mid 2012 screen is flickering occasionally. Please find the screenshot below. Any idea why it is happening, also any workarounds to eliminate it.


texts: Changed user name but files are now unaccessible

texts:
I changed the home user name using http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1428 and now search in Mail and Finder only show me files I've accessed since the change. This is a major issue for me.

How can I fix this OR revert back safely?

I use Time Machine but my attempt to restore to the time before I made the change did not work.


texts:
Within iCal the preferences settings let choose the use of event times
in month view.

I would like to obtain the same choice for the week view.

I'm actually using iCal on Snow Leopard, which I will shortly upgrade to Lion and Mountain Lion.
Is this choice possible within iCal on these different OS X versions?
Is there any progress on this possibility through these versions of the OS (this will be a key incentive to accelerate the OS X upgrade in such a case).

Additionally, is there any documentation about this level of tuning for iCal.


texts: Even with System Preferences/CDs & DVDs set to "ignore" on DVDs, "DVD Player" launches!

texts:
The question title pretty much says it all. This is a dual-boot Mojave/Catalina system; currently Mojave is the primary OS. I have had the "CDs and DVDs" panel in System Preferences set to ask/ask/ignore/ignore/ignore since long before I made any attempt to install Catalina.
One thought did occur to me over the past 24 hours: could this be some sort of BIOS-level thing that the Mojave System Preferences can no longer access properly, after the Catalina installer played with the BIOS?


texts: I can't log into my Apple ID account on websites / can't download apps / edit Apple ID settings

texts:
I changed my sim to another sim because I was on vacation in another country and my "trust number" in the apple id settings was changed to the new temporary sim number.

And now when I came back and I want to change it back to my real sim number (in my country - I already replaced the sim) I can't remove / add / edit
it to my real number it says all the time some "error" like could not connect to iCloud / Could not verify phone number and below it "We cannot process your request, please try again later."

For some reason I have two factor authentication and when I try to log into my Apple ID it says below the login form in yellow box - "We cannot process your request, please try again later." I get 6 digits code to my phone but I have no where to enter the code... Nothing is showing up..

When i try to download apps it says that "App store and apple music cannot process your request at this time" Please I need help I don't know what to do anymore!


texts:
I gather this should work in bash:

source <(curl -s https://example.com/script.sh)

or

bash <(curl -s https://example.com/script.sh)

or

curl -s https://example.com/script.sh | source /dev/stdin

But it's not working for me. Downloading to a file, sourcing the file and then removing the file does work. I'm curious as to why none of the one liners are working though.


texts: What can I do to install Big Sur without wipe?

texts:
I would like to upgrade to Big Sur on a test system (MacBook Pro (16 inch, 2019)) that already has macOS Catalina 10.15.6 installed.
Since this is to work in a company network, additional software has already been installed:

Zscaler Security
Intelligent hub
McAfee Endpoint Security for Mac

I quit these programs to avoid problems.
In order not to have to do this process again, I would like to perform an in-place upgrade.
sudo / Applications / Install \ macOS \ Big \ Sur.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall --agreetolicense --forcequitapps --nointeraction
With 31% the installation aborts with a meaningless error message. What can I do? Are there logs? Or is wiping and reinstalling faster?


texts: Mac book Pro to Dell E2414H monitor issue

texts:
I am trying to connect my MBP with my DELL monitor. I have purchased an HDMI to VGA adapter(converter). when I connect them, my MBP flashes on and off intermittently and my external monitor says nothing is connected. I have checked and rechecked all the connections but am having no luck.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


texts: Invalid Calendar Items showing in iPhone

texts:
I have several Exchange/Outlook accounts connected to my iPhone.  On one of my calendars, several recurring events from several years ago recently reappeared and will not let me delete them.

When I look in Outlook, the events are not there.

I have attempted to move all of the items out of the affected calendar (via Outlook) into a new one, but the invalid items remain on my iPhone.

When I try to delete or decline the event, it simply returns to the main screen and the item remains.

Is there a way for me to purge these invalid items from my iPhone?


texts: Automatic tracking of monitors in Health.app?

texts:
Unless I am mistaken, HealthKit/Health.app will automatically track some BlueTooth sensors, like heart rate straps? Is that true?

Is it also true that other sensors do not work this way, and only work when a 3rd party app is running. Is that also true?

If so, is there a list of such "auto track" devices?


texts:
I have a lot of QuickVoice recordings made and stored on my iPad (first generation)

I am attempting to backup to iCloud for the first time.  If this is successful, can I then delete the recordings from my iPad to create some much needed space?

If so, how do I retrieve any specific recordings from iCloud for later use?


texts:
Everytime I start my MacBook Pro (which is set to automatically boot into my account) I get the error message "unable to unlock login keychain" with 3 options - continue (which will give me errors as I use my computer whenever I need the login keychain) create new keychain (I know this creates a new keychain, but does it copy all my keys?  Or are they lost now?)  or Update keychain password.

I've used the password which I think should work, but it doesn't.  Now my machine auto logs in, and I get the error, and at the moment I'm clicking continue.

I've tried using keychain repair, which finds no errors.

Please: How should I trouble shoot my keychain errors?  How do I fix my keychain errors?  Is there any way to keep all my old passwords, or have I lost those?


texts:
Recently I am trying to set up an AppleScript to do some simple task. But I can't really find some resources that can provide me with a systematic introduction or tutorial for me to get started with Apple Script. So I'd like to hear some advices on how should I get started. Or in other words which are the recommended materials or documentations that I should follow?

I tried to go through the Apple's official documentation, but that seems too heavy to be a quick start guide.

Something like this as we have in python would be the best.

And I just attach the actual problem that I am trying to solve below.

a simple logic:

if safari is not the front most application:
    bring safari to frontmost
    if certain webpage is opened in safari:
        bring that tab of the webpage to the frontmost
    else
        open that webpage
    end if
else
    hide safari
end if

Quite simple and naive isn't it.


texts: Using iMac 2008 as a monitor for Microsoft Surface 7

texts:
I am trying to connect an iMac 2008 to a Microsoft Surface 7. My iMac has a Mini Display Port.
Any idea how to connect the iMac to the MacBook Pro, to use as an external monitor? I think I need the USB C to Mini USB Cable (Mini USB to USB C Cable) 3.3 Feet in Black
Not similar to the link
What are the requirements to use iMac screen as a second monitor - Target Display Mode?


texts: Duplicate Photo library for Photos & iPhoto

texts:
Just came across this, seems as Photos created a duplicate of the iPhoto database instead of just using that one.

Now I'm stuck here with two 50+ GB libraries, eating up space on my HDD.
I think iPhoto uses the Photos database, so would it be safe to delete the iPhoto database?

I'm still going to use iPhoto (because it's easier than Photos).


texts: Move item from iCloud keychain to normal keychain

texts:
Is there any way that I can move an iCloud keychain item, in particular an internet account, to a normal keychain? Moving items between keychains usually works with drag and drop, but I cannot drag an item from iCloud keychain to another keychain. I can start dragging, but the items then disappears from my cursor. I am also happy with a command line solution.

I am using OS X 10.11.2 (El Capitan).


texts: Macbook Air crashed and now won't boot, stuck at Apple logo with loading bar. Disk utility can't unmount the drive to repair

texts:
I have a Macbook Air that had what I think was a kernel panic the other day. What I have been told is that while the user was working, it crashed to a black screen with some info on it and then the computer rebooted.

Since this happened, it won't boot; it just sits on the Apple logo with the progress bar stuck around 50%.

I have booted to recovery to repair the disk and first aid fails because it can't unmount the disk. I tried to force unmount it from terminal and again first aid won't work because it can't find the disk.

I installed MacOS on an external drive and booted to that. I can see the drive and data, and am currently trying to migrate the data as part of MacOS setup on the external drive. I selected the option to transfer data from another startup disk and it found all users, Applications, and other settings. The only problem is that it's been running for about 24 hours and says it will take 96 hours to complete.

My question is whether that long of a timeframe is normal, or is there another way I can try to get the data off and reinstall MacOS on the internal drive to see if it fixes the issue.

Should I run CCC and try to copy the drive to another external drive, or would that create another un-bootable startup disk?

Alternatively, if I try to reinstall MacOS on the internal drive, that will leave the data intact and only reinstall the OS, right?

Of course it looks like Time Machine hasn't completed a backup to the network drive in some time, so I need to get a copy of the data before I try to do anything.


texts: Does the "powermetrics" command line tool come pre installed on mac?

texts: I wanted to know if "powermetrics" command comes pre installed on macOS or is it something that needs to be installed?


texts: Macbook Pro w/ retina display connected to Dell U3011 monitor via HDMI - periodic error message about audio

texts:
I have my retina MacBook Pro running a Dell U3011 monitor via the HDMI port. Periodically, the monitor shows an error message:

  Unsupported audio format
  Please set the audio output on your audio player to Pulse-code modulation (PCM) if available.

People have suggested to use some other method of connecting the monitor to the Thunderbolt ports as a solution and this would work but in my case, I want to run this monitor from the HDMI port. Anyone have any suggestions?


texts: Time Machine backup to a networked (no Airport or Time Capsule) drive

texts:
I followed this tutorial to backup with Time Machine to a hard drive shared on the network (no Time Capsule, Airport).

However, when I go to Time Machine and click select backup disk, it simply opens Airport Utility and tries and fails in its search.

Does this method no longer work (Mavericks)?

Any alternate method to backup over network? I tried to create a system image from Disk Utility and save it to the networked drive, but met with a write permissions error -61.

I don't need Time Machine necessarily, just a system image before I do a factory restore on my Air. The SSD is nearly full, so I can't save the image locally. I don't have a big enough external drive either.

Thanks for any suggestions.


texts:
In order to sell my Mac (running High Sierra), I would like to know if there is an absolutely secure way of wiping all data preventing any recovery possibilities from the next owner?

I've read many articles or blog entries stating that the usual "secure deletion" tools do not really work for SSD disks.


texts: I can't find the location of jdk for Java 7 and 8

texts:
I have 3 different versions (jdk) of Java installed: 6, 7 and 8. In

bash_profile:

export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v 1.8)
setjdk() {
  export JAVA_HOME=$(/usr/libexec/java_home -v $1)
}

However, at

$ ls /System/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines
1.6.0.jdk

I see only one version. Where are the 2 other ones? What's the location of their jdks?


texts: Can iOS display the current audio input device?

texts:
Is there any way to tell whether an attached external mic is making contact with an iOS device?

I am trying to attach an external microphone (Sennheiser MKE-400) to an iPhone 5. The mic has a 3.5mm jack which fits into the iPhone's headphone port. I know that the port is capable of audio input. However, I also know that there are different formats for 3.5 mm jacks and ports, and that there are adapters available, one of which may be required to make this connection, though I am not sure.

I can make a recording with the mic attached, but from listening to it, it is not clear whether the mic is in use or whether the iPhone is using its own, built-in mic.


texts: How do i connect/disconnect bluetooth speakers to my macbook with a shortcut?

texts: I have bluetooth device (speakers set). I can connect/disconnect them in menu bar. But this is not very comfortable to do. How do i create a shortcut to toggle connection of specific device?


texts: AppleScript (to start screen recording) takes 6 to 12s to even start running. Why?

texts:
I use the following AppleScript (assigned to keystroke Cmd+Ctrl+5) to start screen recordings (adapted from here). If I create an Automator Quick Action and assign the keystroke to it, it takes 6s until the screen recording starts. If I call the script via osascript ./screenrecord_starter.scpt from the command line, it takes about 12s. Why does it take so long (and how can this be improved [either by how the script is called or by the script itself])?
#!/usr/bin/osascript

--  Setup screen recording (mimics 'Cmd-S-5')
tell application "System Events" to keystroke "%" using {shift down, command down}

--  Start the screen recording
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Screen Shot"
    repeat until exists its front window
        delay 0.1
    end repeat
    if not (exists button "Record" of its front window) then
        click checkbox "Record Entire Screen" of its front window
    end if
    click button "Record" of its front window
end tell

I'm working on macOS 10.15.6 (Catalina)
Update
I did some more tests and it really seems to be the AppleScript that slows things down. If I install the command-line tool cliclick and assign cliclick kd:cmd,shift t:5 m:1205,989 kp:enter to a Quick-Action-based keystroke (which mimics the clicking sequence to start screen recording; you might need to adjust the mouse position m:1205,989), then I see delays of about 1s only.


texts: Create SavedSearch Criteria Using OR not AND

texts:
I'd like to create a savedSearch in Finder that looks for recent Documents AND pdf's. If I create a rule such as:

Kind is Document
Kind is PDF

it will look for things that are Documents AND pdfs. How do I set it to look for Documents OR pdfs?


texts:
Is there any known issue with using a laptop's trackpad while on a moving train, i.e. is the EM field expected to interfere?

I ask because often when I use my Apple Macbook Air 1.1 (Early 2008) trackpad on a train (as opposed to, e.g., on my office desk) I get interferences of various kinds: it is slower in moving, it makes strange effects like activating auxiliary functions when I put two fingers on it, etc.


texts:
After watching the WWDC 13' announcement of iOS 7 I wanted to download and install the beta release of the new OS using my paid developer account. I logged on to iTunesConnect and was greeted with a message telling me I would need to review and agree to the new Developer Agreement and Paid Applications agreement before I can make any app updates. Additionally, my subscription expires on JULY 19th (about 39 days from now). I don't want to (and can't afford to) renew it until it's actually close to expiring.

For whatever reason, I cannot seem to find where I'm supposed to go to can accept the updated documents. The "Contracts, Tax and Billing" section only gives me the option to view the current documents in place, not renew or review the revised copies. Additionally, the "Member Center" simply wines at me to renew my subscription, not telling me where the agreement documents are.

If anyone else is having this issue, please let me know how you got through it. I've contacted Apple Support and I'll post what I hear from them.


texts:
For several weeks, I haven't been able to go full-screen in any app on my laptop.  I thought it was a Chrome problem with YouTube, because when I hit the full-screen button in a movie (bottom-right corner of the movie) it will expand to fill the browser window, but not the whole screen.  Then to restore, hitting Escape or the exit-full-screen button doesn't get the video to reduce down again.  Reloading the browser page works, though.

However, it's not just a browser problem - I recently discovered that no apps (e.g. Finder, Photos, Terminal, Console) can go full-screen by clicking on the circular green button on the left side of their window bars.

On a random cargo-cult recommendation I saw here, I trashed my ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.finder.plist file & restarted the Finder, but no differences are observed.

When I hit the green maximize button in a Finder window, it seems to crash that window - I can no longer drag that window around & it doesn't respond to any clicks.  Other Finder windows stay fine.

To try to debug, I've poked around in various system logs, but I haven't found anything that looks relevant.  Maybe something to do with the WindowServer?

I'm on a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014), running Sierra 10.12.5.


texts:
Every time I plug-in either my HDMI monitor or the HDMI projector on my MacBook the playing music/audio on macOS stops for several seconds, switches to the plugged device (silently), and then comes back to the actual output device that I use (External Headphones).
Use case:
I usually have music in the background; macOS goes to lock/screensaver, turns of the display and disables the external monitor. The music keeps playing.
But when I touch it again the monitor is restored and it takes around 10 seconds to restore. In this time it switches to the monitor HDMI audio, interrupting the audio for several seconds, and then restoring the actual audio device when finished reactivating the monitor.
This is extremely annoying; if the operative system would know to ignore an audio device completely (the external HDMI audio) then this would not happen.

Question:

In macOS, how to disable/remove/hide/block an audio device so that is always excluded and never considered or temporarily activated?

Note:
I've searched other questions on stackexchange but apparently nobody has any clue. So I suppose it's impossible via GUI and one needs to list and disable via some shell/sudo Linux/BSD system command.


texts: How to recover lost Mail content after Yosemite update?

texts:
I have just updated Yosemite on my MacBook Air and the outgoing mails cannot be sent - the SMTP-connection fails.
It worked OK a few seconds before the upgrade was started.
I wanted the Outgoing mails to work again.

I did the following in Mail Version 8.2 (2104)

Opened  ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData/Accounts.plist
Found the block of data that contains the offending mail account
Found the line within this block that says UserAllowsInsecureAuthentication
Changed the line below this from <false/> to <true/>
Quit TextEdit
Launched Mail

Now I don’t see my mail account and the content.
In mail 8.2 os x yosemite 10.10.5 preferences, rebuild accounts take offline accounts take on line and other tools are grey.

Can you tell me how to fix it in to see the email accounts and the contents of all my emails in box, send, trash, junk, archives etc.


texts: What happens if I restore an iPhone with Find my iPhone off?

texts: I have an old iPhone of mine and I made its Apple ID on a burner email (I know very stupid of me, I was in middle school then). I recently found it again after like 2 years of it sitting in some box, I want to reset it and sell it but will me not being able to access the Apple ID conflict it if Find my iPhone is off?


texts: Bluetooth Dongle Connection "Failed to open an RFCOMM serial channel" on MacBook Pro

texts:
I tried to setup another computer with a Bluetooth dongle to connect my Macbook Pro (OS X Mavericks). I managed to pair them and ever since then I get these messages every 10-30 seconds and often they crash and freeze the BT:

  A bluetooth serial failure has occurred.
  Failed to open an RFCOMM serial channel.
  Check if authentication needs to be enabled in your device.

I removed the offending Bluetooth dongle from the favourites and deleted the com.apple.bluetooth.plist file, yet the dongle keeps trying to connect and the error messages keep popping up.

How can I block that dongle from connecting?


texts: Big Sur: PDF Service shell script cannot call python

texts:
I recently upgraded from Mohave to Big Sur, and the shell script I use as a PDF Service has stopped working. The script calls a Python script to process the PDF, and this gives the error "operation not permitted". Thinking that this has to do with the new security restrictions, I tried dragging everything that seemed relevant to Full Disk Access in the Privacy pane of the Security & Privacy settings, but that didn't help. Here is the script with some debugging lines inserted:
#!/bin/sh

export PATH=/Library/TeX/texbin:/usr/local/bin:$PATH

########################################
# Log stdout and stderr (from https://stackoverflow.com/a/20564208).
LOG_FILE=/tmp/pdfbooklog.txt
# Close STDOUT file descriptor
exec 1<&-
# Close STDERR FD
exec 2<&-
# Open STDOUT as $LOG_FILE file for read and write.
exec 1<>$LOG_FILE
# Redirect STDERR to STDOUT
exec 2>&1

########################################
# Get name of file printed and print options (unused).

# name or title of file printed, e.g., document.odt
TITLE="${1:-}"
# space separated options from the print dialog: k1=v1 k2='v2' …
PRINT_OPTIONS="$2"
# Make first (usually only) filename $1.
shift
shift

# Some programs called write files to the current directory, so make sure
# we're somewhere where that will work.
cd /tmp

########################################
# Apparently it's possible to be called with multiple filenames.
# Use a loop to make sure we handle all files listed on the command line.

for f in "$@"
do
    echo "Processing '$f'"
    echo "PATH: $PATH"
    /usr/local/bin/python3 -c 'print("Python works")'
    pdfbook2 --inner-margin=80 "$f"
    open "${f%.pdf}-book.pdf"
done

When I invoke it from the print dialog, this is what is written to the log file:
Processing '/var/folders/2j/w5jh3df55p7f4n05nh_m45jr0000gn/T/printing.11142.10/test.odt.pdf'
PATH: /Library/TeX/texbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
/Users/me/Library/PDF Services/Make PDF booklet.sh: line 40: /usr/local/bin/python3: Operation not permitted
/Users/me/Library/PDF Services/Make PDF booklet.sh: /Library/TeX/texbin/pdfbook2: /usr/bin/env: bad interpreter: Operation not permitted
The file /var/folders/2j/w5jh3df55p7f4n05nh_m45jr0000gn/T/printing.11142.10/test.odt-book.pdf does not exist.
test.odt-book.pdf does not exist.
Done

pdfbook2 is included with MacTeX: it is a Python script that invokes python3 with /usr/bin/env. python3 is in /usr/local/bin (installed with Homebrew), and as the test line shows, I cannot even invoke it directly. What do I have to do to permit Big Sur to run this script?
Update:

In case it wasn't clear, the script works when invoked from the Terminal. It only fails when it is invoked from the print dialog.
Since Big Sur still has /usr/bin/python3, the script above can be modified to use it. When the PDF Service is invoked from the print dialog, /usr/bin/python3 -c 'print("Python works")' will print "Python works". /usr/bin/python3 /Library/TeX/texbin/pdfbook2 --inner-margin=80 "$f" will begin executing, but pdfbook2 will then throw a PermissionError of "Operation not permitted" when it tries to run pdfcrop, which is also in /Library/TeX/texbin.
The first line of pdfbook2 is #!/usr/bin/env python3. The first line of pdfcrop is #!/usr/bin/env perl, which should find /usr/bin/perl, since there is no Perl in my /usr/local/bin.
So apparently SIP is preventing PDF Services from execing anything that is not in a protected directory, and from using /usr/bin/env as an interpreter (which could circumvent that restriction). Is there any way to give a script permission to do this? Giving the script Full Disk Access doesn't work.


texts: Apps disappearing from purchased section in App Store

texts:
When you download an app, and it gets taken off the App Store, aren’t you still able to download it from the purchased section in the App Store? This usually works for most apps (Ex: I can still download Flappy Bird from my purchased section) but some apps that I got a while ago don’t appear in the purchased section anymore.

One example is when a screen recording app called Anyscreen was put on the App Store. I got it before it was taken off the App Store, and deleted it a few days later, but later I noticed that I could no longer find it in the purchased section? Is there a way to still get these apps?


texts: Set up iMessage on iPod touch without erasing all data

texts:
My dad has been trying to set up iMessage on my sisters iPod touch so my sister can text me. How do I sign in to iMessage on my iPod?

People have said to clear out all of the data, but we have not done so because all of the apps and contacts will be erased.


texts: How to access Safari 7.0.6 with Sierra 10.12.1 OS

texts: 2013 MacBook Pro logic board died. Removed HD and connected to Desk Mac, can access everything but Safari, want to get bookmarks, says "7.0.6 not supported". Can anyone suggest procedure?


texts: Automator and/or AppleScript to automatically Command-F2 to enter Target Display Mode

texts:
I'm trying to use Automator with AppleScript to automatically hit Command + F2 to enter Target Display Mode. The script runs but I just get a beep/tone with no action. I don't know if there's an error in the script or if it's not capable of hitting a function key.

on run {input, parameters}

    tell application "System Events"
        key down {command}
        keystroke "120"
        key up {command}
    end tell
return input
end run

Once I get this working I'll need to somehow schedule this to run on startup or maybe on a schedule. I've seen some threads on this but never an actual solution. I'm using a 2011 iMac as a secondary monitor and hate hitting Command + F2 every day.


texts: Are there common causes of a text message sound in the night, but no text message?

texts:
My iPhone 3GS has made the text message sound twice at like 3:30 am but when I look at it there is no text.

This is hard to explain to my husband, it's making us both paranoid! Can I look somewhere to figure out what's happening?


texts: How do I find out which Game Center account a game is tied to?

texts:
I played Clash of Clans one year ago and I have many game center accounts.

My problem is that I forgot which game center account has my game progress. How do I know which registered account is linked with Clash of Clans?


texts: Is it possible to use Back To My Mac DNS or routing information from the command line?

texts:
I often want to ssh to a Mac and would love to make use of of iCloud to look up IP/DNS routing information. Can this be done without signing up for a dynamic DNS service and configuring it on each Mac in addition to iCloud?

Let's assume of my on-all-the-time Mac at home's hostname is "maui" and it's running Snow Leopard. When I'm on my laptop connected to the home network, I can ssh maui.local. It sure would be nice to be able to ssh maui.whatever.icloud.com or whatever would work. I'm guessing I would need "maui" and my iCloud name to let it know which machine under my account needs reaching.

Does anyone know if this is possible through API or command line? I've browsed the public developer information several times but don't see anything promising. Any pointers or code examples would be welcome.

P.S. Please don't suggest free DNS accounts as I'm really interested in MobileMe exclusively for this question. I know those will work but I'm looking to avoid installing anything else or another account/external dependency on these Macs.


texts: MacBook Pro kernel panic after speaker change

texts:
I have recently changed the speakers of my 13" retina MacBook Pro(Mid 2014, MacOS Sierra) and after few days my Macbook crashed while scanning a document using an HP printer which was connected via USB cable. It was not responding to the power button. I went to apple service center, there they removed the connection of battery from the motherboard. Afer that MacBook started responding to the power button. But it is not working as it used to. It is repeatedly restarting without any warning and display is flickering.

When I start MacBook in Safe Mode it works really well. So, I looked at panic logs. I can see after loading com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC while booting MacBook restarted. In safe mode the sound is not enabled and it is working well without any problem, so I think, and please correct me if I am wrong, the problem lies in AudioAUUC. Is there any way I force MacOS to not load these problematic drivers while booting normally? Any help is really appreciated.

Please find part of panic logs below:

Mac OS version:
16F73

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 16.6.0: Fri Apr 14 16:21:16 PDT 2017; root:xnu-3789.60.24~6/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: FB2170A8-257D-3C64-B14D-BC06CC94E34C
Kernel slide:     0x0000000012600000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff8012800000
__HIB  text base: 0xffffff8012700000
System model name: MacBookPro11,1 (Mac-189A3D4F975D5FFC)

System uptime in nanoseconds: 24172689777
last loaded kext at 12185909650: com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC 1.70 (addr 0xffffff7f956b8000, size 28672)
loaded kexts:
com.apple.driver.AudioAUUC  1.70
com.apple.filesystems.autofs    3.0
com.apple.driver.pmtelemetry    1
com.apple.iokit.IOUserEthernet  1.0.1
....


texts: Ever since I restored my Mac from a Time Machine backup to return from Yosemite to Mavericks, things have been a mess. I fixed everything but iCloud sync, which seems to be an impossible issue. It simply refuses to sync. The files are always "Waiting", no matter what I do. I've deleted the Ubiquity folder, replaced the Mobile Documents folder, run killall -9 ubd, rebooted about 20 times, and so on. Any other ideas out there?


texts: What are the pros and cons of using iTunes to manage my iPod?

texts:
I've heard people talking about using alternative software to manage their iPods.

My iPod came in the post today and I was wondering what the pros and cons of using iTunes (as opposed to popular alternative) were.


texts: How can I turn my email off for the night? (iOS)

texts:
I would like to be able to easily turn on and off notifications for a particular app. I have my reasons for this, and if you'd like to know them you can check the edit history, but please keep responses to the topic of how I can do this, not whether I should want to.

There seem to be a couple of options for this, but neither is ideal.

Firstly, I could turn on "do not disturb" mode for the periods when I'd like the notifications turned off. This will block notifications from other apps, so it's not what I want.

Secondly, I could go to Settings -> Notification Centre -> [my app] and toggle "Show on Lock Screen". This doesn't seem to be something Siri can do for me, and it's something I want to do very often, so going this deep in the menu hierarchy is inconvenient.

Is there a more convenient way to toggle notifications for a particular app?


texts: How to enable Normal Scrolling on MacBookPro 10.8.3?

texts: Small or incremental scrolling on my MBP OSX 10.8.3 using an external mouse is extremely slow to a crawl. How do I configure my mouse to a Normal Scroll mode where every scroll is the same and creates fast scrolls in the window?


texts:
I've found that the command line unzip tool doesn't gracefully handle some of the files I'm unzipping: it makes a bunch of junk directories, and creates files whose resource forks aren't found.  (Perhaps they were created strangely.)

$ unzip -d NEW-DIRECTORY ZIP

Anyways, using Archive Utility is a start, because I can run the following and it is close (and it doesn't mess up my files):

$ open -a "Archive Utility" ZIP

But this does not allow me to specify a new directory for the contents!!  It automatically puts them in the current directory. :P

What are my alternatives?


texts:
I'm using OS X 10.8.4 on a Mac Mini with 2.3 GHz Core i5 and 8 GB RAM. For security reason I have to lock my computer to screensaver while I leave my seat for a while. I set it up so that password login is required to dismiss screensaver.

However, while I'm login and after login the system is very slow. (at least 30 sec to type the first character for my password). After login for a while it became normal.

I suppose the reason might be that the system is loading everything from hard disk? If so how can I fix that?


texts: Macbook (2,1) boots into blue screen and hangs

texts:
Last night, I shut down my computer. When I turned it back on, I just got the rEFIt logo (I have rEFIt installed). Usually, it takes a moment to populate the menu with a list of bootable devices, but this time it just hung there.

I had an Arch Linux Live DVD in the optical drive, too, and I can't make it eject or boot into Arch Linux. The optical drive whines when the macbook is powered on, but it doesn't keep spinning. This optical drive is old-ish (original to the 2007 macbook) and refused to burn CDs starting a month ago, so I've been expecting it to go any day.

Pressing down any of the boot keys (D, O, option, Command-Option-O-F, C) would just get me that blue screen you get when you're normally booting, but hung there. Target Mode and Single-User Mode don't work, either.

The hard drive is original to the machine, too, but I don't think the hard drive dying would interfere with the boot process. I would think I would be able to boot to the DVD if that were the case, too.

I asked this question on AskMetafilter last night. One of the things recommended was to reset the PRAM (boot with Command-Option-P-R) and the SMC (turn the computer off, take out the battery, and hold down the power button). That worked but didn't fix my problem. Now, I don't get the rEFIt menu, just that blue screen. Holding down any of the boot keys still doesn't get me anywhere.

What happened? How do I fix it?


texts:
I'm using Yosemite and I've added my Google account to my Internet Accounts and when I receive emails to that account the name is displayed as Holidays in New Zealand. This is somehow funny and wrong.

Just when I disable the Calendar item under my Internet Accounts > Google my email is displayed right on Mail.

All my details under Mail (Full Name, etc) are right.

How can I still have my Calendar linked and my name displayed under my Mail  app?


texts: Remove Quicklook Syntax Highlighting with TextMate2?

texts:
TextMate2 Alpha comes with a Syntax Highlighting plugin for macOS QuickLook.

How can it be disabled without removing TextMate?


texts: How to stop 'locate' from using databases for unmounted volumes?

texts:
Despite the claim made in the answer to this question:

Can Spotlight show results for disconnected drives?

This is exactly the behaviour I am seeing and I don't want it!

E.g.

wms:~ alan$ ls /Volumes
MobileBackups   Tamandua
wms:~ alan$ locate /usr/texbin
/Volumes/AlanG5Backup/Previous Systems/Previous System 1/usr/texbin
/Volumes/AlanG5Backup/Previous Systems.localized/2009-07-10_1136/usr/texbin
/Volumes/MacBookBackup/usr/texbin

AlanG5Backup and MacBookBackup were partitions that I had previously mounted, but (as the output from ls /Volumes shows) were not mounted when I ran the locate command.

Furthermore, the current volume (Tamandua) doesn't show any locate results at all, which it should.

How do I fix this?  I'm running 10.9.


texts: How can I make vim "command mode" the default mode for terminal

texts:
I use vim commands in my terminal..
But by default, the mode when I open up terminal is the "insert mode".
Is it possible to enter in "command mode" when I open a terminal session?


texts: How to print to a HP Photosmart C4599 printer from Sierra?

texts:
I am desperately trying to print from my MacbookPro running Sierra to a HP Phtosmart C4599.

Does anyone have any idea? Is there a solution?


texts: How can I make soundtracks with one artist sort as soundtracks in iTunes (and iPhone)?

texts:
Most of the soundtracks in my iTunes library have the Album Artist tag "Various Artists" and so they all appear together in the V's in Albums view. A few soundtracks have only one artist (composer) or mainly one artist, and they appear in a different location.

For example, the soundtrack for The Incredibles appears with the M's for the artist, Michael Giacchino.

Should I change the Album Artist tag to "Various Artists" to make it sort with the other soundtracks? Maybe I should change the Album Artist tag in all of my soundtracks to "Soundtrack".

Any better ideas? Thanks!


texts: iOS: Stop Photos app from opening automatically after receiving photos via AirDrop

texts:
When i send some pictures to my iPhone from my MacBook via AirDrop, the Photos app on my iPhone opens automatically.

How can I stop that from happening?


texts: Are there any tools available (web tools, PC tools, iPhone tools) to send an MMS to the iPhone which contains images and text?

texts:
I would like my app to be launched if the user clicks on a custom URL within an MMS, this is working for SMSs but I would like to test it using an MMS.
Does anybody know of any tools available that would enable me to create and send an MMS to the iPhone, with the MMS containing a mixture of images and the url as a clickable link from within the MMS?

(it doesn't have to be sent from on an iPhone, I'm just looking for any way at all to get an MMS onto the iPhone containing an image and a clickable url link).

Thanks


texts:
This is a pretty general question, and I'm sorry I don't have a screenshot for you.

First, some specs: I am running OSX Lion on a MacMini with a Magic Mouse.

I had a screen appear and I'm not sure what it was or how it appeared. All my windows faded out and there was a list of files (and folders perhaps) listed above the dock station. This was not mission control or launchpad, I know that much. It also wasn't whatever the screen is that I get when I two-finger swipe to the right (with the calculator, clock, weather and other widgets).

If it helps at all, when it happend I was attempting to open my DropBox folder. I am often switching between a Windows PC and my Mac. I've been on my Windows computer lately and am used to opening DropBox by double-clicking the icon in the task bar. It was somewhere around that time this screen appeared. It disappeared when I clicked anywhere outside the file icons - which I unfortunately did pretty quickly.

If there is any other information I can give to possibly identify this screen, just let me know.


texts: volume on Apple Music is lower than Quicktime player

texts:
For a long time, Apple Music for OSX plays just about every file at a lower level than I will get when I play the same file using Quicktime Player. I don't understand why. I don't have Sound Enhancer or Sound Check checked. Apple music volume is to the max as is the system volume.
Files include mp3s, aiffs, wavs... probably every file I run into.
The only thing I can think of is that I may have altered the settings in Apple's Audio Midi Setup a few years ago to try to set something up using Soundflower or some other project. The built in output settings there are:Format 2 ch 32 bit float 44.1 khz
The sliders below that seem to be at 62%. I moved them up just now and it didn't seem to help...

Any other ideas?
Thanks.
MacBook Pro 15" late 2013,OS11 11.3.1, Music 1.1.4.110


texts: Why can't I paste a password into a password form on a webpage?

texts:
On my Snow Leopard Mac, I can't seem to paste into a password field on login pages to Apple sites, (developer.apple.com for example). I thought is was a browser issue but it's happening with Safari, Chrome and Firefox so it must be the System.
I assume this is somebody's idea of a security feature, though I fail to see the logic and it's very annoying.

Any ideas on how to fix, turn off or work-around this?


texts: How do I sync my iCal with an Android smart phone from T-Mobile?

texts:
I am a T-Mobile customer wanting to upgrade to a smart phone.
I would like to be able to sync my Macbook iCal to Gravity Smart or Mytouch 3G.
Is this possible without being complicated?


texts: Do All of the Macbook Pros Have That GPU-Kernel Panic Issue?

texts:
Recently I upgraded my mid-2010 MacBook Pro from Snow Leopard to Yosemite. Everything seemed to be working just fine, and then, a few hours later, the kernel panics started.

Thankfully, I was able to find the solution here:

Question about GPU Panic on Mid 2010 MacBookPro6,2

Now I am thinking about upgrading that MacBook Pro to a newer model, but I just saw somebody on here talking about having a similar issue with their 2016 MacBook Pro, hence my question.

So newer MacBook Pros have the same problem?


texts: How do I get My ipad out of the vertical position

texts: somehow I locked my ipad into the vertical position.  How do I get out of this??


texts: Is the iPhone's "found this contact info in.." reliable?

texts:
Got an SMS from a new contact I know, saying simply "hi it's Jane and peter"

I don't have any address book entry existing for this person but the phone suggested "maybe:Jane" - ok, I can see that conclusion

However, tapping the banner at the top of the message it said "contact info for Jane.. blah blah cellphone number 123 456 789.. found in Mail"

And then it showed a mail from my account manager at my insurance broker confirming a policy detail - entirely unrelated to this person, the trailing phone number digits are different, all names are different, they'll never have met or interacted etc.  I can't find anything they have in common - just wondered if it's reliable, how it matches, what data big brother is linking up to offer this assist etc?


texts: What are some quality small business management programs?

texts: I manage a small lawn business, I currently use about 12 tabs in Excel and keep track of customers, expenses, income, payroll, etc. I now have an iMac and am wondering what quality small business management programs are available.


texts:
As I was going through Brew's FAQ, I noticed that it said that brew cleanup would cleanup old files. As a usual person would do, I decided to run this command (Ok, maybe most people wouldn't run random commands they found just for fun). I sit for maybe a minute, and BOOM, This operation has freed approximately 7.2GB of disk space. WOH! After doing some quick research, I didn't exactly find why this removed 7.2GB from my computer. Brew's FAQ said:

  By default, Homebrew does not uninstall old versions of a formula, so over time you will accumulate old versions.

Most kegs were around 20-80MB when deleted. Some big files you might or might not need, but here you go:

Removing: /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.9.1... (7,639 files, 293.7MB)
Removing: /usr/local/Cellar/go/1.9.2... (7,646 files, 293.9MB)
Removing: /usr/local/Cellar/boost/1.64.0_1... (12,628 files, 395.6MB)
Removing: /usr/local/Cellar/boost/1.65.1... (12,679 files, 401.1MB)
Removing: /usr/local/Cellar/qt/5.9.1... (9,019 files, 277.9MB)
Removing: /usr/local/Cellar/qt/5.9.2... (9,021 files, 279.6MB)
Removing: /usr/local/Cellar/qt/5.9.3... (9,042 files, 279.2MB)
Removing: /usr/local/Cellar/binutils/2.29.1... (113 files, 142.9MB)
Removing: /usr/local/Cellar/gcc/7.1.0... (1,486 files, 283.8MB)
Removing: /usr/local/Cellar/gcc/7.2.0... (1,487 files, 284MB)
Removing: /usr/local/Cellar/wine/2.0.3... (8,252 files, 591.9MB)
Removing: /usr/local/Cellar/wine/2.0.3_1... (8,335 files, 581.6MB)
Removing: /usr/local/Cellar/ghc/8.2.1... (5,583 files, 999.5MB)

Note: The above kegs were picked out, most sit around 20-80MB, as said above.

What does brew store that is cleaned by brew cleanup that is so big?


texts: How to auto fit columns in Finder when in Columns view?

texts: When in Finder Columns view, how can I automatically resize a column to autofit filenames?


texts: iTunes 11 - Difference between "Play Next" and "Add to Up Next" buttons

texts:
Is there a difference between iTunes' "Play Next" and "Add to Up Next" buttons? (See screenshot above). They appear if I right click an album and it seems to me that they do the same thing: Adding the songs of the album (or artist) to my "Up Next" line.

(source: m-i-u.de)


texts: Tethered jailbreaked iPhone 4S is stuck on the Apple logo because the battery died

texts:
It's impossible to put it on DFU mode because it won't turn off and I don't know what to do.
iTunes won't recognise it either.

How can I fix this?


texts: Bad sort order in file picker, correct in Finder

texts:
Say I download a bunch of random files in Safari for upload to some other website. The files automatically end up in my Downloads folder, so it would make sense to sort the files by Date Added so the stuff I just got will be at the top of the list for easy selection.

Problem is, this doesn't happen. In fact, I don't see any rhyme or reason to what I'm getting here:

Note that I'm sorting by Date Added, descending, so the items from today should be at the top of the list. Instead they're halfway down the bottom and jumbled in with a bunch of other items. Under a "2012" heading. For a file that was downloaded today.

If I open the Downloads folder up in Finder and apply the same sort, the files appear correctly:

This strange behavior happens in every application that uses the system file picker.

Any idea what's causing this and how to fix it?


texts: Disable background app refresh for ONLY Messages app

texts:
iOS 10 has made the Messages app drain my wife's iPhone 6's battery.

It uses up about 40% of her battery and most of that is background time.

How can I turn off background refresh for ONLY Messages?

(Not looking for a solution that turns off all background refreshes.)


texts: Time Machine and the dreaded negative sign

texts:
I am about to modify the file ownerships in my Time Machine disk, which uses ACLs.

Since it is my (only) backup disk, I thought I'd solicit comments on the script before I run it. The objective is to fix file ownerships so that /Vol/TM/Back/2012-xx-yy/Users/bob is owned by user bob, to make it possible for Bob to browse his TM history.

#!/bin/csh
# Replace Foobar, Bob, and Brand.
set PREFIX="/Volumes/Foobar-Time-Machine/Backups.backupdb/Bob’s MacBook"
set SUFFIX="/Brand/Users/"
set USER="bob"

foreach dir ($PREFIX/*)
    chmod -R -a "group:everyone deny chown" "$PREFIX$dir$SUFFIX$USER"
    chown -R $USER "$PREFIX$dir$SUFFIX$USER"
    chmod -R =a# 1 "group:everyone deny add_file,delete,add_subdirectory,delete_child,writeattr,writeextattr,chown" "$PREFIX$dir$SUFFIX$USER"
end

Do you spot a disaster waiting to happen? The first chmod is meant to remove minimal ACL and the second is meant to restore it. Can the script be made safer? Needless to say, the script would be run as sudo.


texts:
Parallels includes a mode called Coherence, where software from the guest OS is launched as if it were a native macOS app. This means their windows are rendered separately, each occupying an icon in the dock. Apart from those, Coherence always displays a dock icon for the VM itself. My use-case is that I'm running the VM for only one program, which I display in Coherence 1 so not to have it rendered with a title bar on top 2. I'd now like to remove the VM icon, as I can do without its functions (shutdown guest OS, open cmd, etc).

Here are the things I've tried:

I've tried the info.plist method best described here, as applied to the info.plist of the VM icon (⌘+click its icon to reach its location). Didn't work.
I've used Dock Dodger. Didn't work. Presumably because it seems to do exactly the same as the above's method.
I've used Ghost Tile. Worked. And here's the problem - the reliance on it. The app is essentially free, but needing it in the first place goes against maintaining a minimal setup, and most importantly it's a fragile solution as the app is prone to disappearance down the years (as it happened with Dock Dodger, which is now distributed via an assortment of non-official hosts).

I've also asked in the Parallels forum. Their response is understandable in that the feature would seemingly break functionality for common users. However, it actually shouldn't affect much at all in the right hands, as you can still control the hidden VM from the terminal, or the main Parallels icon.

I'd like to see a solution that is more future-proof and universal (the info.plist method seems not to work for a lot of apps). After all, Ghost Tile is doing something right, and as far as i can tell, it hasn't been documented openly in the many threads active about hiding dock icons.


texts: How to save state of all apps, switch to another state and come back later?

texts:
I am working on multiple projects on my Mac. I want to save the state of all windows and close them; this will let me work on another project. When I want to come back to my first project, I should be able to open the "context" and get all the windows back again.

Is this possible?

For example, if am working on an Android app, I will have Android Studio, Safari (with AndroidDeveloper site and other stuff open), Terminal, etc. open. Now, suppose I have to do something with my WebGL project, so I want to close everything and save the state. I fix whatever in the WebGL project and comeback to my app. So I want to open Android Studio + Safari etc., again.


texts:
I no longer own any Apple devices. No iMacs, no iPhones, no iPads.

However I am still being charged $15/month for my HBO Now subscription because I chose to sign up to that through Apple Pay back when I did have Apple devices.

However I no longer see any way to cancel my HBO subscription without owning any Apple devices, as I don't see any way to manage subscriptions online.

Is there any way to cancel my subscription without owning an Apple device?


texts: How to repair or back up external hard drive when disk utility can't repair it?

texts:
I have an external hard-disk with a single Mac OS Extended partition. This disk stopped working a couple of days ago. I tried to repair the external hard drive with disk utility but no luck. The error message is the following:

Error: Disk Utility can’t repair this disk. Back up as many of your files as
possible, reformat the disk, and restore your backed-up files.

The hard drive doesn't appear on the side bar of Finder or on the desktop.
On disk utility the hard drive name appears to be on "gray" text than "black" text.

How do I repair it on the terminal?
Or how can I back up the external hard drive if I can't even access it normally?

diskutil list: 0: FDisk_partition_scheme *500.1 GB disk2 1: DOS_FAT_32 500.1 GB disk2s1 (That's one disk btw, and I don't know why it's on fat32, I last formatted it on MAC OS Extended Journaled)

Thank you


texts: How can I filter iTunes songs with spaces in them?

texts: When I use the iTunes library text filter option to search for love with, I get the song I'm in love with the hero but also several hits for song titles where the words love or with appear separately. Is there any way to tell iTunes that I'm searching for a full string instead of separate words? If I enclose the search term in quotes like Google the filter doesn't return any hits, and the search question mark icon doesn't seem to have any other options that fields.


texts: pfctl - howto add an anchor and make it active / load it

texts:
So i can add an anchor to the already enabled firewall by doing something like this:

$ pfctl -a anchor_name -f /etc/anchor_rules.txt

the file "anchor_rules.txt" might contain something like this:

table <some-hosts> persist file /etc/someHostsToBlock.txt
block quick from any to some-hosts

Now, i can see the rules inside the anchor by doing this:

$ pfctl -a anchor_name -sr
No ALTQ support in kernel
ALTQ related functions disabled
block drop quick from any to some-hosts

However, when i show the current active ruleset with:

$ pfctl -sr
No ALTQ support in kernel
ALTQ related functions disabled
scrub-anchor "com.apple/*" all fragment reassemble
anchor "com.apple/*" all

i don't see the anchor called "anchor_name" which i just added. So the anchor is not actually active/loaded...

Why not, and how to load it?


texts:
I fiddled with my $PATH and now it's not working correctly anymore. So I thought, well, just remove the last things I added. However, I can't seem to figure out how.
I added things like so

export MAGICK_HOME="/Library/ImageMagick-6.7.5/"
export PATH="$MAGICK_HOME/bin:$PATH"
export DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH="$MAGICK_HOME/lib/"

I do not have the files ~/.bash_login or ~/.profile or /etc/environment. I can't find the mentioned strings in /etc/path or /etc/bashrc. I don't know a command except export, that manipulates the $PATH.

How do I get rid of these strings? (And, if it's obvious to you, what did I mess up?)


texts: Macbook pro, boot camp, can't enable wifi adapter

texts:
I installed Windows 8 on my macbook pro (Item No : 8899069, Mftr Part No : MD313LL/A) via boot camp. I installed the boot camp support tools. The wifi adapter says that it is working correctly. However, when I go into the control panel, the wifi adapter is not enabled. When I try to enable it, it says "enabling...", but then goes away. It's not enabled afterwards.

I tried to uninstall the driver, and then repair the support tools. No luck.

I followed these directions, with no luck. I also tried to run setup.exe from these drivers, with no luck. Last, I tried to run setup.exe in compatibility mode, with no luck.

Has anyone been able to get the macbook wifi enabled in Windows 8? It reminds me of a time when I couldn't get my wifi card to work, and then I realized I didn't press the 'enable wifi' button on my pc.

I don't even see an error in the event viewer :(

Has anyone been able to get wifi to work in windows 8?

EDIT: The network card is a Broadcom 802.11n network adapter (as per the device manager)


texts: Can I test iPhone apps downloaded from iTunes in the iPhone Simulator?

texts: Is it possible to test iPhone applications which you downloaded from iTunes Store in the iOS Simulator?


texts: Can I use a non "me.com" address to send email with iCloud?

texts: I will  be buying an iPad and will want to use iCloud.  However, I want to use a non "@me.com" address to send email from/reply to.  Is this possible when you sign up for iCloud?  Thanks


texts: New Big Sur upgrade. . . downgrade for click drag?

texts:
When I try to move a window on my MacBook Air (press down with thumb on trackpad and use forefinger to move cursor & whatever object I grabbed) it takes 2 to 5 TIMES(!) for the cursor to actually take hold of the window and move it.  It appears there is NO correlation to exactly where on the upper pane margin I grab.  For weeks now I can't figure out where the "sweet spot" is!   It used to be you could place the cursor just about anywhere up there and it grabbed and moved. This is REALLY frustrating.
Wishing I had not upgraded because there is no apparent increase in the OS operation capability that I notice at all.
MacBook Air(mid-2013)