texts: Why can't some of my machines boot to my Lion install USB drive?

texts:
I purchased and downloaded Lion yesterday. As always when there's a major release, I like to keep things clean as I have a huge tendency to fiddle with the system once installed and that might render future updates instable, so I'm going the full reformat-then-install route.

Well, so I "burned" InstallESD.dmg onto a reliable 8Gb USB thumb drive with Disc Utility. I just reformated and reinstalled my mid-2009 17" MacBook Pro, from which I'm writing this right now. Flawless install, nothing to say.

Then the problem arises : I've got two other machines, a 2008 white (plastic) 13" MacBook, and a 2008 MacPro. When I boot them from the USB drive by holding Alt, the kernel starts then halts with a "no go" sign. Booting the USB installer drive into Verbose mode tells me that's it's "still waiting for root device", whichever USB port I use on the MacBook or the Mac Pro.

I am just looking to get Lion installed several clean / erased macs while avoiding another download of the Lion package each time I start an install.

What should I do?

Try another USB drive.
Burn the .dmg to an optical disc? (haven't touched one in... well... ages).
Reinstall a fresh Snow Leopard on them, then perform the latest Software Updates, then install Lion the "official" way?

Thanks for any tips.


texts: Can terminal be launched via keyboard shortcut: CTRL+ALT+T?

texts:
I am using Alfred and hence I don't have any use for the Cmd+Space keyboard shortcut. I want to invoke terminal using that shortcut. Just like in Ubuntu, when you press Ctrl+Alt+T
I don't want to use Alfred to start the terminal. I just want to press Cmd+Space and I want the terminal to appear just like it would in Ubuntu.
Is there a way to start terminal like that in OS X Mavericks?


texts: If my monitor has no MacOS driver available, do I have any other options for adjusting overscan? | macbook 2017

texts:
I have a 2017 13" MacBook Pro -- I just setup my monitors, connected via two usb-c to hdmi dongles. One of my monitors works fine (ViewSonic VS2450), but the other extends the desktop beyond the edges of the monitor (HP 2509m).

I checked the HP site for my monitor, and there are only Windows drivers available. I didn't have to install any drivers for the ViewSonic monitor to work.

Do I have any other options to correct the overscan?


texts:
SSH stopped working suddenly. I am using macOS 10.13.4. I am getting timeout every time today but all was working yesterday. I have added my public key to GitHub. I get the following output upon running ssh:
$ssh -vvv -T git@github.com
OpenSSH_7.7p1, OpenSSL 1.0.2o  27 Mar 2018
debug1: Reading configuration data /Users/nurrony/.ssh/config
debug1: /Users/nurrony/.ssh/config line 30: Applying options for github.com
debug1: /Users/nurrony/.ssh/config line 47: Applying options for *
debug1: Reading configuration data /usr/local/etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug2: resolving "github.com" port 22
debug2: ssh_connect_direct: needpriv 0
debug1: Connecting to github.com [192.30.255.113] port 22.
debug1: connect to address 192.30.255.113 port 22: Operation timed out
debug1: Connecting to github.com [192.30.255.112] port 22.
debug1: connect to address 192.30.255.112 port 22: Operation timed out
ssh: connect to host github.com port 22: Operation timed out

My ~/.ssh/config reads as follows:
Host github.com
  ControlMaster auto
  ControlPersist 120
  HostName github.com
  User git
  PreferredAuthentications publickey
  IdentityFile ~/.ssh/nur-macbookpro
Host *
  # Always use SSH2.
  Protocol 2

  # Use a shared channel for all sessions to the same host,
  # instead of always opening a new one. This leads to much
  # quicker connection times.
  ControlMaster auto
  Controlpath /tmp/ssh-%r@%h:%p
  ControlPersist 1800

  # also this stuff
  Compression yes
  TCPKeepAlive yes
  ServerAliveInterval 20
  ServerAliveCountMax 10

I have tried every suggestion found by Web search but nothing is working. I can ssh fine when I connect my Mac with mobile hotspot.
How do I resolve this issue?


texts: Exponential CD burn times in iTunes 10.6.1 (7) on OS X 10.6.8

texts:
The more I try put on a CD and the closer I get to the 80 minute mark, the longer it takes to burn with it on occasion never finishing, the time rises exponentially. I never try and burn more than 80 minutes (not sure it will let you anyway).

Is this a known issue?

I'm using the standard 'burn from playlist' method.

Also sometimes it goes nuts and starts generating random 'time remaining' times, changing every couple of seconds (see below).


texts:
I own a 2011 MBP, which came with GarageBand installed. I am not complaining, but suddenly I don't get updates for it anymore. The AppStore lists GarageBand as having an update, but when I click the update button it tells me that there are no updates for this Apple ID.

Looking at the AppStore page for GarageBand, I can see it available for 4,99 EUR. I don't really mind, since I got it for free and don't use it really, but I am still wondering how this could happen? Did Apple change the terms on when I am eligible for updates?


texts: Can I schedule Do Not Disturb for specific days?

texts:
I currently have Do Not Disturb on my iPhone (iOS 9) scheduled to run while I am at college. The only issue is that I am not at college every day.

Is there a way I can schedule Do Not Disturb for certain days? (For example: Tuesday-Thursday)


texts: Is it possible to use a Mac mini as a docking station for a MacBook Pro?

texts:
Is it possible for me to connect a Mac mini to my MacBook Pro, and then use the Mac mini as a docking station?
My idea is to plug in an Ethernet cable, an SD card, some USB devices, and a FireWire device into the 2012 Mac mini and have it all show up on my MacBook Pro.
Ideally I would also be able to plug in a display via HDMI as well as audio devices (headphones/microphone) into the Mac mini and be able to use them on my MacBook Pro.
I plan on connecting the Mac mini to my MacBook Pro via a Thunderbolt 2 cable.
The reason for this odd question is because a used 2012 Mac mini is actually cheaper than buying a used Thunderbolt 2 docking station. On top of that, the Mac mini offers even more connectivity (e.g. and SD card slot) than many of the old Thunderbolt 2 docks.
Note: I could just use the Mac mini as my main computer and use the devices directly. However, my question is focused on wether I can essentially replace a Thunderbolt 2 docking station with this Mac mini somehow. Perhaps this could be done with a program which "forwards" data and video through the Thunderbolt 2 port of the Mac mini?


texts: Can one stream photos to Shared Photostream from Finder on a Mac?

texts:
I know someone who is considering the possibility of setting up an iPad as a digital photo frame. Ideally, they would use Shared Photostreams to easily put pictures on the device. This is easy for any live-updating of the iPad photo frame, but the challenge comes in with the photo archives taken with a standard DSLR camera.

There are many photos, then, that they would like to easily stream from their Mac computer. Because they don't have a lot of extra space on their computer for a large iPhoto library, is it possible to:

Manage multiple small iPhoto libraries easily, and if so how would they do that?

Right now a number of the photos are on SDs cards. Could they basically convert each SD card to an iPhoto Library and then use that to stream?

Is it possible to post to a shared Photostream from a Mac Finder window?

This would absolutely be ideal. A 3rd party app would be fine. I picture something like the standard right-click -> Share.


texts:
I did a time machine restore and everything seemed fine. But the next day it says my iCloud Drive is uploading. The files are already on iCloud why would it upload them again? My other computer and phone/tablet already have the files
It is uploading 1.94 GB and the number of items is decreasing rapidly. My guess is it is figuring itself out


texts: Mac Terminal view is Screen Sharing is Enabled

texts:
Is there a way to use Terminal to check to see if Screen Sharing/Remote Desktop is enabled? Or is there a file which will have a YES/NO of it?

The one catch; it must work without sudo or admin privileges.


texts: Apple lossless through iTunes Match to iPhone?

texts:
I have some songs that are encoded in Apple Lossless on my MacBook Air. They are in iTunes Matched.

When I add the songs I get 256 kbps. I cannot add via iTunes because I have Match enabled.  If I turn off Match, my songs get wiped from the iPhone.

How can I get my Apple Lossless songs to coexist with my Match library without wiping them every time I switch?


texts: Pages: Use different font style for text on the same line

texts: I noticed that the font style of Pages applies to the entire line by default. Is there a way to use a different style on selected text anywhere on a line?


texts: Will High Sierra also convert secondary drive into APFS during macOS upgrade process?

texts:
I want to update macOS to High Sierra. This question is for precaution purpose before updating macOS.

I have two drives : SSD-Primary and HDD-Secondary

macOS is installed in SSD and HDD is for backup purpose.

Will High Sierra also convert secondary drive into APFS automatically, when I upgrade macOS to High Sierra installed on primary drive?

Should I disconnect secondary drive before the upgrade?


texts:
Is it possible to limit Growl notifications to one App only? I'm really bothered by notifications by Adium, Bowtie and lots more but I don't want to deactivate each of them manually.

Something like a whitelist for Growl-enabled apps would come in quite handy here. Any ideas or suggestions?


texts: iCloud backup from new iphone is lost when restoring old backup

texts:
I bought a new iP7+ and started using it then i back up on iCloud. I also back up my old iphone 6s. To restore, i Back up my 7+ again and reset the phone. When i transferred old backup(6s) to 7+, the recent backup on 7+ is lost. On the iCloud backup in 7+ it says “Never backup” when i just did few minutes ago. How do i combine the backups?

Ps: Just before restoring, there were 3 options which i didnt really understand. I just chose the top one that says “Update the backup(i think)”


texts: Why have I lost the ability to play my cloud music with Apple Music?

texts:
I previously asked this question about what I might lose if I were to switch from iTunes Match to Apple Music.  The basic consensus was that for my needs, I really wouldn't lose anything.  I also found this question/answer which says as I understand it, that any songs I import to my library should be available on "all devices".  Unfortunately now that I've lived with Apple Music for a while, I've come to a rather unpleasant conclusion.  I believe I have now completely lost the ability to add new items to my iTunes library and play them from my phone.

My library is maintained on my home desktop computer, and also now partially on the cloud via Apple Music.  I don't store songs locally on my phone due to limited storage space.  Previously with iTunes Match, I was able to play anything in my home library from my iPhone 4s which is running iOS 8.1.2 (and I'm not willing to upgrade to iOS9 and suffer possible performance hits as well as application compatibility issues, nor am I willing to upgrade to a newer phone because they are too stupidly big).  Now however, it looks like anything that was added to my library prior to my Apple Music subscription, is still playable remotely.  But anything I add to my library now, is not.

So am I right that since I now subscribe to Apple Music and not iTunes Match (and paying a whole lot more now, I might add), that my iOS8 phone can no longer stream any newly-added songs even though I've made them "available for download"?  They do appear on my phone but are greyed out and cannot be played.


texts: Does MacOS "load-balance" TCP when more than one interface is available?

texts:
If an iMac has both cat-5 and WiFi connections to the world, will MacOS use them both to optimize the overall speed?  Or pick only the fastest for everything (since the ISP side of the modem is slower than Cat-5 anyway).

If yes, in what older version (if any) was this not true?

This is NOT a duplicate of any question that has two ISPs.

All devices are connected WiFi to an AirPort Extreme.  One of them is also connected by Cat-5.  I am not currently using USB or Thunderbolt or FireWire.  The Cat-5 obviously has a different IP address than the WiFi.  The Airport goes through a Motorola DOCSIS to the world.  Ookla says the wired connection downloads at 79+ MBps and the WiFi at 50+ MBps.

Also, I wasn't thinking so much of link aggregation, but like letting one app use the wire and another WiFi, giving each app more bandwidth than if they had to shared the same interface hardware.


texts:
I don't know exactly when, but some of my app icons became blank and some keep toggling between normal and blank. It looks like this:

This is my macOS version:

and since I've having a lot of bugs recently, I'm considering reinstall macOS on my MacBook. Is there a easy way to restore the data and applications back after reinstalling the system? I've made a macOS thumb drive with the newest version but I haven't done this on mac before and I don't know how to restore the data. Thanks!

update:

Here's something strange: I backed up my data, erased my entire SSD, and did a clean install of macOS High Sierra. After that I didn't do any restoring actions. I simply copied my documents back, not even copying the apps. And after I run league of legends (or approximately the same time) on my eternal hard drive, my apps begin to turn into blank like that again :(

Before installation I though it must because I'm using the computer for so long and install so many strange things it becomes junky, but after this installation my problem came back again and it's apparently not about anything about the prior system. I think it have several possibilities: 1. my hard drive got infected by some Mac virus (I haven't seen any before but the strange behavior of my computer makes me think that way); 2. somethings wrong with my computer (most likely the SSD) 3. when I run league on my hard drive somehow it triggers an error. I am suspecting the league because every time I try to run it directly it always says the app is damaged and I must open the package and run :league of legend client" within the app package to launch the game. Does anyone have any ideas about this problem? It is really annoying and any help would be greatly appreciated.


texts:
I am seeing high system CPU on a Macbook Air and performance is hit but the list of processes does not show any obvious culprits.

Can I get more details what is going on?


texts: OS X: Always have an app open at specific location in the Dock, without permanently keeping it in the Dock?

texts:
Let's say, I sometimes want to use Application XYZ, but I don't want to set its Dock Option to Keep in Dock so its icon is visible at all time.

When I want to use the application, I open it with Spotlight. It will open and place itself to the right end of the applications in the Dock.

I would prefer it to lie closer to the middle.

Is there a way to place it at a specific location permanently, without having to always keep it there, regardless of whether it's active or not?


texts:
I've a MacBook Pro5,3 with OSX El Capitan 10.11.6 and I can't access Recovery (both normal and internet mode) neither Startup Manager without getting Kernel Panic, even if through diskutil list I can see the Recovery partition installed and it seems all fine:

/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *525.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            524.3 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3

Since I've the same problem, model and OS described here I've tried to use Recovery Partition Creator [v4.0.4] but at a certain point during the execution I've got two pop-up advises that said in order:

1. mainDrive variable not defined

2. mainPartition not defined

then after selecting the OSX El Capitan Installer.app location the program stucked at OSX ESD Installation (I see the installer drive content as shown) and currently I still can't access Recovery Mode:

What the two advises meaning? What can I do?


texts:
I want to reset my Macbook Air Early 2015 but not just simply deleting the disk and reinstall it with macOS Utilities menu. What I mean is "full factory reset." I want it to be like it just left the factory, at least in the software side. Like SMC and NVRAM reset etc. Or deleting the disk resets the things that I mentioned?
If not, when should I reset them? After deleting the disk and before installing the High Sierra (I will downgrade from Mojave to High Sierra) or after installing the High Sierra?
And are there any other things that can be reset like SMC and NVRAM? If there are, please mention them.


texts: How to save a shared video to my Camera Roll on iOS?

texts:
I have the app Photos on my iPad mini, on iOS 7.

I am viewing a stream shared by a friend.

When I am on a photo, I can save it to my Camera Roll.

But, when I am on a video, I cannot save it to my Camera Roll. The feature is missing.

1) How can I save a video to my Camera Roll ?

I want preferably a solution that do not need a computer.

2) Bonus question : Why has Apple limited this feature to photos ?


texts: Why does the search functionality stop working for the encrypted PDFs?

texts:
The search functionality simply does not work for the encrypted PDFs. The original PDF is searchable. When I encrypt it (to let access through password), the search function does not work for this encrypted PDF. What could be the reason behind this odd situation?

p.s. I'm on the latest available version of Catalina - 10.15.4. And, I used the Preview app to encrypt the PDF file.


texts:
Basically, it's still in great condition, and is a 32gb ipod. Everything works, except that the wifi is grayed out and doesn't work, at all, ever. Is there any way to fix this? I read somewhere that it was because it has iOS 5 on it, which doesn't like 2nd gen ipods. Would anyone know if this is possible to fix in any way, such as downgrading the OS or an even newer update?

ALSO: How hard is it to replace the volume buttons? Mine don't work 100% of the time, particularly the up one


texts:
I have one HD named Macintosh HD.
I can’t tell when it happened, but since a few days my HD shows up on my desktop. I tried to disable it in the Finder settings, but it already is.
If I enable it I get a second icon for the same HD.

Does anyone have an idea how to fix this?


texts:
How can I preview an animated GIF? When I double-click it, it opens in Preview and is not animated, showing each frame as a separate image instead of playing the animation. As an example, here is the image I was trying to preview (so you can try it yourself).

Is there some way to get Preview to play the animated GIF, or if not, what's the best app to imitate Preview in this one instance? (i.e. something that will quickly open and play the GIF, I don't care about editing and whatnot)


texts: Yosemite MBP gets IP but cannot ping network

texts:
I have a 2013 MBP on 10.10 that I've tested on multiple wireless networks. On all I see this behavior: I get an IP address and DNS servers, but cannot ping mg router or DNS servers (request timeout) or internet IP addresses (no route to host) or URLs (unknown host).

I've tried rebooting in safe mode, as a different user, and in a new 'location'. I don't have access to a wired connection. I don't have any firewall software and my VPN is disabled.

Edit: This issue occurs on five open networks that I've tested. However, there's a password protected network which I can use to get online with. When I get access to a router I can administer I'll see if I can verify this is indeed the cause.


texts: Does Notational Velocity/nvALT securely sync with Simplenote?

texts:
I set nvALT to use a single database to store my notes. Using a database provides the benefit of encryption. I also sync my notes using Simplenote.

I just noticed this warning at the bottom of the synchronization settings window:

  Note contents will be delivered in clear text.

This came as a bit of a shock because I have personal sensitive information stored in nvALT.

I searched for the syncing APIs of Simplenote which seem to use HTTPS but I'm not sure about that. Can anyone explain how the synchronization works exactly and what the warning message means?


texts:
I am recording an audio track in garageband 10.3.1..  I want to adjust the recording levels, and the slider is greyed out:

Why can't I slide it?  How can I adjust the volume?


texts: Mac OS X, 10.12.2, Command Line how to add Search Domains

texts:
I do this all the time with the GUI and it does what I am looking for. No Problem.

System Preferences > Network > Select the LAN or Wi-Fi > Advanced > DNS > Search Domains and in that particular box field, I add all the search domains that I want. e.g. office, hq, ad.gwn, etc.

Question, how can I achieve the same process via command line with Terminal?

So far this is what I did:

Step #1 I run both these command line to get an overview of what I have:

networksetup -listallnetworkservices
networksetup -listnetworkserviceorder

and this is what I got:

List item
Apple USB Ethernet Adapter
Thinkpad USB LAN
Wi-Fi
Bluetooth PAN
Thunderbolt Bridge
(1) Apple USB Ethernet Adapter
(Hardware Port: Apple USB Ethernet Adapter, Device: en4)
(2) Thinkpad USB LAN
(Hardware Port: Thinkpad USB LAN, Device: en5)
(3) Wi-Fi
(Hardware Port: Wi-Fi, Device: en0)
(4) Bluetooth PAN
(Hardware Port: Bluetooth PAN, Device: en3)
(5) Thunderbolt Bridge
(Hardware Port: Thunderbolt Bridge, Device: bridge0)

Step #2 I tried to add my search domains (hq, office, ad.gwn) but I received the following error message:
 - sudo networksetup -setsearchdomains en4 hq office ad.gwn
 - en4 is not a recognized network service
 - Error: The parameters were not valid

I am connected only with Ethernet cable. No WiFi.  I tried en4 and en5 same issue.


texts: Making good use of HD + SSD combo on a new iMac

texts:
I am setting up a new iMac that has a 2 terabyte hard drive and a 256GB SSD drive.  The Operating System came installed on the SSD drive.

My intention was to put the OS on the HD based on its longer potential lifespan and use the SDD for things like the Photoshop scratch disk.  Getting things set up this way at this point would seem to require me to re-install the OS and specify the HD, which would not be the end of the world because I  have not done much configuration yet.

Are there other options I should be considering here?  My goal is maximum long term reliability, but I do also want to take advantage of the SDD's strong points.


texts:
My cat obliterated my power cord yesterday. Being a student, spending around 100 euros on a new charger was not an option. So I found a 10-years-experience-in repairing-electronics-company and they replaced my power cord today for around 25 euros.

The process was opening the 'main-box aka the charger itself', cutting the power cord and replacing it with a new one from what they told me (wasn't done in front of me). The charger looks like brand new (by brand new I mean, looks like before the operation, they didn't cracked the case or used duct tape to close it after the process was over) so apparently they didn't lied around the part that they are pro. They also told me that the replacement cord is genuine.

Now, how can I actually check if it is genuine as I am concerned to not get my Macbook fried. Or should I ask what are the risks of having a fake power cord ? Tho' I suppose having a power cord fake should be less dangerous than the entire charger.

I am asking these questions as the MagSafe2 adapter looks quite shady, as the light from the charging LED is leaking around the cord. I attached a picture to be more specific.

After they replaced the cord and tested the charger so I could see that the laptop is charging they went through the menu and showed me some info regarding the power (60W) and infos I simply did not understood. I will post a picture of that screen with those informations. As I do not know how they were before replacing the charger, I cannot compare to the current values.

Thank you


texts:
Under Settings -> Device Management I notice there are at least 3 different categories of items:

Mobile Device Management
Configuration Profile
Enterprise App

But documentation online seems sparse for the layman. What are the security implications for each of these?

I assume "Mobile Device Management" allows virtually full access up to the system level, including seeing what apps you have installed, turning on your camera, or initiating a remote wipe.
"Configuration Profile" seems to allow root certificate installation, allowing MITM and HTTPS sniffing: https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/116967/what-are-the-security-implications-of-installing-an-iphone-configuration-profile
What about "Enterprise App"?

(cross-post from https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/229343/how-does-ios-device-management-work)


texts: Best way to copy all files, ignoring errors?

texts:
I have a partially corrupted HD that can not be repaired by Disk Utility, but which can be mounted read-only making the data on it accessible.

I am trying to copy all the recoverable contents onto a spare HD, but every method I try fails when an error is encountered - leaving the remaining files uncopied.

Finder - Fails.
SuperDuper - Fails.
Ditto (terminal command) - Fails.

I was hoping that Ditto would do the trick, the Ditto man page says:

  ditto returns 0 if everything is copied, otherwise non-zero.  ditto
  almost never gives up, preferring to report errors along the way.
  Diagnostic messages will be printed to standard error.

I have submitted a bug to Apple re ditto failing to perform as advertised.

Any other ideas?


texts:
I had a directory encrypted with encfs by MacFusion. I deleted some encfs file from there (something like .encfs6.xml, can't remember). I still have files and remember the password.

Now when I want to mount this directory as encfs one, encfs wants to create new encrypted volume there. Can I somehow force it to open existing instead of creating new one?


texts: Problem downloading iPhone/iOS upgrade, iTunes complains: "You do not have enough access privileges for this operation"

texts:
When trying to upgrade my iPhone running iOS 4.1 to 4.2, iTunes displays the error message saying:

  There was a problem downloading the software for the iPhone "[Username]'s iPhone". You do not have enough access privileges for this operation.

I kept trying the upgrade process repeatedly, but with no luck. Everything else, including app and music downloads, works fine. I'm running iTunes 10 on MacOS 10.6. What do I do?


texts: Will my user directory be enough for offsite backup?

texts: I'm about to dive into the world of offsite backup. The service I use recommend that I backup just my user folder. Would this be enough to restore my system to it's original if there's something wrong with the computer? I want a backup of all the app settings, including system settings etc not just my documents.


texts: Keyboard shortcut mapping for Ctrl+Alt+Del in Parallels

texts:
I'm a Windows user with a Windows-oriented keyboard, and I switched the Command and Ctrl keys in OSX, because I want to use the same keyboard shortcuts whether in Windows or OSX.  This came back to haunt me though when I installed a Windows VM in Parallels, and it broke the Ctrl+Alt+Del key combo to login to Windows in the VM (since the Ctrl key is mapped to Command).  I would like to create a shortcut mapping Command+Option+Del to the Parallels menu item Devices -> Keyboard -> Ctrl+Alt+Delete, but the shortcuts section of System Preferences -> Keyboard does not allow me to use the Del key.

I tried following the instructions in this answer, adding this:

<key>Ctrl+Alt+Delete</key>
<string>@~&#x7f;</string>

to each of

~/Library/Preferences/com.parallels.Parallels.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.parallels.Parallels Desktop.plist
~/Library/Preferences/com.parallels.desktop.console.plist

but the key combo is not activating the menu item to send Ctrl+Alt+Del when adding the XML to any of those.

What am I doing wrong here?  Do I need something special to activate the options in the "keyboard" submenu of "Device"?  Do I have the wrong code for the Del key?  Am I putting the XML in the wrong plist file(s)?

[Edit]

The problem is worse than I thought, because the keys stay switched in Windows.  Is there a way to set the modifier key behavior on a per-application basis?  It would be great if I could swap the Command and Ctrl keys generally, and swap them back in Parallels.


texts: I want to know how to enable all HiDPI modes, particularly the 1280x800 mode for my 1440x900 MacBook Air. How can I do this?


texts:
My device isn't broken. I confirmed this on many iPad 2 and iPad 3 I have access to, both with iOS 6 and 7. But I can't reproduce it at will.

There is something that triggers it. And then it becomes easy to reproduce. Just leave the home screen on for long enough (make it 10 minutes) and lock the phone (so you'll be sure to notice the effect). You'll see the dock bar icons are still slightly "burned" in the screen. Here's the best photo I could take so far (since I decided to pursue this):

See the safari icon slightly burned there, in the center? It can get much worse. I've added a reference as what the icon originally looks like, rotated 90 degrees in that image.

So, question here is: Can anyone else reproduce this? Is this really an apple issue? Did this happened in previous iOS versions? I never seem it in any android device.

Obviously it isn't the same hardware issue as the original screen burns, but it's so weird that if it wasn't stand still in the same screen place even after rotating the screen, I would suspect it could be some odd software / firmware bug.


texts: I can't add album artwork to particular albums in my itunes library even if the file is 'read and write' and MP3 Audio... Any ideas how to fix this?


texts: Will Apple's Mac Remote Wipe delete items on external disk?

texts: With all the news about remote wipe I am wondering if having a backup on an external disk that is connected to my Mac is OK.  Or if someone did a remote wipe, would they wipe that disk as well?


texts: How can I increase the font size of banner notification?

texts:
I would like to increase the size of the fonts of the banners and alerts that appear in upper-right corner of the screen. My OS is MacOS Mojave version 10.14.6

I tried: System Preferences -> Display -> Resolution -> Scaled -> Larger Text but this increases all fonts of the entire OS. While what I would like to do is to increase only the fonts of those notification banners.


texts: How to start OS X applications from the command line with optional arguments?

texts:
I am looking for an easy way to start different GUI OS X applications from the command line and with different parameters.

If possible I would like to add them to the system PATH in order to call them easier.

Note:  I tried open -a "Google Chrome" --args --disable-plugins and it started Chrome but without disabling the plugins.


texts: Is there a keyboard shortcut that I could use to set a task priority in Reminders.app on a Mac?

texts:
I know that if I want to create a new task in Reminders and I write something like:

  Buy milk tomorrow at 3:00pm

Reminder.app understands by itself that the date and the time of execution of the task will be tomorrow at 3:00pm and it will set both of them for me. So I don't need to select the task, push the "i" button, check the option "Remind me on a day" and set a time and a date.

My question is quite simple, and is this:

Is it possible to do the same for priorities ?

I mean: I'd like to write something like:

  Buy milk !!

and see the app that understands that the two exclamation points on the task mean that it has an higher priority. I tried to use different sentences and AFAIK there's no way of telling Reminders to set the priority for me, without having to manually set it. That would be super-handy for me.
But I might be wrong, and this is why I'm asking you if there's any way to avoid having to go in the options of each task and set the priority.

Thank you and best regards


texts: Install Windows 10 Creators Update on iMac11,2 without first installing Windows 8

texts:
Having trouble installing Windows 10 version 1703 on the old iMac (iMac11,2  MC509LL/A) running macOS 10.12.5.

The official page said it didn't support Windows 10, but according to my experience as long as it supports Windows 8, it supports Windows 10, too. I'm trying to setup W10 directly without first setting up W8 and then upgrading. Tutorials of modifying Boot Camp failed because codesign keeps on telling me "bundle format unrecognized".

Is there a way to setup Windows 10 Creators Update directly on this iMac?


texts: Replace non-functioning system applications

texts:
Yesterday I used Drive Genius 3 to clear up some space on my primary drive. I may have been a bit too aggressive, allowing it to delete localizations and a few other things. Long story short, apps like App Store, Preview, TextEdit and Terminal would no longer open. Clicking on the dock icon it would light up for a second and then immediately fizzle out. Opening Console, I saw things like this:

  Terminal[728]: Unable to load nib file: MainMenu, exiting
  com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[211]: (com.apple.Terminal.60048[728]) Exited with code: 1

  TextEdit[724]: Unable to load nib file: Edit, exiting
  com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[211]: (com.apple.TextEdit.58816[724]) Exited with code: 1
  librariand[255]: client process 724 does not have a valid com.apple.developer.ubiquity-container-identifiers entitlement
  error in handle_container_path_request: LibrarianErrorDomain/9/The client process does not have a valid com.apple.developer.ubiquity-container-identifiers entitlement

This was not a user-based or permissions-based problem, as I tried logging in as an existing user, and created a new user and logged in as them as well, both of which experienced the same issue.

So thank you, Drive Genius, and next time I'll be a lot more careful. In the meantime, I needed to figure out how to get these applications running again. I saw suggestions out there to use things like Pacifist to extract the original application files, but that only seemed to apply if you have original media, which we don't get anymore. And I'd have downloaded the software from the App Store, but catch-22, I couldn't open the App Store...


texts: If I have family-sharing do I have to buy everything through it?

texts: If my family has family sharing, do I have to use the family credit card for every purchase, or can I buy some things on my own for my personal use and other things through the family sharing?


texts: Keyboard shortcut (almost) never works for Automator service

texts:
I have bash script that creates a screenshot in a given directory saved as an Automator service. I've then assigned ⇪⌘2 from System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services. The problem is that it doesn't work much at all. The only place I've found were it actually runs when using the macro is (how random) when click on the urlbar of Safari, and even then not without inconveniences, as it popups an error message saying "The “Take Screenshot” service could not be used because the “Take Screenshot” workflow did not provide valid data. - Try running the “Take Screenshot” workflow in Automator.", even though the process works fine and the screenshot is indeed captured and saved as intended. What's wrong?

fdate=`date`
screencapture "/Users/username/Unorganized/Studio/$fdate.png"


texts: Current line number keeps to be 0 no matter where cursor is

texts:
Please see the attached to images.

When I change the line the line numbers changes, so that the cursor's line number is always 0, the previous and next line numbers are always 1.

Is it a bug?

OS: Yosemite.


texts: I'm running OS X Snow Leopard & CocoaSuite 1.4.


texts: Can I use or access the San Francisco font that comes with El Capitan?

texts:
The new font San Francisco, introduced in El Capitan throughout OS X's Finder and contextual menus, is a beautiful font and proves that once again, Apple is on top of their game when it comes to defining the standards of UI and typography.

But when I try to find San Francisco in TextEdit or Keynote, it's not there.

The apps I use, whether Apple apps (Pages, Numbers, TextEdit...) or third-party apps (InDesign, Word...) do not display San Francisco as an option in their font menus.

Here's another example, from Apple's very own Keynote (whose default font is still Helvetica) - no San Francisco there either:

Obviously, this font is there, somewhere in the system, since it's used almost everywhere! And Apple computers are sold with lots of fonts pre-installed in their System Folder, so it seems like a mistake to me, that this one in particular would be unavailable.

So, how could I "unlock" it, or make it usable in other applications?

NOTE: This question was first assuming - wrongly - that San Francisco was made available in Yosemite, which was a mistake. Turns out I still can't find and use it in El Capitan, so I just edited it to say "El Capitan" instead, and add a few images, but some comments might seem irrelevant.


texts: How to package a command line software to an Application

texts:
I have a command line executable (written in C) with some related resources, and I would like to package it as an application (inside the .app folder). I tried appify.sh which could package shell script, but didn't work here. For this command line executable, I would like to open termial to show the STDOUT.
I also found this method using Automator , but didn't find how to package the executable and resources inside the folder. Should I write an Info.plist file? I tried but failed to get the right syntax.
update
As I tested, you cannot run the executable alone, as MacOS will run that without any pop-up window(Termial), and ignore all STDOUT.
We can use Platypus to run sh/bash with -exec executable to do the trick as described here.


texts: At what resolution will an iPhone only app run at on an iPad Pro?

texts: If I run an iPhone only app on an iPad or iPad mini the app simulates running on a 3.5" screen. If I run the same app iPhone only on an iPad Pro what will iPhone device/screen size will it simulate?


texts: How can I send the currently active window to the back?

texts: Is there a shortcut or such to send the currently active window to the back of the screen while still keeping it open (so that it ends up "beneath" all other open windows)?


texts: Can't download Xcode Beta 3 without Apple Developer membership

texts:
Prior to this, one could easily download Xcode Beta from Apple Developer portal with only their Apple ID. There was no need for Apple Developer membership. (I downloaded Xcode 7 Beta 1 without any problems.) But now that Xcode 7 Beta 3 is released, after I click the download button and sign in using my Apple ID, this page.

I'm not aware of any announcements regarding this issue. Is there some kind of bug involved or Apple limited the access to Xcode Beta for registered developers?


texts: OS X Finder: Why does it take less time to copy files in succession than to do so all at once?

texts:
Example:

Select 10x2GB files, then drag and drop to another location.
Drag and drop each 2GB file to the location individually, in succession (10 times).

I’ve tested this across multiple OS X versions and Apple computers, and the latter example always executes faster.

Why’s the drag and drop sequential fashion faster?
That said, why doesn’t Finder just execute batch operations in the same manner? I must be missing something(s)…

Note: This is a question that teeters on the edge of not being within the bounds of this site, yet nonetheless, one worth asking :)

The results are the same regardless of the order (batch/manual) in which it's performed.


texts: How to completely replace Helvetica with San Francisco

texts: in iOS 9, the system font had changed from Helvetica to San Francisco. I love the change! However, it doesn't change it in pages in Safari. Is there a way to change it to San Francisco? Thanks!


texts: Is there a way to loop part of a video on macOS?

texts:
I'm trying to learn a language from a video. For this I would like to loop part of a video indefinitely, and additionally be able to change the speed of the video while it's playing back. Is there any way to loop part of a video like this on macOS?
The simplest way I can think of is by trimming the video with ffmpeg or QuickTime Player, but that would become quite cumbersome with multiple parts of the video. There's also an online service called Looptube which does that that I've been using (for YouTube videos), but it's quite buggy and doesn't work at all half the time, so I've given up using it.


texts: How to install Mountain Lion on USB disk and boot from USB

texts: I have MacBook Pro from late 2011 era which I recently upgraded to Yosemite from Mountain Lion. But unfortunately I need some application that only worked on Mountain Lion and I cannot restore back to Mountain Lion as I did not have backup. Now is it possible to install Mountain Lion on USB disk from which I also boot from without actually installing on my MacBook AIR Samsung SSD drive ( the only drive on the system) on which Yosemite is installed and running?


texts: How to increase the number of applications shown in the Recent Applications stack on the Dock

texts:
I've enabled the 'Recent Applications' stack to appear in my Dock:
defaults write com.apple.dock persistent-others -array-add '{ "tile-data" = { "list-type" = 1; }; "tile-type" = "recents-tile"; }'

Is there any way to increase the number from 10 Recent Applications to 15, or preferably, omit specific applications from being in it?


texts: OS X 10.7 Lion: Reset master password to FileVault 2

texts:
I need to reset or delete my master password to FileVault 2. This is the password found under System Preferences > Users & Groups > Service gear > Change Master Password. It's a backup in case a user forgets his or her account password.

(I accidentally set said password before writing it down in an awkward keyboard fumble.)


texts: Change keyboard layout but keep shortcuts

texts:
I use three different keyboard layouts for three different languages on a regular basis and use a shortcut to cycle between them (this is very handy).

The one issue I regularly encounter is that many shortcuts change because the letter on the keyboard changes place, so the shortcut is the same, e.g., Command+Shift+[, but it's on a completely different position on the keyboard which makes the whole shorcut-thing not so short.

So is there a way to change the keyboard layout but keep the position of the keys used in shortcuts the same?


texts: Mac Pro tower (2020) ethernet doesn't work if plugged into an unmanaged switch

texts:
I'm trying to connect my Mac Pro tower (2020) to my network using ethernet but am experiencing problems if use my Netgear GS105 switch, this setup results in the MacPro saying "Cable connected but self-assigned IP".  I've renewed DHCP leases, changed all sorts of settings including on my router but nothing works, I have also validated that this setup does work fine with every other computer (including a MacPro Trashcan) and if I connect the MacPro Cheese-grater directly to the router it works so to recap:
This does not work:
[Router]--<cable_a>--[Switch]--<cable_b>--[MacPro2020]
This does work:
[Router]--<cable_a>--[Switch]--<cable_b>--[MacPro Trashcan]
These also work:
[Router]--<cable_a>--[MacPro2020]
[Router]--<cable_b>--[MacPro2020]
I've also tried different cables in place of both <cable_a> and <cable_b> and it doesn't improve the situation, every possible combo works except if I have the MacPro 2020 Tower plugged in via the Netgear switch.  Is there some issue with unmanaged switches and MacPro 2020 Towers?


texts: App submission: No binary but getting "redundant binary" error

texts:
When submitting the first release of my app for review on iTunesConnect, I'm getting a validation error that I need to upload a binary, but when I upload using Application Loader 3.0 I get an error ITMS-4238 "Redundant binary upload".

Validation error:

Upload error:

This happened after I uploaded the binary last week, filled in some of the app details, saved the page, came back to it today, completed the rest of the app details, and clicked "Submit for Review."

Any ideas how to fix this?

Unlike post #146330, I don't have another binary I want to submit - I want to use the one that's already uploaded. Unfortunately iTunesConnect doesn't seem to recognize there is one. I also don't have the source code and can't change the version or build number in Xcode because it was coded by a paid vendor.


texts: My apologies for such a basic question, but I have searched for many hours to no avail.  I have a very simple spreadsheet with two columns of data.  In the third column, I write a formula such that cell C1 contains  =$A1+$B1.  This works fine; the summation takes place as expected.  But, when I drag down the cell's formula into the cells below, the formula copies as expected, but the calculation does not update.  In MS Excel, I know how to fix this (there is an option to change the calculation behavior in Excel).  Could someone kindly show me how to handle this basic issue in OSX Numbers?  Thanks much.


texts:
I often use Keynote's 3D charts.
I find the rendering quality, precision of perspectives and speed to be similar to the results one would get from an actual 3D engine.

Are these graphics produced by a basic 3D engine within Keynote, or are these complex images produced by the CoreGraphics engine?


texts: 2020 MacBook Pro won't mount WD external hard drive

texts:
It's formatted HPS+. Mounted fine yesterday (and for a long time before that). Now, the light on the drive blinks on-and-off and it sometimes briefly shows up in the output to diskutil list as /dev/disk3. I've tried diskutil eject disk3 and similar variants.
The drive automatically mounts on linux without issue.
I do not see fsck running (I checked with ps auxw and top from a terminal). I did not find any interesting log messages via the Console program.
We had trouble about a year ago. Apple support recommended upgrading the OS and I think that worked. We also bought a second cable for the external drive, but ended up not needing it. I just tried the second cable and it didn't make a difference. There was an upgrade OS available and we tried that after talking to Apple support this time, but it didn't make a difference. The drive mounts fine on a ~2016 Mac Air.


texts:
I created a Smart Mailbox this morning. I programmed it to hold all mail relating to my property purchase. This was successful. i checked it several times and it was full of all the relevant mail.

This evening I went into the mailbox to find a back-dated mail, and it was empty. There is no mail at all. There is a message reading 'No Messages Selected'.

I am seriously freaking out! Help me!


texts:
I have an iPhone which I use for Discord. I would like to use a BT headset as input but use the iPhone speakers for output. Is this possible?
Sherpa Dave


texts: Ubuntu + Firefox has become my daily driver. I would like to be able to send iMessage from Firefox. I am able to login using my Apple ID in Firefox. Is there a URL that can enable me to send iMessage from Firefox?


texts: Suggested Mailbox in Apple Mail ("Move to ..." button) sometimes works, sometimes not

texts:
A great improvement is the "Move to ..." button in Apple mail, which suggests (or predicts) a mailbox to move the mail to.

Now, for some emails, Apple Mail has learnt the correct mailbox, bur for other emails, it does not learn it.
For instance, I am getting emails from a specific address and I am always moving them to the same folder, but Apple Mail does learn to not suggest the mailbox.

Does anyone have ideas as to why this features sometimes works, sometimes not?
Is there anything I could do to make it work, especially for those clear-cut cases?


texts: XCode/iOS/macOS compatibility & upgrading to Catalina

texts:
I'm trying to use Xcode with my iPhone and it looks like I've updated my iPhone past the point where it's compatible with the version of Xcode that I have.  I made a really simple app that I just want to put on my phone - not putting it on the App Store or anything.  The message I get is:

Could not locate device support files.
This iPhone 6s is running iOS 14.2, which may not be supported
by this version of Xcode. An updated version of Xcode may be found on
the App Store or at developer.apple.com.

Here are the versions that I have:

Xcode - 11.3.1
macOS - 10.14.6
iOS - 14.2

The App Store says I need to have at least macOS 10.15.4 to download the latest Xcode.
The upgrade to Big Sur is huge and I'm running fairly low on space on my Mac, so I'd rather just upgrade to Catalina, but I can't seem to find a standalone download (i.e., not an update that requires already having Catalina).  I've tried the link below but I get the error This update requires macOS version 10.15.
https://support.apple.com/kb/DL2022?locale=en_US
If there's a way I can work around the iOS/Xcode compatibility issue without upgrading Xcode or downgrading iOS, that would be the easiest way to go.  Otherwise, I would need to figure out how to get Catalina as a standalone download.
Any suggestions?


texts: Why does changing password in System Preferences work when it doesn't through Terminal?

texts:
My question might also be put, "What does System Preferences -> Users & Accounts do to change a user's password that I'm missing in the command line?"

The desktop is joined to both OD and AD directories. I can change my own user's auth with

$ passwd <uname>
... (update pwd through dialog) ...
$ dscl . -passwd /Users/<uname>
... (update through dialog) ...

However, I can't use it for other users. I just get a dscl error -14009 (eDSUnknownNodeName). It doesn't matter if I use a full admin account, sudo -s, or anything.

What else might I try? I really want to be able to do this through terminal so I can write a bash for loop to change the passwords more easily.


texts: Will new beta versions be delivered over air when out of home country?

texts: I am out of U.S. for 2 weeks and I see that 2 new beta versions of ios have dropped. I haven't received any notification. Would this be because I am not in my home/registered country? Thx.


texts:
This is strange that I find Telegram, Sketchbook and some other music streaming apps having an option to be syned with iCloud. For applications like Photos, once it gets synced with iCloud, it is available on your Mac (or the website version of iClouds). In the case of Sketchbook, I feel like it creates an account in some form, or creates an iCloud folder (not visible directly) where the image gallery is stored.
What about Telegram? It has the sync option in Settings > [name] > iClouds, among other applications. This is weird since Telegram uses its own server and cloud storage.


texts: Git: command not found during Git installation (Mac OSX 10.6)

texts:
I am trying to install Git on my Mac (OSX 10.6) following the official Git tutorial.

I had no problem until I had to set my username and my email.

Every time I tried I got -bash: git: command not found

I tried echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.profile + restarted the Terminal. It still doesn't work.

What do you think I should do to solve the problem?

I've never used the OSX GIT installer before and don't really want to.

Edit 1: the command issue is fixed

Edit 2: the result of the command /usr/bin/grep PATH .* is

.bash_history:echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.profile
.bash_history:echo $PATH
.bash_history:echo $PATH
.bash_history:echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.profile
.bash_history:echo $PATH
.bash_history:echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin
.bash_history::$PATH' >> ~/.profile
.bash_history:echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin
.bash_history:echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin
.bash_history:echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin
.bash_history::$PATH' >> ~/.profile
.bash_history:echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.profile
.bash_history:echo $PATH
.bash_history:echo 'export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH' >> ~/.profile
.bash_history:echo $PATH
.bash_history:echo $PATH
.bash_history:echo $PATH
.profile:export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH
.profile:export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH
.profile:export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH
.profile:export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH
.profile:export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH
.profile:export PATH=/usr/local/git/bin:$PATH


texts:
I see the latests Macbook Pro 16" has a 100 watthour battery - how do I find the equivalent stat for my current Macbook given the info under About -> System Report -> Hardware -> Battery Information?

My guess is take the full charge capacity (3582). Also divide the mV (milli volts?) by 1000 to get volts, then use a calculator or conversion table. But I'm not exactly sure what to do next?


texts: Does a deteriorated battery affect macbook performance when plugged in?

texts:
My early 2015 macbook pro battery has had the "service battery" warning for over a year now. I hit the 900 cycle mark before last summer, and now I'm at about 1000. The battery lasts for < 1 hour, but I rarely use it without plugging it in to the power nowadays. I'm going to get the battery changed sometime in the next couple of months -- it's difficult for me to be without my mac for an extended period of time at the moment.
With that said, I've noticed that my macbook performance isn't as great as before. It seems slower and hotter even though I'm using it while plugged in to the power outlet. Does a deteriorated battery affect performance of the mac when it is plugged in to a power supply?


texts: Prevent app from opening after executed shortcut

texts:
I’ve created a simple shortcut which adds clipboard to a note:

The problem is that after the shortcut has completed, the note gets open in the app afterwards. Is there a way to prevent that so the app stays in the background?


texts: How can I install Mac OS X 10.7.5 on my Macbook Air?

texts:
I have a 2008 Macbook Air that was running Mac OS X 10.7.5. I purchased it on eBay and wanted to do a full OS reset. This being my first Apple computer (and ONLY Apple computer in my household), I figured it would be a simple procedure -- 1. Wipe the partition, 2. install the OS. Boy was I wrong.

The only thing the computer boots into is "Mac OS X Utilities". When trying to reinstall Mac OS X, it comes up saying "This item is temporarily unavailable. Please try again later." Ok, I've tried "icloud.com" where it comes up telling me I don't have a supported version of Safari (lol). I tried the "recovery boot with internet" or whatever, and the 2008 model doesn't support that.

After some research, I've determined I need the operating system (the .app file), and from there, I can put it into TransMac to copy it onto a USB drive, then insert it in the computer. Simple enough, right? Nope! The file doesn't exist online and the only way to obtain it is through the Apple app store.. How can I get on an apple app store? I need a Mac, of course!

What can I do???


texts: iPhone error "Unable to connect to network"

texts:
Two iPhone's in the house, a model 4 (on iOS 6) and a model 5 (on iOS 7), can not connect to the home WiFi network, but can connect at the Apple shop. All other devices on the home network, including desktops, laptops and Android's, are fine.

The error message is displayed about 0.5 seconds after hitting "Join", and is simply "Unable to Join Network".

Trawling forums the advice seems to be to a combination of resetting the network settings on the iPhone and turning the router and iPhone off and on again in various orders.

However, this does not work.


texts:
Is a new iMac 27" 2012 a viable upgrade compared to my current Mac Pro 2008 (quad core, 2.8Ghz 14GB RAM)?

I am a professional photographer and my workflow (Lightroom 4.2 +Photoshop CS6) has become increasingly slow over the last year or so. The specs of the new iMac seem promising – although I am a bit skeptical about using an iMac as a workstation. I currently run OS ML and apps off an SSD (128 Gb) and store the LR catalog + RAW files on an internal 2TB 7200 HDD (WD Caviar Black).

So, my question is, in theory, will the upgrade to a maxed out iMac provide a significant performance boost?

Thanks!


texts: Is there any way to look at and modify the Application Layer Firewall via the command line?

texts:
We have an issues where an application changed it's service name and UAC prompted users to allow or deny, and a lot of users clicked deny. If users go in to system preferences, security, firewall and then change the rule from deny to allow, it's fine, but at this scale, it's just not happening fast enough for us, and we want to have users report in with this application ASAP.

I'm assuming there is a way. Is there a defaults domain or a plist that can be modified?

I looked here, but when dumping out the config, I don't see any of the existing rules I see in the GUI.

Thanks!


texts: How to use /etc/paths.d to add executable files to my path?

texts:
I am trying to use /etc/paths.d to add an executable to my path variable but I have no success so far.

The full path of the executable file is: /opt/ImageMagick/bin/convert

/etc/paths.d contains two files: 40-XQuartz and ImageMagick

The 40-XQuartz contains one line: /opt/X11/bin
The ImageMagick contains one line: /opt/ImageMagick/bin

My echo $PATH gives:

/Users/Administrator/.rbenv/shims:/Users/Administrator/.rbenv/bin:/Users/Administrator/bin:/opt/local/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/mysql/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/opt/X11/bin

So it seems that only the first file (40-XQuartz) does its job.
The permissions of the two files (40-XQuartz and ImageMagick) are exactly the same so my question is why the first one works and the second one is not.

I am running OS X Mavericks.


texts: Is there a reason for slow speed of my internal SSD?

texts:
I have an iMac from 2010 with a 250GB internal SSD running High Sierra. I just ran the following from the terminal:

time mkfile 4000000000 test

real    2m25.556s
user    0m0.910s
sys     1m26.219s

time cp test /Applications/

real    5m31.669s
user    0m0.011s
sys     0m3.319s

I'm getting write speeds from the first test of around 25 MB per sec. and even less for the cp command.  This seems very slow to me but maybe it was normal in 2010. Do these numbers signify anything or are they normal considering the age?


texts: Is it possible to update an iPad 2 to 6.1.6 instead of 7.0.6?

texts: We have a (non-jailbroken) test iPad 2 with iOS 6. Following the recent SSL vulnerability patch, we'd like to update it. However, the update I see in iTunes/Settings is to 7.0.6. We'd really like to keep it at 6 (=update to 6.1.6). Is this possible?


texts:
I send the same PDF file to different reviewers and got differently annotated versions back.

Is there a way to combine the annotations into one file?

If this is a let-me-google-that-for-you-question, I am sorry. Please give me the keywords. All I found were articles about merging (the pages of) different PDFs into one file.


texts: Is there an app or setting to lock an iPad in a Presentation mode, so other apps can't be accessed?

texts:
Not really an iPad user so thought I would ask here.

As an organisation we want to place some presentations on iPad minis
(much in the way that iPads are used in the Apple Stores as information sources next to other products).

We want the user to be incentivised to view the entire presentation so ideally we don't want them to be able to leave the presentation.

Are there any applications that allow presentations to be locked?
Ideally, presentations would be built in PowerPoint or HTML/CSS.

I appreciate any input you can provide.


texts: Facebook app shuts down itself on iPhone 4

texts: I have an iPhone 4. The Facebook application was working fine until this morning. When I start the Facebook app, it shuts down immediately. I tried restarting the phone but it's the same. No jailbreak, no unlock. My phone is 9 months old.


texts: Is there a way to change the default save/export format in Preview?

texts:
I always choose PDF when exporting and usually choose JPG when saving. Being able to change the default format from PNG to either of these would save me a few clicks every time I use Preview. Is there a way? Preview preferences has no save/export format option, and I was unable to find anything on Google.

For bonus points, is there a way to have the default extension for images saved in JPG format with Preview be .jpg instead of .jpeg? It's a pain to change them manually every time, and leaving them means having to remember which files are .jpg (those not from Preview) and which ones are .jpeg (those from Preview) when making websites.

Thanks in advance.


texts: Messages / iMessages notification routing

texts:
Having an iPhone and iPad lying on the desk while chatting with the new Messages beta app gets very annoying, as each device beeps separately.

Is there any way to have the notifications only on the current device as long as it is active?


texts:
I am using xcode 4.6.3. and now i want to download xcode 5.

But i dont want to download it from itunes / mac store or apple developer site.

So what are the other sources to download the xcode 5 ?

Please provide me links for this..

Thanks.


texts:
At one point, in my misguided youth, I set my left "fn" key to do something silly. "No worries, surely this can be quickly undone", I thought. But now I can't get it undone. I've gone to system preferences -> keyboard -> shortcuts (which is where (I think) I made the changes in the first place) and asked for a restore to defaults. But, alas, the binding remains, surprisingly and frustratingly. I'm looking for (preferably non-drastic) further things to try.

EDIT: Silly me.

(1) There's only the one "Fn" key.

(2) My current machine is an early 2015 MacBook Air. Oddly this error has persisted as I've changed machines over the last several years. Every time I get a new machine I have them sync up the two (or whatever you call it) at the Mac store, and every time this error comes along for the ride.

FURTHER EDIT:

Apparently it matters to some people what the particular silly thing is that I once set my "fn" key to do. I'm not sure why, but if it helps, here it is: when I hit "fn" I go to the "mission control" screen.

So.. yup, that's what happens. I want it to unhappen. But "restore to defaults" isn't doing the trick...


texts: Is it advisable to calibrate the battery on a iPhone?

texts:
I want to ask the same question as here: Is it advisable to calibrate the battery on a MacBook?
but for iPhone.

Should I calibrate iPhone's battery? For example with make it completely empty and full charge it after that.


texts: How to preserve session in Safari private window mode?

texts:
I'm comparatively new to Mac OS.

I was a Chrome user before. In Incognito mode, it preserves the session, i.e., if you have logged in to Google and you open YouTube in the same window (but in a new tab), it automatically signs me in for that particular Gmail user in YouTube, whereas in Safari private window mode, I have to login everytime I open something new in a new tab.

I was wondering if I could make it just like Chrome by changing a few settings.


texts: Can't find log out button for Gmail on iPhone

texts: I am unable to log out of my Gmail account from my iPhone 6+. My screen starts from Inbox till end of folders but no log out shown. How do I log out?


texts: Revert an apfs volume to the state of an earlier snapshot

texts:
Recently, I have a problem with slow login. I copied the system to another Mac and is trying different things to solve the problem. To be clear of what exact method works, I plan to restore to an earlier snapshot every time. Reading the output of apfs.util in /system/library/Filesystems/apfs.fs/Contents/resources, it seems like I should be able to do that:
Usage: apfs.util [[-p][-k] /dev/diskXsYsZ]|[-s /dev/diskXsY]|[-R SNAPSHOT][-M dir][-S dir][-O path]
   -p : probe for volume name
   -k : get volume UUID
   -s : set volume UUID(s) and container UUID to new random values
   -R SNAPSHOT : set the volume to revert to the snapshot named by SNAPSHOT on next mount.

So I tried, but I get error code 254 with no error message:
apfs.util /dev/rdisk4s1 -R com.bombich.ccc.safetynet.CEFF3106-2AF7-4789-8A50-B36921496E27.2020-10-31-104558
root@Joys-MacBook-Pro /s/l/F/a/C/resources [254]#

I tried doing this while the drive is mounted and not mounted. I tried using the XID instead. I tried another snapshot and it didn't work. How can I make it work? This is not documented in the man page and I can't find any information online. Because this is not a Time Machine snapshot, it does not show up in "restore from backup" in recovery system.


texts: Can iCloud help me move iTunes to a new Computer (Mac to PC)?

texts:
I'm upgrading my wife's laptop from an old MacBook to a newer windows based laptop (thanks for the free laptop, Telus).  I believe you can manually copy everything in the 'iTunes' folder over (I know this works Mac -> Mac, never tried to a PC), but I'm curious if this process can be done by iCloud? or is iCloud purely for synchronization of content for iOS 5 based devices?

The line is a bit blurry to me as pretty much everything in iTunes is just content for the iPhone now.


texts:
My MacBook Air 2012 is making a single beep during normal use. So far it has done this twice in the last 20 minutes so I don't know if there is an interval yet.

A cursory Google search only showed something about people having boot issues with multiple beeps when trying to start the machine. I am using this machine (it's already booted without issues) so I don't think that is relevant to me.

The machine isn't running hot, which would also be normal. So what does this beep mean? Insight appreciated.


texts: Folder Action to Import Files into iTunes doesn't work

texts:
I'm downloading a large number of mp3 files to a folder using wget (which is very fast).

I want to add each new file to an iTunes playlist, and therefore set up a Folder Action in Automator to do this. I have tried following instructions available here and there, but can't seem to get it to work properly. It did add two files to iTunes, but then gave up – and I can't get it to work again.

Is the fact that wget is dowloading lots of files very fast, something that throws the Folder action off?

I've searched around for help with this specific issue but can't seem to find anything except an unanswered Apple forum post where a user is trying to use an AppleScript to do the same thing.


texts: Can I set the volume on my iPhone lower than the slider goes?

texts:
I have an iPhone 4S and some V-Moda in-ear headphones. The headphones have great volume and isolation, which is good when I'm listening to something quiet. But it's a problem on my iPhone.

When I play music on my iPhone with the headphones, it is very loud. As in, painfully loud when I put the volume slider in the middle. To  lower the volume, I (of course) dragged the volume slider to the left. The problem is that even when I get all the way to the left, it is still very loud. If I move it any further, the volume abruptly mutes.

I've tried changing settings, and I've found that enabling Sound Check helps some louder songs. Unfortunately, Sound Check doesn't apply to apps like Spotify, which I use more than the Music app.

So, how can I reduce the volume on my iPhone beyond the slider?

Notes: The volume is fine with the stock Apple headphones. Reducing the volume of the music itself (modifying the files) isn't an option because I need to reduce the volume of streaming audio and files I don't have access to (Spotify).


texts:
I have the following command that I am trying to put into a bash alias.  The command by itself works fine, but when I try to alias it, I am getting the following errors:

The Command

find . -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -type d -exec sh -c 'echo "$(find "{}" -type f | wc -l)" {}' \; | sort -nr

The Alias

alias csfiles='find . -maxdepth 1 -mindepth 1 -type d -exec sh -c 'echo "$(find "{}" -type f | wc -l)" {}' \; | sort -nr'

The Error:

-sh: alias 0: not found
-sh: alias {} \; | sort nr: not found

I think this means I am not using quotes right but I am having trouble determining the correct combo.  Help?


texts:
When I copy text from a website, I would like the url of the original site to be included when I paste it. This is possible when pasting into Evernote, indicating that macOS indeed captures the source url upon copying. This is especially important for citations, but in general is helpful for keeping track of sources.
Ideally I’d have the option to paste with or without source link.
Solution could be an alternative pasteboard app, a script, a setting, etc.
Is there a way to copy and paste the source url when copying text?


texts: I am using an iPad 2 and I need Microsoft teams for classes. But it says that teams needs iOS 11 or later. I tried installing it from purchase history but it still doesn't work. Is there anything I can do?


texts: Display playlist by album instead of by song on iPhone

texts: I have an iPhone 5S. I want to see my playlist by albums instead of by songs. When I add an album of songs to the playlist, it shows all the songs. I can do it on iTunes on the computer but it doesn't seem to allow you to show playlist by album instead of by song.


texts: I've been looking at using Bento for iPhone / iPad on a few projects where data will be logged in the field and then synced with a main database held on a Mac. My worry with this system though is that if there is a problem when the Bento database syncs with the Mac and the databse gets corrupted, there may be a complete loss of data. Ideally I'd like to, for instance, email the data from the iPhone / iPad before the data is synced so that even if the databse is lost, at least we have the data and can manually enter the data onto the main databse on the Mac. I have not yet however found out any way of getting the Bento data off the iPhone apart from syncing with a Mac. Does anyone know of any other fix for this?


texts: iMac consistently losing all bluetooth connectivity

texts:
I have a Late 2011 27" iMac that once a day loses all bluetooth connectivity. (Very rarely it will drop just the keyboard or just the mouse, but 99% of the time, it's everything) This is a huge problem because I only have the iMac bluetooth keyboard and mouse, so this basically renders the entire computer useless.

The only solution I have so far is to hold down the power button to force the iMac to power down, and boot it up again. Everything works fine after booting it up, but I can guarantee sometime in the next 24 hours it will happen again.

Turning the mouse on/off, taking the batteries in/out and doing the same for the keyboard has no effect. The light on the bottom of the mouse blinks, but that's it.

It is not the battery levels; brand new batteries make no difference. On the rare occasion when it is just the keyboard that drops out, I can get it back by disabling it in the bluetooth menu and re-enabling it. Of course when the mouse drops out I've no idea how to use the keyboard-only to achieve the same actions.

Do I have a faulty iMac? I've only had it for less than 3 months, and although this did happen once or twice when I first got it, it was rock solid until the latest OS release that I upgraded to (Mountain Lion? I always forget those ridiculous names).


texts: Terminal has Full Disc Access, yet I can't change ownership of files on my external backup drive with sudo

texts: After using Migration Assistant, the home directory ownerships in Time Machine backup got reversed, so now I can't access my files but I can access the other user's files and vice versa. Not only that, the new owner can't modify the ownership of its own directory using sudo even though Terminal has Full Disc Access.


texts:
Trying to install OS Yosemite and get this:

  Can't connect to the Apple Software Update server.

Already tried to delete ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate.plist - did not help. What shall I do?


texts: How do I delete all Music off my iPhone library so nothing appears?

texts:
I’m having problems deleting all my music off my iPhone.

I have deleted the music through iTunes and tried to delete it on on my iPhone but it still shows the track and just has the download symbol next to it.

How do I make it delete off my music library completely?


texts: Can an iPhone 6s Plus battery be recharged after going real dead

texts:
I just bought a new iPhone 6 four days ago and hardly used except to browse first page, never paid attention to the battery until really dead.

Can an iPhone 6s Plus battery be recharged?
Ive been trying recharging both from the plug and laptop and still no sign of power on.


texts: After an update to 10.6.8 my ethernet stopped working. I understand this affected millions of mac users. Is there a way to revert in OSX? This is the newest MBP 13" 2.7 GHz i7.


texts: Specify connection on launch for Microsoft Remote Desktop client

texts:
I'd like to be able to connect to a specific remote desktop when I start Microsoft's RDT client.  I'm running the latest RDT 8.0.15 client on Yosemite.

How can I do that?


texts: All the App Links (Deep Links) are broken after a reboot

texts:
Currently in iOS there is a feature where you click on one link (say link to a Youtube video) and the corresponding App will open to handle the request (the Youtube app will open to play the video). This is called App Link.

However in my case, all the link are broken all of a sudden after a reboot. Clicking the Youtube link that would have taken me to the Youtube app now just opens the webpage in Safari. Same thing happens to any other links, for example, Quora, Amazon, Reddit, etc.

There's no way of re-enbling the open-in-the-app behavior, because

There is no "Open in the xxx app" banner on the top of page anymore.
Pressing a holding a link in the Note will no longer reveal the option to open the link in an app.

There're currently 3 fixes:

Reinstall the App;
Restore all settings;
Wipe the iPhone and restore.

All of these solution are not ideals and very time consuming, I have to remove and reinstall every App with this app link feature to fix the problem. Also this problem happened to my several times.

Anyway I can fixed these in a easy way?

Tried and not working method:

The fix for broken Universal link incident on iOS9;
Reboot, regular one or one by holding power and home button.


texts: 27" Apple Cinema Display (video and power) to one USB-C

texts:
I've got an Apple Cinema Display with ThunderBolt-2 and MagSafe-1 connector and would love to combine these two cables to one ThunderBolt-3 to supply power to the Mac and video and sound to the display on one cable.

The TB-2 on the outside is connected to a TB-2 port on the inside.
The MagSafe-1 disconnected to two "pins" GND and Voltage on the inside.

There are TB-2 to TB-3 adapters (e.g. Apple) on the market. Is there a way to connect the "power pins" to the TB2-3-adapter and solve my problem?

(I've done a lot of soldering and working with Arduino etc.)


texts: Lion OS X Installer Does not recognize any HD

texts:
What would be the reason if Lion OS X installer does not show any HFS+ partitioned hard drive on the installation step, "Select a destination volume where
you want to install the Mac OS X software". The Disk Utility cannot see it either!

I am sure the hard drive is working fine C: Ubuntu NTFS and D: Windows 7 NTFS I can run windows or ubuntu fine.

The problem is not partitioning the HD, the HD does not appear at all hence the disk utility cannot perform any operation on HD.

Thanks
Looking forward to hearing from you...


texts: Iphone 4 drain wifi 1 percent per minute

texts: I have an iPhone and it's jailbroken, running iOS 5.1. When using WiFi, it drains very quickly. The rate of discharge is about 1 percentage point every minute. Is this normal? Any suggestions? As usual, all push options are turned off, location services are off and only Safari is running.


texts: Why is System Preferences not recognising Pictures folder? [macOS 10.13.4]

texts:
I want to change my 2016 MacBook Pro's wallpaper to a custom image which is already in the Pictures folder.

If I launch System Preferences > Desktop & Screen Saver > Desktop, under Folders there is the Pictures one but it looks empty.
Is it normal?

Only workaround by now is to click the '+' button and add the picture manually which, strangely, adds all of the pictures contained into the Pictures folder.
NB: into my Pictures folder there are two custom created  subfolders which gets ignored by this last operation.

What is going wrong here?


texts:
Lion opens lots of windows automatically after a restart. How can I stop that?

It's very annoying.

Is there a way to stop this?

I found an option in System Preferences ("Restore windows when quitting and re-opening apps") and disabled it but it doesn't seem to affect anything.


texts:
How to monitor icloud back up progress?

I have left my phone plugged in and locked for four or five nights now. The backup has still not completed, but my icloud usage is around 45GB according to https://www.icloud.com/#settings. Does this mean the 45GB of data has successfully been transferred to icloud? Or that 45GB of space has been allocated, but all the data has not necessarily been transferred yet? When I go to icloud photos, they seem to be more or less all there, but I don't know if they are the full versions of each photo.

When I try to manually back up, it changes from "9 hours remaining", to "7 hours remaining", to "11 hours remaining", etc., even when I leave the phone plugged in overnight.


texts: Inaccurate click to open an app from Launchpad: closes Launchpad

texts:
I'm surprised how much I use Launchpad after upgrading to Lion both to launch and switch to applications, to the extent that I rarely find myself showing the Dock anymore. I do have one problem, however:

In Launchpad, when one clicks on an application icon, the computer exits the Launchpad screen and launches or switches to the application. When one clicks near but not on an application icon, the computer exits the Launchpad screen and returns to the frontmost application before Launchpad was activated. These are two very different behaviors separated by a small space in terms of pixel targets.

Is there a way make a missed click in Launchpad result in remaining in Launchpad, or to expand the clickable target around the icons?

If the answer is no, that isn't possible, I'd be happy to accept that as correct; I just want to know if there's something I can do to make Launchpad more usable by reducing the wondering after I clicked whether I hit the target or not.


texts: Outlook v16.47 search results are inconsistent on Big Sur

texts:
OS: 11.2.3
Outlook: v16.47
I have an Exchange account set up on Outlook that is showing inconsistent search results.  When I search for from:Person1 the data comes back exactly as I would expect with messages sent to me by that person.  Even messages from weeks ago.  But when I try from:Person2 with more recent results I get no returns at all.
What's even weirder (IMO) is that when I search for just Person2 I do find the message I would expect to see, plus more as this doesn't have the from filter on it.  But I don't get why this would come back with results and the from filter wouldn't.  I can't identify a real pattern for when this happens outside of this seems to be happening for some senders and not others.
I googled around and tried repairing my search with these instructions and these instructions but neither has had any effect.
I have another Mac with the same account loaded on the same version of Outlook that shows the proper behavior.  I also loaded this account onto the Mail app and it also is working as expected.  So I'm pretty confident the issue is isolated to this Mac and this account but I can't find any resources for repair and I would think the index has had time to complete since the Mail app was able to start returning the search within a few minutes.


texts:
Got this error while trying to copy & paste a folder from my NAS to my Mac using Finder on MacOS 10.13.2:

  The operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred
  (error code -8058).

Where are these mystery codes kept?  I tried google, tried the macerror utility in Terminal, tried osstatus.com, even tried searching opensource.apple.com - no luck.  Is there someplace to lookup Mac error codes?


texts: What folders can be safely excluded from Time Machine backup?

texts:
I want to know list of folders that can be safely excluded from Time Machine backups while ensuring that full restore can get me a same machine running immediately.

The reason why I want to do this is because Time Machine will backup all the files no matter what it contains. So far, I’ve excluded these paths from my backup:

~/Library/Caches
~/Library/Logs
~/Downloads

Caches and Logs don’t need to be backed up because they’re generated when needed. I’m also excluding ~/Downloads folder because those files are usually stored temporarily.

Is there any more folders that I can exclude? What is your Time Machine’s exclusion rules?


texts: In Apple Music (Big Sur), how can I 'go to current song playing' in the context of the main library?

texts: You used to be able to click CMD+L to highlight the current song in the context of its playlist. However, this doesn't work anymore for songs being played in the library - only when playing from a custom playlist. It will show the song playing in the library but not in the context of the rest of the library. This feature was helpful because it allowed me to look at other songs in proximity to what was playing.


texts: How to prevent octave from spawning in a new Terminal window?

texts:
I run octave in Terminal but whenever I use the Octave command to start octave (from an existing terminal session) or select Octave in Mission Control, it starts a new Terminal window. I find this behaviour annoying.

How can I make octave run in my current Terminal window?


texts:
If I try to call 9-1-1 using Siri, she says "Calling 9-1-1. I'm sorry, I can't call 9-1-1."

Is there really no way to call 9-1-1 from a hands-free position? This is such a strange issue; I can't imagine a single advantage to intentionally disabling this functionality.


texts: iMac 2017 - Apple Wireless Keyboard 2 and Magic Mouse 2 Bluetooth random disconnects

texts:
After having the first iMac 2017 Retina replaced for display issues, my second one seems to be acting up.

I use an apple wireless keyboard and magic mouse 2 via Bluetooth. The problem is, they randomly disconnect. Right after the event, a pop-up comes up, trying to find input devices.

Sometimes they reconnect almost immediately, other times after a while, and others, only a restart fixes the issue. It happens randomly. There are days with no issues and days where it happens so often it drives me mad.

Both input devices work fine when they are connected. The keyboard works after it is disconnected, if I plug it in for charging from the Mac. Can't use this workaround with the mouse, obviously.

What I tried so far is resetting the Bluetooth module, factory reset devices, disconnect all devices. Nothing seems to work.

OS version is Mojave 10.14.1. It was happening with High Sierra too.

Any ideas besides sending the whole package to warranty?


texts: Random emails missing from IMAP inbox with Apple Mail in Yosemite

texts:
I am using Apple Mail with three IMAP mail accounts (not Gmail etc. but from my hosting provider).

I'm finding that I regularly need to close and reopen Mail to find emails I'm searching for that are not showing up in the inbox. They reappear after the restart where I expect them to be. Not the biggest issue but it's happening a lot.

What is causing this?


texts:
I have Sage (math program) and I want to execute it through terminal.

I know I can go to the directory and execute it with -

open Sage.app

But would I really want to do is simply type sage in terminal and have it run. I believe this is a fairly simple task, but I just don't have any idea! Thanks.


texts: How can I sync an animated gif from Photos.app on a Mac to an iPhone?

texts:
I have some animated gifs in the Photos library on my Mac. When I sync them to my iPhone (using iTunes) they either don't transfer at all, or they show up as jpegs of the first frame of the gif.

I've tried sending them to myself using Messages.app. This works, but they get shrunk to a postage stamp size that looks small even on the phone screen. I want a way to send them full size, and to keep them synced with my Photos library.


texts: Unusable 2.5" external HDD. Partition failed with the error -69760: Unable to write to the last block of the device. Exfat only? Repairable?

texts:
Update 1: Somehow, after unconnecting and re-connecting, the original disk (disk1) has now returned to original state, with the readme file as well! I still have another disk which is not working. When connected to my MBP I get the message, "The disk you inserted was not readable by this computer." "[Initialize | Ignore | Eject]".

Update 2: @Allan's question: Like how long from when you bought the drives and were working to when they stopped? Answer: They were removed from the packaging on the day they arrived. These are brand new. They both worked out of the box. Issues started after attempting to partition and attempting to restore via Image.

Update 3: The disk currently does not work on Mac or Windows. Next steps from here?

TL;DR:

I ordered two external hard disks and tried them on the first day they arrived. They appeared to work as a normal external hard drive when I first connected them to my MBP (Retina mid-2015, Yosemite 10.10.3). However, after trying to partition/restore via Disk Utility, they become both unusable. NB. One of them returned to original state — please see Update 1, 2 and 3 above. So please also see my attempts at a solution in my answer to this question as advised by @bmike

If these types of 2.5" external hard disks are actually not compatible with Macs or Time-Machine backups:

A) What can I do to return the disk back to its original usable/exfat state?

 B) In their original Exfat state, to what extent will they be usable?

C) Why are they limited to Exfat format?

D) How, without the seller telling me, can I know these are limited to Exfat format only? e.g. Are certain cheap 2.5" external HDDs from China always limited to Exfat?

Quick Intro:
I first tried to partition one of them. This made it unusable. After attempting to restore the first one by copying/cloning an image from the second one, the second became unusable. Then somehow the first disk randomly became usable again and was back to its original state (it even contained the original readme file).

Context:

I want to do a Time Machine backup to an external hard disk so I bought two 2.5” 2TB external hard disks.

The hard disks (both identical) were described as compatible with macOS, both on packaging and on the online description. I connected one of them for the first time and all looked normal. The only exception is that I found a readme file, which mentioned this drive can only be formatted to Exfat.

So my conclusion is that the drive is officially in NTFS format, while the readme file says it's Exfat only and the online description and packaging say's it's compatible with Macs. I contacted the seller, who replying saying that it doesn’t work with PS4 and is compatible with Windows, Mac, Xbox and Linux.

So after attempting to partition 1.1GB for Time Machine, Disk Utility gave me the message “Unable to write to last block of device”. In an attempt to salvage the first disk, I wanted to basically copy/clone the second external drive in its original format and burn it onto the first one that no longer shows a volume. I plugged in the second disk and tried to use the ‘Restore’ function via the Restore tab and clicked on the ‘Image…’ button. I then got a message saying:

"Unable to create “JMicron Generic Media1.dmg.” (Input/output error)."

The first screen shot is what the hard drive first looked like when connected to my MBP. The second shows what it's like after it became unusable. Below that are screen shots in chronological order, whilst attempting @Allan's suggestion.


texts:
My issue is that preview is no longer rendering text properly, everything is very blurry with some pages being unreadable. This happens across multiple PDFs, so it's not tied to just one. Strangely, if I set it to single page mode and then proceed swipe up/down slowly, showing moving to the next page, both the current and the next page render perfectly fine.

This is that what the text should look like:

This is what the text actually looks like in a best case scenario.

By the way, I have a 2013 15" rMBP.


texts: How can I get my iPhone to consistently apply or ignore auto-corrections based on my response?

texts:
I have an iPhone 4S (Black, 32 GB, AT&T) running iOS 5.0.1, but I previously saw this issue on my jail-broken iPhone 3GS while it was running 5.0 and 4.3.3. This iPhone 4S is not jail-broken, nor has it been jail-broken in the past.

This occurs only sometimes. While I am typing and an auto-correction pops up, if I click on the auto-correction, it substitutes the text immediately instead of disabling that particular correction.

Is this a bug, or is it possible that I have a setting somewhere that causes it to act in this fashion? Is there a work-around?


texts:
You know new Skype even for Mac is written on Electron and working slow. But old native version is still working.

Unfortunately brew cu -a https://github.com/buo/homebrew-cask-upgrade updates it to new one. Is it possible to hold version of this package (disable update) like aptitude hold package in debian?


texts: Lion Server wireless filesharing for iPad, what are the file type limitations?

texts:
I've been searching for information about wireless file sharing for iPad through webdav, which is new in Lion Server. However, I can find nothing more than the few lines Apple has to say, which has been re-blogged around the place.
To keep to Q&A, can anyone provide instructions for setting this up, and what types of files can I share? Am I limited to certain file types and why? Is there a way around any file type limitations?


texts: How to use zsh and bash on iTerm2 at the same time?

texts:
Zsh is better than bash(obviously), but for some reason, from time to time I have to use bash. I am wondering is there any way for me to use them together without changeing them manually?

What I have in mind is putting them in seperate tabs, I have tried it actually. Using zsh as default, and open another tab using different profile opening bash, though this can work, but all the configurations for bash didn't work.

So can anyone help me out here, thanks!


texts: Is there an equivalent to resetting NVRAM on an M1 mac?

texts:
I have an M1 Mac Mini that is exhibiting some strange issues that aren't going away after reinstalling macOS. I'd like to reset its NVRAM or whatever the nearest equivalent is for M1 macs, in case something there is causing persistent problems.
Are there equivalent steps to Intel Macs with T2 chips to reset things when the symptoms are not specific?


texts: What are the best programs for editing midi files?

texts:
I'm looking for a Mac OS X program for editing midi files.

Specifically, I'm using the program Synthesia to learn how to play songs on the piano, but a lot of the midi files I have don't have the notes split into a right hand and left hand track. I'm looking for a program where I can load one of these midi files, add a new track, and then manually move notes from the existing track onto the new track.

Are there any good programs I can do this with?


texts: iOS Enterprise App Distribution "White Labeling"

texts:
We have been making iOS apps and selling them directly to clients who then use their own AppStore to distribute to their internal employees after re-signing the app.

However, I just noticed the following note in the Enterprise Dev Agreement.

  Note: This Program is for internal use, custom applications that are
  developed by You for Your specific business purposes and only for use
  by Your employees and, in limited cases, by certain other parties as
  set forth herein. If You want to distribute applications for iOS or
  watchOS to third parties or obtain an application from a third party,
  then You must use the App Store or B2B Program for distribution.

Does this mean we can no longer continue this practice or is "White Labeling" still allowed?


texts:
I own a Macbook Pro Mid 2010 (Macbook 7,1) which has gone through several upgrades. Before any of the upgrades, the CPU fan was constantly noisy whenever running any application, making it impossible to use. You would need to close all other applications just to make it possible to do a video call, and it still lagged even after that.

I have done the following upgrades so far:

early 2013: added 2GB RAM (4GB + 2GB = 6GB), at the time, this was the maximum, installing 4GB + 4GB didn't work for me
early 2015: replaced the hard drive with SSD 256GB
replaced battery and MagSafe

After each upgrade, it has always worked a bit better, but only until the next OSX version came out and then it would become impossible to use again. I purchased a desktop PC in early 2016 and hasn't been using the Macbook since then.

Recently I found out that OWC has tested that Macbook mid 2010 would work with 16GB, it gave me an idea to try another upgrade. I've always loved my Macbook and hate to leave it collecting dust in the cabinet or even toss it. I'm just not sure if it worths to spend another 100euro just to find out that the whole thing is just not good enough anymore for the current software, regardless of the 16GB. Obviously the bottleneck would be the Core2duo processor which you can't really do anything about it.

So what do you think? Anyone did the same upgrade, can you share if it gave the MacBook a new life?


texts: How do I send a calendar event from the iphone calendar via an email or imessage?

texts: I want to forward a specific calendar event from the iOS Calendar App to an email address or iMessage address or text message using my iPhone. I don't want to use the cloud or sync anything. I am using iOS 8.4 but would also be interested in how to do this in iOS 9.


texts: My iPhone 6 is updated to iOS 12.4.7 and is having a very weird issue with the wifi . So what happens is I put in the wifi password and connect it would connect normally but sometimes would not load web pages eg I go to youtube app and it would stay in loading and than time-out but sometimes it would load same thing with safari too I tried resetting network settings to no avail can you help me


texts: Impossible to downgrade Mac Pro's operating system to original system

texts:
My Mac Pro ( late 2009 custom assembled in Ireland by Apple)

Processor Name:   3.32GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
Memory:   32 GB
Processor Interconnect Speed: 6.4 GT/s
Boot ROM Version: MP41.0081.B07
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 680
VRAM (Total): 4096 MB

came originally with Snow Leopard. I still have the original DVD in mind conditions and the DVD disk reader (very seldom used) works perfectly

After I upgraded to El Capitan, I am totally unable to reinstall Snow Leopard in any of the additional disk slots in the machine.

I removed all the hard drives, bought a new 1 TB Seagate drive and installed it in bay 1.

The computer boots with Snow Leopard and allows installation, however after the message telling me the install was successful the Mac doesn't boot - an error message tells me the software is not meant for my particular machine. I tried every kind of keyboards combos I am aware of.

People at the local Apple store told me that I will never be able to go back to Snow Leopard as after Yosemite the system patches the computer ROM making the downgrade impossible.

But I do need Snow Leopard as I have a number of  PowerPC apps and files I need to use.

Any hints please?


texts: During a FaceTime call I suddenly had no sound.  It took me a while to realize it wasn't just on FaceTime, but no ringer, no music, no keyboard clicks.  It does not say headset when I turn volume up so it doesn't seem to be stuck in headset mode although I do get sound that way and I can hear through the receiver, just not speakers.


texts: Retrieve Current iPhone Lock Screen Live Photo Wallpaper

texts: I have an iPhone X running iOS 13.1.2 I currently have a lock screen wallpaper which is a live photo i got from an app when I first got the phone. I no longer have the image saved, and can't find the image again in any app or online. Is there a way to somehow access the current lock screen wallpaper while retaining the Live Photo?


texts:
Last week I've switched from my old Macbook 15" 2014 16Gb to Macbook 16" 64Gb. With my old mac I was quite comfortable to run Chrome, Lightroom, VSCode and even VM at the same time.

A 2-day fresh Mac right after system restart consumes ~16Gb of RAM... It's not a file cache, it's apps memory which reserved and not available to other apps. No software installed, no apps in autorun, only Apple services.

Here is the list of processes right after a system restart.

Why opendirectoryd is using 800Mb? I'm not even using Open Directory functionality. Why loginwindow requires 800Mb of memory? A corebrightnessd responsible for Night Shift functionality — 420Mb?

What the hell is going on? Why a fresh system is wasting 16Gb(!!!) of RAM just for nothing? This RAM is enough to run several ram-hungry apps.

Can we control that somehow using internal settings like sysctl?