texts:
Mac OS 10.14.3 [Mojave]:

QuickTime Player is set as the default app for Finder's "open with" for .mp4 files on my Mac.  This is what I want.  But when I double-click an mp4 file, the kid3 app [a tag editor] launches instead of Quicktime Player!?

Why and how is kid3 invisibly hijacking the default app for "open with" for mp4 files? I found nothing related to this in kid3's preferences.


texts: How to securely `shred` a file in Mojave/APFS?

texts:
I just came across this thread about securely deleting files:

  If, by stroke of misfortune, you're on a magnetic medium, have
  journalling disabled and, for some reason, can't encrypt the disk,
  you're options are:

* Use rm -P which overwrites files with 0xff, then 0x00, and then 0xff again

And this contradictory superuser thread. Apparently it's not easy to securely delete files using Apple's older HFS+/Journaled file system.

Without the use of third-party software, is it possible to natively wipe a file in macOS Mojave (or High Sierra) that's using APFS and FileVault encryption?

I understand macOS makes it difficult with all of its journaling and backup functionalities. But I'm looking for a shred or srm type of solution that's built into macOS already.


texts: Preview 10.1 in macOS Mojave does not capture signature with camera

texts:
I recently bought a MacBook Air and I am not being able to capture a signature in a white sheet of paper with camera, as it was possible in previous machines and mac OS versions.
Does someone have a hint on how to solve this?


texts: Can I make snapshots of an APFS non-bootable volume?

texts:
I have a Samsung FIT external drive with two partitions. One is ExFAT for interchange with Linux Systems. The other partition is APFS (Encrypted). I would like to backup the APFS volume using snapshots so I can "roll back" changes in case one of the Virtual Machines I got on it gets broken. Is there a way to do this? Or is the APFS Snapshot utility only for Bootable Drives? I tried tmutil snapshot /Volumes/APFSVolumeName but when I tried to list local snapshots I got nothing.
I guess my only option is good old Disk Image of the Volume, right?


texts: Big Sur Add trusted certificate via command line (Safari Can't establish a secure connection)

texts:
I am trying to have Safari stop preventing me from visiting one of my dev machines with an invalid cert.
I am trying to use the solution in this thread but install it using the CLI:
   security add-trusted-cert  -r trustRoot  -k ~/Library/Keychains/login.keychain-db /tmp/test.cert

I am still receiving the "Safari Can't Open the Page because Safari can't establish a secure connection to the server" error.
I want it to be applied to the user so I don't want to do the -d flag.  And I know I am correctly downloading the cert because if I add the certificate and trust it through the OSX GUI, it works fine.
Another interesting note is that this solution works for my Brave and Firefox browsers, so it's just Safari that is giving me grief, but even safari works when I add the downloaded cert via the GUI.


texts: Can Mac App Store installs & upgrades be automated?

texts:
How can I script installing or upgrading apps from the Mac App Store? I'd prefer command line tools, but AppleScript or some other API would suffice.

Relevant puzzle pieces:

installer: note especially the -store flag which is used to simulate App Store installs for package devs.
systemupdate: capable of handling updates to Apple apps, flags -i installs and -a tells it to install all available updates


texts:
Is it possible to send video through AirPlay and have the audio on the iOS device?

I want to watch a movie on the Apple TV but have the audio in my EarPods connected to my iPhone.

The Apple TV can send audio through AirPlay but I can't find an app for iOS that can receive audio without jailbreak.


texts:
I have Calendar events with Zoom links in them. Is there a way so that when I click on the link, Zoom desktop client is used to open them instead of my default web-browser?
I am using MBA M1 with macOS Big Sur 11.2.1.


texts:
Every time I open my terminal I get

(base) Users-MacBook-Air:~ Uriel$

instead of

Users-MacBook-Air:~ Uriel$

without the (base) line which means that the environment of conda is open. In order to get this, I have to do

conda deactivate

every time in my Terminal and it is annoying because not only I always have to type that but also because every time I open it, I have to wait some seconds because I think is logging conda in

Up in my Terminal what I should only get is the label

user--- -bash ---

but before I get that I see that first appears

Terminal --python<-bash

then

Terminal --java<-bash

then

Terminal --R<-bash

etc., until I get the

user--- -bash ---.

Is it because I let conda open? Or something like that? How do I fix this?

Following is the contents of the ~/.bash_profile file:

# Setting PATH for Python 3.6
# The original version is saved in .bash_profile.pysave
PATH="/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.6/bin:${PATH}"
export PATH

# Setting PATH for Python 3.8
# The original version is saved in .bash_profile.pysave
PATH="/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/3.8/bin:${PATH}"
export PATH
# added by Anaconda3 2019.10 installer
# >>> conda init >>>
# !! Contents within this block are managed by 'conda init' !!
__conda_setup="$(CONDA_REPORT_ERRORS=false '/Users/user/opt/anaconda3/bin/conda' shell.bash hook 2> /dev/null)"
if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
    \eval "$__conda_setup"
else
    if [ -f "/Users/user/opt/anaconda3/etc/profile.d/conda.sh" ]; then
        . "/Users/user/opt/anaconda3/etc/profile.d/conda.sh"
        CONDA_CHANGEPS1=false conda activate base
    else
        \export PATH="/Users/user/opt/anaconda3/bin:$PATH"
    fi
fi
unset __conda_setup
# <<< conda init <<<
conda deactivate


texts:
After speaking with a senior advisor at Apple, I have been informed by them that the Night Shift feature (and other iOS features in the 9.3 upgrade) are not available for Ipod touch 5th generation, which is frustrating, as there seems to be no available alternative.

I used to have a great app on my Ipod called F.LUX (which as only available if I jailbroke the Ipod). This app reduces Blue Light, and is what the new Night Shift app in iOS 9.3 is based on.

Since Apple has abandoned Ipod 5 support for many new features in iOS 9.3,   and does not support Night Shift on the iPod touch 5, are there any system wide apps that I can install that will protect my eyes at night by reducing blue light emissions?


texts: I want to quit a process but without force quitting it. Is that possible from the terminal?


texts: Can I delete pictures on my old iPhone through my new one using the same iCloud?

texts: My mom got a hold of my phone and I need to delete some pictures is there anyway I can do so even if it means that I'll have to delete all my pictures?


texts: Deleting contacts from mac contacts application with no Phone number

texts:
Is it possible to delete contacts from mac contacts application which have no phone no? Or export only those contacts which have a contact?

Thanks.


texts:
I need some help with this...
My printer (hp inkjet) will randomly print 3 pages with just a header that includes the curl command (see photo) since this is a major waste of paper, how do I get this to stop?

I don’t have any server type apps installed so I don’t know what’s going on.

Is someone getting in to my printer or how would I know if my Mac is sending these to the printer?


texts: OS X 10.7 add multiple windows workgroups

texts:
I have multiple Windows Workgroups on my network, Does 10.7 have the ability to add more than one Workgroup at a time?

I open up System Preferences -> Network -> Advanced -> WINS (Tab) -> Workgroup

I select/toggle between the Workgroups I need but wanted to add multiple workgroups.

Any thoughts?


texts: Why is Audacity 2.3.X not recording audio input on macOS Catalina, plus workaround

texts: Audacity has stated that they do not support macOS Catalina, 10.15.X. Given the permissions and app sandboxing schemes have changed for the latest version of macOS, simply starting Audacity will not prompt users for granting the permissions it needs to use the built-in audio device or other audio input devices. So even though you can start recording, the software will never receive any input. You'll notice this looking at the waveform visualization during your recording.


texts: I bought some new Memory Sticks and i want to know on which part they go on. I have a image too. Can someone help me out? This is my Old Mac i used to use and now i bought a Snow leopard installation disc and i want to add new RAM to my old mac. Can someone just show me where the memory goes?


texts: how fast does sierra overwrite over a permanently deleted file?

texts:
Recently I did a clean install of Sierra and I deleted a text file which is under 3MB.I scanned the disk immediately using data recovery software and I was surprised not to find the file there.Is this completely normal or not.

Before I did a clean install I did the same thing but the file was still there.


texts: Mac OS Creating PDF's weirdly large in size since I changed my iPhone

texts:
I have recently bought an iPhone SE and switched to HEIC format for the pictures. I am sending the files to my Mac (Early 2015 Pro, Mojave) with AirDrop. Even though the sizes of images are just shy of 3 megabytes, the "Create PDF" function under "Quick Actions" is creating ~15MB per page PDFs which is kinda painful in quick upload situations. How can I resolve this enlargement issue of Preview creating PDFs?
Thank you beforehand!
Cheers,
~bio


texts:
I use an Exchange server for work email and calendar, and I use an iCloud/iCal calendar at home and freelance business.

I want to sync all my iCloud calendar items - not contacts, email or anything else.

How can I do this?


texts: How to properly backup OS X Server (Mavericks)

texts:
I've been reading various articles from a Google Search on this topic and it seems there is no clear solution as many debate what works/doesn't work. I'm hoping to get a definitive answer here.

I have a Mac Mini running 10.9.2 with Server App installed. I run the following services on it: Caching, DHCP, DNS, File Sharing, Open Directory, Profile Manager, Software Updates, Time Machine, Websites, VPN, and Xcode.

I'd like to use Time Machine, but read it won't backup Open Directory. Carbon Copy also states it will not backup OD. I'd like to be able to restore my entire system from a disk image if possible if something were to go wrong.

What solution(s) do any of you OS X Sys Admins perform to accomplish this? Also, is there a way to automate creating an archive of Open Directory?


texts: Creating and deploying a standard build of OS X 10.6 company-wide

texts:
My company is growing quickly and we are purchasing a lot of iMacs. Up until now each one has been configured individually but I'd like to be able to define default settings (network settings, Safari settings, dock settings etc) which I can apply automatically on a machine.

I'm assuming this can be done, but where do I start?


texts: How to enable Antialiasing in Finder's preview column and QuickLook?

texts:
The title pretty much says it all, plain text files are a bit annoying to read on QuickLook (and to preview on finder's preview column) due to a lack of antialiasing.

On the General preference panel I've checked that my text smoothing is set to ~“Turn off for sizes 4 and smaller”.

I've also checked with TextEdit that the font size in QuickLook is quite on the bigger-than-4 side, and that I can see the text antialiased in TextEdit.

Doing some googling I only found people with the same need but 0 solutions.

For the record: this is a brand new mac with OS X Lion 10.7.2 as fully updated as I can, that arrived home last week and I haven't (yet) installed any plugin at all for QuickLook.


texts: Reboots hang. Cold Starts Boot on iMac 27" i7 (Mid 2010)

texts:
I've been having a problem with my iMac i7 (mid 2010) for quite awhile. Any kind of restart from a software update, or a user selected restart, causing the iMac to get stuck on the restart gray screen with the rotating loading "carat."

If I power down the machine, then turn it back on it, it boots up fine.

Internal hard drive checks out fine.

I took it to the Apple Store Genius bar, and they could not find anything physically wrong with it, and blamed it on a problem with my user (software), thinking since the OS has been transferred over from several previous machines (an iMac G4 and then a PowerMac G5), that something PowerPC is causing the freeze.

I've tried doing a verbose mode, but not seeing anything.

Any ideas on how to further diagnose this and ultimately fix it so I can restart without having to power down and then back on?


texts:
Ever since the automatic upgrade to iOS 7, an iPhone that connects to my Linksys WRT54GL router running DD-WRT, slows down all other connections, from any other device. Download speed is reduced by a factor of 3 to 5, and ping times jump from 33ms to 600 - 800ms. This makes it frustratingly slow to use any web application, and appears to happen when some update is going on on the iPhone. However, the last episode has been going on non-stop for more than 12 hours. At a 1.5Mbps DSL, I have no idea what sort of update could take that long, or if something other than an update is going on.

I only have limited access to the iPhone (it's not mine and the owner got quite annoyed with my requests to use their mobile data plan), but I have full control of the router. Banning it by its MAC isn't exactly a solution. What else can be done? I've read through some posts on Apple's board but they didn't offer a clear solution.


texts: Which temperature sensor represents the CPU on my iMac?

texts:
I'm on an iMac 2019 21.5 inches and I want to monitor my computer's temperature. I have the Macs fan control app, but I don't know which sensor to use. There are CPU cores 1 - 4 (sensor reading for each), CPU Proximity, and CPU PECI. I want to make sure my computer isn't heating up when running processor intensive applications. Which sensor should I rely on?

Thanks!


texts: Ho can I put my custom made emoji designs into keyboard on phone?

texts:
I have created custom emoji's and need to set them us as keyboard in my iPhone.
What should I save the files as
and
how do I export them to a keyboard and upload it to my phone?


texts: Will Catalina users be able to stubbornly cling to iTunes?

texts:
iTunes won't be bundled with Catalina.  A user of the beta has identified some serious deficiencies in the replacement.  I don’t argue with the consensus that iTunes is a mess, but some of the disappearing features are valuable.

The “announcement” (aka “marketing”) says that iTunes 12.8 can be used with “OS X version 10.10.5 or later” which technically implies it will continue to be usable.  But I’m skeptical.


texts: connect Windows 8 client to Mac OS X Server Fileshare

texts: I want to connect a Windows 8 Client to a SMB fileshare on a OS X Server 10.9. With OS X I have no problems, but I don't know what I have to do to get the Windows client connected.


texts:
I have one mail account with 3 aliases. I am wondering if there is any way to separate them from one mailbox to 4 individual mailboxes?

Is there a "hidden feature" I do not know about that lets you use Smart Mailboxes for that? Are there any tips/ideas as to how I can organize them in a nicer and cleaner way?


texts: How can I ignore conversations in Outlook 2011 for Mac?

texts:
Outlook for Mac 2011 does not include an "ignore conversation" feature out of the box.  Is there a way to simulate that with other functionality (e.g. categories, rules, plugins, etc)?

What I want to accomplish is to be able to flag a certain email  subject as something I'd like automatically deleted.  And to do so easily with a click or two.  Is this possible?


texts: LSUIPresentationMode no longer works in Yosemite

texts:
I've always set LSUIPresentationMode to 4 in iTerm and Firefox to hide the annoying unnecessary menu bar taking up precious vertical space on my macbook.

If I needed the menu, I could just move my mouse to the top of the screen, and it would appear. The rest of the time that space was used by the terminal and the browser.

After an upgrade to Yosemite this features no longer works. Most of the time setting this option to 4 or 3 (hide completely) does nothing. Sometimes it crashes the app. Sometimes the menu is hidden but the empty space is not occupied, so there's a long line on top.

This is really annoying. I submitted a bug report to Apple during the beta test - no response.

Running apps full screen is not an option. Unlike Linux implementation, OS X's full screen is not usable for me. You have to switch between spaces, you can't open other windows on top, etc.

So does anyone have an idea on how to fix this?


texts: Can't adjust volume/play music on iPhone 4

texts:
For some reasons I can't adjust the volume on my iPhone 4 anymore. Whenever I press it the popup showing the bell is shown but not the bar indicating the .
I can't adjust the volume at all.
Also playing music in the musicplayer doesn't work anymore. The play-symbol is shown but I just can't hear a thing.

Does anyone have a clue what is going wrong?


texts: In Automator, can I combine 2 or more variables into a new variable?

texts:
First off, let´s set the scene. I am trying to make a small applet (.app) to include in a DMG-file for distribution. The .app file will only activate when a user drags a folder with my product-files onto it. Then the folder is supposed to be copied into the current user´s /Music/MY CUSTOM PATH/. Any user on any system, that happens to be logged in.

This is similar to having a relative symlink/alias to the /Applications folder, like when you install google chrome or any app that comes in a dmg.

So, by using the Automator action "copy finder items" I dragged the pre-defined variable "variables > Locations > Music" to the action and that works well on any system, by copying any file you drag onto my .app into the users ~/Music folder.

Great. But my app goes into the folder ~/Music/Audio Music Apps/Patches/my-folder. Now what?

I have tried to find anything related to "combine folder paths" or "combine variables" or "append..." but with no luck. I´m to Automator so don´t know all the tricks. Please help me make it possible to create an app that can copy into ANY sub-folder of ANY user´s home folder, on any system.


texts: Why am I sending empty download photo requests?

texts: A contact is receiving download photo notifications I'm not actually sending that are empty after they are clicked. Whats causing this? Is my phone spamming some body?


texts: open link in current tab while tab is pinned

texts:
Google anything
Pin that Tab
Click the first result

It opens in a new tab.

How can I force it to open in the current tab?


texts: How to embed url in new Mail from Mac OS Lion

texts:
I don't know how this feature is called. Here on stack exchange you can take some text and mark it as a url. The url is embedded below. Example:
Google

Is there an equivalent in Mac OS Lions Mail Client, too? It looks better if you don't see the cluttering url. I searched the menu, but I couldn't find what I am looking for. I hope you got me. :)


texts: Restoring a new Mac Mini from TM Backup on a Pegasus R4 Drive

texts:
Trying to restore a new Mac Mini which just crashed from its Time Machine backup which is on a Promise Pegasus R4 drive. On first boot up the repaired Mac Mini does not see the Pegasus drive, so cannot restore.

So set up Mac Mini as if new which intention of using the Migration Assistant to restore back to original state. This unfortunately also does not see the Pegasus Drive even though the Mac Mini itself can.

Looked at Disk Utility to move the Mac Mini Backup from Pegasus Drive to an ordinary external drive but that seems to only work for drives as a whole - not a backup folder parked on the Pegasus Drive.

Any ideas most welcome as I have run out of ideas now. Thanks.


texts: Switching bluetooth device between two Macbook Pros

texts:
I have two different MacBook pros (Catalina and Mojave). Recently, I bought a new bluetooth mice and a keyboard. First time, when I connected keyboard and mice to one of the MacBook Pros, I had to turn off/on the bluetooth devices and then was able to connect to one of the MacBook Pro. When I had to connect to my second MacBook Pro I did the same.

The most annoying part to me here is when I try to switch these devices to connect to one of the Mac's I have to do the same thing which is turn off/on mice and keyboard every single time and then pair/connect.

I definitely think that there must be a better way to do it, can someone please help?

Like AirPods can I just connect automatically every time when I turn on one of the mac's?

Better solution than this? Sharing a Bluetooth Keyboard and Mouse sequentially between two Macs


texts: Is /usr/libexec/java_home still relevant on macOS?

texts:
I can add my java bin dir to my path in .zshrc and compile and run Java apps just fine. I can set JAVA_HOME there as well, for applications that need it. So do I need /usr/libexec/java_home for anything?
When I run java_home -V nothing shows up (looks like it doesn't know about my Java install to /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/adoptopenjdk-16.jdk/Contents/Home/bin/java). Is it a holdover from when java was installed by default, or is there some functionality I'm missing out on by not using it?


texts: How do I stop the play/pause keyboard buttons from launching iTunes on Mountain Lion?

texts:
The play/pause keyboard buttons always launch iTunes. I want to use a Subsonic client, Thumper. The buttons control Thumper correctly, but I want to prevent iTunes launching.

There was a hacky solution available previously, but that no longer works.

Is there a way to disable this iTunes behaviour?


texts:
I want to use this icon (https://i.stack.imgur.com/jBWJ3.png) I made to replace the current icon (https://i.stack.imgur.com/T8gL0.jpg) for all my .png files. The default program for opening .png files is Preview.
To do that I need to acces the Package Contents of the Preview App and to replace the current png.icns file with my png.icns file. The problem however, is that it doesn't allow me to do this.
I have tried turning off SIP, doing sudo mount -uw /, giving myself/admins read/write permissions. Nothing seems to allow me to delete, edit, or replace these .icns files.
Anyone have any idea what I can do? Thanks in advance!


texts: Command Line Tools fail to install OS X Lion 10.7.3 Xcode 4.3

texts:
I'm trying to install the command line tools to get gcc, make, and other goodies after a Lion upgrade. I went to Preferences → Downloads in Xcode and attempted to install the command line tools. At the end of the installation, an error box appears with the following message:

  The package “BluetoothSDK.pkg” is untrusted.

When I open up a terminal window and try to run gcc, the command is still not found.

Does anyone know why the Apple Developer Tools installer is broken?


texts: Is there a way to use Ricoh1200s printer with OSX?

texts:
The printer only comes with Windows drivers only and is not listed in OSX nor in the Gimp-print list.

I've also tried the generic PCL6 driver (which makes it print black dots to the side of the page but not more.)

any idea?


texts: iPad (iOS 7) time-language inconsistency

texts:
I'm in Germany with my new iPad mini, and I prefer to run those gadgets in English. But unfortunately, this one is inconsistent. Everything that should be English is, except the time. Right now it says 01:30 nachm., instead of 01:30 pm. I could ignore that on the top line of the screen, but I just figured out that it even puts that time format in mails I forward or reply. It's distracting and annoying.

Of course, one thing I could do is switching to the 24h format, but I'd prefer not to. Are there any other suggestions how this could be fixed?


texts: System storage not being correctly represented in 'About This Mac'

texts: For some reason, in the 'About this mac' under storage, my mac running el capitan (macbook pro 13" early 2015) doesnt correctly display how much storage i've used. Does anyone have a fix for this?


texts:
I just read about playing media files via the browser, which in turn uses mediaserverd in iOS. Is there any place(a wiki perhaps) where I could find details about which file formats are supported by mediaserverd across various ios versions? The iOS version I'm particularly interested in, is 5.0.1, so any information would be appreciated!

Thanks!


texts: Why is there a duplicate entry for my TextMate?

texts: I was changing the default program to open .txt files with and I noticed 2 entries for TextMate. Its one of those little things that annoy me. How can I fix it? I didn't see 2 directors of TextMate.app in /Applications.!


texts: How can I get Screen Time to really limit Screen Time?

texts:
What I’m finding is that ST (even on iOS 13.1.x) doesn't work very well.

In particular, I find that even with access supposedly blocked from 7pm to 9am on every day except Saturday (when I limit access to 1 minute, since 0 does not appear possible), access to the following apps does not appear to be properly blocked at times clearly outside of 7pm to 9am period:

Messages
Netflix
YouTube

This makes no sense to me. Messages is the worst offender. I've tried specifying the apps individually under App Limits (and yes, blocking is checked) and the categories (Social Networking and Entertainment), but it makes no difference!

I've tried disabling Screen Time and reenabling it, but that didn't help. I also reset all settings.

Here are some screenshots:


texts:
I have a very nice and expensive mechanical keyboard. It was designed for a PC and not a Mac.

How do I set up the mapping, so it works like I am used to. For example, I want the Ctrl key on the PC keyboard to act like the Command key on the Mac, so when I press Ctrl-C to Copy, I get the action I am used to.


texts: How to have Finder display file Size in fixed units such as MB or KB?

texts:
The default behavior of Finder will show file Size in bytes, KB, MB, GB depending on the file size.

Is there a way to have Finder display the file Size in a fixed unit such as MB or KB?

(This makes it easier to tell approximate file size at a quick glance simply by how many digits wide the file size is).


texts: Non-smooth scrolling pdf with trackpad in Preview with 10.8

texts:
Finally upgraded to Mountain Lion and I am noticing an annoying behavior in Preview. When I two-finger scroll too quickly with my 2009 MBP trackpad, the scrolling is jerky and can skip many pages in a document. So you're scrolling a 25 page document, you are at page 2, you scroll quickly to get to page 10 and suddenly you are page 22...

I cannot replicate this with a mouse no matter how fast I scroll and I don't see a setting for trackpad scrolling speed. Slowing down the tracking speed of the trackpad seems to have no effect either... I have secrets installed but I can't find a hidden preference there either... Anyone else experiencing this? How could I fix this?

EDIT: I also had the smooth scrolling disabled (thanks John Siracusa!) via defaults write -g NSScrollAnimationEnabled -bool NO but turning this back on has no effect on this behavior.

My setup: 2009 13" MBP with 10.8.2


texts: Can a 16“ MacBook Pro be reverted to an OS before Catalina?

texts:
I want to get the new 16" Macbook Pro which ships with Catalina, but I don't want Catalina at least for now because of how many legacy apps it breaks, not to mention Avid/Protools hardware which typically doesn't update drivers for up to a year after a new OS release.

I understand that new Macs sometimes have drivers they need which bundled only with that latest release, but I'm not sure how set in stone this is. Where can I find more solid information about this? I'm really Catalina-shy at this point.


texts: How do I find all files categorized movies on my disk?

texts:
In the dialog of "About this Mac", started from below the Apple menu item, the Storage 'tab' says there are 42.43 GB of Movies.

Ok, how do I find all those files that the system categorizes as movies?

In other words - how did OSX find them?

I can't find them anywhere.

Is there a Terminal ls -al | grep [something] that I can fire off from the root folder to help me find them?


texts: New top-of-the-line MacBook Pro suddenly starts acting old

texts:
About a week ago, I got a new MacBook Pro. I work a decent bit in video editing, among other things, so I had the processor upgraded to the highest available model. The box arrives, I open it, and my word the computer is incredible. Battery life often surpasses 8 hours when running a host of programs simultaneously, everything happens instantaneously, El Capitan is spectacular, the force touch trackpad is incredibly click-like. Basically, the computer is everything I ever expected.

I install a few programs, go about my business, and about a day ago the computer suddenly starts acting weird. I'd definitely call myself a power user, so I'm not sure if it's something most people would notice, but the computer noticeably gets slower, battery life decreases to 4 hours on a charge with few programs running, the computer gets hot, internet misbehaves, and strangely enough, I think Safari acts differently, too. Until I tried Safari on the new computer, I had always been a Chrome person, so I'm not sure, but if I remember correctly a few days ago I could type a URL into the Safari address bar, click enter, and have it load. Now, I type a URL in and hit enter, and the URL gets selected, and I need to hit enter a second time to search. It's subtle, but I think it's a change. Moreover, Mail stops working properly, and now everything I send gets stuck in the outbox, I have this strange window that doesn't seem to belong to any program on screen:

I have clicked the bar and the search button, and nothing seems to happen. The App Store isn't trying to install updates, as far as I can tell, and the window doesn't change the application name in the upper left corner of the screen when I click it. I try opening Safari and get this friendly window:

So I am now typing this question in Chrome. I've downloaded Sophos to see if it can detect any malware, but the scan grinds to a near-halt about 65,000 files from the end of the drive. The hard drive has about 50GB of files in it, and I certainly don't remember putting that much stuff in there in the past week.

Basically, the computer is acting strangely, and I have no idea why. Any ideas?


texts: How to display the MiniPlayer in iTunes with AppleScript?

texts:
I use an Automator workflow to open iTunes at startup, etc.

I'd like it to open the MiniPlayer window.
I don't see a function to do that in Automator.

How could I do this with an AppleScript script?


texts:
I have an iPhone 7, after updating iOS 12, it loses cellular signal, displays No Service with a warning icon. And an alert said:

  Cellular update failed
  Your iPhone cannot make and recieve calls or access cellular data until it has been updated

So what caused this problem? I searched on Google and only get 1 post about this but no good answer of how to solve it.


texts: How to disable unread counter/badge on Dock app icon

texts:
How can I disable the unread badge and jumping for attention on an app icon in my Dock? It is an app (Line chat) which isn't in System Preferences > Notifications, so can't disable it from there.

Would like to disable the badge as well as the jumping for attention, as both are quite distracting.


texts: Skype hangs since upgrading to Mavericks

texts:
Since upgrading to Mavericks the latest version of the Skype app (6.9 rev 701) hangs frequently, pretty much every time on wake after the laptop goes to sleep.

I've heard some suggestions about downgrading to an earlier version in the 6 series, any decent workaround for this problem?


texts:
I would like to use my Dropbox folder as my Desktop. I know how to do it in Linux and
Windows, but couldn't find any guide for Mac. Any ideas?


texts: Failed to expand to the maximum partition size

texts:
There are two partitions currently allocated on my 100 GiB hard disk. However, only  ~85GB is formatted and I cannot expand /dev/disk0s2 to the maximum size with various attempts such as diskutil and gpt. The last ~20 GB free space does exist, but it cannot be partitioned. disk0 is a VMware vmdk resized from 85 GB to 107 GB with vmware-vdiskmanager.

What may cause this? And how should I achieve the goal?


texts:
I am out of my home country, so data is pretty expensive (~ $20 USD/mb). However, I do have an international SMS package.

In iOS 7, if I turn Data Roaming off, I cannot send or receive SMS.

If I turn Data Roaming on and:

disable Cellular Data for all apps
disable background updates
disable push data

I can still see my data usage ticking up at ~100kb per minute. AT&T obviously distinguishes between SMS and data, but it seems iOS 7 does not...

Is there a way to ensure I can send and receive SMS but keep all other data usage disabled?


texts:
Lately, I've noticed that my iPad's touch screen feels sticky to touch which makes it difficult to swipe in a smooth motion (particular when several swipes in quick succession have to be done in quick succession). As I don't use a screen protector, I initially suspected that this could be due to the build up of oils on the screen but wiping the screen with a microfiber cloth (even with a damp one) does little to help the problem.

The device is 4 months old at the time of writing; the screen should still be in reasonable shape. What could be the problem here and what can I do to fix it?


texts: changing camera to thunderbolt display for google hangout

texts:
I use google hangouts for multiple-people video calls, but it never detects the camera in the Thunderbolt display. It keeps using the camera on my MacBook Pro.

Is there any way to change the camera used in Hangouts if I want to use the Thunderbolt display's camera?


texts: ICMP packet with a negative round trip time?

texts:
I often keep a ping running in my Terminal so that I can pop it up to keep an eye on any network issues in our office. Recently, I ended a long-running ping session and noticed in the summary statistics that the minimum round trip time was -520ms.

Does anyone have any explanations for this bug?


texts:
I buy full version of FCP and I would like to uninstall a trial version
but I can't delete two files
Directory: /Library/Apple/System/Library/Receipts

com.apple.pkg.FinalCutProXTrial.plist
com.apple.pkg.FinalCutProXTrial.bom

How can I delete these files?
The standard procedure described by apple ( https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202400 ) doesn't resolve my problem


texts: Accidentally deleted Applications link in Favorites in Finder

texts:
I accidentally deleted the Applications link in Favorites in Finder.  (I dragged it into the Terminal hoping to do a cd to the Applications folder---not that that matters.)

How can I restore it?


texts: Will Apple Music work with iPod Classic and iPod Nano?

texts: Will I be able to sync offline Apple Music to non-internet Apple devices e.g. iPod Nano and iPod Classic?


texts: How to insert [return] in a Calendar (on iPhone) event

texts:
I am usually inserting return character within event I enter in Calendar on OS X.

Most notably to separate key informations, for example hour of a meeting start, and the title of the meeting (when time is required to prepare it
and to arrive to the location of the meeting):

    09:00
    Pr Wilson

I would like to make the same easy use of return on my iPhone.
The software keyboard has a return key, but I feel a deep deception every time I use it. When I type return key, the
software keyboard just exits.

How may I fluently insert returns in Calendar event?

For example, how may I insert a return where the cursor is within this event definition window?


texts: Macbook 13 inch - Screen Noise on attached display

texts: I have a 13 Inch Macbook (2014) running Yosemite -  the computer has been attached to an external dell monitor via the HDMI port. The screen works fine but on waking the computer from sleep, I see noise (see image below) on the external monitor. I have to plug out the monitor and plug it in again to make it work.


texts: Sending messages from an iPhone sometimes goes to email rather than to mobile

texts:
I have an iPhone 4S. When I send a text message it sometimes sends to the contact's email address rather than their mobile, if within the contact I have both email and mobile included. How do I prevent this - I always want to send to the mobile number.
Also, I can't tell whether it goes to email addr or mobile number - the receiver tells me eventually.


texts: In TextEdit or similar editors, is it possible to go to a previous bullet's indent level without a bullet?

texts:
I have an issue is with bullets in a rich-text editor. If I want to put several paragraphs under one bullet, like this:

  Bullet one
  Bullet two paragraph one

  Bullet two paragraph two
  Bullet three

I can achieve this by typing ctrlReturn at the end of paragraph one (rather than Return). The beginning of the text that I type after that will indent properly inside the bullet rather than create a new bullet.

But my problem is doing that after a second-level bulleted list, like so:

  Bullet one
  Bullet two, first part

  Inner bullet list, first item.
  Inner bullet list, second item.

  Bullet two, second part
  Bullet three

I can't find any way to make the "Bullet two, second part" indent properly to the bullet level without a bullet. The ctrlReturn trick brings me to the inner bullet list level. Trying to tab back from there adds a bullet. Trying to remove the bullet by simply selecting and deleting it seems to work... until I add a new bullet down the list, at which point the bullet is restored.

Is it possible to continue the text of a bullet after a secondary bulleted list, and if so, how?

I'm using Curio, which has text objects that are apparently based on Core Text (rich text editing), and I'm trying to work with bullet lists in it. For all intents and purposes, if there is a solution for TextEdit, it will probably work for me as well.


texts: Get rid of "The Wi-Fi network ... could not be joined." message

texts:
How can I get rid of this message?

I've tried clicking both: "Cancel" and "Run Diagnostics" buttons. I've also tried to turn off and back on the Wi-fi. I don't want to restart my mac as there are some important processes running.

I'm using a MacBook Pro (Retina) - macOS High Sierra 10.13.1


texts: I'm trying to read a Snow Leopard installation DVD on an iMac 2009 (it's running El Capitan) and it automatically ejects several seconds after inserting it. Why? How can this be fixed?


texts: Is it possible to load non-default launchd plist files from the /etc configuration file?

texts:
I created the /etc/launchd.conf file but at start the content is never read.

The content of launchd.conf is: load /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/KillVuze.plist

(I run on OSX 10.7.2 )

If I load the plist by command line the "launchd list" show my plist as registered, but not after reboot even if I proper set the /etc/launchd.conf

Is this loading of non-default plist files (those stored outside the normal locations) best accomplished in this manner?


texts: Export Keychain Items is not enabled from File menu of Keychain Access

texts: As can be seen in the screenshot I have selected a bunch of keychain items. So why is Export items disabled?


texts:
Is there a way to view Amazon Instant Video content on the XBox 360 via OS X? The official solution on Amazon's site utilizes a Windows PC, which we don't have:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/video/ontv/xbox

Any other way?

I utilize an application called Connect360 (http://www.nullriver.com/products/connect360) to get media from my Mac to my Xbox 360. Would love to have a solution for watching Amazon Instant content on the 360 as well.


texts: Deleting mobile applications from Mac/iTunes 12.5

texts:
There is an older question on here about removing mobile applications from iTunes. On my Mac, 5.73 GB is used by the iTunes Media/Mobile Applications folder. I would like to remove that folder, and from what I've seen in the other question I should be fine removing the mobile applications from iTunes. However I can't seem to find those mobile applications anywhere in iTunes anymore. Maybe in the redesign they removed or moved it? What is the proper way for me to remove the applications?

For more details, I used to have an iPhone 4S on iOS 7 that I no longer use, and I would update apps on iTunes and sync them to the phone. I also have an iPad 2 on iOS 9 which I may have occasionally used iTunes to put or update apps onto the the iPad but I don't need to do this and generally don't. (In fact, I don't even know anymore how it is possible to update or install apps with iTunes for the iPad... is it?) I also have an iPhone SE on iOS 9 (will probably be iOS 10.1 in a month or two), and I don't use iTunes to sync apps on that either (at least not practically, for that and my iPad I don't know if there is some setting somewhere that says to sync some apps), but when I first set up my iPhone from a backup of the 4S in iTunes I think it may have included apps that it copied over via iTunes.

Which also leads me to a followup question: If I remove the folder via Finder or somehow via iTunes, and I need to restore the iPhone from a backup, would the phone need to re-download those 5 GB of apps online? As it stands it doesn't seem that new apps I put on my iPhone SE are saved in iTunes so maybe I'd have to do that either way.


texts:
I am mystified: first, I have an iMac and a MBP, both running mountain lion. In System Preferences > Security > General > Require Password after sleep or screensaver, I can adjust the time to 4 hours on the iMac, but it goes only as far as one hour on the MBP.

To further complicate the matter, when I turn on File Vault, the checkbox for this option disappears on the MBP, so I can't totally disable it, but everything remains the same on the iMac. What exactly is going on here?
I really want to disable this feature on the MBP, and I'd really appreciate if someone in the know can show me how to achieve that.


texts: Recovering files from an unbootable partition in OSX

texts:
I have a MacBook previously bootcamped to Windows 10. The internal hard drive had 3 partitions:

200MB Partition 0
249GB Partition 1 (OSX)
250GB Partition 2 (Windows 10)

The model is a MacBook Pro mid-2012, and Partition 1 has OSX 10.15 Catalina.
I've made a fatal mistake of accidentally deleting the 200 MB partition via the Windows 10 install disk. I wanted to reinstall Windows 10 to fix some audio errors. Now I'm trying to recover all the files I have in the OSX partition. Before I made this mistake, I've backed up all Windows files on the OSX partition.
If I go to disk utility via Internet Recovery on my Mac, the list of disks and volumes has a "disk0s1" volume that I can't verify nor repair but can only be partitioned away. If I ever re-partition or reformat that hard drive, all data will be lost. I need to recover the files before I do anything.
diskutil list prints out:
/dev/disk0
#:                   TYPE NAME SIZE      IDENTIFIER
0: FDisk_partition_scheme      *500.1 GB disk0
1:                   0xFF      249.0 GB  disk0s1

gpt -r show /dev/disk0 prints out:
    start      size index contents
        0         1       MBR
        1         1       Pri GPT header
        2        32       Pri GPT table
       34         6
       40    409600     1 GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
   409640 486328128     1 MBR part 255
486737768       152
486737920 490035200     3 GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
976773120        15
976773135        32       Sec GPT Table
976773167         1       Sec GPT header

The tools I currently have for this situation:

Windows 10 installation USB
A Seagate External portable 1TB hard drive


texts:
I see these two log statements non-stop in my console logs..

I have previously tried to eliminate postfix using this command

sudo launchctl unload /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.postfix.master.plist

and

sudo launchctl remove /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.postfix.master.plist

But it keeps coming back to life after every reboot.

Do I really need postfix? I am a regular GMail user and I don't need any system apps to send emails.

I tried using the instructions at
How can I revert my etc/postfix/main.cf file?
to reset my postfix configuration to the stock version with the hope that it might start working normally but it did not help.


texts: Move iTunes content from one machine to another

texts:
I have moved my (smallish) iTunes library off my MacBookAir onto a NAS drive. This works fine. Now I want to move songs from my large iTunes library into the new library and just have one library shared across the two computers

I'm not afraid of the command line, but I wanted the easy way to do it.


texts: Separate mouse and trackpad settings with Karabiner

texts:
This post (which is upvoted 26 times as of this writing) suggests using Karabiner to set separate scroll settings for a USB mouse and the laptop trackpad.

Karabiner seems to be a nice application, and I understand the suggested solution (don't remap trackpad settings, then reverse scroll settings on all pointing devices except previously excluded ones) but it doesn't work in my case because the USB mouse IS an Apple pointing device (it's an apple USB mouse).

There is an option "Don't remap an internal keyboard" but nothing about "internal trackpad". So really the question still stands; how to set different scrolling settings for the internal trackpad, and an external apple mouse?


texts: Any way to sync only music with ipod classic 160gb

texts: Is their a way to sync just the music from my iTunes library to my iPod classic? Right now it also syncs videos and I don't want them taking up space on my iPod.


texts:
So, I play a game and I am unable to quickly reach my 6,7,8,9,0 keys.

Is there any way that I could revamp my keyboard keys so that, for example :

z would result in the same keystroke as my 6
x results in 7
c results in 8
` results in 9
r results in 0.

I tried using key flipper and the keyboard setting to change the shorts for text but all that allows you to do is change function keys and that didn't lead me anywhere.

Does a program exist, or can I make an AppleScript that allows me to have such a function?


texts: Failing OS X Lion installation (in loop, no control)

texts:
I've been trying to upgrade my OS to Lion (still old, I know). The installation failed because "recovery system can't be created". So I backed up everything, and installed Lion on an external drive. From there, pressing cmd+R upon start (a feature available for only Lion and above), I was able to use Disk Utility to erase/reformat my normal HD. After that, I tried reinstalling Lion on my normal HD, with the external drive attached. This time the installation progressed quite far, almost to the end, but eventually it failed for the same reason as before ("recovery system can't be created").

My problem now is that every time I restart my computer, with or without the external drive (with Lion) attached, the installation of Lion on my normal HD resumes automatically, failing every time. I cannot even use cmd+R anymore. I am stuck, with no access to anything. I do not have the 10.6 installation DVD that came with my purchase years ago, so unfortunately that is presently not an option.

How should I proceed?


texts:
Macbook Pro 2016 15" model. The speakers often go from perfectly clear to very noticeably muffled when adjusting the volume. It often happens when turning the volume up - but it'll still be at reasonable levels. It gets muffled immediately as opposed to slowly degrading in quality which leads me to believe it's not a problem with the speaker slowly deteriorating.

It usually goes away after a few restarts.

Is this normal? How can I debug this further?


texts: Use Macbook Touch ID button to sleep/lock

texts:
I'm not sure if this has been asked before:

I want to use the Touch ID button to sleep or to lock my 2017 Macbook Pro 13". I know there are other shortcuts for doing that, but I want to be able to use the power button as such... (I also want to explicitly use the power button, I know I can add buttons to the Touch Bar).

By now, apart from using it as Touch ID, I can only use it to do a hard-turning off by pressing during 6 seconds or to access accessibility options by pressing 3 times fast. I want to lock my mac by simply pressing the Touch ID button.

I can't believe that something like that is not possible, or at least configurable... If it isn't, is there a way to use it as another regular key in order to make a shortcut? (if I try to create a shortcut, pressing the Touch ID button does nothing)

I've seen that some years ago, pressing the power button during 3 seconds pops up a menu for choosing what to do, but that also doesn't work in my case. In this Apple's tutorial (recently updated) they also mention the possibility of doing that by pressing the power button, but again, it doesn't work for me.

Thanks!


texts: Safari tabs sync on two macs and an iPhone does not work

texts:
Syncing using iCloud with 2 macs and an iPhone does not work. I use iCloud to sync safari, and my MacBook is perfectly synchronized with my iPhone.
The problem is that my iMac is not synchronized at all.  When I add some website to a reading list on the MacBook, it does not appear in the iMac.

I tried to uncheck and recheck the Safari checkbox in iCloud on all of my devices, but it didn't help.
Does anyone know how to fix this?

I am running the latest Mojave(10.14.6) on both Macs, and iOS 12 on my iPhone.

Update

As @ankii suggested, I've tried to remove all bookmarks from the iPhone and the iMac, and resync. Now the bookmarks are syncing between these devices, but the open tabs are not. On my iPhone I can see the open tabs from the MacBook but not from the iMac. On the iMac I see no open tabs from none of my other devices.

I also tried to follow this answer MacOS Safari iCloud tabs stop working randomly after some time but it didn't help.


texts:
I'm attempting to run a flaky imac (running 10.8.5) as just an ssh server, headless and without the GUI running.

I've made this work by disabling the com.apple.loginwindow.plist and com.apple.WindowServer.plist and enabled com.apple.getty.plist and adjusting /etc/ttys to run a console with

console         "/usr/libexec/getty std.57600"  vt100   on secure

This is fine. No GUI, I can ssh in just fine and if I have a keyboard attached I can log in on the console.

However, even with a pmset -a displaysleep 1 the display never goes to sleep. I'd like it to be asleep all the time, as I've got the iMac under a desk and only intend to use it over ssh.

Is this possible and I'm just missing a step or am I out of luck?

Update: My notes on how I got it almost working.


texts: Can I use dual 4k Dell P2815Q monitors on the Retina MacBook Pro (late 2013) with Yosemite at full resolution?

texts:
Will this monitor plug-and-play with Yosemite on this MacBook model without having to install Xcode and mess around with creating custom settings?
Can I have two of these plugged into this MacBook and run them both at 4k (at either 30Hz or 60Hz)? - I don't care so much about refresh rates as I do about resolution.  I won't be gaming or watching movies on them.


texts: Is there any way to disable auto-shutdown from login screen when no user is logged in?

texts:
A couple months ago when speaking to an Apple advisor about an unrelated issue, they told me the auto-shutdown was a "security feature". I think I may remember something about it only happening when Filevault is enabled. I know it is intended behavior as per Apple, but as I'm sure we all know, they do not always make the best decisions. If anyone has a solution to disable it, please let me know.

This seems to have been introduced in OS X Mavericks and has continued through at least OS X El Capitan—and most likely MacOS Sierra. If a Mac is started, and there is no login within a couple minutes, it will shut down after 5 minutes.

This is really bad from a remote perspective. Let's say I reboot the machine using ssh—if I don't reconnect and log in within this short timeframe, the computer will shut down, and then I have no way to connect to it. The only way to start the machine at that point is to have someone at the physical location. I've completely lost remote access to my machine for weeks because of this. This is not something that should happen without an option to disable it.

My only known workaround is to log in before it shuts down and then keep that user logged in. Unfortunately, this opportunity may be lost if restarting and connecting remotely with slow internet speeds. This functionality makes it so I cannot depend on an ssh connection to my machine.

I have tested this again on all three of my Machines. 2 are personal and one is for work which has never had any account transfers or even so much as a remote connection to any of my other machines. It is consistently reproducible on these three entirely different machines and OS versions. They each have shut down from the log in screen exactly 5 minutes after boot. (Again, only after no activity or log-in). That is, completely shut down—not go into sleep mode.

This is consistently reproducible on all three of the Macs in my possession:

Mac Pro (Late 2013) - 10.11.6 El Capitan
MacBook Pro (17-inch, Early
2011) - 10.10.5 Yosemite
MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013) -
10.9.5 Mavericks

There are no log messages for the time the auto shut down happens, but here are the times of restart, reboot and the corresponding logs from one of the machines:

Reboot initiated at 9:02:30 AM
Mac had rebooted to login screen at 9:03
Auto shutdown at 9:08 (5 minutes after log in screen visible)
Mac was manually started again at 9:10:41AM

Logs during that time:

2/27/17 9:02:31.291 AM shutdown[1528]: reboot by [username]:
2/27/17 9:02:31.000 AM kernel[0]: Kext loading now disabled.
2/27/17 9:02:31.000 AM kernel[0]: Kext unloading now disabled.
2/27/17 9:02:31.000 AM kernel[0]: Kext autounloading now disabled.
2/27/17 9:02:31.000 AM kernel[0]: Kernel requests now disabled.
2/27/17 9:02:31.291 AM shutdown[1528]: SHUTDOWN_TIME: 1488204151 290568
2/27/17 9:02:31.291 AM com.apple.xpc.launchd[1]: (com.apple.xpc.launchd.domain.system) System shutdown initiated by: shutdown.1528<-sessionlogoutd.1527<-launchd.1
2/27/17 9:02:31.000 AM kernel[0]: Process launchd [1] disabling system-wide I/O Throttling
2/27/17 9:02:31.000 AM kernel[0]: Process launchd [1] disabling system-wide CPU Throttling
2/27/17 9:10:41.000 AM bootlog[0]: BOOT_TIME 1488204641 0

Is there a way to prevent a Mac from automatically shutting down at the login screen after 5 minutes?


texts: How to control iPad with a remote control?

texts:
I have an extra pair of speakers. I can connect the speaker to my iPad and listen to music.

I would like to control my iPad with a remote control. Is there a product that I can use? I'm not talking about a software remote control.


texts: I don't have the apple ID on my iPod so I cannot delete iCloud?

texts: So I bought my iPod from someone, and their iCloud account is still on here, which means the pictures I take and everything, they can see. I just noticed this and I tried to delete it, but it asks me to put in a password to turn off "find my iphone" and I do not have that password because it is someone else's iCloud account.


texts: Installing Leopard from DVD: Apple logo?

texts:
I need to install Leopard OSX on my mac.

When the mac starts, I hold the alt button and I load the Leopard Installation DVD. Afterwords I can only see the Apple logo on the screen and everything seems stuck (waited for 8 minutes so far).

How much am I supposed to wait to see the first istructions when loading the Installation DVD at boot time ?

thanks


texts: Stream music files from a Windows PC to iPhone

texts:
My PC running Windows 10 has a folder with ~20k songs in a variety of formats. I wish to stream these audio files to my iPhone while I am out and about. I also need to be able to conveniently sort and search through all the files on my iPhone.

I'm looking for an iPhone app and Windows 10 DLNA program combo that will enable me to do this as simply as possible. I have no interest in streaming video, or images. I simply want to listen to my music while I am out on the street, without having to copy it all to my iPhones internal storage.


texts:
I have a large widescreen monitor plugged into my Macbook which is running Lion. Since upgrading to Lion I've noticed that I can't resume from standby if my other monitor was plugged in when I closed the lid.

Everything works great - I close the lid and the computer enters standby like it is supposed to. Then when I open the screen the next morning, it just comes up with a lit, but dark screen. At this point, the only thing that seems to work is a hard reboot. I've tried unplugging the other monitor but that doesn't change it.

It is important to note that this does not happen if the monitor was not plugged in when the computer screen was closed. Also if I chose Sleep from the Apple menu, everything works great.

Any ideas how to fix this?

Thanks!


texts:
A certain Safari tab is asking for a username/password that I do not have.  I can click "Cancel" on the authentication dialog but it immediately pops up again.  The dialog is modal, meaning that it disables all other UI elements of the window except the minimize/resize buttons.

How can I close the problematic tab without quitting the application?


texts: Use Logitech g15 multimedia keyboard with Apple Logic 9

texts: That's what I'd like to do: use my Logitech g15 multimedia keys (stop, pause etc) with Apple Logic 9.


texts: Is it possible to automatically show apps which are installed to "~/Applications" in the system's "Applications" folder?

texts:
Some applications are not installed to the usual root "Applications" folder, but to the one inside the user's home directory. They then don't show up when I click on the Applications folder icon in the dock.
While they sure can be started using Launchpad, I'm more used to start applications via the application folder link in the dock.
Is there a way to keep my habit but also see the user's applications?


texts: After I jailbreak my iOS device, is it still able to get updates?

texts: I've been reading about Android rooting and iOS jailbreaking. After Android rooting, it will not get any updates for the device. Is it the same with iOS? I mean after the jailbreak is it still able to get updates?


texts: How can I hide a recurring Calendar event?

texts:
In order to reserve a conference room in my office (via Exchange) I have to send a meeting request to the room's calendar. I have a recurring daily event to book a room indefinitely, and I don't want this recurring event showing up in my calendar because it's just clutter.

At the very least, I've turned off notifications. Is there any way to hide the event so it's not constantly visible in Calendar?


texts: Internet Recovery instead of Hardware Diagnostics?

texts: I'm trying to run hardware diagnostics on my mid-2012 MacBook Pro. Whenever I restart when holding D it restarts into Internet Recovery mode instead of Hardware Diagnostics mode. Is there any way to reboot into Diagnostics mode (maybe via terminal?). My firmware password is off, and SIP is disabled.


texts:
Note on this question having a duplicate: My question happens to be an answer to the question linked-to as being a duplicate. However the answers on that question to NOT answer my question here.

I'm setting up a new server that has 24 GB of RAM. One of the many ways I'm taking advantage of that, is by storing some heavily used files on a RAM disk. The idea is a startup script creates the disk, and copies the files to it, a shutdown script copies the files off the RAM disk and back to the HDD at shutdown time, and a backup script runs periodically to make a copy of the RAM disk.

The current server I'm setting up is running 10.11.6.

The script I use to create the RAM disk works, but you'll notice the sleep 10 at the top. It only works if you include that. If you don't include that line, the script will create and fill the ram disk, but it won't be mounted. The diskutil mount ... line will do nothing. Once the system is booted, you can manually mount the unmounted RAM disk and there are all the files ready to go, but that's not going to work.

It would seem that some system service is required for mounting the RAM disk, and is not ready yet when LaunchD runs this startup script. But it's in /Library/LaunchDeamons so you'd think all of the system stuff would be up and running by the time it gets to my script?

function create_ramdisk()
    {
    sleep 10

    ## make a ram disk that is approximaly 4GB in size
    DISK_ID=$(/usr/bin/hdiutil attach ram://8000000 -notremovable -nomount)
    /usr/sbin/diskutil erasevolume HFS+ "webfolder" $DISK_ID
    /usr/sbin/diskutil mount $DISK_ID

    ## copy contents of the ramdisk backup to the ramdisk
    cp -R /webfolder-backup/ /Volumes/webfolder/

    ## permissions stuff
    chown -R me /Volumes/webfolder/
    chmod -R 777 /Volumes/webfolder/
    }

Ram disks aren't very popular these days, so it's hard to find info on them. I'd like to be able to create and mount mine without the delay. Ideally, if I knew what service was needed, I could wait for it to be available and then immediately create the RAM disk. But I don't know how to determine that.


texts: Searching for "all" "rented for 0.99" on iTunes Store API?

texts:
So, I've been trying to figure out how to replicate 99rental.com behaviour (it fishes the "0.99$ rental of the week" for the U.S. iTunes Store) for the Finnish iTunes Store.

So far I've gotten up to here:

https://itunes.apple.com/search?country=FI&entity=movie&trackRentalPrice=0.99000&term=

So, I do a search with the term country=FI (looking from Finland), with the term entity=movie (I'm looking for movies, that's for sure), the trackRentalPrice=0.99000 (for some reason this is what I need to look for to get the rental price of 0.99), and then.. then nothing happens unless I write something like term=heist (since this week's iTunes 0.99€ rental is a film with the name heist on it). If there is no term added into the mix, I'll get this as a result:

{
 "resultCount":0,
 "results": []
}

If I on the other hand write in term=heist I'll get 11 results, one of which has the "trackRentalPrice":0.99000 . So feels like not only do I need to put "something" in as a term, to even get a result, the second feels is that my trackRentalPrice=0.99000 is completely ignored.

So, what am I doing wrong? I've tried to do the same query with trackRentalPrice="0.99000", I've tried trackRentalPrice="0,99000", I've tried trackRentalPrice=0,99000 all to no avail.

Please help?

Btw, not looking to recreate 99rental for the Finnish iTunes Store, just want a result I could use in a Shortcut shortcut.


texts: Macbook with thunderbolt 3 and disk drive?

texts: I thought I just saw someone with (what I believe to be) a thunderbolt 3 and a disc drive on their MacBook, and I thought there were no more disc drives that were built into MacBooks (that have thunderbolt 3 ports also). The computer did look like one of the thicker, somewhat older MacBooks. What did I possibly see?


texts: Active Directory login takes from seconds to minutes on OSX

texts:
Login screen loads a very long time occasionally. It's annoying to wait for 5 minutes just to be able to use the MacBook. I have not been able to find a reason why it sometimes takes a very long time and sometimes loads instantly.

I have a MacBook Pro with in OSX 10.6.6 and Active Directory corporate Windows network  controlled username and password. I also use a setting that requires password login after 15 minutes of sleep or screensaver in case I forget my laptop on a train or something.

What can be done to solve this issue?


texts: How do make iOS autosave received iMessage photos?

texts:
I want to make sure all photos I receive in iMessage are saved to Photos app.

How do I change this settings?


texts: Disk will not mount, but shows up on System Profiler

texts:
My internal 250GB failed on me the other day, so I replaced it with a new SSD and HDD combo. I have the failed disk connected via USB/SATA, but it will not mount. However, it shows up under System Profiler.

The following is from System Profiler:

USB to S-ATA:

Capacity: 250.06 GB (250,059,347,968 bytes)
Removable Media:  Yes
Detachable Drive: Yes
BSD Name: disk4
Product ID:   0x0731
Vendor ID:   0x05e3  (Genesys Logic, Inc.)
Version: 90.94
Serial Number:   37007
Speed:   Up to 480 Mb/sec
Manufacturer:    Genesyslogic
Location ID: 0x24130000 / 4
Current Available (mA):  500
Current Required (mA):   192
Partition Map Type:  GPT (GUID Partition Table)
S.M.A.R.T. status:   Not Supported
Volumes:

disk4s1:

Capacity:  209.7 MB (209,715,200 bytes)
BSD Name:  disk4s1
Content:   EFI

Macintosh HD:

Capacity:  184.48 GB (184,484,454,400 bytes)
BSD Name:  disk4s2

Unknown:
Unknown:


texts: How do I know which Python install is being used?

texts:
If I type the command which python, then I get:

Oliviers-iMac:~$ which -a python
/System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/python
/usr/bin/python

If I then type python --version, how do I know which Python install I'm getting the version of? Are the two locations above 2 different Python installs?


texts: What is this little "pay phone" icon in the status bar?

texts:
A new icon appeared between the screen orientation lock and the bluetooth icons in my status bar. it looks like a phone over a keyboard. It appeared today after changing SIM cards, I switched to a new carrier.

It looks like this (the blue icon on the grey bar) :

My phone is not SIM locked and it is not jailbroken either.

No new applications have been installed and I made absolutely no change in the settings appart from the APN for Cellular data, MMS and tethering.

I'm not really worried, but simply surprised and I would like to remove it as it seems to serve no purpose.


texts:
I have been trying to find a way to import my Viber chat from a previous (Android) phone to my latest device (an iPhone), but with no luck at all. I have successfully imported the chat history from the Android on my Mac but I did not find any way to get it on the iPhone.
I have read that Viber messages on IOS are stored on iCloud unlike Android and I thought that maybe thats what will Mac do too and so they will sync to the iPhone but this is not the case. I also found Backuptrans software but I do not want to pay just to get my chat on another device.
I have also seen this statement at help.viber.com

Your Viber account and chat history are connected to the platform that your phone uses, i.e. Android or iOS. There is no way to transfer content between the two platforms

But since 3rd party apps offer this functionality there is a way to achieve it.
I am looking for a way to import my chat history from either Mac or Android device to an iPhone.
Raw ideas or unfinished projects on how it could be done are welcome too and I am willing to contribute.


texts: How do you enter numbers on a Mac when making a cellular voice call with iPhone?

texts:
I just upgraded to Yosemite, and sometimes perform outbound cellular calls from my Mac using my iPhone. However, if I call a company that has a phone menu I have to enter specific numbers to choose from those menu options.

Is this possible, and if so, how can I do this?


texts: Can Mail.app be configured to insert a blank line before the text of the previous message in a reply?

texts:
Currently, a reply window contains this:

*new message text starts here*
... old/previous message text starts here...

What I want is this

*new message text starts here*
... old/previous message text starts here...


texts: Outlook for Mac "Your database could not be rebuilt [-47]"

texts:
Recently, whenever I open Outlook, it tells me that my the database needs to be rebuilt.  I attempted to and received an error the first time.  I deleted the database file located in Documents/Microsoft User Data/Office 2011 Identities/ and attempted to run the rebuild again, and it failed with an error code -47.

I restarted the computer and still no luck.  Any ideas of how I can rebuild the database and not lose my identity?

Thanks


texts: MacBook not asking for password after sleep

texts:
My mid-2015 MacBook Pro (Sierra 10.12.2) skips the login screen when waking from sleep, it goes straight to my desktop.

I have my System Preferences set to require my password 1 minute after being put to sleep but it doesn't seem to be working.

Anyone have an idea of what the problem might be?


texts:
I wanted to change the icons on Big Sur and ran into the same problems. I tried to follow the steps here (https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/395509/387852) but on step 6:
sudo mount -o nobrowse -t apfs DISK_PATH MOUNT_PATH

I ran into this issue
mount_apfs: volume could not be mounted: Resource busy
mount: /Users/timrupp/newicons failed with 75

I really am no programmer or have any real clue how to use Terminal. I'd appreciate any help.


texts: Assign spotlight short cut to different keys

texts:
By default in Yosemite Spotlight shortcut is assigned to ⌘SPACE, but change language is also ⌘SPACE so for a multilingual person it turns out to be a tough choice which one to use. I am wondering if there is a way of assigning a different short cut as ⌥SPACE for a spotlight or the language switch?

I know I can disable language switch and only use 'next language' as ⌥⌘Space, but I am looking for an easy 2 keys solution


texts: How to avoid iMessages services carrier charges after every restart?

texts:
Everytime I restart my iPhone, I have to verify/activate my iMessage services(both FaceTime and iMessages)

I have to pay carrier charges.
I selected the option to use Apple ID to send and receive messages
I have a Sim Card Lock enabled.

Is there a list of carriers that don’t charge for activation?


texts: Upgrading Memory, HD, and Processor on a MacBook2,1

texts:
I recently got a MacBook2,1 as a gift and I'm looking to upgrade the memory, hd, and processor. Currently it is a MacBook2,1 with an Intel Core 2 Duo 2GHz processor, 2GB of RAM, and about 200GB of HD space. Oh yeah, and the battery's dead so it only works when it is plugged in. I read somewhere you can add an extra 2GB of memory to this bad boy. However, only 3GB is usable due to some I/O settings.

What's the best way to gauge performance of this machine so that I can choose an upgrade on a budget?


texts:
Will there be any damage to a MacBook Pro if I keep it in sleeping regime all the time?

The reason I don't switch it off is I had problems with the start button. It stopped working within a year and under guarantee they changed hardware but no one said to me how to exploit it properly or gave recommendations. (It turned out start button is linked to hardware and it's very weak and should not be pressed frequently but instead Macbook must be in sleeping mode to avoid pressing start button often).

In one year the same problem happened. As changing hardware is expensive they offered me to reformat it and all my applications were erased and it seems now it's running software for Macintosh.

What can I do to prevent any troubles?


texts: I recently bought a set of Logitech H800 headphones for my Mac.  Any time I connect them via bluetooth, iTunes launches.  Is there a way to stop iTunes from launching just because I've connected a bluetooth device?


texts: What does a "o" symbol instead of "3G" or "E" mean?

texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  iPhone data connection types

I sometimes get a "o" icon instead of the "3G" or "E" icons when I loose my connection to the network. Why?

Could this be due to a jailbreak?


texts: Is it possible to force macOS to play audio only on the active app?

texts:
Is there a way to make sound come pro only one app.
Example: I have VLC and safari (YouTube). Both are playing a video but I want my speakers to only play the sound from the active app.
So if I selected safari to be active, VLC is muted and safari plays a sound.


texts: Troubleshooting spontaneous logout (window server crash?)

texts:
After upgrading to Mavericks while running GoTo Meeting (v5.*) I'm suddenly logged out and sent to the login screen.  The behavior is very erratic, and when it happens, it happens repeatedly, enough that I have to stop using GoTo Meeting.

I've searched around for issues on this, but none seem to apply to my scenario.  In the past I've been able to troubleshoot crashes with the kernel dump you get after the restart, but since it's a successful logout I'm not getting any info.  Where else can I look to try and identify the source of this issue?

Update

After some extensive console scanning it appears I do have some crash reports which I've uploaded as a gist.  I'm trying googling random portions of it, but no luck so far.  There isn't anything exception in there that seems to jump out at me as to what the issue might be.  Help!!


texts: iBook G4: black screen when booting with USB plugged in

texts:
I have an iBook G4 with Tiger on it, and I thought I would try out dual-booting with Lubuntu just for fun.
I downloaded Lubuntu 14 and prepared a USB 2 stick to boot from using dd. So far, so good.
The problem is that the machine only shows a black screen on boot if the USB is plugged in. This is both when booting normally and when using the Open Firmware key combo. It starts, caps lock lights up when pressed, but nothing happens.
Without USB drive connected, both normal boot and OF works. Once booted, USB drives work normally.
The optical drive just spits out all media, so I guess that’s broken and cannot be used to boot from.
After searching for a while, I haven’t seen anyone else describing this exact problem.
Any ideas?


texts: Activating unlocked iPhone 4s with SIM but without contract?

texts:
I'm in a research lab where we're looking to get an iPhone 4s to use as a speedier iPod touch.  We don't want a cell phone contract, and we want to avoid jailbreaking or borrowing a SIM card just for activation (unless it's the only option).

When purchasing the unlocked iPhone, there are options for 'No SIM' and 'T-Mobile SIM (without contract)'.  Searching the internet has shown that unlocking without a SIM isn't possible.  If we get the T-Mobile SIM, will we be able to activate even without a contract ?


texts: Exporting iTunes smart playlist definitions

texts:
I have 30 or so smart playlists defined in iTunes on the PC. What I'd like to do is export all of these definitions. To clarify, I don't want to export the songs in each of these playlists, I want to export the definition (e.g. "Artist contains Foo").

I have a lot of conditions defined for each playlist, and would prefer a solution that doesn't involve manually performing the same steps 30 times. For example, if I could export registry settings, this would be the best solution.


texts: Unreliable WiFi on MacBook: how can I measure how "unreliable" it is?

texts:
My MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018) has WiFi problems. It sometimes takes 30 seconds to connect, and even once connected the WiFi will occasionally lock up and have to reconnect. I've also seen hints that, even while apparently "connected", my connections will hiccup or slow way down.

I have AppleCare+, so I'll be calling them, but before I do I want to measure the extent of the problem. So: how can I measure the quality of a WiFi connection, preferably from the command line? (I'll set up a script to measure and log the results every 10 seconds.)


texts: How can I format my disk to APFS if I can’t boot in Recovery Mode?

texts:
I am trying to upgrade my 2012 MacBook Pro from Mojave to Catalina. I swapped out the hard drive a few months ago for an SSD.

When I try to go through the updater, I get the warning “This volume is not formatted as APFS.”

I have seen online you can change the partition of the disk by booting into Recovery Mode. But when I do that, I get a spinning globe which then asks me to log into the Wi-Fi. I don’t know why, but it rejects the Wi-Fi password I put in, even though it works on my iPhone.

Is there any way to format the disk as APFS, without going into Recovery Mode? Can I just wipe the whole disk or something and start from scratch, somehow?


texts: check mail for certain word before sending

texts:
I have mail templates with placeholders for names (ex. Dear XXXXXX).

Is it possible to make apple mail check the content of my mail when sending and to stop an email from getting send out when it finds my placeholders?


texts: ImageMagick Errors while installing dependencies

texts:
I'm using this script:
https://github.com/maddox/magick-installer

to install imagemagick and it's dependencies
i have a few errors the first run for some missing files or borken links but now i have all this solved.... but when it's installing the libpng, i think, the scrip stops and trow this error:

ln: ./libtool: File exists

i don't know what to do, seems like the first run it created some symlink somewhere and not it found this symlink and stops the script.

thanks.


texts: Using old MacBook battery as an USB charger. Known adapters/cases?

texts:
I have an old MacBook with an OK battery.
When I go out sailing or traveling I have a lead battery with me to be able to charge USB-things. iPhone, portable speakers, etc.

The old MacBooks battery is a lithium battery with excellent power density. I would like to use that instead. Have you heard about an adapter or a case that lets you take a MackBook battery and get one or several USB outlets?

Charging of the MacBook battery is not needed since I can do that in my old Mac.

Think the MacBook is 2007-ish. It's from when the batteries were easily removable with a coin anyways.


texts: Is MacBook Pro 2016's screen stain proof?

texts: Want to buy a MacBook Pro. But afraid of Staingate. Do anybody heard about stain on MBP 2016 like it was on older MBPs?


texts: Where to get iPhone app download statistics?

texts: I know this is a elementary question, but I figured I'd get a quicker answer here than Apple support. Where can I find out how many times the app has been downloaded and other download stats? I'm a developer and can't find the stats on the iOS Dev Center. I have not renewed the $99 Developer license, so could it be hidden because of that?


texts: Where file revisions are stored on OS X?

texts:
Most Apple applications in newer OS X versions, like OS X 10.9, automatically save all changes to all files and documents without your approval, and file versions and revisions are automatically available from within a submenu within the File menu.

Where are such revisions saved, filesystem-wise?

If one is to exchange such files, how would one ensure that none of the history gets exchanged, too?

What if one did want to exchange the history, is there a way to accomplish that as well?


texts: How do I launch a process with different date/time settings than the rest of the system?

texts:
I'm developing a desktop app for OS X with behaviour that depends on the date. I want to test the behaviour without waiting for a specific date.

I'd rather not change the date settings of the whole system as I'm worried it might mess with build systems etc. Using a VM is possible, but takes a while to set up.

Is there a simple way to run a process and its children in a time delta relative to the actual time, without affecting the rest of the system?


texts: What does "Other" represent when looking at iTunes representation of free space on an iDevice?

texts:
In the graphical space representation of my iPhone, the Other category takes a pretty big chunk.

How can I find out what is in the Other category?  If it's text messages from the last 4 years that I've owned iPhones, how can I browse them?


texts:
I am using macOS Mojave and would like to have a keyboard shortcut to open a new Finder window, similarly to how Win + E opens the File Explorer in Windows.

I am aware that it is always open, but I'd like to get a key combination to open its window, or a new window, rather than clicking on the icon using mouse/trackpad.

Is there a handy way to do it?


texts:
After an OS update, my bash history is suddenly gone - typing "history" at a terminal window (sudo or standard) yields only the commands entered after the upgrade.

What could have happened here?


texts: Can I upload an iOS app from OS X running on a VM to the App Store?

texts: I don't have an Apple device and I need to create a iOS app. I was wondering if I could do it from a VM running OSX. I know that you can do this for testing, but can I upload the final version to the App Store?


texts: I restored my iPhone but it always says Activation Error, what should I do?

texts:
I forgot my passcode so I go on iTunes to restore it, but after the restoration, it says Activation Error after I put in the Wi-Fi Settings. I have tried it many times but it still hasn't worked.

I didn't jailbreak my phone, just forgot the passcode so I restored it. I do not have any SIM card in the phone.

Is there something I can do to get the phone in working order again?

Is there any way that can avoid using SIM card?

**I fixed it ;)**


texts:
I am at the point where I am about to erase the HD on my old iMac 2009 running El Cap before selling it.

I recently turned on FileVault to encrypt the volume mainly to see how it worked and also as an aide to what I thought was going to be a quick and secure erasure of that HD.

I have reached this point following these instructions on MacWorld:

With a FileVault-encrypted startup disk, you can restart into OS X Recovery and launch Disk Utility to erase the volume. However, before erasing, you need to select the disk and then choose File > Unlock “volume name”. Enter the password for any FileVault-enabled user account, and the disk is unlocked and can be erased.

When I choose Erase, the next window gives me the warning:  Are you sure you want to erase the partition “Macintosh HD” and create an encrypted partition?  Warning:  Files on this partition will be encrypted using this password.  If you forget the password, your data will be lost.

It's either cancel, and then I can't erase my HD or continue.

Not sure what I am doing at this point and could use some help.

Am I setting up FileVault for the next owner of this iMac?

What does the message in this window really mean?

Many thanks.


texts: Remove delimiter section from filename with Automator

texts:
I'm creating an automator script that copies files from one folder to another and then runs an AppleScript to rename the file by splitting via delimiter and resaving with the second item. For example, using file names of:

a new file$SG789.jpg
file_2$123-456.jpg
file_name$LG123.jpg
this_file$558-432.jpg

I'm trying to split the filename by the "$" dollar sign to create the following new files:

SG789.jpg
123-456.jpg
LG123.jpg
558-432.jpg

However, when I run the script, I get the following error:

The action “Run AppleScript” encountered an error. Can’t get item 2 of alias "Macintosh HD:Users:downloads:Archive:a new file$SG789-PROC.jpg".

This is the code I'm running in the Run AppleScript workflow:

on run {input, parameters}
    set AppleScript's text item delimiters to "$"
    repeat with anItem in input
        set fileName to item 2 of anItem
        return fileName
    end repeat
end run

What am I doing wrong?


texts: I'd like to know whether a 4,1/5,1 Mac Pro with dual processor board can actually work with just one CPU installed.


texts: How do the cliclick and MouseTools command line tools differ?

texts:
I would like to perform double-clicks via AppleScript.

Two tools that I understand are suitable for the job (since AppleScript contains no built-in mechanism to do this) are cliclick and MouseTools.

These two tools are very similar, sharing many features. Do they differ? Is one more reliable than the other?


texts: Wiping my SSD using FileVault and Disk Utility

texts: I have been using FileVault from the start and I decided to wipe my SSD.  However I made a mistake.  There was one drive called Apple SSD above Macintosh HD.  What I should have done was to unmount Macintosh HD then erasing it but instead i erased Apple SSD then unmounted Macintosh HD and erased Macintosh HD again.  Is it possible to salvage this?


texts: How to delete all photos from iPhone using mac or pc

texts:
I'd like to delete all of the photos and videos from my iPhone 5S. I am willing to use [free] software on a mac or PC. Image Capture on a Mac does not have a delete option, before or after import. I imported all of the images and it did not offer any way to delete them from the iPhone. And, the instructions at https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3075727?tstart=0 do not work for me since there is no delete icon visible.

On the PC side, the windows explorer delete function gives an error when I try to delete.

Is there an iPhone setting I need to change in order to make them deletable? Does this have to do with iCloud at all?


texts: What hardware do I need to use a Kinect model 1414 with a Mac?

texts: Want to use a Kinect model 1414 on a Mac. I know I need a power adapter, but will it just plug directly into USB or do I need some other adapter there as well? Thanks.


texts:
I am looking for a way to batch-convert/bulk-convert .doc files into .docx files. I found this TidBITS Talk that references a Redit thread for an AppleScript (AS) and a dead DropBox link for an Automator integration of mentioned AS in a WorkFlow.
However, when I run the script in Automator or Script Editor I get a Syntax Error - Expected end of line, etc. but found identifier. Inside the script compatibility is highlighted (as being the issue, I guess).
What can be done to correct the error?
Find the new version as suggested by @CJK of the entire script here below:
property theList : {"doc"}

on run {input, parameters}
        set output to {}
        tell application "Microsoft Word" to set theOldDefaultPath to get default file path file path type documents path
        repeat with theDoc in input
        tell application "System Events"
            set theFolderPath to the path of theDoc's container
            set theExtension to name extension of theDoc
            set theName to name of theDoc
        end tell
        if theExtension is in theList then
            set l to the length of theName
            set exl to the length of theExtension
            set n to l - exl - 1

            set theFilename to (text 1 through n of theName) & ".docx"

            tell application "Microsoft Word"
                set default file path file path type documents path path theFolderPath
                open theDoc
                set theActiveDoc to the active document
                save as theActiveDoc file format format document file name theFilename without maintain compatibility
                close theActiveDoc
            end tell

            set end of output to the POSIX path of (theFolderPath & theFilename)
        end if
        end repeat

        tell application "Microsoft Word" to set default file path file path type documents path path theOldDefaultPath
        return output
end run

Find here below a screenshot of Script Editor after compilation without the word compatibility (trying to compile the code with this word gives me the same error message as the one at the beginning of this post):

System used:

macOS Catalina 10.15.5
MacBook Pro (13", 2019, 2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i7, 16 GB RAM, Intel Iris Plus Graphics 655 1536 MB)
Microsoft Word Version 16.39 (20071300)
Script Editor Version 2.11 (208)
Automator Version 2.10 (492)


texts: I updated to 10.11.4 (15E65) and now I suddenly have 100 more GBs of space free?

texts: What could be the cause of this? The only thing I can think of would be mobile Time Machine backups, but I have no idea.


texts: Export or list system settings that deviate from defaults

texts:
I am looking to generate something similar to this osx settings script.  I'm not having any luck finding ways to perform a diff between system defaults and my customized settings.

Anyone know of a command, app, tool, method to generate this?


texts: Turn a cloned macOS partition into a unique copy for use with iCloud

texts:
When copying a bootable partition using the dd command or similar means, the copy runs fine but will use the same IDs as the original. This leads to problems when using Apple cloud services such as iCloud and Messages with both the copy and the original.

I remember seeing instructions on how to change these IDs, I believe by modifying some plist file(s) inside the /System folder, but can't find them any more.

Could someone post the solutition here or point to an existing answer?

Note: Cloning a partition using Disk Utility's Restore operation would avoid this issue.


texts: Secure VPN configuration in iPhone for malicious WIFI hotspots

texts:
I would like to use a secure VPN configuration in my iPhone (iOS 5.1), to be able to use Internet thru hostile wifi hotspots.

I have already configured an IPSec tunnel to a server I control. I can manually activate the VPN in the phone and be "quite" sure nobody can snoop the WIFI data to/from my phone.

But this scenario has a few problems:

In my VPN, I send a secure DNS configuration to the phone at tunnel creation time. What happen to any DNS record cached?. Is it purged and refetched thru the tunnel?. Leaking DNS data, beside leaking info, can be used as an attack vector AFTER the tunnel is UP and running.
How can I know that ALL data is send thru the tunnel?.
The tunnel must be activated manually. If you forget, you are KO.
If the tunnel breaks, my data is at risk. Since the tunnel can break anytime, including because malicious action, I have to keep a constant eye on the VPN icon. And even if I am fast to stop the data traffic, I am going to leak potentially sensitive data.

Briefly, I would like to be able to use only internet THRU the tunnel. I rather lose Internet service than using the connection with no VPN connection. But I don't see how to do it. Does exist any configuration in iPhone 5.1 to force that ANY internet traffic to go thru a VPN?.

Any advice?.

Thanks!.


texts: osascript to set secondary desktop background?

texts:
I have been using this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC -//Apple Computer//DTD PLIST
1.0//EN http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd>
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
 <key>Label</key>
  <string>com.filmscoring.display.plist</string>
 <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>osascript</string>
    <string>-e</string>
    <string>tell application "Finder"
set f to POSIX file "/Library/Desktop Pictures/mac cinema desktop yoda.png"
if desktop picture is not file f then set desktop picture to f
end tell</string>
  </array>
 <key>StartInterval</key>
  <integer>10</integer>
</dict>
</plist>

To prevent users from changing the desktop. (And I love it btw!) Original can be found here: How to restrict changing desktop wallpaper?

All of our stations have a secondary screen which I'd also like to fix up the same way using a different image.

Any idea how I can target the secondary display with this code? Thanks for the help!


texts: Can I connect my Macbook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2016) to my Macbook Pro (13-inch, Early 2011)?

texts: A the title suggests, I'd like to connect my macbooks together to easily transfer files and mirror displays when i need to.


texts: Can I use 2 iPads at the same time for synchronized music making? What about with the same app?

texts:
I am getting an iPad and my mate has an iPad as well. We have a bit of a band and want to know if it's possible to 'sync' 2 iPads together to use music making apps that will play at the same tempo and be on beat with each other?

Is there some way to do this or something we need to do? How can we achieve true syncing of 2 iPads for music app usage?


texts:
Yesterday I upgraded my Mac from Mountain Lion to El Capitan. Trying to get apache2 working I get the following error message:

  AH00526: Syntax error on line 20 of /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-mpm.conf: Invalid command 'LockFile', perhaps misspelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration.

What might be the remedy?


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I have a Mid-2012 MacBook Pro with Boot Camp, and it supports only up to macOS Catalina, and not Big Sur. This frustrated me and I decided to go off the rules a bit & installed macOS Big Sur (using patched Sur). This was all working fine, until a few days ago, I reseted the PRAM as I was having some issues with the CD-ROM.
The problem started here. After I reseted the PRAM, the MacBook started showing the prohibitory symbol. It scared me a lot since it had a lot of data (class notes, reference books for exams, etc.), and for the past 3 days, I've been searching the internet for its fix.
So, by now I've come to know that this sign comes when the Hard-Drive contains a macOS, but it's not supported on the Mac. Obviously, it contained Big Sur, which was not supported by this model.
On doing Internet recovery, it gave an option of reinstalling Mac OS X Lion, but when selecting a disk to reinstall the OS, it shows only the Boot Camp partition of the Hard Drive and shows the message that it's locked.
So, I wanted to ask if there is any method of reinstalling macOS (and obviously this time I'm not going back to Big Sur, only up to Catalina. This experience was enough) without losing any of my data, both from Boot Camp and macOS? If not, then is there a way I could back up files of macOS partition from Boot Camp partition?
Also, is there a simpler way to bypass this check, like the bypass created by Patched Sur, as that'll mean I'll not have to go back to Lion and reinstall OS updates to go back to Catalina?
Also, I wanted to know what exactly happened when I reseted the PRAM, that this bypass stopped working? This needn't include in the answers, but info on how this happened will help in expanding my knowledge.


texts: How to configure maximum IMAP connections in Mac OS X Server (El Capitan)?

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In previous Mac OS X versions (to El Capitan), you could administrate mail server settings in the app called Server Admin. In El Capitan, all I have access to is the Server.app. In there are only very limited settings for the email server.

We are now in the process of leaving this in-house email server for Office365 and Exchange. In order to migrate all user emails from our server to the cloud servers in Exchange, we need to increase the maximum number of IMAP connections allowed.

I can't seem to find where to do this? Server Admin could do this but that won't work in El Capitan. Any ideas?


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I'm trying to set up postfix to send mail through Gmail's SMTP server on port 587. Here's what I've put in my /etc/postfix/main.cf:

relayhost = [smtp.gmail.com]:587
smtp_sasl_auth_enable = yes
smtp_sasl_password_maps = hash:/etc/postfix/sasl_passwd
smtp_sasl_security_options = noanonymous
smtp_sasl_mechanism_filter = plain
smtp_tls_CAfile = /etc/postfix/cacert.pem
smtp_use_tls = yes

However, I'm running into TLS problem since /etc/postfix/cacert.pem, which seems to be suggested everywhere online, doesn't really exist on my system (OS X 10.9.3).

Therefore, what is the right CAfile to use? Any help is greatly appreciated.

On a side note, for now I'm using the workaround

smtp_tls_security_level = may

which works. However, I suppose this is a cheap fix, and I'm worried about the security.


texts: How to remove green hyperlink box in preview?

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Is it possible to disable the obnoxious green hyperlink bounding boxes in Preview (PDF)?

I do not have access to the latex. The link to the paper is here: https://arxiv.org/pdf/1806.01261.pdf.

When viewed on google there are no boxes, but when I download it for editing the pdf becomes a green swamp. I could not find any setting in Preview to disable this (on High Sierra).


texts: App shortcuts: how to include 'delete' key?

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I want to switch shortcuts for two actions in Adobe Lightroom:

Action 1 < set any other shortcut, I'm so sick of calling it by misclick!
Action 2 < set shortcut used for action 1 (which is cmd+delete)

The app doesn't offer the option. System Preferences>...>App Shortcuts don't allow to use 'delete' key in the shortcut. Answer to a similar question about Services is out-of-date - I can't find the right system file.


texts: How do I force the camera to focus on a distant object and not the window screen?

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Whenever I take a picture or video out my window, it always focuses on the screen instead of what I actually want to take a picture of. I can press on the screen to adjust the white levels, or press-hold to lock the auto-focus, but there doesn't appear to be any way to force it to focus far instead of near. How do I force the camera to focus on distant objects instead of the near screen?

iOS 10.3.1


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Omnikey is a very useful Safari extension that allows searching user-selected webpages by entering user-selectable keys preceding the search term. For example, entering "w Los Angeles" in the Safari address bar on my computer and pressing return opens a new Safari window in Wikipedia that's searching for "Los Angeles." This is both easier and faster than navigating to the page you wish to search, entering the search term, then hitting return.

Here's a screenshot of the searches I've added to Safari on my Macs:

Unfortunately, Omnikey doesn't work with Safari 13.

Omnikey is very useful. Are there any other Safari extensions that provide the same functionality?


texts: Why emacs commands work everywhere on macOS?

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I can use emacs commands everywhere on macOS, which is good.
But why?
For example, in forms in Safari, I can use ctl-a, ctl-k, etc...
I can use them in Note.app, too.

My guess is they are actually Unix commands and emacs borrowed them?


texts: MacBook Pro Retina & Dell U2711 with miniDP to DP still no res higher than 1080p

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I bought an external monitor, the Dell u2711 due to the res and wanting to get the most out of my laptop.

Initially I used a mini dp adapter with dvi, hdmi and dp on and it wouldn't work, kept staying in power saver mode so I bought a single cable with minidp on one end and dp on the other.  Plugged it in and voila, it works.  Then I checked the resolution and have two options.  720p or 1080p.  I had more options using HDMI but I want 2560x1440.  That's why I bought it.  Can anyone help please?