texts: Notes, Drive and Keychain not syncing to iCloud from Mojave

texts:
This one is strange. I have one computer which is unable to fully sync with iCloud. What's odd is that some items do sync, including Calendar and Contacts. I suspect there's a corrupted / locked library file somewhere wreaking havoc, but I'm unsure of where to find it. The most telling fact is I've isolated the issue to user account level. None of the issues happen with a fresh user. Here's what I know:

Details:

Problematic computer is running 10.14.3 (Issue has persisted since 10.13)
In iCloud preference, Notes is checked on. So is iCloud Drive and just about everything except Keychain and Photos.
The affected computer does not display any notes created from other devices. And no notes created on the affected computer sync to my other devices.

When I attempt to enable Keychain on the affected computer, after entering my iCloud password I'm presented with an error saying "iCloud Keychain couldn’t be set up because there was a problem communicating with iCloud."
Other devices: iOS device running latest OS (no syncing issues), Mac running 10.13 (no syncing issues), Mac running 10.12 (no syncing issues)
Notes created on iCloud.com show up and sync as expected on all devices except the one Mac

Troubleshooting Steps (so far):

Signed out of iCloud, restarted, signed back in (about a dozen times)
Updated to latest version of Mojave
Attempted syncing on a new user account (and it WORKS!)
I've also reset user permissions on the home folder with diskutil resetuserpermissions / id -u

I don't know what combination of Containers, Application Support directories, and Preferences I'd need to target to resolve this, but I suspect if the correct set are deleted and regenerated the issue might go away. My goal is to get syncing to work in the current user account to avoid the headache of manually transferring over a fragile command line tools and preferences. But if I can't find any solutions soon I may have to just wave the white flag.


texts: Using other glyphs in Arabic on the iPad

texts: Arabic Keyboard on iPad uses GeezaPro font and obviously keys are limited compared to available glyphs, but what should I do if I want to use a glyph that doesn't have its own key. Is there any way I can add/use it somehow?  The reason I need to do this is so I can write in Persian/Farsi.


texts: in iPhoto, how to locate photos NOT in a particular photo stream?

texts:
I've noticed that if I add the same photo to a photo stream more than once, iPhoto is apparently not smart enough to recognize that it's a duplicate, and instead goes ahead and adds the photo a second (or third, etc.) time to the stream.

I would like to regularly drop certain photos into a photostream to share with a friend.  But to do so, I need to know which photos I've not already shared in the past.  It seems that the Smart Album logic cannot tell the membership status of photo streams, only local albums.

Is there a way to create a smart Album (or other method) that will show:

All photos in Album A and NOT in Photo Stream B?


texts: Can I deploy Retina with any JAVA version at all?

texts:
I tried Java 7, then Java 6 (Apple's) but my Java (Swing) desktop applications
behave as if I had a MacBook Pro instead of a MacBook Pro Retina.

Is there any setting I need to change somewhere?

Must I wait till ORACLE implements it in Java 7?


texts:
I'm trying to do if statement with the current time,

e.g

  if Time is between 14h and 14:30 then ... if time is between 14:30
  and 15h then ...

and so on.

time string of (current date)
set Timeleft to missing value

if time string is in "14:00:00" and "14:29:60" then

end if

now obviously time is not a string like i did in my script, how can I make that working?

Also here is my system time format :
current date

  --> date "Saturday 9 December 2017 at 14:10:09"


texts: Finder/Quicklook Bug (File Icon Previews Not Working)

texts:
My Macbook has suddenly stopped generating preview icon of all file types. So all files are now replaced by their respective generic file type icons (see picture attached). Moreover, when I quicklook any file, the preview appears corrupted.

I have not updated any software recently, nor have I modified any file systems.

Any help would be much appreciated!


texts: My seagate disk that was detectable earlier is now showing SMART status "not supported". Anyone experienced similar thing before?

texts:
External hard disk seagate is not readable suddenly and when i click on "Initialize", i am taken to Disk Utility which among other things also says "S.M.A.R.T status" isnt supported. What options do I have now?

I have already verified but i get the error invalid b-tree node size.
Thanks .


texts: limitations of .aspx web pages rendered in OS X Safari

texts:
Specifically,

The goal is to understand the degree of compatibility of Safari with .aspx services.  Is there a comprehensive list of .aspx functionality that fails in Safari? OR

Is there a method \ line of thought to evaluate an .aspx page to determine any functional limits from a Safari perspective?

Although one can simply try the pages in Safari, I am reluctant to try it with this government website:

https://ritx-fl-sut.bswa.net/

State of Florida Department of Revenue website for reporting sales tax. The website allows me to login with Safari, but indicates:

  This website is optimized for use on a PC using Microsoft Internet
  Explorer. If you are using any other web browsers, this site may not
  appear or function as designed. We do not officially support the
  Macintosh platform.


texts: Changing a Volume's "Device / Media Name"

texts:
I know a Mac volume can be renamed... obviously.

But if you look at the output of diskutil you will see that a volume also has a "device name" that corresponds to the name it was given when it was formatted:

diskutil info /dev/disk0s1 | grep 'Media Name'

Running it on your root volume you will probably get "Macintosh HD" (or else something like "Untitled 1" if that's how you left it when formatting in Disk Utility). It seems this doesn't change when you rename the volume after the fact.

Why do these different names for the same volume exist?

Does anything even refer to this hidden name?

Can it be changed?


texts: Is it still possible to purchase a license for Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard Server from Apple?

texts:
Mac OS X Server 10.6 Snow Leopard Server is no longer for sale at the Apple Store website. Mac OS X Server software licenses were sold as a separate full operating system from Apple until 10.7 Lion, though few realized that the client versions of Mac OS X could always be converted into the Server version product of the Mac OS X System Software (except for Rhapsody) simply by purchasing a license and downloading and installing the OS X Server pkg over the client software, even before the Mac App Store existed, just as it is now the only way to get OS X Server for Lion and subsequent versions of OS X Server.

If I purchase a license for and copy of OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard from the Apple Store, and install this on a new Mac Mini, and I update the System to 10.6.8, can I then, through the Mac App Store, purchase a license for and a download a copy of the pkg installer for Mac OS X Server 10.6 Snow Leopard Server from the Mac App Store (which first appears in 10.6.7)?
Though there may not be the option through the Apple Store web site, in purchasing new hardware today from Apple, if you request it, Apple will sell you a license for and a copy of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard and install it for you on the hardware you purchased. Will they sell a license for Mac OS X Server 10.6 Snow Leopard Server with it and install it for you, if you request it?

While I am aware that you can still download and install Server Admin Tools 10.6.8, even on the client versions of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, currently, my only Intel Mac is running a highly customized version of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, and I am unable to check for myself (or I would) if the Mac OS X 10.6 Server Snow Leopard Server package is available for sale and download or not through the Mac App Store. Can a kind and very shrewd soul still running Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard fire up their Mac App Store for me and see if they can even get to the OS X Server software package for sale on the Mac App Store, and at least comment if not answer, regarding whether they believe or know they can actually purchase, download and install it, converting their Snow Leopard System Software into a full retail version of Mac OS X Server 10.6 Snow Leopard Server? Thank you so very very much!


texts: One mac, Two or more storage devices - how to divide things?

texts:
We're at a crossroads where most Macs now have space and connections to contain two storage devices. SSD are fast, low capacity and expensive - HDD are in comparison slow, huge and cheap.

Both iMacs and Mac Mini can ship configured with two drives and all the portable Macs that still ship with an optical drive have a choice of several professional kits that securely mount either a second HDD or SSD inside the unibody. (I've even seen Airs with a light USB drive semi-permanently affixed to the metal side of the display with velcro since sometimes even the slimmest Mac needs to pack more storage punch.)

Yet Mac OS X doesn't really have a Setup Assistant that's willing to help divvy up our data on two drives. Software to intelligently move files to appropriate storage exists in the enterprise SAN space, but I don't think we'll see it for a while on the desktop. There's not even a guide I've seen on what or how to set up a mac with two drives, so Apple have left us a clean playing field upon which to experiment.

The best writing on this topic I have seen recently was written by Matt Legend Gemmell. His article titled Using OS X with an SSD plus HDD setup is great reading and seems to be relevant even if you have two spinning HDD.

Matt advocates

installing the OS, user home folders and most user data on the SSD
place user data that won't fit on the SSD instead on the HDD
implementing this by moving entire top level folders from the SSD home folder and placing them on the HDD.
using soft (sym) links to connect the two locations.

Is this thinking the current state of the art?

What works for you and more importantly, why does it work for you?

Tips on how full or empty to keep your boot drive and any gotchas you learned the hard way are greatly appreciated.


texts: Macbook pro display is messed up, what could be the problem?

texts:
I have had this happen to my to both my laptops within a week, first my Windows HP Laptop developed this problem which is far more worse btw and now my macbook pro 13 (2011 model). For my Windows laptop I figured it could be over heating that messed up the video card (there is also a noise coming from it also). I do not have enough proof thoug that it over heated. Usually if it lays on bed for longer period, it definitely overheats but we are careful about it. About my mac, it was totally cold. I use it last night (downloaded a torrent) and I shut it down completely. I know it was not overheated because it was in my lap. This morning I turned it on and I see this problem. Notice the edges around the window and colors are messed up to in places.

Anyone can think of what could be problem. I am outside US so can't really take it to Apple store. Thanks


texts: Flash drive no longer visible within Windows

texts:
I recently formatted a USB flash drive on my Mac (El-Capitan) and made a bootable Mojave installer drive. It worked great and there were no issues, until I needed to reformat it to use on Windows again. I've formatted the drive as FAT32 with a MBR partition and it reflects as such in the Disk Utility:

Drive:

Partition:

Windows Disk Management:

CMD Diskpart -> list disk:

For some reason, Windows doesn't even recognise that the drive is inserted into the PC. I'd expect to see a 16GB disk with no mountable volumes, instead I just see the same disk-listings that were there before I inserted the drive.

What frustrates me is that I've got experience with partitions and it's not usually rocket-science. The third image shows a hybrid drive with a MacOS partition (for my Macbook Air) that also contains a exFat partition for my media.

I've done this before many times over but can't, for the life of me, figure out why it's not working on this flash drive. Have I missed something really obvious? Am I losing my mind?


texts: I upgraded my 5GB iCloud storage to 50GB storage and its not showing

texts: and not only is it not showing but 1.98€ was deducted from my account and not 99¢ as advertised.  I am loath to click again as they may deduct MORE money!? Anyone out there know why my iCloud storage isn't appearing?


texts: How to exclude a sub folder from iCloud drive in macOS Sierra?

texts: I have my Documents folder synced with iCloud drive, I want to exclude some sub folders from the iCloud drive is there a way to achieve this?


texts:
I need to fill in a form that was sent to me in .lwp format... So far:

The App Store couldn't find any compatible apps;
I found out it's a Lotus WordPro document;
By using Word's Recover text from any file, the content is all messed up;
I don't have access to a PC to use WordPort nor Kvlotus.exe;
I read the solution is to install IBM Lotus Symphony...

...but before I download a 250MB+ package and install it for a one time thing, did anyone here face the same problem just to come to a more elegant solution to convert this file to a more useful format?

Later edit: installing Symphony doesn't support it either:

So my question remains: how do you use a .lwp file on a Mac?


texts: Can't update MacPorts after upgrading to Mavericks

texts:
I ran port selfupdate and MacPorts tried to upgrade itself to version 2.2.1, but eventually fails. When I add the -v flag, I can see the build fails after these lines:

checking for Tcl configuration... configure: error: Can't find Tcl configuration definitions
Command failed: cd     /opt/local/var/macports/sources/rsync.macports.org/release/tarballs/base && CC=/usr/bin/cc OBJC=/usr/bin/cc ./configure --prefix=/opt/local --with-tclpackage=/Library/Tcl --with-install-user=root --with-install-group=admin --with-directory-mode=0755 --enable-readline && make SELFUPDATING=1 && make install SELFUPDATING=1
Exit code: 1

How can I get MacPorts back?


texts: What is the life expectancy of a Magic Mouse 2 battery?

texts: I would like to know what is the battery life cycle of a Magic Mouse 2. Or the approximate number of charge/recharge cycles before its battery's performances will start to reduce visibly?


texts: MacBook Pro Touchbar stuck when starting up

texts:
So I tried booting up my MacBook Pro in safe mode, but it got stuck. When starting up it just shows a black screen with the white apple logo. The top bar with an apple logo on the left and next to it language chooser is visible, the cursor is also visible but disappears under this black screen with the apple logo. I can click on the apple logo and go down and startup disk will appear instead of language chooser, or sometimes if I click a bit lower it turns off. But those are the only options... I tried command option p r also, but that doesn’t seem to do anything. I tried restarting multiple times but it just shows the same.

In the last picture it’s choose the language but there are two cursors. One only is movable at the top of the screen (the header bar section) and the other one is just stuck it doesn’t do anything. So I can’t even choose the language to continue.


texts: Can I use Migration Assistant to migrate certain data from different sources?

texts:
I recently had a hard drive failure (which I now blame on the SATA cable because my SSD became corrupted). I have the stock hard drive that originally came with my MacBook Pro, and I have put it in an enclosure so I can use it via USB. When I restored my hard drive using Time Machine, the computer kept going to sleep despite being connected to power. After about 12 hours being stuck at the same spot, I decided to force shut down the computer and then restart the transfer. When the computer booted back up, all (or at least most, and some data I haven't needed lately) was there. I tried to open the Messages app and it would not open. I reinstalled the OS using the option that would allow me to keep my data, which fixed some errors that the system had been giving me. After researching online, I learned that I should remove the file that stores Messages information (I forget what it was called). My Messages now open, but all previous ones were deleted.

When I get the SATA cable fixed, I want to restore from the Time Machine backup because I still don't fully trust the OS on the hard drive I'm using right now. However, I have other files and messages that have been created that I want to transfer. How should I migrate these files without overwriting any data?


texts: How can I post a photo to instagram that was on my computer and not taken from my iPhone?

texts:
I want to use a photo from my computer and put it on my instagram account. The problem is that when I go to choose the picture, its not shown in the list of images in the /DCIM/100APPLE folder. I believe the issue is that it doesn't have all of the meta data about how the picture was taken so the software doesn't show it.

Someone has said that you need iTunes to do anything on your phone but I'm running linux and iTunes isn't available for my operating system.

Is this the only option? What can I do?


texts: Are there ad blocker that filters YouTube advertisements on Mojave Safari Version 12.0?

texts:
Who knows an AdBlocker for the latest Safari that is able to block youtube ads. I've tried AdBlock & AdBlock Plus which both are now 'full' applications instead of extensions.

AdBlockPlus slows down your browser to the point that entering text, or clicking a link has a lag of around 1.5 ~ 2 seconds.
AdBlock works for a while, and then hangs taking 600% cpu utilization.

It works again after dis&enabling it in the extension preferences. But AdBlock's biggest problem is it doesn't block that much on youtube.
I'm not here to ask how to get AdBlock or AdBlockPlus going. I'm here to ask who has a blocker for youtube.
I've used AdBlock in the past before the new extension architecture, and it blocked all youtube ads. Now YouTube is encoding the advertisements in to the streams and come up with harder to block advertisements.
Can anyone recommend software that either blocks more or uses less CPU?


texts: Not able to download game applications from App Store

texts:
Since I got my iPad and iPhone I am unable to download certain applications,
especially the games

Is this due to region restrictions with Apple and South Africa?

Apple recently released the iPad to South Africa and in the Apple Store I see the iPad have Angry birds, etc. loaded on them.

But if I try to download it from the App Store I can't.


texts: I have a Delux T9X keyboard which has a USB-C port. I tried to connect it to my Macbook Pro with a type-c/type-c cable, but it doesn't works. Then I tried to connect it with a type-c/type-a cable through an adapter and it works well. I tried other type-c/type-c cables which I have with same results. What I do wrong?


texts: Is there a free app like Sublime Text 2 on iPad?

texts: Is there a free app like Sublime Text 2 on iPad that can read code and have Syntax Highlighting?


texts: How to back up text messages from iPhone 5S?

texts: What is the most simple way (for a non-techie) to back up my text messages, including the pictures within iMessages?


texts: How to hide menu bar icon without using external apps?

texts: I want to remove an icon from showing in the menu bar of a 3rd party usb wireless receiver. Anyone knows how to do it without using an external app on macOS?


texts: Can I charge my MacBook Pro from an older iMac?

texts: After dropping my 2012 MacBook Pro, the build-in magnetic MagSafe charging system doesn’t seem to be working any more. Is there a way to charge it from an old (2002) iMac, to recover my files? Or any other way?


texts: Since running out of battery on my Mac, fonts are missing and apps don't open properly

texts: This first happened when I ran out of battery on my Mac. When I charged it, it was acting very weirdly. My desktop background is black and when I login the background is black. When I open Hamachi it says "Failed to connect to engine", Stuff is missing such as desktop pictures and letters that I used to see are now a box with a question mark "[?]".


texts:
I am trying to administer my Western Digital MyBookLife home network drive, using the Java based admin console provided by WD. The console is a web application served up from the drive itself.

However, since I upgraded to Java 8, the Mac is preventing me from loading the page (a Java applet), which is on my network at 192.168.1.2

I opened the Java console and added http://192.168.1.2 to my trusted network site list, however it is still rejecting me.

The message says

Application Blocked by Java Security
Name: WDTester
Location http://192.168.1.2
Reason: Your security settings have blocked an untrusted application from running.

Also, I am getting another prompt that says again "Application Blocked by Java Security" but this time it says reason: Your security settings have blocked an application signed with an expired or not-yet-valid certificate from running

I see in the Java Control Panel the exception site list containing my host, as specified above (I also added the same with https protocol, and I also added localhost just to be sure.) But for some reason, it is ignoring the exceptions.

What to do??


texts: How much more storage than iOS 7 does iOS 8 ACTUALLY use up?

texts:
I have read so many reports about iOS 8 installation storage requirements that I've lost count, and none of them even answer this very basic question.

“The download is 1.2 Gb… the free space requirement for the install is 5 Gb…” etc... But honestly, who cares? We get the space back after it’s done. It's a one time requirement.

What's ultimately of interest when I install iOS 8 on my iPhone 5 is: how much space will I never get back?


texts: Where do I change the default iTunes U download settings?

texts:
I want to change the default settings for iTunes U in iTunes 11. I can not find anything however relating to podcasts or iTunes U in the preference window.
Now I need to change the Episodes to keep property for every course. I want to change it for all the courses at once. How do I do that?


texts: Connect iPhone screen as camera without QuickTime

texts:
I'm trying to stream my iPhone screen and the usual approach is mirroring it to QuickTime via the "New Movie Recording" option (without actually pressing the record button), and then streaming QuickTime's window with OBS Studio via the "Window capture" source.
However, OBS has really high CPU consumption when streaming windows due to the "inefficiencies in Apple's window capture API" according to the discussion on GitHub.
Is it possible to present iPhone screen as a camera to macOS without QuickTime, so I can use the "Video Capture Device" source directly?


texts:
I read the answer to this question and tried to change my Mac's en0 MAC address. When I use ifconfing, it reports the newly set MAC address, but in Network Settings, it still reports the old one.

Using ifconfig:

In Wi-Fi dropdown:

I tried turning Wi-Fi on and off (using sudo ifconfig en0 up/down), still the same. Am I doing something wrong or is this a part of System Integrity Protection introduced in El Capitan?

The reason I think my MAC address hasn't changed, is that I use bandwidth restrictions using UniFi AP, but changing my MAC address doesn't seem to contravene those restrictions.


texts: Can I use my mid-2010 imac as a display for my PC with HDMI input?

texts: Can I use my 27" 2010 imac with mini display as a monitor with my new PC that has an HDMI and USB-C inputs? I bought a mini display to HDMI cable off Amazon and it did not work.


texts: Symbolic links of plist file getting turned into plain text files

texts:
I'm trying to share my Sequel Pro favourites between my iMac and my Macbook Air. The method I'm using is this:

On the iMac, ove Favorites.plist from ~/Application Support/Sequel Pro/Data to ~/Dropbox/Apps/Sequel_Pro;
On the iMac, make a symbolic link to the Favorites.plist file (in Dropbox) and move that link into the ~/Application Support/Sequel Pro/Data folder;
On the Macbook, make a symbolic link to the Favorites.plist file (in Dropbox) and move that link into the ~/Application Support/Sequel Pro/Data folder

In both steps 2 and 3 I need to rename the symbolic link file from Favorites.plist symlink to Favorites.plist in order to Sequel Pro to pick up on it.

What I find is that Sequel Pro on both machines opens with the favourites in place, but changes to the favourites are not reflected on the other machine and do not seem to be passed back to the original in Dropbox (there is no 'sync activity' indicator on the Dropbox icon). Further investigation reveals that, after opening Sequel Pro, the act of saving changes to the favourites (or of quitting the app, which I guess updates the favorites.plist as part of the quitting process) apparently changes the symbolic link into a regular text file rather than updating the original.

Is this expected behaviour?

Extra info: OSX 10.9.5, Sequel Pro 1.1


texts: ipython/python broken after upgrading to OS X Mavericks

texts:
After upgrading to OS X Mavericks, it seems Python broke. I get the following when I try to run ipython:

~ $ ipython
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/bin/ipython", line 5, in <module>
    from pkg_resources import load_entry_point
ImportError: No module named pkg_resources

Similarly I noticed that some other packages seem to be missing, even when using the default python (as opposed to ipython):

~ $ python
Python 2.7.3 (v2.7.3:70274d53c1dd, Apr  9 2012, 20:52:43)
[GCC 4.2.1 (Apple Inc. build 5666) (dot 3)] on darwin
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> import numpy
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
ImportError: No module named numpy

numpy definitely worked before the upgrade. Any ideas on what could be causing this?

Update: Just noticed that running sudo easy_install numpy makes numpy work again. It gives the following output:

WARNING: Improper use of the sudo command could lead to data loss
or the deletion of important system files. Please double-check your
typing when using sudo. Type "man sudo" for more information.

To proceed, enter your password, or type Ctrl-C to abort.

Password:
Searching for numpy
Best match: numpy 1.6.2
Adding numpy 1.6.2 to easy-install.pth file

Using /System/Library/Frameworks/Python.framework/Versions/2.7/Extras/lib/python
Processing dependencies for numpy
Finished processing dependencies for numpy

I am 100% sure I had numpy installed already when the machine was still running OS X Mountain Lion. Do I need to reinstall all of my python packages now? If so is there an easy way to do this automatically?


texts:
Since yesterday, I'm having a problem with auto update from Opera. Until yesterday I had no problem.

I'm in OS X Mountain Lion 10.8.5, and the last supported version is Opera 37.0.2178.54. Now it automatically updates to 48.0.2685.39 and after I close Opera I cannot open Opera again because it tells me “This version is not supported, you need 10.9”.

In version 37, there is no preference setting to turn off autoupdate - you get it whether you want it or not.

How can I stop Opera from auto updating? I want to be in version 37, which is supported in my operating system.


texts: MacBook 4K/60Hz adapter is working directly, but not via USB-C hub

texts:
I have the Apple MacBook 12" (2016) 1,1GHz 256GB Silver and a 4K/60Hz monitor.

I have tried this hardware to connect the displays at 4k/60Hz:

Anker® Aluminium USB C Type C to HDMI Converter, Supports 4 K/60Hz to
HDMI Converter
Kanaan USB-C HDMI Adapter | USB-C USB 3.1 Type-C to
HDMI Adapter Converter

This works perfectly when the USB-C port is connected directly to my MacBook.

I have only 1 USB-C port on my MacBook.

When I add a Belkin USB-C hub or even try to use the USB-C port of the Apple Multi-AV adapter, both adapters don't work, they don't provide any video output.

I have these USB-hubs/adapters:

Apple USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adaptor
Belkin USB-C 4 Port Mini Port Expansion Hub

Am I missing something here? In my ideal situation I'd like to be able to connect my 4k/60hz monitor, 1440p/60hz monitor and the charging cable at the same time, but the 1440p monitor isn't that important. I'd settle with both the 4k/60hz and charging cable at the same time.


texts: How to troubleshoot multiple apps on Mountain Lion all missing toolbar icons?

texts:
My machine awoke from sleep, and third party apps as well as Finder, Preview and Safari's toolbar only shows the blank buttons similar to the image below.

After restart the machine, the problem persists. I also tried using Disk Utility to verify / fix the permissions on the Apple installed software to no avail.

How can I troubleshoot or fix this?


texts: Can you spoof your iOS to pair an Apple Watch with an older iOS?

texts: I'll keep it short, if an iPhone is jailbroken can you spoof your iOS version to pair an Apple Watch running OS 4 or 3 for iOS 10 on an iPhone with iOS 9.3.2?


texts: Can you Help me with a A1466 MacBook Air That won't boot no matter what I try?

texts:
So, my brother's MacBook Air isn't working anymore. I have had my fair share of problems with my macs (2011 and 2012 macbook Pros, imacs, macBook airs,etc), and I've always been able to resolve these problems because i have a good knowledge of computers, especially macs ^^.

So, the MacBook Air here isn't booting. It takes a horrible amount of time to get the boot progress bar to 100% and when it reaches 100%, it never gives the login screen. It's super fast until it hits 60%, then it's a little slower, and around 90% it's horribly slow. It does the same "stop at 100%" thing when I try to boot off the recovery partition (cmd R) and when I boot it from a install usb.

The good thing, is that it boots to single user mode, from there i've been able to execute fsck, but it tells me that the Ssd is all good... I've concluded that there must be some bad kexts and plists in the libraries. So i searched the kexts that are on my macbook pro with a clean install and deleted all the non nessecary kexts on the MBA. It changed nothing. I also deleted some big files on the Disk because there was not a lot of space left. But nothing changed.
Still doesnt boot, doesnt boot from recovery nor a usb.
Also, when I boot it in Verbose mode, it seems that it's stuck in some kinda boot loop due to Airport (ARPT giving what looks like status messages over and over). So this could be some hardware error? idk.

Now I have several options left. I can boot it to Traget Disk mode and reset/reformat/reinstall it from my daily driver MBP 2012, but i'd have to buy a thunderbolt to thunderbolt cable (plus i'm not even shure the minidisplay port on my MBP is thunderbolt x) ), or I could create a bootable instal of macOS on a usb stick, but i'm not sure if it'll even boot.

What Do you think is the problem on here?
I've Eliminated these problems:
-Not enough space
-Bad Kexts, plists, drivers, etc
-Cache
Do you think it's a Hardware problem, do you think a target mode reset/reinstall through a known good mac would help, do you think a bootable copy of macOS on a USB would help?

Thank you all ^^
Heres the Verbose ARPT logs:  https://imgur.com/gallery/BTvXqZ2

PS: I've tried NVRam and smc reset first thing, didnt help....


texts: How much mA does an iPad need to be charged?

texts:
I want to buy an iPad charger for in my car. I have one now for my iPhone, but he won't charge my iPad. I know batteries use mAH to denote capacity, so are chargers rated by mAH or some other measure?

What kind of specifications do I need to charge my iPad in my car at a normal speed (equal when connecting to the power network).


texts: Deleted photos continue appearing in screensaver

texts:
I use one of OS X's built-in photo screensavers and point it to my Dropbox folder so that photos I add to Dropbox automatically appear. However, I've noticed that photos I've deleted from Dropbox continue appearing in the screensaver, long after they've been deleted.

I suspect that when I first set up the screensaver, OS X cached a copy of the photos in my Dropbox folder, so they remain even after I've deleted the source photos.

If so, is there any way to clear this cache to keep the deleted photos from appearing? I've tried toggling between different screensavers, but they still show up. And I thought maybe the cache would clear itself after a few hours or a day, but it's now been nearly a week and the deleted photos are still appearing.


texts: How to copy/paste parts of a text in Messages.app

texts:
I am pretty sure I used to be able to select and copy text in Messages.app like in any other app (click + drag, double-click, etc.)

Right now I don't seem to be able to do this.

I am not sure what updated last, I am on macOS 10.14.6, Messages.app 12.0

Use case:

How do I copy the code from the message?


texts:
This started recently and I can't see much I took this picture and am now on my phone. A few apps have this fun new UI, but I don't think it's actually on purpose.

This just started happening recently with only some apps. I was not doing anything out of the ordinary.


texts: Is there a way to send a music file from Finder to an iPhone's music library?

texts: I have files in, for example, ~/Downloads/music that I'd like to have on my iPhone's local music library. Is it possible to do this via Finder or some Terminal command, rather than having to connect a USB cable and use iTunes? Maybe something with Airdrop? Finder also has a "Quick Actions" command if you right-click a file, is there an extension that would do this?


texts: Mac OSX not automatically remapping windows key to cmd

texts:
I'm currently using a Cooler Master Quickfire Ultimate keyboard that works perfect with Windows 7. However, whenever I have it plugged into my Macbook pro (running OSX 10.9.5),
the default mappings don't seem to work.

I've used other keyboards, and the windows key will always re-map to cmd on mac. However, on my new keyboard, this isn't the case. The windows key doesn't seem to do or change anything. The alt key also doesn't seem to get mapped to anything initially.

My ctrl key maps correctly to ctrl on mac, but this leaves me without a command, or an option key.

I went into the "Modifier Keys" panel, and selected my keyboard on the list. Changing command to map to the ctrl key does remap cmd from mac to ctrl on my windows keyboard. Changing the mac ctrl to map to whatever the default "cmd" key is (in this case, should be the windows symbol key), does not work.

This means, when I'm trying to run a program and have to execute commands with the mac ctrl, I have to keep switching the modifier keys around.

I've tried using karabiner to remap keys, but can't seem to figure it out. I looked on the XML key list, but can't figure out how to remap the windows key to the mac ctrl, and the command key to the windows ctrl. How would I go about fixing this?


texts: MacBook Pro 2016 Display has faint horizontal line in 3/4 of screen

texts:
I am suddenly starting to see this faint horizontal line in 3/4 of the screen and the Dock area, especially on dark colors and blue. They don't appear when I connect to an external port via a thunder bolt.

It's just over a year old :( What could be causing this?


texts: Is it possible to use Boot Camp with Windows 10 from an external HDD?

texts: I need to run Visual Studio on my MacBook Pro and I need Windows to do that. The easiest and well known way to install Windows on a Mac is by running the Boot Camp app on the Mac and let it do what's necessary. The problem is that I don't want to partition the Internal SSD so the remaining option is to install Boot Camp Windows 10 on an External Drive and boot it every time I need it by plugging in my external USB 3.0 HDD. Is this achievable?


texts: Installing Adobe Reader without granting full administrative privileges

texts:
I agree with the OP of the question How can I open a .pkg file manually? that it is not so nice to grant administrative privileges to software that you do not trust "completely". The following citation from /wiki/superuser gives further support for this.

  Given that a superuser account has substantially more privileges than ordinary user accounts and can therefore make unrestricted, potentially adverse system-wide changes, the Principle of least privilege recommends that applications use an ordinary account to perform its work so as to improve system security and stability.

I have just downloaded Adobe Reader 11.0.10. After double clicking the .dmg and opening the disk image, only a file called Install Adobe Acrobat Reader DC.app is visible. When I start this, it prompts me with the "wants to make changes dialogue". So if I type my password here (being an administrator), the application can do absolutely anything.

With a .pkg file I do not mind entering the password of an administrator, because I can see exactly what operations require the privileges. Unfortunately an approach like the one in this answer does not work, because the .app file does not contain a .pkg file.

Question: Is there any way to get Adobe Reader without granting it administrator privileges?


texts: Apple TV lag and connecting to Time Capsule

texts:
I have a 3rd gen Apple TV that I connect to my Mac, but I have issues with Airplay Display, namely that videos I try to stream from my Mac lag terribly.

I recently obtained a Time Capsule which I use as a router, but I would like to know if I can somehow connect it to my Apple TV, i.e. play videos stored on the Time Capsule hard disk.

I was also told that connecting my Apple TV to Time Capsule would improve the streaming speed and resolve the lag problem.


texts:
My iPhone currently has me stumped. It's an iPhone 6 running the latest iOS. I have a Mac running Yosemite and the latest iTunes. I can't figure out what's wrong, so a diagnostic method would be great. I've no access to a genius bar etc.

Initially the wifi indicator stayed grey. Then there seemed to be weird charging issues. Then it had moments of shutting off (once it even came with a blue screen,) but this may be down to the charging.
This all happened within a few hours.

Then it went to charging with only the apple logo. I assumed I was screwed.

A few days later (I was on vacation when all this went down,) I turned it on and it appeared to be working as normal, albeit with the wifi greyed. It allowed me to make a backup, which was nice.
I reset the network connections - no joy.
I reset the other settings - no joy.
I had to wait until later to completely restore the phone and by that time I was left with an unresponsive phone never making it beyond the apple logo.

I connected to itunes and got nothing until putting it into DFU mode. iTunes picked it up and I tried a restore. Initially I got error 4013, then tried again and got 4005. I keep getting 4005 and can't get the phone off the "connect to iTunes" screen.

Really don't know where my phone is at, so a diagnostics method would be great.


texts: Iphone 5s screen recording via reflector and airplay

texts:
I'm trying to record my iPhone screen via reflector and airplay but I couldn't find the airplay symbol in my control center if I swipe from bottom to top. There is only airdrop no airplay.

OS: iOS 8.2

Device: iPhone 5s

Recorder Device: Mac Book Pro

Recorder OS: 10.10.2


texts: Is there a way to change the order of previous recipients in Apple mail?

texts:
John Doe is someone I email often.  John Dee is someone I emailed recently and will probably email again, but not nearly as often.  I don't want to remove John Dee from my previous recipients, but I want John Doe to come up first again for quick compleion.  (I'm sure that otherwise I'm going to accidentally send John some mail meant for John.)  I can't find any way to reorder entries in the Previous Recipients window.  Is there any way to make Doe come up first again?

I tried adding Doe but not Dee to my Address Book, but that didn't help.


texts: Does iPad 2 3G's GPS work without SIM card inserted?

texts:
I own an iPad 2 with 3G but I've not inserted SIM card and I'm not planning to unless it's really necessary to get GPS working.

I was wondering if iPad 2 3G can navigate without SIM card (thru Navigon for example)?


texts: Download Xcode from developer site vs install from app store

texts:
I signed up for the (free) Apple Developer ID and downloaded the latest Xcode release from here. Is it any different from the App Store download/installation? If it's the same, why does the App Store keep asking me about billing information (credit card and other details) every time I try to use the App Store to install Xcode?

Is there any difference between the two? I.e., download from developer.apple.com with Developer ID vs signing into the App Store with an Apple ID and subsequently giving your billing information?

Small note: The App Store info page puts the Xcode 4.4.1 app size at 1.46GB while the Apple Developer site puts the Xcode 4.4.1 dmg file at 1.81GB. The difference in size caught my attention and I wonder if they are two different things (new to the Mac). Plus I would rather use some sort of download accelerator (DTA on my Firefox will do just fine) in order to download this monstrous thing!


texts: I deleted /usr/local/bin on my Mac. Is there any way I can see what was installed there?

texts:
I accidentally ran rm -rf /usr/local/bin.  Yes, I know, I'm an idiot.

Is there anything short of attempting to run every single application on my Mac to see what applications need to be reinstalled?


texts: How do I schedule Mac OS X Leopard to wake up multiple times in one day?

texts: The "Energy Saver" panel in System Preferences allows the user to schedule wake ups. The only problem is is that the most frequent it allows for this to happen is ONCE per day. Is there any way or any tool or any software that can make it wake up at any custom interval? I'm running Mac OS X 10.5.8.


texts: How do I get magnet links to work with Deluge?

texts: How do you associate magnet links with Deluge BitTorrent Client on OS X? On other systems, you can associate magnet links with the client through Preferences, but this does not seem to be the case with OS X.


texts: Making a push notification alert more aggressive

texts:
Is it possible to change how a push notification behaves when it's received on an iOS device and/or Apple Watch?

I ask because I have a diabetes tracking app for my step-daughter that only sends one notification, which results in just one vibration on my phone or watch.  I'd like to make that vibration happen several times, kinda like receiving a phone call so it's less likely we will miss the notification.

Are there any settings, affordances or apps that might help with this?


texts: Can I use my computer's network connection on my Ipod?

texts: I know it's possible to tether iphones to use their internet connection on the computer, but can it be used the other way? I want to use the computer's network connection on my Ipod Touch through the usb cable. Is it possible? Thank you!


texts:
I'm stuck to find the reason my iMac is sometimes entering in Hibernate (or standby) mode.
Here is my configuration:

OSX version: macOS Mojave (but I have this issue with the previous versions too),
Model ID: iMac 14.3,
Intel Core i5 2,9 GHz
Boot ROM version: 139.0.0.0
SMC version: 2.17f7

Note: I have an iMac, not a Mac book, so there no battery.
Symptoms: sometimes (once a week or every two weeks), the computer enter in hibernate mode: the screen shut down and, after around 15 seconds, the cooling fan is stopping. Once the cooling fan is stopped I can wake the computer up: the session window is displayed… I can the login and continue to work. But, often, I can only work 15 seconds and the computer enter in hibernate mode again. The 15 seconds seams to be a constant.
Sometimes, when I choose "suspend activity" in the Apple menu, and wait for a while, the problem is temporary solved. Rebooting the computer doesn't solve the problem. I also tried to unplug it without success.
Diagnostics:
↪ pmset -g
System-wide power settings:
Currently in use:
 standby              1
 Sleep On Power Button 1
 womp                 1
 halfdim              1
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 powernap             1
 autorestart          0
 networkoversleep     0
 disksleep            0
 standbydelayhigh     86400
 sleep                30 (sleep prevented by AddressBookSourceSync, sharingd)
 autopoweroffdelay    28800
 hibernatemode        0
 autopoweroff         1
 ttyskeepawake        1
 displaysleep         30
 highstandbythreshold 50
 standbydelaylow      86400

I really appreciate some help to solve this recurring issue.
more info:

Time Machine was enabled (I just turn it off to see).


texts: High Sierra: How to resize window taller than screen?

texts:
I'm trying to capture a screenshot of a browser window, where the page content is quite tall.

In Sierra, I could drag the window down, and then resize from the top of the window (moving up). I could repeat this process until the window was tall enough to contain all of the page content, and then take a screenshot of the browser window.

In High Sierra, at the completion of any vertical resize operation that results in the window being taller than the active display, the window snaps to the size of the active display.

I've tried browser extensions that cause window resizing, and an AppleScript that tells the browser to resize. On a MacBook Pro and a 27" 5K iMac. To no avail.

Does anyone have a solution? In the meantime, I guess I'll be stitching multiple screenshots together.


texts: How do I report fraud or App Store rule violations outside of a refund context?

texts:
I'm not a developer, and I already used the "reportaproblem" link which doesn't help. It specifically hides any purchases made before the last 90 days.

I already read How to report App Store rule violations? and that didn't help one bit.

In particular, I want to report an app for an App Store rules violation and it appears that Apple blocked off all standard support routes to save money or something. In this case, the rules violation happened in an update years after purchase (so reportaproblem doesn't apply).


texts: Cannot connect to Mac (Big Sur) running SSH server while connected to VPN

texts:
I cannot connect to my Mac via SSH when I run a VPN client on it. When I connect to the public IP address of my Mac, the return packets are being routed over the VPN. I need to force these packets to be routed over the public interface.
This question has been answered for Linux here: https://serverfault.com/questions/659955/allowing-ssh-on-a-server-with-an-active-openvpn-client/918441#918441. Unfortunately the solutions provided do not apply for macOS Big Sur as ip is not available.
I am using the official PIA VPN client in WireGuard mode.
How can I connect to my Mac via SSH while it is connected to the VPN?


texts: How do I connect my Mac to Wi-Fi automatically?

texts: I have a Macbook Pro running Mac OS X, but it doesn't connect to Wi-Fi automatically. If I turn Wi-Fi on, I then have to manually select the network. Is there some way to change this behaviour?


texts:
I have OSX 10.8 with Xcode 4.6.3 installed (it shows under App Store). When I Spotlight-search "xcode" I see two results: Xcode – Mac & Xcode – Developer.

The first launches as expected, but with the second I get the following warning: "This installation of Xcode 4.2 requires Mac OS X 10.7 Lion. Install a version of the Xcode Tools that supports Mac OS X 10.8." and it quits instantly. Same if I try to launch via finder at Developer/Applications/Xcode.

I find this confusing - why does the app show twice and is there a way of removing the non-functioning version?

To further complicate matters, I have a folder Developer-3.2.4 containing this version of Xcode which also shows in Spotlight results - I followed a tutorial to keep an older version of Xcode when the buggy new version 4 was released. I assume I can safely delete that now?


texts:
I've explained one of my contacts how to set his phone number as a recipient for iMessage.

However, his name still appears as Text Message and not iMessage.

How often does iOS check if a number is an iMessage number? Is there a way to force-refresh?

I've restarted my phone - didn't work.


texts:
I used homebrew to install emacs, replacing an older version of unknown provenance. At startup emacs complains Unable to load color "dark cyan" and some text in my elisp files is invisible: I see (require '   ) instead of (require 'foo).

There don't seem to be any references to dark cyan in my .emacs.d/ files, so I think dark cyan must be part of the default scheme. How can I fix this?


texts: iMacs Fusion Drive: only SSD listed, no HDD

texts:
I had some problems with a Mac's Fusion Drive. I erased the first MB of the SDD (Terminal in recovery mode). After that I partitioned the SDD again (with GUID). That works. But the HDD is now missing. It doesn't show up on diskutil list and distil cs list says there is no more core storage.

I think the HDD is stuck in the old core storage virtual drive and can't be recognised anymore. But why is diskutil not listing it?
I can't believe that exactly that time the HDD failed or is damaged … strange moment :-)

Anyhow, do you know how to get my HDD back?


texts: Does iPad battery charging utility like Battery Boost Magic pro really make a difference in prolonging iPad's battery life?

texts: Do battery charging utilities such as Battery Boost Magic pro or Kingsoft battery doctor really make a difference in prolonging the life of an iPad battery?


texts: iTerm2 force same window size on each hotkey window display

texts:
Is there a way to force the size of a hotkey window size on each trigger rather than on each window creation?
Having a default window creation size only lasts up until when the screen's resolution itself changes. If the screen resolution becomes momentarily smaller than the window size, it resizes itself to a smaller size and never returns to the desired default creation size.


texts: Is there a possibility to make voice input with Siri shortcuts? I haven't found it. What I want to do is to create a new todo item on my todo app in my case trello, but I don't want to manually type the todo item in, but dictate it via voice. Say "trello new card: [INPUT]" and then it creates the card. Is this possible? Also to send a message it would be nice to be able to have voice input.


texts: I have opened a program from a website, has my MBP been infected with a virus?

texts:
I have opened a file on https://kickass.so/revenge-s04e14-hdtv-x264-lol-ettv-t10127520.html. I was supposed to click on a torrent file but I clicked on the big DOWNLOAD link.

And I had no idea that  I was not supposed to open a dmg file. Anyway, done is done. I opened it, and there was an install file, I double clicked on it. Then I was not asked to do anything, it just directed me to a website.

How do I make sure I do not have a virus or spyware? Running AIR'13 Yosemite.
The file name was macfest. The content looks like this:

I also used Sophos Anti-virus and it detected OSX/FkCodec-A in the dmg file that I trashed.


texts: Enable Voice Control without floating mic icon

texts:
TL;DR I have searched to find a way to hide the icon but still have Voice Control enabled, or at least have a way to permanently move the icon to the dock/menu bar/Launchpad but have found this discussed nowhere.

Any suggestions on how I can have Voice Control enabled and have the floating icon permanently stored somewhere out of the way?

In the past year I discovered Dictation for my MacBook Pro. With Mojave the microphone icon was to indicate that dictation was activated. The Keyboard Shortcut I used to switch this on/off was to press either command key twice.

I was new to integrating this feature in my daily MBP use when I upgraded to Catalina. The Keyboard Shortcut no longer worked (wether the Voice Control was enabled or not) which was fine because I discovered Voice Control, which I began using and really enjoy. It expands Siri to not just transcribe dictation and enables voice control in every function of my MBP.

However, the floating mic icon is always on screen. No matter where I put it it is annoyingly in the way. I have searched to find a way to hide the icon but still have Voice Control enabled, or at least have a way to permanently move the icon to the dock/menu bar/Launchpad but have found this discussed nowhere.

Any suggestions on how I can have Voice Control enabled and have the floating icon permanently stored somewhere out of the way?


texts: Problem installing VirtualBox on MacOS High Sierra

texts:
I'm trying to install VirtualBox 6.0.15 on my mid-2010 MacBook Pro 13" with High Sierra on it.  The installer gets to the "Running package scripts" with "Time remaining: less than a minute" - and then hangs.  Waiting for 30 minutes does nothing.  In the console, I can see in the install.log:

2020-01-24 22:15:44+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: ----- Begin install -----
2020-01-24 22:15:44+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: request=PKInstallRequest <4 packages, destination=/>
2020-01-24 22:15:44+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: packages=(
2020-01-24 22:15:45+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Extracting file:///Volumes/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.pkg#VBoxKEXTs.pkg (destination=/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C/PKInstallSandboxManager/46764F46-7766-4183-854A-79216CB03C11.activeSandbox/Root/Library/Application Support/VirtualBox, uid=0)
2020-01-24 22:15:47+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Extracting file:///Volumes/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.pkg#VirtualBox.pkg (destination=/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C/PKInstallSandboxManager/46764F46-7766-4183-854A-79216CB03C11.activeSandbox/Root/Applications, uid=0)
2020-01-24 22:15:52+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Extracting file:///Volumes/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.pkg#VirtualBoxCLI.pkg (destination=/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C/PKInstallSandboxManager/46764F46-7766-4183-854A-79216CB03C11.activeSandbox/Root/usr/local/bin, uid=0)
2020-01-24 22:15:52+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Extracting file:///Volumes/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.pkg#OSXFuseCore.pkg (destination=/var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C/PKInstallSandboxManager/46764F46-7766-4183-854A-79216CB03C11.activeSandbox/Root, uid=0)
2020-01-24 22:15:52+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: prevent user idle system sleep
2020-01-24 22:15:52+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: suspending backupd
2020-01-24 22:15:52+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Executing script "./preflight" in /private/tmp/PKInstallSandbox.fRMY1G/Scripts/org.virtualbox.pkg.virtualbox.8bFgh6
2020-01-24 22:15:52+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Executing script "./preinstall" in /private/tmp/PKInstallSandbox.fRMY1G/Scripts/com.github.osxfuse.pkg.Core.3YlHpP
2020-01-24 22:15:53+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Using trashcan path /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/T/PKInstallSandboxTrash/46764F46-7766-4183-854A-79216CB03C11.sandboxTrash for sandbox /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C/PKInstallSandboxManager/46764F46-7766-4183-854A-79216CB03C11.activeSandbox
2020-01-24 22:15:54+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Shoving /var/folders/zz/zyxvpxvq6csfxvn_n0000000000000/C/PKInstallSandboxManager/46764F46-7766-4183-854A-79216CB03C11.activeSandbox/Root (3 items) to /
2020-01-24 22:15:54+00 Cloud installd[27429]: PackageKit: Executing script "./postflight" in /private/tmp/PKInstallSandbox.fRMY1G/Scripts/org.virtualbox.pkg.vboxkexts.fPelJc
2020-01-24 22:15:54+00 Cloud installd[27429]: ./postflight: /Library/LaunchDaemons/org.virtualbox.startup.plist

And that's it! Nothing further in the log - and the installation is simply hanging. How can I complete the installation?


texts:
How do I hide all unused rows in Excel? I hate that if I scroll to fast I do not stop at the end of the data.
I am running Excel 15.

Here is an example. I want every row after 263 hidden so when I scroll down the data scrolling stops at 263. I also want every column after E hidden.


texts:
Overnight, TextWrangler crashed with a message "TextWrangler" is damaged and can't be opened. I deleted "TextWrangler" and download it again from the App Store.

I couldn't update from the Mac App Store, because the latest version of TextWrangler requires 10.8.5 or later, so Snow Leopard and Lion users are out of luck.

Since the crash happened at midnight, I wagered a guess that it was date/time related.

Sure enough, changing the system date back to November 11 magically "repaired" the "damaged" app and allowed it to start; while coming back to the present (November 12) made the app refuse to start, with the same message as before.

That's not a tenable long-term solution; but, all is not lost.  (See my "fix" in the answer section.)

I'm still curious as to why the app stopped working on a particular day though; and, if there is a better solution that stays "in channel" with the App Store.

Update:

It appears that this is more widespread than just the single app..


texts: How to partition External HD for both Time Machine and other purposes?

texts:
I have retina MacBook Pro with 256GB and a 1TB external HD.

That external 1TB hard drive I want to use for several things, one of them is to backup my system.

Is it possible to partition using Disk Utility the 1TB external HD, so that I can use the external HD for some other things?
If so, what is the size of the Time Machine partition I need to create?


texts: Why is my App Store saying it needs my to give it my credit card?

texts: So, I'm trying to get a make up cam for danTDM photos (lol) so I'm trying to get it and it's free and I haven't gotten a app in a long time and then it came up! GIVE US CREDIT CARD. And so I tryed it again and BOOM it asks again! So now I look at all these things saying what to do and yet again, I can't do it... It says press the "none" credit card... WITCH I DONT HAVE! WHAT DO I DO HELP!


texts: Why can't I access File Sharing when Open Directory is enabled in macOS Mojave?

texts:
Here's the procedure I have followed:

Install a fresh copy of macOS Mojave to an APFS volume
Perform initial OS configuration and create 'admin' user at first launch. Assign a static IP from 192.168.168.0/24 private network. Use a DNS server located in private network. Ensure IP resolves to a FQDN ('test.mydomain.com') and vice versa.
Download macOS Server application (5.7) from App Store
Open macOS Server application
Create a new Open Directory domain with default options
Create a new user 'testuser' to Local Network Directory
Create a new group 'testgroup' to Local Network Directory
Assign newly created 'testuser' to 'testgroup'
Open System Preferences application
Open Sharing preferences
Enable File Sharing
Create a Shared Folder 'myshare' and assign 'testgroup' and 'admin' Read&Write access to it
Select 'myshare' and click Options button to ensure SMB sharing is enabled for it
Attempt to connect to the file server from a client computer within the same subnet via smb://test.mydomain.com/myshare or alternatively smb://192.168.168.X/myshare either using 'admin' or 'testuser' credentials

In the last step connection fails for both 'admin' and 'testuser' accounts. If I turn Open Directory to Off, I can connect with 'admin' user. Restarts in any phase of the procedure make no difference.

Why can't I access SMB when Open Directory is enabled?

Here are the opendirectoryd log entries from creating the OD master (step 5): https://pastebin.com/uQm8b8NM

Here are the opendirectoryd and smbd log entries from login attempt (step 14): https://pastebin.com/U2RS3LYC & https://pastebin.com/7bFNfd8V


texts: Software differences beetween iPad 2, iPad Air and iPad mini (iBooks)

texts:
I need to buy an iPad to see how EPUB files are displayed in iBooks app. It is very important to me whether iPad 2, iPad Air and iPad mini (both generations) work exactly the same when it comes to displaying EPUB files in iBooks app.

Is there any difference between iOS behaviour on 9,7' iPads an iPad mini? As far as I know, both have iOS 7.0.4 (or can be updated to that version), but it sometimes occur that even with same number version software works differently, so I need to make sure.
It looks like newest version of iBooks app is 3.2. Is this version available for both big and small versions of iPads? Is it exactly the same in a way how it renders EPUB files? For example iBooks for Mac is known for working a bit differently than iBooks for iOS hence a question.
Is it likely that Apple will support all of those devices the same with future updates of iOS and iBooks app?

Please note that pixel density (i.e. Retina display), speed differences and less processing power are not issue in this question. What matters is rendering of books.

I saw 'Other than size, what's the difference between the iPad Air and the Retina iPad mini?' question, but answers do not provide neccessary details about iBooks specifically.


texts: Is Ethernet sharing over WiFi from a Mac supposed to hand out 192.168.2.1 as the DNS server?

texts:
I have a MacBook Pro and I share its Ethernet connection to my iPhone and iPad as well as other wireless devices (enabling Internet Sharing in the Sharing preferences). However when I check on my iPhone what DNS it hands out, it shows 192.168.2.1. Should that be? That's not any actual DNS server, that's something local to the network. It's not even the home router, something about the Mac I think.

In the past I had problems where I couldn't use the Internet on the devices that were connecting to the shared WiFi unless I manually set the DNS server on each wireless device (not the Mac) to some actual server like 8.8.8.8. That was a workaround for my iDevices that let me make that change but not for other devices.

I've upgraded my OS to El Capitan since I made those initial observations, but I checked again and it is still putting out that same DNS server. I'm not sure if the Internet still wouldn't work on other devices since I'm not using them. But is that the right IP?

If relevant, here is my Ethernet settings:


texts: Purge command - Unable to purge disk buffers, error #-2?

texts:
When I attempt to run the purge command, I get the same error every time.

[ERROR] <CPDevice.c:3816>   Unable to create new counter client.
[ERROR] <CPOSX.c:1172>  Unable to get user client so as to poke the kernel.
Unable to purge disk buffers, error #-2.

I've tried with and without sudo, initially thinking that perhaps it's unable to due to not having proper access, and they simply didn't program in a permissions check. It's the same error though.

I have a dual Xcode installation, which I believe may be the issue here. I have 3.2.6 installed to a custom directory (/Xcode 3) and I have Xcode 4.6.3 from the Mac App Store. I've installed the most recent (2013.4) Command Line Tools from within Xcode 4. I'm running OS X 10.7.4 Lion.

Before anyone tells me that I should let the OS manage inactive memory on it's own because it does it fine, no, it doesn't. Not in the slightest. Normally it works well enough not to bother me. But whenever I use any type of VM, I encounter issues with the memory never releasing.

For example, I can start an instance of an emulation VM. It'll use about 600 MB of memory. When I terminate the emulation entirely, the memory does not release. On top of that, if I go back and rerun the exact same emulation, the 600 MB sitting in inactive doesn't get reused like one might hope. No, it just sits there. And another 600 from the free pool gets used. And when that second emulation is terminated, I now have 1.2 GB of inactive memory. Now normally this would be fine, if the inactive memory released when all the free memory was used. But it doesn't. It just sits there and never releases. It'll swap to disk instead.

This issue is particularly annoying with virtualization VMs that use 4 GB or even more of RAM within my normal usage. Restart those more than once and new things slow to a crawl due to disk swapping.

I used to use the purge command all the time on 10.5 Leopard with Xcode 3.1.4, and issues on Leopard weren't nearly this bad with automatic memory management. I just used purge to get more of a clean slate without having to reboot. I can't even do that now. And unlike some people would tell you, it is a serious problem.

Any ideas would be appreciated. One more thing. I have used xcode-select to select Xcode 4.6.3 as opposed to 3.2.6. I only use 3.2.6 for development and compiling. Macports, Homebrew, and some other things, demand Xcode 4 to be installed and selected though, which is the only reason I have it. But if I remember correctly, purge also didn't work when I had Xcode 3 selected instead.


texts: iPhone X doesn’t ring when caller is not in my contacts

texts: My iPhone X will not ring or light the screen up when someone not in my contacts calls.  The call goes right to my voice mail.  Apple had me update software and set phone back to factory settings.  Still happens.  I removed my spam blocker apps and it still happens.  The first I know someone called is when I get the sound notification that I have a voice mail and that can take a few minutes to 20 minutes for the voice mail alert to sound.


texts: Will Eclipse + Android Developer Tools plugin work on OS X Yosemite?

texts:
I would like to update my system to the newest 10.10 Yosemite version, but I use quite intensively Eclipse + ADT to develop apps for Android. Does anyone have any experience with running this software on Yosemite (maybe beta version)?

I am asking this question, because I would like to update, but on the other hand I don't want to mess things up with Java and ADT (btw. There were problems and I needed to use workarounds even on Mavericks).


texts:
I've just bought Numbers and I'm trying to open some XLS files.  They're in Excel '97 format, not encrypted, and with no password set.  However, when I try to open them, I get this error message:

"The document is encrypted and can't be opened"

They open fine in openoffice.  How do I open them in Numbers?


texts: iPhone not turning on, not responding to hard reset, not responding to charger

texts:
About 2 days ago, my iPhone 6 decided to stop working.

I tried to see what the error was but it decided not to respond to a charger, it would not respond to a hard reset or even when I tried to connect to iTunes.

I took it into a repair store, and they said when they tried several different things, like replacing battery, LCD, and even screen, it would not turn on.

I am getting a bit worried as there were a lot of important things that I had on that phone that cannot be recovered as they are specific to that phone and cannot be accessed anywhere else.

Please let me know any tips and anything I can do to try and make it work again.


texts:
I have an iPhone 6 (with proper iTunes backup) where all of my contacts where, but I bought a new iPhone 7 and had to initialize it as new iPhone, due to several time-related constraints, so now I have a few but new contacts on my new phone, but none of the older ones, but would be the best practice oriented, for just recovering the old contacts from the iTunes backups?

PS: I still have the old iPhone 6, so it could be used as "temporary storage" if needed.


texts:
WiFi on my MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2010) has stopped working.

When I click the WiFi button I see the message "Wi-Fi: no hardware installed"

I have attempted many things, including other questions in this StackExchange site (this was the first answer I found and I followed but didn't solve my issue. Ultimately it suggests replacing my Airport card, but I'd rather eliminate all software/logic possibilities before getting to replacing the Airport adapter or buying a USB wifi adapter).

The detailed steps I've taken:

- MOVING/DELETING SystemConfiguration

I've followed this answer to check whether my en1 (airport adapter) exist and was working:

ifconfig -a - it showed up

ifconfig en1 inet up or ifconfig en1 up - both resulted in the same error: interface en1 does not exist'

Then I moved/deleted the files located at /Library/Preferences/SystemConfigurations as instructed.

Removed the preferences.plist and restarted. Since it didn't resolve I continued.
Removed NetworkInterfaces.plist & com.apple.airport.preferences.plist and restarted.
Lastly, I attempted to remove the whole SystemConfiguration folder, but Mac didn't allow it. So I removed as many files as possible and restarted. Didn't resolve the problem, but en1 disappeared for good from System Preferences -> Network.

- NVRAM & SMC reset

Followed several guides, but ultimately this one and it didn't work.
I have reset NVRAM & SMC countless times.

- AHT

Some guides suggest running Apple Hardware Test.
I've tried, but it doesn't work, returns the error -3403D: as I've researched, it means AHT can't be run in my system.

QUESTIONS

Backing up and reformatting has any chance to resolve the problem? Is it worthy of trying? Any other suggestions?
I'm considering to buy an USB wifi adapter.

As a last resort and hoping that my airport adapter is still working and not faulty, I'm asking here.

SYSTEM INFO

MacBook Pro (13-inch Mid 2010)

macOS High Sierra 10.13.6

NETWORK WINDOW


texts:
Here's a video of what's going on. I've tried to completely reset Safari by following several methods on the web but the issue persists.

I'm on Mojave using Safari 12.1. I have no idea what this issue is and can't find anything like it on the web. Help!


texts: Storage only shows "Other" + Fluctuating storage

texts:
I have a late 2009 Mac, and my storage keeps depleting in front of my eyes. Despite disabling local snapshots on time machine, searching for numerous apps to figure out where the space is going, repairing disk utility (which displays invalid block count and then corrects it despite that it'll fluctuate again), and reinstalling Maverick/ restoring from a backup I have been left with my storage all becoming "other."

Along with that the storage is still fluctuating. At this point I'm thinking I should probably just wipe my Mac (what they finally told me after two hours at the apple store) because I can't figure out where this bug seems to be coming from and I've feverishly searched Google.

Does anyone have any ideas that might be able to help me, I'm truly desperate. Thorough instructions would be very helpful.


texts: How to manually change orientation of iPad

texts:
I feel ridiculous shaking my iPad and turning it many times before it finally orients itself to the proper landscape/portrait setting.

Is there a way to manually change the orientation, by hitting a button or something?


texts: Catalina crashes whenever I open Safari, Chrome, Finder or other applications

texts:
Recently I have upgraded my Mac to Catalina, and it crashes whenever I open Safari, Chrome, Finder or other applications.

I am not able to use any of my stuff and my laptop is lagging heavily.

Even Apple's Mail crashes when I click on Mail.


texts:
A mount point /home appeared in my root directory that I cannot get rid of. I suspect it was caused by using Docker for Mac, but I have completely uninstalled Docker for Mac, restarted my system numerous times, and the mount point fails to disappear.

At first I thought it was a regular directory, so I tried calling sudo rm -rf /home yields rm: /home: Resource busy and using sudo lsof +D /home and sudo fuser -c /home both yield empty results. At that point I tried sudo mv /home ~ which gave the error message mv: cannot rename a mount point.

I tried to unmount the volume with diskutil unmount /home which executed successfully, however the mount point is immediately recreated, as evidenced by the logs from diskutil activity:

***Begin monitoring DiskArbitration activity
***DiskAppeared ((no BSD name), DAVolumePath = 'file:///home/', DAVolumeKind = 'autofs', DAVolumeName = '<null>') Time=20190109-08:43:03.9065
***DiskAppeared ((no BSD name), DAVolumePath = 'file:///net/', DAVolumeKind = 'autofs', DAVolumeName = '<null>') Time=20190109-08:43:03.9079
***DiskAppeared ('disk0', DAVolumePath = '<null>', DAVolumeKind = '<null>', DAVolumeName = '<null>') Time=20190109-08:43:03.9081
***DiskAppeared ('disk0s1', DAVolumePath = '<null>', DAVolumeKind = 'msdos', DAVolumeName = 'EFI') Time=20190109-08:43:03.9082
***DiskAppeared ('disk0s2', DAVolumePath = '<null>', DAVolumeKind = '<null>', DAVolumeName = '<null>') Time=20190109-08:43:03.9083
***DiskAppeared ('disk1', DAVolumePath = '<null>', DAVolumeKind = '<null>', DAVolumeName = '<null>') Time=20190109-08:43:03.9084
***DiskAppeared ('disk1s1', DAVolumePath = 'file:///', DAVolumeKind = 'apfs', DAVolumeName = 'Macintosh HD') Time=20190109-08:43:03.9085
***DiskAppeared ('disk1s2', DAVolumePath = '<null>', DAVolumeKind = 'apfs', DAVolumeName = 'Preboot') Time=20190109-08:43:03.9087
***DiskAppeared ('disk1s3', DAVolumePath = '<null>', DAVolumeKind = 'apfs', DAVolumeName = 'Recovery') Time=20190109-08:43:03.9088
***DiskAppeared ('disk1s4', DAVolumePath = 'file:///private/var/vm/', DAVolumeKind = 'apfs', DAVolumeName = 'VM') Time=20190109-08:43:03.9089
***DAIdle (no DADiskRef) Time=20190109-08:43:03.9089
***DiskUnmountApproval ((no BSD name), DAVolumePath = 'file:///home/', DAVolumeKind = 'autofs', DAVolumeName = '<null>') Comment=Approving Time=20190109-08:44:16.5264
***DiskDisappeared ((no BSD name), DAVolumePath = 'file:///home/', DAVolumeKind = 'autofs', DAVolumeName = '<null>') Time=20190109-08:44:16.5385
***DAIdle (no DADiskRef) Time=20190109-08:44:16.5386
***DiskAppeared ((no BSD name), DAVolumePath = 'file:///home/', DAVolumeKind = 'autofs', DAVolumeName = '<null>') Time=20190109-08:44:16.5537
***DAIdle (no DADiskRef) Time=20190109-08:44:16.5537

Any tips on how can I find the process that keeps mounting /home and eliminate it?

Many thanks.

EDIT 1:

Output of calling mount:

$ mount
/dev/disk1s1 on / (apfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
/dev/disk1s4 on /private/var/vm (apfs, local, noexec, journaled, noatime, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)

Content of /etc/auto_master:

$ cat /etc/auto_master
#
# Automounter master map
#
+auto_master        # Use directory service
/net            -hosts      -nobrowse,hidefromfinder,nosuid
/home           auto_home   -nobrowse,hidefromfinder
/Network/Servers    -fstab
/-          -static


texts: "A password reset request was sent..." System-level phishing?

texts:
Over the course of the last two days I have received upwards of ten notifications alerting me that a password reset request was sent from some device. When I go to check my Apple ID email, I see no notifications to this effect. When I click the "Show" button, I am taken to System Preferences and given the opportunity to type in my administrator password to reset my Apple ID password. I have not done so.
The full message of the notification reads: "A password reset request was sent from a device at the location shown below."
I have a hard time believing this is a legitimate communication from Apple. The few others who have posted similar questions here and elsewhere have received unhelpful answers. Any idea what's going on here? Has my system been compromised somehow?
10.15.7 (19H2)


texts: Lost focus of the application selected through Mission Control

texts:
This problem has been around for at least a year on multiple Sierra versions.

When I’m switching to another app through Mission Control it focuses on that app only for a split of a second and then switches focus to another app. Here’s the video showing the issue (it switches back to Evernote.app despite clicking on the Finder.app):

https://www.dropbox.com/s/ustogynwyeu12w4/scr_focus_lost.mov?dl=0

It seems that the app that is set to be visible on All Desktops loses focus if you are switching from an app that has been set to some Desktop (Desktop on Display 1, 2, etc.).

What is the solution to this problem?


texts: My Spotlight opens the Applications folder instead of opening the application

texts: My Spotlight, when I have selected an application, opens the "Applications" folder containing the application, instead of opening the application. I suspect I have a setting somewhere that is set in a weird way. Does anyone know how I can fix this?


texts: How do I seamlessly share iMessage from Mac OS X El Capitan to my Windows 10 PC?

texts:
I'm generally a Windows 10 user, but my family is all using iPhones, because of that I would like to be able to access my iMessage messages from my Windows 10 computer (and Android phone if possible), but the only way I've come up with is using some sort of a seamless window sharing from Mac to Windows. Is this the best method for sharing or is there a better way? If it is, what programs do you know of that makes this possible? I've been looking around a bit, but haven't found anything that isn't enterprise software.
Thank you!


texts:
I have a Macbook Pro from 2011 currently running OS X Yosemite 10.10. Before i upgraded to Yosemite, i was experiencing a common wifi issue that was that the wifi disconnected from the internet and it couldn't be turn on or off; sometimes, when i turned on the mac, a "No hardware installed" message showed.
I replaced the wifi card but the problem persisted and now that i upgraded the OS, the configuration didn't recognise any hardware and no Wi-Fi interface is shown on Network Preferences.
I know there is a file Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/NetworkInteraces.plist that contains these interfaces information.

Is there anyway that i can configure this file to add the wifi card? or is there something else that i can do? knowing that replacing the wifi card didn't solve the problem and that it may be a software issue?

Thanks


texts: "Input Sources..." doesn't work in Mavericks?

texts:
Since upgrading to Mavericks, the input sources option changed, and moved to the keyboard control panel.  That's fine, but selecting the "Input Sources..." button in the Keyboard tab of the Keyboard panel does absolutely nothing!  (No error message is displayed either.) Any ideas what could be causing this or how to troubleshoot it?

The only thing I can consider that might be unusual is that I only access this machine by remote desktop.


texts: Question mark folder on booting need to recover data

texts:
I am currently unable to boot up my 2015 Macbook Pro with Mojave installed. So instead I opened with recovery mode.
I ran Verify Disk from disk utility in recovery mode and found this in the last 3 lines:
Checking the EFI system partition's folder content
Problems were found with the partition map which might prevent booting
Error: Couldn't mount disk.

Repair Disk returned this:
Adjusting partition map to fit whole disk as required
Problems were encountered during repair of the partition map
Error: Partition map repair failed while adjusting structures to fit current whole disk size

diskutil list (only for disk0 and disk1)
#                   TYPE NAME           SIZE    IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme               *251.0GB disk0
1:                  EFI  EFI            209.7MB disk0s1
2: 7C3457EF-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC 250.0GB disk0s2

Unusual things I've noticed, when I run gpt -r show disk0 the 250GB disk0s2 volume is listed under index 2 of the partition table. But when I run gpt remove -i 2 disk0 and it says "disk0s2 removed", disk0s2 is STILL THERE. I can't get rid of it/rewrite the partition table!
I can type out any other info needed but I'm at my wit's end... I previously fixed an issue with the volume type turning into FFFFFFF and my mac not booting but that was months ago and I haven't changed anything since then. I need to recover the data on this disk at least so if anyone has any ideas for how I could  do that please help me :(
I have access to a Windows PC and a laptop with Ubuntu right now


texts: Can you customize dock icons and labels?

texts:
I have several virtual machines shortcutted on my dock. By default these are all named "VirtualBoxVM" and have the same icon, it's difficult for me to tell them apart. I'd like to give them all at least a different name, hopefully also a different icon.

My question is, can you customize dock icons and labels?


texts: Is it possible to see an ad for Tinder on lock screen if Tinder is not installed?

texts:
An ad for Tinder appeared on lock screen of BF's phone. Says he doesn't have the app but did he used to? I know I only get ads/pop up notifications from existing apps.
I'm not tech savvy enough to know.


texts:
The wish is to manipulate images from the command line using the ImageMagick tools.

No package manager because:

The MacPorts port and Homebrew brew package managers have Xcode dependencies.
Xcode is a 4.1GB download for version 3.2.6 and I am not willing to wait for that.
Loads of dependencies exists in the packages themselves.
For example ImageMagick using homebrew depends on pkg-config, which fails to download: curl: (7) couldn't connect to host.

The ImageMagick.org supplied precompiled binary release is also no option as that ImageMagick-x86_64-apple-darwin12.0.0.tar.gz binary is compiled for Darwin version 12 (Mountain Lion) which results in "segmentation faults" when being run on Snow Leopard (10.6.8).

How to install ImageMagick on 10.6 (Snow Leopard) using a precompiled binary (without a package manager)?


texts: How do I stop my Mac from attempting Time Machine Backups?

texts:
I have a 2005 PowerBook running 10.5.8 that, in its previous life, was my personal, full time machine that I used all the way through graduate school. It has been relegated to very light duty in the past year, and serves its purpose well. There is one minor annoyance that I'd like to get rid of, but have been unsuccessful so far. The problem is this: it is on most of the day, every day, and roughly twice per day I get a pop up window asking me to select a drive for Time Machine backups. Like I said, this used to be my full-time Mac, and I backed it up regularly so this seemed (at first) to be an artifact of its previous use/state. I do not need to back this machine up anymore and therefore do not need Time Machine on. I cannot get it to stop this behavior. Here is what I have done so far:

Solution: turn off Time Machine backups via System Prefs. Outcome: no dice.
Solution: trash com.apple TM prefs file and restart the computer to reset TM to its default state. Outcome: no change.
Solution: Create a new user account to see if the problem persists. Outcome: it persisted.

So, I am out of solutions. This is a minor problem, as I simply dismiss the dialog box, but it is fairly annoying. Any takers?


texts: Can I use an iTunes gift card to pay for something I bought yesterday and avoid a credit card charge?

texts: I need to buy something today via iTunes. However, I have gift cards arriving tomorrow that I had initially planned on using to buy this item. If I do end up buying it today, will I be able to use the gift cards tomorrow on the balance to not have it ultimately avoid a charge on my credit card or can they not be used retroactively like this?


texts: Does iPhone update deletes media content?

texts:
In my previous question I had asked about backing up the content of the iPhone in order to un-jailbreak my iPhone.

I was told that simply synchronizing with iTunes should do the trick, and I did that. However I did not get a certain answer about the media.

When I had applied the jailbreak patch I recall it completely obliterating everything I had: contacts, logs, apps and even mp3s and such.

I fear that after applying the update to my iPhone all my music will be gone (it will still be on my computer, but transferring all those files again and setting up playlists is something that generally I wish to avoid)

So all in all, after applying the update to my iPhone, what happens to my music, playlists, photos, videos and voice memos?


texts: Can I keep movies on my iPad and not on my hard disk?

texts:
I want to keep movies on my iPad but not on my hard disk - I don't need both.

I normally keep the originals on an external USB drive, and put them on the iPad via iTunes.

That however seems to require that I keep a copy on the laptop hard drive - a waste of space.

How can I avoid this?


texts: Unable to connect to iCloud after phone reset

texts:
My daughter reset her iPhone 6S.  After doing that she realized she had forgotten her AppleID password.  She requested password recovery yesterday.  Today she went to an Apple store and was able to chose a new password for her AppleID.  She is able to log into iTunes etc. on a web browser.

The problem is when she is setting up the phone (after resetting with iTunes) she is unable to "Restore from iCloud" or "Set up as new iPhone".  When asked to input her AppleID and password she gets the error "Could not sign in -
There was an error connecting to iCloud" (after a long while).  We know her password is correct and when she intentionally inputs wrong password she gets a verification error message.  Wifi is connected with plenty of bandwidth.

I anyone has ideas for me to try I would very much appreciate them.


texts: Question about Mail. How to limit amount stored locally. Where is mail stored?

texts:
I'm new to Macs and have a question about my MacBook Air OSX 10.9.1 and mail.  I'm getting a "Startup disk full" message* and one thing I highly suspect is the mail.  Even if it's not the culprit, I'm curious how things work.  I set up the Mail Application to get email from my Gmail and two Yahoo accounts.  As far as I can tell when I look at the Mail App, all my email I've ever received is there for me to look at.

Is the MacBook really downloading all the email?
How do I limit the email it downloads locally (to 2 weeks old and newer for example).

Where is the email stored on hard disk and can I delete it (without deleting on the Google and Yahoo Servers).

In the worst case, I'd be willing to simply remove the accounts from Mail and go back to simply looking at them through Safari. Will this remove the email from my local machine?  If not, how do I do it?

I have attempted to research this and found some ideas on not storing mail locally.  See for example:
http://www.cnet.com/news/tip-change-mail-settings-to-save-hard-drive-space/

However, when I look at my system, I don't see this option and I'm guessing this is for an older version of MacOS.
Thanks,

Dave

*My general question about disk storage is: Newbie question on getting back hard drive space


texts: What are the requirements to use iMac screen as a second monitor - Target Display Mode?

texts:
I have a Surface Pro 4 and an iMac (late 2019). I would like to connect my Surface Pro to the iMac to use the iMac screen as a second monitor.  Is that possible?

What are the requirements to use an iMac as a second screen?


texts:
Is there a way to have a running total as an all day event on ical?
Such as "days since last cigarette"?


texts: Problems with Office 365 and OS X Mail Inbox

texts:
I'm having 4 problems with O365 and Mac OS X Email, all related to display and status issues.  To be clear, I'm using the built-in Mac Mail client, connecting to Office 365 as an Exchange server (vs. not using Microsoft Office email, nor O365 web interface)  It's generally working, I get my company calendar events and contacts as well as email.  The first 3 problems are fixed if I exit Mail and restart (not sure about the 4th)

Problem 1: (most serious)
Sometimes a reply to a thread appears suddenly appears above that thread's header.  If I restart, the message is properly shown under the thread header.  This happens at least once a day.  If this is the top thread in my inbox, the email is still indented, but way at the top, not under any thread heading.

Today I saw a really weird variant of this.  The email reply moved from it's proper thread so that it appeared to be part of the thread above, but still properly sorted by date/time within that other thread.  Exiting and restarting moved it back to the proper thread.

Problem 2:
In the message viewer window, sometimes the To field improperly displayed, with superimposed text.  I think it's the person's name and email address, but hard to read.  If I restart email, the message displays fine.

Problem 3:
Sometimes the content of a message is not visible in the message viewer window, and appears blank.  If I restart, the message is visible.

Problem 4: (minor)
Sometimes the read status doesn't clear once I've read a message.  If I right click in the inbox and specifically change the status to Read, the indicator goes away.

I realize there a chance for finger pointing here, Apple fans saying it's Microsoft's fault vs. Microsoft fans says it's Apple's fault.  But I decided to post to the Apple community, in part because I think there's maybe a better chance of getting an answer, and also because when I restart Mac Mail the problems go away.  (that doesn't make it Apple's "fault", but makes it a very localized symptom).  Also, I haven't heard any of my coworkers complain (using various OS X, iOS, Windows, Android phones, etc)

Of all the issues, item 2 seems the hardest to blame on Microsoft.  The data is clearly there, it's being displayed, just incorrectly.

Any advice would be helpful.  I'm getting to the point, some days, I have to restart email every couple of minutes.  Other times I can go days without seeing these problems.

This is was originally on OS X 10.8.3 Mountain Lion, although still an issue with 10.8.5

I originally posted this back in May at Apple on https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5038346 but I didn't get a solution and some days the problem is really bad.  Sometimes I have to exit and restart email every couple of minutes for a spell.


texts: Spotlight on Mac doesn't accept keyboard input

texts:
Periodically, Spotlight stops responding to keyboard input on my Mac. When this happens, pressing cmd-space brings up the Spotlight search field, but typing search terms has no effect. Characters don't appear in the search field, and even pressing ESC doesn't exit from Spotlight. The keyboard continues to work normally in every other app-- only Spotlight is affected.

Rebooting restores normal operation but I'm hoping there's some non-reboot way to get things working again.

I'm running macOS 10.12.5 (16F73) on a 15" touch bar MacBook Pro. Both the internal keyboard and an external Apple USB keyboard are affected.


texts: I have two vector shapes, and I need one to morph into the other as an animation. What application is best suited for this?


texts: Get my PKG Installer To Prompt and Store Admin User/Pass

texts:
On Mac OSX, the third-party command line tool I have needs to run as super user unfortunately. I'm building a front-end GUI for it. My Qt/C++ application is using QProcess to shell out to Bash and run this command via echo "{PASS}" sudo -l "{USER}" -S {COMMAND}. I'm successful with that -- just as long as I have the Apple ID user/pass.

Is there a way my PKG installer can graphically prompt for Apple ID user/pass? Second, how would you recommend I store this securely?


texts: Is undoing Yosemite's CoreStorage conversion dangerous?

texts:
I tried to make an 8 GB partition on my hard drive so I could make it into a bootable drive, like Recovery HD but without the need to redownload the OS, but for some reason Disk Utility wouldn't let me make a partition smaller than around 40ish GB. After some trial and error in an effort to make a partition of no more than 8 GB, I wound up with quite a bit of unused free space.

I entered a bootable USB drive, prepared to wipe my HD into one volume and restore everything from a backup, but then I encountered this method for reclaiming free space that had me revert my HD back to its non-CoreStorage state. It worked perfectly to reclaim the free space and enable me to specify a disk partition size, but it seems too good to be true. (As in, I wasn't expecting it to be this easy so now I'm scared.)

My question: Is there an important reason why Yosemite always converts hard drives to CS volumes, such that undoing the conversion could come back to haunt me in the future? If so, how do I go back to CS?


texts:
I'm trying to make an app that when opened will play an audio file that is contained in the app, but i have no idea how to do it. I know this is really vague and I apologize but any help would be awesome.

This other question covers high level how to make an app, but I can't figure how to actually make the shell.

How to make a simple app from an applescript!

Is there a guide or sample code to show how to take an actual file and actually play it in AppleScript framework?


texts: iPhone suddenly drains battery quickly, but only sometimes

texts:
My iPhone 7 normally lasts about a week, but sometimes it suddenly starts draining very quickly. I have Background App Refresh completely turned off, and I wasn't using the phone at all when the activity shows 100% screen turned off. Why does it do this, and how do I stop it?

I wasn't able to find anything online, since searches only result in "turn off your apps" or similar.


texts: Is it safe to buy 3rd party plug adapters for the MacBook Pro?

texts:
Apple doesn't sell just the removable plug end of the charger. I know buying 3rd party chargers are unsafe. However, is just the modular plug end safe?

Here is an example of what I am talking about


texts: MBA mid-2013'' total freeze; hardware issue?

texts:
Update (22nd September, 2014): Ever since I upgraded above a certain developer preview version of OS X Yosemite (DP4 or thereabouts) a couple of months ago, the problem described below has not recurred.

I've got a mid-2013 13" MacBook Air (Model Identifier: MacBookAir6,2) currently running Mavericks 10.9.2. that doesn't have any problems except (a potentially major) one: Sometimes when I'm playing a Flash video on Firefox (currently version 28.0), suddenly the screen will freeze completely - by "completely" I mean even the mouse pointer won't move. Usually the audio plays for maybe a second and two after the screen freezes before it stops too. (I'm guessing that just might be some kind of audio buffering in action.) The system goes completely unresponsive. I have to force a reboot by holding down the power key for several seconds.

This happens intermittently but frequently enough to be a cause of concern. I guess it must have happened around 3-4 times in the last month. The latest incident was last night.

I have not experienced this problem except when I'm viewing a video online. I'm running the latest version of Adobe Flash Player (which, btw, has annoyingly frequent updates) and Firefox 28.0. but it has happened with previous versions of both. I mostly view only streaming videos on this laptop - only rarely do I play a downloaded video file with a media player app, so in that respect it's hard to say whether the problem is Firefox/Flash specific or more general. But I'm pretty sure it's never happened when I wasn't viewing a video. I believe it also happened on lower versions of Mavericks.

I checked the system log in the Console app, and have not found any suspicious looking messages that could indicate what the problem could be, which makes me think it's something that happens all of a sudden - making it likely to be a hardware problem with the video subsystem. But I'm just guessing here. (There are also no log messages generated after the time of the freeze until I force a reboot, which would indicate that the system has in fact completely halted, rather than a case of unresponsive UI.)

I have run "Apple Diagnostics" more than once and it reported no issues.

How can I diagnose this problem? Is there a more severe battery of hardware tests that I can run? Or should I look into using DTrace?


texts: Terminal command for removing all named files except for one

texts:
In Terminal.app, how can I delete all files of a certain name except for one extension?  For example if I have:

File.docx
File.ppt
File.pdf
File.xlsx
File.out
File.app
FIle.otherextension
File2.docx
File2.ppt
File2.pdf
File2.xlsx
File2.out
File2.app
FIle2.otherextension

all in one directory, how can I delete all of the File ones except for File.out?

Expected ls output at the end:

File.out
File2.docx
File2.ppt
File2.pdf
File2.xlsx
File2.out
File2.app
FIle2.otherextension


texts:
When try to download an app from the AppStore I receive this error message. Is there anything I can do besides waiting?

  Your account is temporarily unavailable. Try again later.


texts: How to retrieve notification once I cleared them?

texts:
I swiped down from the top of my screen to view my notifications accidentally clicked on one that I didn’t get to see properly and then I clicked off it. I pulled down my notification screen again but the notification has gone as I accidentally “cleared” it.

Is there anyway to retrieve old notifications that have been cleared?


texts: Play custom audio alert for certain incoming mail

texts:
I would like my Mac to play a sound when certain email arrives. For example if the subject contains "xyz", play "mycustomsound.mp3".

Any easy way to do this?


texts: update programs installed by other user (other appleID)

texts:
I use a mac install before by another user. This user installed some application like iphoto with this appleID.

Now this user does not use this computer, and I want update the applications he install before. I have my own AppleID. when I ask to update application the system say me I can't do that because this application was install by another appleID.

I dont want to uninstall the programs, because than I will have to buy them anew. Do I have any other way of updating accept asking for the old user for his password time and time again? Cant I somehow "move" these programs from his ID to mine?

Thanks