texts:
When I minimize safari, finder or Firefox windows, they move down to the dock. When I use Command + Tab , to move back to them, the minimized windows don't appear, just the top menu bar is changed. I have to click on the docked thumbnail to maximize particular window. Is it possible to maximize windows with only command + tab.

thanks


texts: Is there a way to recover pictures from a destroyed iPad?

texts:
An iPad mini from a friend was ran over by a car and it is completely non nonfunctional. I tried to connect it to charger to see if it was draining current but it is completely dead. There are some pictures on the iPad that I would have liked to recover. Is there a way to get back the files in such situation?

I'm thinking more of a hardware way, maybe by disconnecting the flash memory and using it in another device.

I Googled it but every article I found involved a partly functional iPad that could be connected to USB.

The iPad was never synced to iTune nor connected to iCloud.


texts:
I'm on Lion and I like to use the multimedia Next Track, Play/Pause, and Previous Track keys to control iTunes.

Every once in a while, these keys basically stop working.  Sometimes they just don't work and sometimes the action is delayed by minutes.  I'll hit the key out of habit and then nothing will happen, so I'll go into iTunes and pause.  Then maybe 5 minutes later, it will unpause (presumably because the key event finally made it to iTunes.)

Any idea what in the world is going on?  The only thing that seems to fix it is a reboot (though a log out and log in might do it as well.  Not in a position to try that at the moment.)

Argh! It just happened again.  Super annoying.


texts:
I've come to accept that there's no way to turn off Notification Center, but I'd at least like it to not disturb me.

You can schedule a Do Not Disturb time, but there doesn't seem to be any way to make it 24 hours a day.  If I make it 0:00 to 0:00, it's never on.  If I make it 0:00 to 23:59, it floods me with notifications at the tick of midnight.

Unfortunately, on the Mac, Do Not Disturb turns off automatically at midnight.

Is there any way to permanently enable DND?


texts: Can I update Macmini2,1 to OS X Mavericks?

texts:
The title tells it all. I have an old Mac Mini2,1 which I'd like to run a software that requires at least OS X Mavericks. It possible to install that on this computer?

The detailed specifications from the 'About this Mac' section are as follows:

Hardware Overview:

Model Name: Mac mini
Model Identifier:   Macmini2,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed:    2 GHz
Number Of Processors:   1
Total Number Of Cores:  2
L2 Cache:   4 MB
Memory: 2 GB
Bus Speed:  667 MHz
Boot ROM Version:   MM21.009A.B00
SMC Version (system):   1.19f2


texts: Unable to modify files directly even after changing permission

texts:
Background:

I have added an additional SSD to my iMac and made it the startup disk. The old 1TB hard disk is still attached and is now the secondary hard drive.

The new drive is formatted to APFS. Old drive is still 'Mac OS extended (journaled)'

Goal:

I want to fix the permission of my files on secondary hard drive such that I can easily manipulate my old files

What I have done:

I used Cmd+I to bring up the Info dialog box, and give antkong (Me) the read & write permission. Then I used 'apply to the enclosed items...' option to apply the new permission to subfolder and files.

It seems to work for me because the stop badges (minus in a red circle) on subfolders are gone.

Problem:

I tried to delete some files in one of the subfolder. I still get prompted for the sudo password

I expect that I can manipulate files as if I am the owner.

Why this happens? How can I fix this issue?


texts: How to force Spotlight to index content inside a package?

texts:
I wish to use Spotlight to search inside my Papers 3 library package (i.e., a 'bundle') as the search functionality within the application is broken and/or hamstrung. Is there any way I can force Spotlight to index the contents of the PDFs in this package?

I've tried EasyFind as an alternative and it seems pretty useless at searching file contents.


texts: Does default e-mail port behave differently than custom?

texts:
I'm trying to setup mail on Mavericks to talk directly to my mail server at an ISP. I use the ISP for my mail, but filter it through Gmail and that works. So, here's what I've tried:

telnet to port 25 (blocked by ISP)
telnet to port 465 (connects, but get no e-mail header)
openssl to port 465 (works just like I'd expect)
openssl to Gmail port 465 (works just like I'd expect)
telnet to Gmail port 25 (blocked)

…but here's the difference. For Gmail, I have "default ports (25, 465, 587)" checked, and no custom port. For my ISP, I have custom port set to 465. I have use SSL checked for both.  However, for Gmail, it realizes it has to use 465, and for my ISP, it gets stuck trying to connect to 25.

Any ideas? It seems that mail knows to use TLS for port 465 only if it's a "default" port, and won't use it if I type 465 in directly.

Here's a bit more information:

Successful connection to Gmail:

INITIATING CONNECTION Oct 29 22:11:37.797 host:smtp.gmail.com -- port:465 -- socket:0x0 -- thread:0x600001277d00
CONNECTED Oct 29 22:11:38.008 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:smtp.gmail.com -- port:465 -- socket:0x6000004c4910 -- thread:0x600001277d00
READ Oct 29 22:11:38.081 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelTLSv1_0] -- host:smtp.gmail.com -- port:465 -- socket:0x6000004c4910 -- thread:0x600001277d00
220 mx.google.com ESMTP m63sm2836028ioe.40 - gsmtp
Unsuccessful connection to ISP (hostname obscured)
INITIATING CONNECTION Oct 31 21:17:03.606 host:mail.xxx.xxx -- port:465 -- socket:0x0 -- thread:0x600001661b00
CONNECTED Oct 31 21:17:03.909 [kCFStreamSocketSecurityLevelNone] -- host:mail.xxx.xxx -- port:465 -- socket:0x6080006cf0a0 -- thread:0x600001661b00

I found a bit more, but may need more help. I'm getting the following error in the system log:

errSSLXCertChainInvalid: Invalid certificate chain (-9807)

The ISP-assigned server has a self-signed certificate. I think it's loaded. It was originally a "login" certificate. I tried trusting it for everything, and that didn't work. I tried moving it to system, and that didn't work. So, I'm wondering if the certificate is not considered a root certificate.

I requested the ISP to fix the https site so that I could hopefully get the certificate into the Mac. It appears that no one uses any other method of getting the cert than browsing in Safari, and Safari refuses to connect to port 465.


texts: How do I play my music library on a Chromecast TV?

texts:
How do I play the music in my Music app on a Chromecast TV? In the YouTube app, I can select to play a video to Chromecast. In Pandora, I can select to play a channel to Chromecast. In the music app, I can select a connected Bluetooth device as the output channel. But there is not an option to play music in the Music app to Chromecast. How can I play music from the Music app to Chromecast? Does it require a separate Google music app or something?

iOS 10.3.3.


texts: iPad email: How to select all messages after filtering?

texts:
I am trying to help my friend remove messages she no longer needs from her yahoo mail using her iPad.  I have successfully figured out how to search for all messages from a particular sender.  I have also found the "Edit" button!

Now, how do I highlight or select all of them in one fell swoop?  Currently, I am going dit-dit-dit-dit hitting the checkboxes and then scrolling down to see some more.  Very inefficient!


texts: Chroot on macOS 11 Big Sur fails with dyld: Library not loaded error

texts:
I've looked up plenty of guides and helper scripts on GitHub on how to set up a chroot jail on macOS (Mac-Hroot, macos-mkjail, mkjail, jailkit, this) yet none of the tested solutions work.
In theory, a chroot jail is simple to set up on Linux by just copying a binary like bash and all its dependencies into the new root folder. On macOS, however, the dyld shared cache causes problems because it fails to load libraries that do not exist in the filesystem but only in the dyld shared cache. It appears something changed with dyld in one of the recent macOS releases, because this solution no longer works.
I am setting up a chroot jail as follows:
cp -r /bin ./
mkdir usr
cp -r /usr/lib ./usr
sudo chroot ./ /bin/bash

Result:
dyld: dyld cache load error: shared cache file open() failed
dyld: Library not loaded: /usr/lib/libncurses.5.4.dylib
  Referenced from: /bin/bash
  Reason: image not found
[1]    12345 abort      sudo chroot ./ /bin/bash

Again, according to this old-ish answer having the file /usr/lib/dyld in the chroot jail should be sufficient to work around this issue, but that's not the case here. I did copy the /usr/lib/dyld file over to the chroot.
What I also tried is copying the contents of /System/Library/dyld/ to the chroot jail. This is the location of the dyld shared cache on Big Sur. After doing so the chroot command hangs for a long time until failing again with a different error:
dyld: dyld cache load error: syscall to map cache into shared region failed

Has anybody managed to get chroot jails working on Big Sur or has any insights on this?


texts: iPadOS 13.3 error: "Unable to install APP_NAME, please try again later" when updating or reinstalling offloaded apps

texts:
Every single one of my apps, whenever I try to update them, or redownload offloaded apps (which I do very frequently) has this error:

  Unable to install APP_NAME, please try again later

I’ve tried everything from turning my Wi-Fi on and off to signing out of my apple ID on the app store, doing a hard restart, and signing back in. Does anyone have any solutions they don’t think will have been in other answers?

PS: This is not a duplicate of iPhone won’t install previously deleted default app:

About a different error. Mine only happens when redownloading any offloaded apps and updating nearly any app, the other users’ error only applied to default apps he’d deleted.
On a different operating system. iOS of unknown version, I’m on iPadOS 13.3.
With solutions I specifically mentioned I have already tried in my question, or was unable to try. I don’t have cell data, the solutions required cell data or were just restarting the device.


texts: How do I stop iTunes from automatically backing up the iPad?

texts:
I'm trying to move some pictures from my laptop to my iPad, but every time the first thing iTunes starts doing is making a backup of the iPad.

But since I already keep a backup at my desktop, I want iTunes to back off and just let me move the pictures!

So how can I prevent iTunes from making automatic backups?

I'm using Windows 7. But feel free to leave OS X solutions as well.


texts: How to use the "instant alpha" in Preview

texts:
I overlaid a rectangle atop an existing PNG image in Preview:

After enabling the Markup toolbar we can select Instant Alpha

Now what?  I tried to get a selection tool to mark the rectangle but no selecting action occurs. The instructions I was looking at are here  https://discussions.apple.com/thread/6774112


texts:
I use Time Machine for regular backups, and I have multiple HDDs for redundancy. This works fine for my computer, but the problem is that I have many files that do not reside in my computer and should be synced between these HDDs.

For example, photos from iPhoto: from time to time I have to free up space in my computer so the photos goes to the backup disks and I erase them from my computer. The mess increases with my wife doing the same thing with her Mac.

So what I'm looking for is a solution where I can tell my computer that I don't want certain files to be in it anymore, they should go to the backup, and that also the backup should be synced between the HDDs.

Is this possible to achieve using only Time Machine or any non-third party tool? If not, are there any third party solutions that do it?


texts: Advice on upgrading to iOS 6 from iOS 5 only

texts:
I'm in need of updating the iOS on my device from 5 to 6 only (for test purposes). I already have iOS 7 on another device.

Does anyone know how this can be done?

The only option I can currently see is going to iOS 7 and then back down to 6. The problem I have is I don't want to find out it's not possible once iOS 7 is running.


texts: external disk still spinning after ejecting during encryption

texts:
I was recently fiddling with my external drive and retroactively encrypting the partitions. I have two on there, one from my previous 2010 macbook, and my current 2015 macbook. For the 2015 one, I followed CCC directions and encrypted by using it as my startup disk and turning on FileVault2. For the 2010 version, since I am not using it as a bootable clone (I couldn't even if I wanted to because of hardware incompatibilities... unless I really had a strong urge to), I read that I could just encrypt it by right-clicking it from my desktop and selecting "Encrypt".

The problem is, I was spaced out and ejected the entire disk while encrypting the 2010 partition (2015 was completely finished). I have no way to tell if it was still encrypting but it was a couple minutes after it told me to restart to continue with the initial (2010 partition) encryption. Even though I didn't encrypt the FileVault2-way (again, for the 2010 partition), I presume it still takes a considerable amount of time. But, there's not indication of when it's done! Now, when I eject it, the disk won't stop spinning.

The good news is, I never physically unplugged the disk from it's USB connection. So perhaps it's still doing it's thing behind the scenes? Please help.


texts: Can I make aol.com my default email reader in Mavericks instead of Mail?

texts: An AOL rep reset my Safari, and since then, whenever I hit commandI it brings up mail instead of italicizing words. How can I change back?


texts: How to override DNS resolver ordering while connected to L2TP VPN

texts:
OS: macOS Mojave 10.14 (18A389)

Current network setup:

Local domain: home.rossipedia.com
Subnet: 172.16.10.0/24
Gateway / DHCP server / DNS server: 172.16.10.1

Output of scutil --dns:

DNS configuration

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : home.rossipedia.com
  nameserver[0] : 172.16.10.1
  if_index : 21 (en8)
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00020002 (Reachable,Directly Reachable Address)

resolver #2
  domain   : local
  options  : mdns
  timeout  : 5
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000000 (Not Reachable)
  order    : 300000

... (mdns common stuff)...

DNS configuration (for scoped queries)

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : home.rossipedia.com
  nameserver[0] : 172.16.10.1
  if_index : 21 (en8)
  flags    : Scoped, Request A records
  reach    : 0x00020002 (Reachable,Directly Reachable Address)

This works fine. I can find *.home.rossipedia.com hosts without issue.

However, the moment I connect to a L2TP VPN, my system gets reconfigured to use the VPN DNS servers to resolve hosts on my home search domain.

$ scutil --dns
DNS configuration

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : home.rossipedia.com
  nameserver[0] : x.x.x.x  <- VPN DNS SERVER 1
  nameserver[1] : x.x.x.x  <- VPN DNS SERVER 2
  if_index : 23 (ppp0)
  flags    : Supplemental, Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000003 (Reachable,Transient Connection)
  order    : 100000

resolver #2
  nameserver[0] : 172.16.10.1
  if_index : 21 (en8)
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00020002 (Reachable,Directly Reachable Address)
  order    : 200000

... (mdns common stuff)...

The scoped queries configuration looks right, though:

DNS configuration (for scoped queries)

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : home.rossipedia.com
  nameserver[0] : 172.16.10.1
  if_index : 21 (en8)
  flags    : Scoped, Request A records
  reach    : 0x00020002 (Reachable,Directly Reachable Address)

resolver #2
  search domain[0] : first.vpn.domain
  search domain[1] : second.vpn.domain
  nameserver[0] : x.x.x.x
  nameserver[1] : x.x.x.x
  if_index : 23 (ppp0)
  flags    : Scoped, Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000003 (Reachable,Transient Connection)

In my Network System Preferences, I have the VPN connection last in the Service Order dialog. If I move the VPN connection to before my ethernet connection, then my local DNS server doesn't show up in the resolver list at all (while connected to the VPN):

$ scutil --dns
DNS configuration

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : first.vpn.domain
  search domain[1] : second.vpn.domain
  nameserver[0] : x.x.x.x
  nameserver[1] : x.x.x.x
  if_index : 23 (ppp0)
  flags    : Supplemental, Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000003 (Reachable,Transient Connection)
  order    : 100000

resolver #2
  nameserver[0] : x.x.x.x <- these are the same as above
  nameserver[1] : x.x.x.x
  if_index : 23 (ppp0)
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000003 (Reachable,Transient Connection)
  order    : 200000

... (mdns common stuff)...

What I want:

Ideally, what I'd like to see when connection to a VPN is something like:

$ scutil --dns
DNS configuration

resolver #1
  search domain[0] : home.rossipedia.com
  nameserver[0] : 172.16.10.1
  if_index : 21 (en8)
  flags    : Request A records
  reach    : 0x00020002 (Reachable,Directly Reachable Address)

resolver #2
  search domain[0] : first.vpn.domain
  search domain[1] : second.vpn.domain
  nameserver[0] : x.x.x.x
  nameserver[1] : x.x.x.x
  if_index : 23 (ppp0)
  flags    : Supplemental, Request A records
  reach    : 0x00000003 (Reachable,Transient Connection)
  order    : 100000

  ... (mdns common stuff)...

This way I could resolve all *.home.rossipedia.com hosts via my local DNS server at 172.16.10.1, and any hosts on my VPN domain would be resolved using the VPN DNS servers.

I've tried changing the order of services in the Network pref pane, changing the local domain on the DNS/DHCP server, deleting and re-creating the VPN connection, nothing has worked so far.

Is this possible? Or am I misunderstanding how this all works?


texts: Major difference between High Sierra and Mojave

texts:
I have a MacBook Pro (2017) that have macOS High Sierra installed. Since Apple is going to release macOS Big Sur soon, the support (updates) for macOS High Sierra will end soon. What are the major difference between macOS High Sierra and macOS Mojave?
More specifically, what (major) bugs are introduced? What (major) bugs are fixed?


texts: How to automatically disable trackpad when I am coding with vim in iTerm2?

texts:
As the touchpad is bigger now, when I am coding in vim, my thumbs occasionally touch the trackpad and thus move the cursor to somewhere else, which is extremely annoying.
How to disable trackpad automatically when I am typing, or else how to just disable trackpad in iTerm2?


texts: Vim 7.4 hybrid line numbers not working (installed via Homebrew)

texts: I recently discovered that Vim 7.4 enables a hybrid number mode, such that if you do set nu and set rnu, you'll see the absolute line number of the current line and relative line numbers everywhere else (see here and here). I set this up on a Linux machine and it works great. Unfortunately it's not working on my Mac (El Capitan). If I type :set rnu I'll get relative numbers with 0 at the cursor line, and if I then type :set nu it will switch to only absolute line numbers, unlike what I see on the Linux machine. I have Vim 7.4 installed via Homebrew. How do I get this to work? Do I need to reinstall with some particular setting?


texts:
Last week I started having problems with my Mac (a mid-2010 Mac Pro running OS X El Captain), after searching for the cause I realized my OS X partition was corrupt.

A while back I turned on FileVault, and 2-3 weeks later all of a sudden my Mac started slowing down. In the end, 5 minutes after booting up my Mac simply froze, I wasn't able to do anything any more.

I decided to reinstall OS X but to my horror I realized that I couldn't select my original disk any more. No matter what I tried (I even booted up using a Windows 10 install disk to remove all the partitions on the disk) , I couldn't get OS X to reinstall on the same disk.

I finally gave up, installed it on the 2nd disk, installed Paragon Hard Disk Manager which allowed me to finally create a new partition on the disk, and started using it as a data disk.

I thought I had solved the problem, until I wanted to turn on encryption on the disk. I got an error message, which Google told me meant I didn't have an EFI partition on the disk.

So I googled around for a solution, found one but it made everything worse. Now even Paragon Hard Disk Manager can't create a working partition any more.

So... How do I clean up this mess? I have a working OS X install, I just want to create another partition on my other disk and encrypt it...

How can I fix this?

Output sudo gpt -r show disk1:

       start        size  index  contents
           0           1         PMBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34        2014
        2048  1953519616      1  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
  1953521664        3471
  1953525135          32         Sec GPT table
  1953525167           1         Sec GPT header

When I first executed diskutil list the list said there was a "Microsoft Basic Data" partition" on  the disk. Probably the partition Paragon app tried to create:

/dev/disk1 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE               IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk1
   1:       Microsoft Basic Data                         1.0 TB     disk1s1

I'm not certain the disk isn't failing, but my current problem started after me trying to recreate the EFI partition, so I'm assuming it's still a logical problem rather than an actual hardware problem.


texts: Can't update Boot Camp in Windows 7 (MacbookPro9,1)

texts:
I've been looking for situations similar to these before posting, but failed to find any. When trying to install Windows 7 (64bit) through Boot Camp Assistant on Lion, the Windows Support Software download failed. Thus, I followed the instructions from this post and from this cafe-encounter.net page and downloaded the suitable package for my model (MacBookPro9,1). I then installed the package and all the drivers seem to be working properly. The problem is that now I can't install the 3.1 (and consequently the 3.2) Boot Camp updates available from Apple Downloads website.

When trying to run the update, an error message stops me from proceeding:

"The Boot Camp 3.1 Update requires Boot Camp 3.0 or greater. Please install Boot Camp 3.0 before proceeding with the install of the 3.1 Update."

I thought that maybe the Boot Camp version I just downloaded is the most recent one. But if that's the case, shouldn't the message be different? And if that's not it, then I'm out of ideas.


texts: macOS doesn't sleep when password is required 15 minutes after screensaver starts

texts:
I run macOS Mojave 10.14.6 on a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Early 2013). Except when specified, all settings and behaviours described in this post refer to the Mac connected to a power adapter.

My Mac is configured to sleep after 20 minutes of inactivity. The display is configured to sleep after 8 minutes, and the screensaver is configured to start after 2 minutes.

The mac is also configured to require a password 15 minutes after sleep or screen saver begins. For clarity, this setting:

System Preferences > Security and Privacy > General

However, the Mac doesn't sleep when that setting (screenshot) is set to 15 minutes. It also does not ask me to enter the password.

What happens:

I stop interacting with the Mac.
After 2 minutes the screen saver starts.
Time passes: I've tested this waiting for several hours.
The mac never sleeps, and the display never sleeps either. The screensaver simply keeps playing.
I interact with the mac: move my finger on the touchpad, press a key.
The screensaver gets interrupted and I'm back to my desktop. I am not asked to enter my password.

It works fine with smaller time values: immediately, 5 second, 1 minute and 5 minutes. With those values, the mac goes to sleep as expected (the display sleeps, I assume the mac sleeps as well), and when woken it's locked and it asks me to enter my password as expected.

I haven't tested it yet with larger values (1 hour, 4 hours, 8 hours), but I'll update the question when I have.

This are my pmset -g values when connected to the charger:

System-wide power settings:
Currently in use:
 standbydelaylow      4200
 standby              1
 womp                 0
 halfdim              1
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 powernap             1
 gpuswitch            2
 networkoversleep     0
 disksleep            0
 standbydelayhigh     4200
 sleep                20
 autopoweroffdelay    28800
 hibernatemode        3
 autopoweroff         1
 ttyskeepawake        1
 displaysleep         8
 highstandbythreshold 50
 acwake               0
 lidwake              1

I've also discovered that on battery power nothing works. The screen saver doesn't even start. The battery power pmset -g values:

System-wide power settings:
Currently in use:
 standbydelaylow      4200
 standby              1
 halfdim              1
 hibernatefile        /var/vm/sleepimage
 gpuswitch            2
 powernap             0
 disksleep            10
 standbydelayhigh     4200
 sleep                10
 autopoweroffdelay    28800
 hibernatemode        3
 autopoweroff         1
 ttyskeepawake        1
 displaysleep         2
 highstandbythreshold 50
 acwake               0
 lidwake              1


texts: How do I enable ntpd to serve ntp clients (using macOS 10.14 Mojave)?

texts:
So on macOS High Sierra 10.13, this answer worked fine: How to enable ntpd to server ntp clients (using High Sierra)

Now I am running macOS 10.14 and they have removed both ntpdate and ntpd-wrapper (which was what the org.ntp.ntpd-legacy.plist LaunchDaemon was using).

Is there a solution to configure a similar ntp relay with macOS 10.14?

I am using a Mac Pro (Late 2013) which has 2 ethernet NIC's, and have one NIC with internet access, which is syncing to time.apple.com.  I need the second NIC that does not have internet access to act as an ntpd server for the devices on the private network segment that does not route outside it's private LAN segment.


texts: My WD drive is not showing in finder but I can see it in disk utility with a grey color

texts:
I can't see my external Hard Drive in finder but i can see my hard drive in disk utility but in a grey almost transparent color. When I try to run a "first aid" this is what i get as an error:
Running First Aid on “BENJA'S HD” (disk2s2)

Repairing file system. Volume is already unmounted. Performing fsck_exfat -y -x /dev/rdisk2s2 Checking volume. Checking main boot region. The volume  could not be verified completely. File system check exit code is 1. Restoring the original state found as unmounted. File system verify or repair failed.
Operation failed…

Any idea what I can do? thanks!


texts: MacBook Pro crashing a few minutes after connecting an external monitor

texts:
I have an early 2013 15" MBP which I almost always use while connected to one or two external monitors (and have successfully done for years). Today, however, it crashed out of the blue — all screens went black, playing music stopped... only the keyboard backlighting stayed.

After troubleshooting some, I've noticed that:

If I start the laptop without an external display connected, everything works fine.
If I plug in an external monitor, after 20 seconds or so, the computer will crash as described above. I've tried three different monitors, and tried connecting via both Thunderbolt and HDMI.
If I reboot after the above crash, I hear the startup chime but I never get to the Apple logo.
If I power down the computer and let it sit for 5-10 minutes after a crash, it once again starts up fine.

I thought I'd try booting into safe mode to see if it was a software issue, but if I hold the shift key down during start up, the Apple logo shows for a bit and the machine crashes.

Any ideas? I'm worried about the computer needing a new graphics card or logic board but I thought I'd investigate all the options. Thank you!


texts:
In this MacWorld forum thread aliases are described as

  Aliases can reference an object in the file system either by a
  persistent ID or by path. Generally they will contain both
  pieces of information.

Is there a way to access the persistent ID an alias is pointing to with either AppleScript or bash?


texts: Refresh Calendar.app with correct Exchange-account data

texts:
In the Calendar.app on OS X I sync some calendars with an Exchange-account. When I look at the same calendar in Outlook all calendar items seems to be correct, but in the Calendar.app some items has the wrong date. I would like the Calendar.app to refresh so that it is equal to what I can see in the Outlook calendar, but normal Refresh does not help.

Are there any workaround that could fix such an issue?


texts:
Like in the title, I've used ShadowKiller (very old but worked until 10.11) but it doesn't work in 10.11 and 10.12 as well (tried disabling SIP).

I've tried using the command line trick, toggle-osx-shadows from github and couple of others, it seems that something changed in 10.11

Does anybody have a solution?


texts: How do I import an old pre-.itl iTunes LIbrary into Catalina Music.app?

texts:
I want to open an iTunes library I created a long time ago (2012, 10.8 Mountain Lion) in Catalina’s new Music.app. Option-clicking Music.app gives me the option to open a pre-existing library, but when I navigate to its location in the file requester, there’s no .itl file to select. There’s an .xml file, but it’s greyed out.
I assume the library was created before .itl files existed and not opened up with a newer version of iTunes since, and hence not been updated. How do I open this library in Music.app?


texts: Is there a native/cocoa REST client for Mac OS X?

texts: I'm looking for a cocoa REST client for the OS X. I prefer something native so that I'm not in the terminal interface and not looking for any browser extensions.


texts: Netboot Image - Where is the user generated data stored

texts:
I have a OS X Lion Server hosting netboot images. I also have a 10.8 Server for creating 10.8 images, but am hosting all images from one 10.7 NetBoot server.

When a client machine boots a specific net boot image, my understanding is that it copies at least the most necessary parts of the image via network and stores it somehow on its local resources.

Does it only store the data in the RAM or does it save data locally?

Where is newly generated session data stored? On the Server or locally ?


texts: How to change volume of "say" in AppleScript?

texts:
Here is a line from my AppleScript that speaks the selected text:

set this_say_Pid to do shell script "LANG=en_US.UTF-8 pbpaste -Prefer txt | say > /dev/null 2>&1 & echo $!"

I would like the speaking volume to be much lower. I would prefer not to accomplish this by decreasing my overall system volume.

I can successfully decrease the volume of say in Terminal with the following code:

say "[[volm 0.35]] This is a sentence"

But, when I insert [[volm 0.35]] in my do shell script string, the volume does not change.


texts: MacOS Automator: Save new text file in current folder

texts:
I am trying to write a simple Automator service to merge selected text files. I’ve nearly got it, but I am running into one problem.

I want to create a new text file from the combined output of the selected files. When I add the New Text File action, I can only set the Where location to a particular folder.

If I want to create a new folder, I have the option of Same Folder as Input. This does not appear for new text files.

How can I save a new text file to the same folder as the selected files?


texts: El Capitan Terminal.app keeps showing overlay

texts: New terminal in El Capitan keeps showing this annoying overlay with tmux commands describing my current tmux session. How do I turn it off?


texts: unable to indent / shift right multiple lines of text in textedit

texts:
New to mac and am not able to highlight and indent multiple lines of text using textedit.

I see many solutions that seem to only apply to older version of OSX / text edit.

Command + ] is functionless in text edit.


texts:
I have 15 inch macbook pro , i am facing issue with keys , option key is automatically pressed and becoming active all the time when i press any key in marked red zone in image . the Left Option is not working and Right Option key is working , when i press twice option key , than it is inactive (i tested after enabling hot key from preferences ) .

Here is the keyboard image

for ex. if i press Space key or right shift or enter then Option key is becoming active .

What is the possible fix for this ??


texts: Is there a difference between iPhone LTE band support and carrier compatibility?

texts:
I have an unlocked iPhone 5s model 1533 GSM which supports LTE bands 3, 7, and 19 (800, 1800, 2600 MHz) as per this page: http://www.apple.com/iphone/LTE. These are the bands used in Spain (http://prepaid-data-sim-card.wikia.com/wiki/Spain). However, the Apple page suggests that even though the 1533 model is compatible with these bands, it is not compatible with Spanish carriers and instead you need model 1457. Note also that model 1457 is not listed as compatible with Canadian carriers even though it is compatible with the LTE bands used here (700 and 1700 MHz).

Does this mean that although the Spanish LTE frequencies are supported, the phone will not work on LTE in Spain because the carriers aren't supported on model 1533?

Or does it mean that although not officially supported, the 1533 model will work with Spanish carriers if I purchase the appropriate sim in Spain?


texts: Upload Photos to iCloud Photo Library on iPhone only when plugged in?

texts:
I'm running into issues with my battery draining quickly (iPhone 6s with iOS 11) and it appears that Photos is the culprit (based on % battery use) presumably from uploading photos to iCloud Photo Library (with ~150k items).

I can manually 'Pause Updates' by going into Photos. Updates are also paused when in Low Power Mode — both of these are helpful. However, when I plug in the phone to charge and it gets back to 80%, Low Power Mode turns off and iCloud Photo Library updates resume, and my battery quickly drains again.

It could be that the battery just needs to be replaced. The capacity is above 80% and the iPhone reports that the batter is ok.

Is there a way to to configure Photos to only update iCloud Photo Library when it is plugged in and not to update when it is on battery power?


texts: How can I delete a custom ringtone exported from Garageband, after Garageband has been reinstalled?

texts:
A year ago, I downloaded the Garageband app to my iPhone 6S for the sole purpose of exporting a custom ringtone. I followed the instructions listed on Apple's website and then deleted GarageBand, as I no longer needed it.

I now would like to delete this ringtone. Apple's instructions say this can be done within Garageband, but after redownloading Garageband and following the instructions, I am told I have no previously-exported ringtones!

I assume this is because I previously deleted Garageband? Something else? How can I delete this ringtone?


texts:
My lock-screen has a SIRI suggestion to play a podcast.  I turned off Settings/Siri & Search/Suggestions in Lock Screen, but that didn't get rid of it.

How do I remove it?


texts: Strange lines and glitches appearing on screen on a Macbook

texts:
Lately I've been witnessing this weird visual glitch on the screen of my MacBook (non-retina 2012, hi-res screen):

I have had to take a picture of it because whenever I try to take a screenshot it goes away right before the screenshot is taken.

I thought this glitch only happened when I had Adobe Illustrator open, which is when I would see it appear more often, but I've now also caught it in situations where the application was not running (the picture above is one of those cases).

I cannot pinpoint the exact cause of this and I cannot tell whether it's a hardware or a software issue, but I can only say it's not one of those flickering effects that appear for a second and then vanish. This is actually very persistent and will only go away when I switch to another application or in some way move the current window.

Does anybody know what this is and what might cause it?

Here are more pictures:


texts: Suddenly Siri started to drain battery on iPhone SE (iOS 12.3.1)

texts:
About 4 days ago I noticed a firm and steady battery drain on my iPhone SE, that the Settings attribute to Siri (see screenshot below).

I did not (or don't remember doing) do any changes in settings at that time.

I installed a few apps recently, so I deleted some of them and offloaded the rest.
I also disabled some Siri related settings (like suggestions).
Apparently (some of) the above stopped the drain for about an hour, but then it continued. So... looking for solutions.

I almost never user Siri. Like once a week maybe, usually even less. (I use it mostly for testing as in "I wonder if Siri can do this" - the answer is usually "no, it can't")


texts: Where is my login picture saved? I would like to use it for other apps but cannot find it under pictures or in any other document folders.


texts: Handbrake x264 encodes .m4v/.mp4 not accepted in iTunes

texts:
It seems like every once in awhile, when using Handbrake to encode a DVD rip to x264 with either the mp4 or m4v extension, I can't add the resulting file to my iTunes Library. When dragging and dropping, the Library window highlights like it's going to accept (If you try to drag an unsupported file, the window doesn't highlight, and the thumbnail you're dragging flies back to the original folder).

If I rip a handful of movies and do an overnight encode session, in the morning some of the files can be added to the library, some can't. I have to re-do the ones that don't work.  Is there a way to found out what the problem is? An iTunes setting that will output what it doesn't like about certain files? A piece of software that can validate the files?  The resulting files play in VLC and Quicktime Player regardless of if they're added to my iTunes Library.


texts:
I think it’s bad enough that you can’t properly change the default font (not just the size) in the Notes App.

I have got used to selecting all and changing the font manually. However, if I press Return at the end of a line, and wait more than a second, the font reverts to the default, rather than the font of the previous line. If I’m quick enough, the font is the same as the previous line.

How can I get the notes app to stick to the chosen font?


texts: Standalone app from url run in Chrome conflicts with Chrome itself

texts:
The standalone app from http://music.google.com made by this script conflicts with the Chrome browser:

although the app uses a name „Music“ from info.plist in a dock, it continues to identify itself as Google Chrome in Activity Monitor and when opened in a Full Screen
so the two instances of the Google Chrome runs with the same name and id, and the Chrome Dock icon focuses the app instead of launching the Chrome.

The same app is identified as Music in dock while as Google Chrome in Full Screen and Activity Monitor:

How to force this app to change the name completely not to interfere with Chrome?

Details:

all the names in info.plist are set to „Music“: CFBundleDisplayName, CFBundleExecutable, CFBundleName
The app and the script MacOS/Music are both also named as Music.


texts: How can I change proxy for Firefox from Terminal app? Not the whole computer proxy settings (the ones in Network tab), but just Firefox's.


texts: PDF reader for Mac that handles bookmarks well

texts:
I have a couple of PDFs that are composed of scanned images of books. So there is no table of contents for jumping directly to the chapters. As a workaround I bookmark the page where a chapter starts, and use the list of bookmarks as a sort of index.

The problem with Mac Preview is that it doesn't allow to rename the bookmarks and by default all the bookmarks have the same name, so I can't tell which bookmark corresponds to which chapter.

As a alternative to Preview I started using Skim, which is very nice and covers all the features I want but Skim handles bookmarks weirdly. All the bookmarks from every single PDF appear together in the Bookmarks menu (regardless of which PDF is open) and I have to manually make bookmark folders for grouping the bookmarks by PDF's which is tedious and also simple drag and drop doesn't work somehow (turns all the bookmarks into the same bookmark).

I am looking for a alternative PDF Reader that can at least handle bookmarks in a normal fashion. Also if it can embed the bookmarks and highlights and notes into the pdf itself, so that when I transfer it to my other devices these bookmarks and annotations remain.


texts: Touch ID Unavailable After Sleep MacBook Pro

texts: I am using a 2016 MacBook Pro 15" (Model A1707). Whenever I put my computer on sleep, then wake it up, I find that I cannot use Touch ID to unlock my computer. The screenshot below shows the screen when I wake up the computer. How can I enable Touch ID after my computer is asleep? Thanks!


texts: macOS Sierra identifies my external Microsoft keyboard as my MacBook internal keyboard

texts:
My computer identifies my external Microsoft Sculpt keyboard as my MacBook internal keyboard. When I run "Change Keyboard Type..." in System Preferences, I get the error "You have pressed a key on your Apple keyboard. Please press the keys on the keyboard that can't be identified." Also, the modifier key custom preferences for my internal keyboard get applied to my external keyboard as well. Everything works fine when I boot into Safe Mode. I had other recent keyboard problems that I posted about here on this MacBook, and followed these instructions to no avail.

I have tried removing everything I found related to my uninstalled copies of Karabiner, Karabiner Elements, and Logitech software like the Logitech Control Center.


texts: Virtual machines to install for OS+Ubuntu+Windows

texts:
I have a MacBook Pro running OS X Lion 10.7.2, and I am going to install VMware to run virtual Windows.

I would like to use Ubuntu at the same time; is it technically possible? Do I need to install another virtual machine for that? In this case, which virtual machine is a best choice?

So ideally, I would like to use OS+Ubuntu+Windows, with a shared folder. Is it possible to adjust frequently the memory that a machine occupies?

PS: some info of my hardware:

Processor: 2.5GHz Intel Core i7
Memory: 8GB 1333 MHz DDR3


texts: Mac Wireless Keyboard - random key presses, possessed

texts:
As a tech guy, I am really baffled by what's going on with my keyboard. All search results point to the keyboard shortcut settings, but I have been hammering the "Set to Default" button in there, to no effect.

My keyboard is the Apple Wireless Keyboard, bluetooth with 2x AA batteries.
It has just turned 2 years old.

It all started with the ESC key that simply stopped working about a month ago. This was a few weeks before my warranty would expire, so I contacted the retailer, but they didn't want to provide any support, only suggesting I deliver both my keyboard AND MacBook to their repair center.

Maybe I would have done that, if I wasn't on the other side of the world. Now the warranty has expired, and problems are getting worse.

Could it be wireless interference? Some internal short circuit? Let me know if you know of anything similar.

What I have tried

Resetting Keyboard Shortcuts.
Toggling every Accessibility feature on and off again.
Changing Input Sources (keyboard layout).
Replacing batteries in the keyboard with a fresh pair of Duracells.
Remove pairing from MacBook and force re-pair.
Rename keyboard.
Boot my MacBook from a Linux USB. Keyboard is acting the same.

Other info

The issue has persisted through the upgrade to macOS High Sierra, but wasn't as bad before.
I do have a custom keyboard layout (made with Ukelele), and the issues started some time after that. However, I have tried switching and removing my custom keyboard layout (so none other than the default layout is enabled), makes no difference.
There seems to be nothing wrong with the built-in keyboard, it acts completely normal while the wireless keyboard is freaking out.
The only other bluetooth device I am using simultaneously is the Apple Magic Mouse - no issues there.
I have never spilled anything in the keyboard, or done it any harm - other than typing a lot, and hard.

Other symptoms

Typing the @ symbol (on my EU keyboard that's Alt + ') suddenly stopped working. Nothing happened, but without the Alt modifier, the ' key worked fine. And the Alt modifier was working fine with other keys as well. Sometimes the Audio Preferences randomly open up...

Then one day I was typing my password, and not being able to log in. Seems my P has magically started turning Caps Lock on and off.

Lately the keyboard's ESC key is working again, and it feels like the keyboard is either working 100% or acting crazy 100%. Meaning, in the beginning of this post my S key would append - and SPACE a z when typing, and seconds later I can type a full sentence with no interference.


texts: Force OS X to use Bluetooth dongle instead of built in controller

texts:
I'm using a Magic Mouse with my MacBook Pro and Mountain Lion. The cursor sometimes start to lag. I figured, the reason for this could be the distance between my Mac and the mouse (about 1.5 meters / 5 foot).

I bought an external USB Bluetooth dongle I want to plug into my monitor on my desk, so the mouse is closer to the controller. However, I can't figure out how to make OS X use the external dongle instead of the built in controller.

When I go into System Prefs > Bluetooth and hold the Option key to display the reception, I see that it is the strongest when it's next to my Mac and not when it's next to the dongle. So what can I do to change that? Thanks!


texts: I'm trying to figure out if I'm on IOS 7.1, 7.1.1, or just what?  I get 7.1 (11D167).  I'm thinking to attempt to use "pangu" to jailbreak my phone.


texts: iPhone screenshots have wrong date info on PC

texts:
I recently exported several screenshots from my iPhone SE onto my Windows 10 PC. I noticed some photos, but specially the screenshots, have a wrong value for the date taken and the date created.
The images on the phone have the correct date before exporting them.  They are only incorrect after transferring to the computer.
There does not seem to be a constant factor by which the date is off.  Sometimes, only the time is wrong and others both the date and the time are wrong.
For what is worth, the screenshots have a PNG extension while photos have a JPG extension and I have already check that the system clock of both my PC and my phone are set correctly.
Is there anyway to get these to offload with the correct times?


texts:
First-off, let me preface this question by stating that I know nothing to very little about computers, especially Apple computers. That being said, I have a MacBook Pro A1278 model. About a month ago, smoke started coming out of the top row of keys on the keyboard (not good at all - that much I do know); so, I powered it down. Then it would not power up at all. This morning, I tried plugging in the adapter and, lo and behold, it started to fire up. However, the progress bar only moves about a third of the way across before it shuts down again. It does this whether or not the adapter is plugged in or not, so I am thinking that it is not the adapter or the battery. If I continue to hold down the power button, it was going into my Desktop. However, as soon as I release it, within about 2 seconds, it shuts down again. Also, now when I continue to hold the power button down, it only makes it about halfway and then shuts off again.

Could it be my power supply? something else? Any advice would be greatly appreciated as it is a work computer. Thanks.


texts: Move HDD from a MacBook Pro (Mid 2012) model to another MacBook Pro (Mid 2012) model

texts:
I have a HDD from MacBook Pro (Mid 2012) model: OS: Yosemite; The content in the HDD is important to me.

I want to know If I can buy a MacBook Pro of the same model, Mid 2012, and simply hook the HDD in and get it running as it was in the original Mac.

I don't want to use the Disk Utility or a cloning tool to copy the content.


texts: How to adjust siri's volume so it will sound louder via earpod?

texts:
This happens lately and I don't know how to fix it.

When I  listen to podcast  using the app 'cast' with my earpod, from time to time I long press the remote to ask for some information. Let's say the volume of the podcast output is at 8 (out of 10), the siri answer will out very weak and feels like it is set to 1 or 2.

I have tried increasing the volume when siri is activated but it does not have any effect.

Is there anything I can do to increase siri's volume?

EDIT Add model and version info

The iphone is 6s (NKQN2ZP/A)

OS version is 10.2.1


texts: Mission Control to pin different Firefox applications to different desktops

texts:
Using Mission Control I create 2 Desktops. If I create 2 different Firefox launcher files (Firefox1.app and Firefox2.app), I want to pin one Firefox1.app to Desktop-1 and Firefox2.app to Desktop-2. So that when I launch Firefox1.app it opens up in Desktop-1 and Firefox2.app opens up in Desktop-2.

Currently if I pin Firefox2.app to Desktop-2 and then launch Firefox1.app, Firefox1.app directly moves to Desktop-2.

So Mac is able to understand that both these launchers are for the same application.

Instead of directly copy pasting and renaming the Firefox installation folder, I also tried to run Firefox as a different application using Automator as specified by this link.

But this does not work too. Please let me know if this is possible to do.

Thanks in advance.


texts:
I have a script which is passing values to a plist, it's work fine, but I would like to change some of the values without removing everything else.
I used to have a script for that but can't found it at all.

Here is my script which creating the value

tell application "System Events"
    set the parent_dictionary to make new property list item with properties {kind:record}
    set the plistfile_path to "~/Desktop/MY_DATA.plist"
    set this_plistfile to ¬
        make new property list file with properties {contents:parent_dictionary, name:plistfile_path}
    make new property list item at end of property list items of contents of this_plistfile ¬
        with properties {kind:string, name:"thename", value:theName}
    make new property list item at end of property list items of contents of this_plistfile ¬
        with properties {kind:string, name:"creationDate", value:creationDate}
    make new property list item at end of property list items of contents of this_plistfile ¬
        with properties {kind:string, name:"serialNumber", value:serialNumber}
    make new property list item at end of property list items of contents of this_plistfile ¬
        with properties {kind:string, name:"Email", value:fullEmail}
    make new property list item at end of property list items of contents of this_plistfile ¬
        with properties {kind:string, name:"IPAddress", value:IPAddress}
end tell

here is what I wrote for changing the value, but the issue is the plist will only have the new value and all the other properties would be removed

set theName to "demo"

tell application "System Events"
    set the parent_dictionary to make new property list item with properties {kind:record}
    set the plistfile_path to "~/Desktop/MY_DATA.plist"
    set this_plistfile to ¬
        make new property list file with properties {contents:parent_dictionary, name:plistfile_path}
    make new property list item at end of property list items of contents of this_plistfile ¬
        with properties {kind:string, name:"thename", value:theName}

end tell

how can I change some of the value without removing the others ?


texts: My MacBook Pro disconnects from the WiFi when not in use

texts:
I usually download large files overnight but recently I had my mac formatted so all the settings were lost. I not that much of a techie person and I tried adjusting the settings and all but I don't really know what I'm supposed to do.

After I start my downloads, I plug my mac to its power adapter and dim the screen. To my surprise, the wifi gets disconnected when my mac is not in use thus stopping all my downloads. HOW DO I PREVENT MY MAC FROM DISCONNECTING FROM THE WIFI?

Here are my energy saver settings and I currently use Yosemite:


texts: How can I delete pictures off Photo Stream to free up iCloud storage space?

texts: I have Photo Stream set up and my pictures show up in iPhoto on my Mac.  Do I have to import them to keep them permanently?  How can I free up iCloud space?


texts: Delete duplicate/older program versions from openwith - Mac Big Sur

texts:
As you can see here

I have so older versions of for example visual studio code. But how to delete them to only show one version?
I tried this tutorial from gadgethacks which didnt work because it is probably from 2014.
Does anyone know a fix for this? I tried googling which didnt bring me any good results.


texts: Moving several files to trash in Mac terminal without using rm, any plugins?

texts:
Looking for a way to:

Move several files to the Mac trash in terminal without using the rm, crazy regex,finder, or something destructive.

Today I realized I was just asking the wrong question.

Once I figured out it was just moving several files to "another directory" (in my case ~/.trash), this result came up in Unix & Linux.

I've modified a find command harvested there for my needs...

Continuing with the .zip example: Once you're in the parent directory, just run... find . -name '*.zip' -exec mv {} ~/.trash \;

My question is... Is there a way to do it with the trash plugin which has it's advantages like keeping "put back" alive?

Thanks in advance.


texts: Completely recover space from sparse bundle when "hdiutil compact" is not enough

texts:
Current situation: I have a large sparse bundle image whose size is reported as 91GB (cmd+I from Finder). Its contents, instead, are only 80GB. hdiutil compact does not shrink the image:

Starting to compact…
Reclaiming free space…
..............................................................................
Finishing compaction…
Reclaimed 0 bytes out of 25.6 GB possible.

So there are 11GB of space that I cannot recover.

How I got there: Before getting into this situation, I had ~27GB of smallish files (MP3s, from 2-8MB) that I deleted from the image. I then ran hdiutil compact, but it only recovered 16GB of those 27GB, leaving 11GB of wasted space.

Any idea? Google is failing me.


texts: Keynote - Random Elements and Shuffle Slides

texts:
In Keynote 6, if I have a slide with 2 images, how can I randomize the position of the images every time the presentation is run?

For example: Sometimes image 1 is at the top of the slide and image 2 is at the bottom. Sometimes it is opposite; image 2 is at the top of the slide and image 1 is at the bottom. Is this possible?


texts: Why does my external harddrive not work when attached to this USB3 Hub?

texts:
I own a Macbook Pro 15" Mid 2015 which supports USB 3.0 and bought a Western Digital 2TB external USB3 harddrive and a USB 3.0 Hub from Anker with external power supply.

When I plug-in the harddrive directly to the Macbook everything is fine.

When I plug-in an Apple Thunderbolt display to the Macbook's Thunderbolt2 port and then plug-in the harddrive to the USB2.0 port of the display, it works too but it's very slow due to USB2.0 limitation.

So I bought the Anker USB hub and thought it would be alright as long as it has an external power supply. But when I plug-in the hub to the USB3 port of the Macbook and then attach the harddrive to the hub it doesn't work. The drive gets mounted and unmounted automatically in OSX all the time.

Basically like this:

Macbook USB3 ------  USB3 Harddrive                                  OK!
Macbook TB2  ------   Display USB2   ------ USB3 Harddrive           OK!
Macbook USB3 ------     Hub USB3     ------ USB3 Harddrive      Not working :-(

What's going on?


texts: Should I change my MBP 13" early 2014 battery

texts:
I recently checked my battery cycles count: 942, this is very close to the limit 1000 as indicated by Apple https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201585

If it becomes 1000 do I have to replace it by myself?
I checked https://www.ifixit.com/ and I find that the process is a bit complicated. I live in france and the official Apple replacement service would cost me 229€.

Also can I still use the battery after the 1000 limit? Would this have any negative effects on other system components?


texts: Is there a way to test whether an iPhone (5s) is failing to work on certain frequencies?

texts:
A few weeks ago my iPhone (5s, T-Mobile) stopped roaming to AT&T "4G" towers.  It will still roam to older AT&T towers ("E", edge) and newer AT&T LTE towers.  I'm wondering whether there has been a hardware failure and my phone no longer works on the frequencies used by the AT&T 4G towers in question.

Is there a way to test whether my iPhone is still functioning properly on the frequencies used by the towers it is not connecting to?


texts: Serious problem with Time Machine (external HDD)

texts:
My Mac Mini (late-2012) got repaired by Apple, and the hard drive was reseted.
Now I want to restore the Mac Mini from my Time Machine Backup (on an external 1TB HDD), but it doesn't appear in the installation or migration assistant.
If I choose to set the Mac Mini up as a new device, I can see the backup in Finder, and it also looks complete (about 700GB for one Backup - pretty close to the storage before the repair). The backup was done completely and also the volume is working just fine. I also updated to 10.9.1 - so the current OS version matches the backed up one.
Any ideas? If I use CMD + R at start and select time machine backup it says there wouldn't be any OSX backups on the backup volume, if I use the migration assistant the "looking for sources" spinner just spinns and nothing happens or is found...

I really need this help because I need both important files from before but also the Applications, it would be really bad and much work for me if I had to restore the files manually - except the fact that the Applications are not shown in Finder...


texts: Hacked, possibly - has anyone seen this message before?

texts:
This afternoon, the touch screen of my phone became unresponsive. I tried to restart the phone but it would not. So I went on and deleted find my iphone profile because it stopped the phone from restarting. As soon that was done, my phone restarted itself. Then I saw the following message on my phone:

Has anyone had this problem before. What's the cause of it?

P.S. I have since reset my phone and changed my iCloud password just in case.


texts: How do I search for an email that might be in my Spam folder on iphone or ipad?

texts: If I got an email and it may be in my junk/spam folder, how do I search for it in that folder? (Or "how do I search for an email that could be anywhere, including in my junk/spam folder)


texts: Can’t click/drag MacOS notifications, which are transparent, have to restart Notification Centre

texts:
I have this problem on macOS Mojave (10.14.3, but it happened on older versions too)

Notifications are transparent and non-responsive to click/drag anything.

See screenshot:

If I kill NotificationCentre process it disappears or become "top-positioned" element on display so I can drag / click it like I normally would.

This usually happens if I disconnect my external display or wake from sleep.

Thanks for help!


texts: Can't establish a ssh connection to my Mac OSX Yosemite

texts:
I'm having a

ssh_exchange_identification: Connection closed by remote host

error when trying to ssh into my mac, from a linux VM

if I try with the verbose option I get this

ssh mac-user@192.168.1.11 -v
OpenSSH_6.6.1, OpenSSL 1.0.1f 6 Jan 2014
debug1: Reading configuration data /etc/ssh/ssh_config
debug1: /etc/ssh/ssh_config line 19: Applying options for *
debug1: Connecting to 192.168.1.11 [192.168.1.11] port 22.
debug1: Connection established.
debug1: identity file /home/linux-user/.ssh/id_rsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/linux-user/.ssh/id_rsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/linux-user/.ssh/id_dsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/linux-user/.ssh/id_dsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/linux-user/.ssh/id_ecdsa type -1
debug1: identity file /home/linux-user/.ssh/id_ecdsa-cert type -1
debug1: identity file /home/linux-user/.ssh/id_ed25519 type -1
debug1: identity file /home/linux-user/.ssh/id_ed25519-cert type -1
debug1: Enabling compatibility mode for protocol 2.0
debug1: Local version string SSH-2.0-OpenSSH_6.6.1p1 Ubuntu-2ubuntu2

I don't know what could be wrong, firewall options are ok.

Searching the web I found a temporary solution, disabling the "remote session" option and then using this command:

sudo $(which sshd) -Dd

Don't think its a propper answer.

This problem started when updating to Yosemite OSX.

Apreciate the help.


texts: What stylus is good for taking notes and writing equation

texts: I frequently need to take notes and write equations. I never draw any thing other than graphs, diagrams, etc.. like board works. I am not a painter. I bought an Adobe Ink for my iPad (not iPad pro). Tried to use in one of the Adobe softwares. It looks like that is very good to paint or sketch. But when I try to write some equation, often it jumbles up with subscript notations. It applies its intelligence to turn my x into n. iPad's own notes app works slightly better. Instead Microsoft Onenote works much better. But still even with onenote things don't work to my expectation. I thought I would be able to take notes straight away. But it is nothing close to that smoothness. If I write very slowly ike painting letters on the board then it somewhat works. Should I change my stylus for a better experience ? Are these styluses optimized only for painting ? What budget stylus is good for writing and taking notes ? Or if it is more or less same for all stylus then I would not bother buying another one.


texts: Is it possible to enable a horizontal/vertical level indicator in the latest iPhone Camera app?

texts:
When shooting photos on the latest versions of Android, you get a helpful level indicator:

Can I enable an equivalent level in the iPhone camera app? Note that this is not the same as enabling a Grid in the Camera app settings, as the Grid is static and doesn't indicate whether the phone is level or not. Perhaps its possible with a 3rd party level app that works in picture-in-picture mode? Or an alternative Camera app?
I'm using iOS 14.4 if that matters.


texts: No Voice Recording for Incoming Video on QuickTime On Mac

texts:
I have used Quicktime player on Macbook Air to record a Google Hangout video. I have noticed that it doesn't record the voice but only video. I am wondering if there are any settings that I am missing to make sure the audio also works with QuickTime.

If there are no settings, then I am thinking to record the video and audio in my iPhone voice memo together . Then is there a way to add the audio in the video recorder by QuickTime?

My options :


texts: Macbook Pro Retina Not Working on Battery, but fully charged and cycle count is low

texts:
I have an MBPR (15in) that is about 18 months old (no AppleCare). The battery has only 331 cycles on it, and Apple states it should last for 1000. The battery is fully charged, at 100%.

If I remove the power cord, the machine dies, like the battery is dead -- it completely dies, no sleep.

Consequently, if it is powered off and I turn it on, and then unplug it pretty quickly (before much s/w is loaded) it dies, just the same -- no sleep.

The light is green on the charger and the battery status shows 100%, but it also says it needs to be replaced. I tend to think the battery itself does not need to be replaced yet, but that something is preventing the machine from using the battery.

In About this Mac reports:

7377 charge remaining (100%),
fully charged: yes,
charging: no,
full charge capacity: 7450.

Does anyone have any knowledge of issues with this? I hate to have to sink money in this very well cared for MBPR.

FWIW I have tried an SMC reset and PRAM reset, a few times, ea.


texts:
How would I write the following as an AppleScript command without the use of bash scripting?

find / -file foo.txt

I might have the bash syntax wrong, but I want to search from the root of the drive for a specific filename.

I tried drawing multiple efforts from things around on the net, but I just need a simple "find" solution.


texts: macOS catalina no longer sends email if job outputs to stdout

texts:
After upgrade to macOS Catalina 10.15, I no longer receive emails from crontab jobs. Sometimes it's desirable, but in most cases I need to see these errors, so I could act on failures.

I know I can add to | /usr/bin/mail -s "crontab job" user@email.com to cron job to restore this functionality, but it's a hard way.

Adding crontab to Full Disk Access -- did not help, but realistically it shouldn't have.

Did someone managed to fix this odd behavior?


texts: Can I use a DC 60W 18v 3A solar pannel to power my macbook pro 15" retina mid-2012?

texts:
I have found this solar pannel ( https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/Suaoki-60-w-Panneau-Solaire-5-v-USB-et-18-v-DC-Sortie-Portable-Pliable-Puissance/32935273533.html?spm=a2g0w.search0104.8.83.3f714267rqy4Q1&priceBeautifyAB=0 ).

I am already using another one, smaller, for charging usb powerbanks while traveling and it does the job well.

I have now found a DC to magsafe 2 adapter that suits the 60W solar pannel.

The Apple DC power magsafe 2 for the Macbook has the follwing written on it : "Output - 20v / 4.25A max."

Is this solar pannel suitable ?

What should I be looking for when looking for power appliances to charge this Macbook ( W, v, A )?

Thank you for your answers.


texts: Add an extra line to addresses in Contacts in iOS?

texts: I need to add an address with more than 2 lines. Can I do it?


texts: Shell script to restart a certain process if it is not responding

texts:
I need an java application to run 24/7 on my mac. Unfortunately the JVM process sometimes gets stuck and thus the java application does not respond anymore.

Is there a possebility to detect if a given process has crashed (or at least is not in a proper running state) and restart this specific process subsequent?

I found

ps aux|grep java

which lists the java process (/usr/bin/java)

Now I need to know how to watch the process state codes and how to restart this particular process in e.g. a shell script.

BTW, the process state is T which means stopped as far as I know.

EDIT:
Unfortunately four suggestions didn't work on my machine. I configured an global agent and the jar is starting properly but the process still fails after a certain period of time. Strangely enough the process in activity monitor is not marked as not responding, whereas the context menu of the dock item does (see figure)


texts: Understanding how safe boot fixed a boot problem

texts:
Background

My friend asked me to look at her early 2011 Mac Mini with OS X 10.8.3. She said that:

she installed software updates
she couldn't remember which updates were installed
when the Mac restarted, it hung at the Apple logo with the spinning gear wheel.

I used Disk Utility to check permissions and the disk. Both checks found a few errors,  all of which were repaired. This did not help; after I rebooted, it hung at the same screen.

Several resets of the PRAM did not help.

Successes

A safe boot succeeded, the desktop appeared. I re-checked permissions and the disk; no errors.

Then a normal boot succeeded – this surprised me.

Question

Can anyone guess what was wrong and what was fixed?

Since it's not my Mac, and I don't know how it's really used, I can't guess.

I see Apple article HT1564, Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?, I'd like to understand more.


texts: How to pipe output of 'say' to another command

texts: 'say' has both -o and -n arguments for various ways to direct the output, but I don't see any way to simply pipe the output to another command (say, sox).  Is this a limitation of say, or is there a basic Unix shell feature that will do this?


texts: How to transform an Apple Mac Mini intro a reliable Ubuntu Server?

texts:
This question is about what steps are needed for transforming an Apple Mac Mini into an Ubuntu server.

Here are some areas:

installing Ubuntu and making it to be bootable from EFI by default
enabing CPU and fan control (by default it does not work)
be sure that it will power on after power failure
SSD configuring (assuming that the primary disk is a SSD and that you may have a HD as the second disk, nobody needs the DVD drive).


texts:
I have a MacBook air from 2015 and as of this morning I have not been able to save my Word documents (Word 2016). I've never had issues before.

When I press save on a new document, a message pops up saying, "The file “Documents” couldn’t be opened." Why is this happening?


texts: Is it possible to disable the interlocutor's video in BlueJeans Prime for iOS?

texts:
I use BlueJeans Prime for videoconference on iOS 11 (iPad). When in a videoconference, is it possible to disable the interlocutor's video?

The motivation is to reduce the network usage.

For BlueJeans (not Prime), one can swipe up, which will activate the "low bandwidth" mode:

Swipe down to go back to the normal mode.

That doesn't work  for BlueJeans Prime.


texts: How to add characters to the press and hold character picker in OS X Lion?

texts:
In OS X Lion, there is a very useful feature for people like me who need to write in multiple languages, which pops up a small menu of additional characters when you hold down a letter.

For instance, when I hold down the letter E, I get:

This is great when I'm writing in French for example. However right now I need to write something in Czech; however, the Czech letter ě (looks like the 3rd letter in the popup with the accent flipped) does not appear in the popup.

Is there a way to tell OS X to include Czech or other additional characters in those popups?

Note: I do not want to use the Czech keyboard layout; I found switching layouts for each language is somewhat unpractical.


texts: Game Hangs When Moving External Mouse, Works Fine With Trackpad

texts:
I have a Logitech external wired mice connected via a USB type-c hub. When I play this game called "Insurgency" and move the external mouse, the game starts hanging - FPS drops significantly, and gets fine as soon as I stop moving the mouse. It shows no problems with the trackpad, however. This doesn't happen always, rather only around 70% times.

I've installed the latest Logitech G Hub app and the OS, Steam and the game itself are up-to-date. What could be the issue?


texts: Importing songs from folder, ignoring existing ones

texts:
I recently rebuilt my iTunes library by creating a new one, and simply dragging & dropping my "Music" folder (with about 1,000 MP3s etc.) into it.

The folder that contains the music files is organized in sub-folders by artist, and then sub-folders by album.

However, the import process seems to have been incomplete: many songs and even directories are missing, i.e. they are present in the physical folder, but not in the iTunes library.

Is there a way add the missing files from the folder, while ignoring the items that are already in the library?

I have done extensive re-tagging and renaming in the iTunes library since the import, so just starting from scratch (deleting the library and fetching everything into iTunes again) would be a very painful option.


texts: Prevent files in a folder from being moved?

texts:
On a Mac, is there a way to prevent files in a folder X from being moved by any means (by the Comd+C then Comd+Opt+V on Finder, or by mv command on the command line, or by other apps etc.) to another folder Y, but still allow files to be written/added to the folder X, and still allow files to be copied from the folder X?

If needed, please answer specific to Mac 10.11 to 10.14, and take into account both HFS+ and APFS file systems.


texts: Is the i7 2.2GHz MacBook Pro worth the price difference with respect to the 2.0GHz model?

texts:
I am a software developer and I'm considering getting a 15" MBP as my development machine.
I would mostly use that laptop to code with Java and I probably won't be playing much on it, so having the 6750M video card is not that relevant (although it would be nice to have, of course).

Would you still consider the 2.2GHz model just for the CPU speed or it is not worth the difference price by itself?


texts: Can Mail warn when emailing certain addresses?

texts:
I have my own personal mail account (a gmail account) and my academic email account (a university account) as different profiles on my Mail application in OS X Snow Leopard. I sometimes forget to switch the outgoing account to my university account when emailing my students and it will send from my gmail account instead. This is not a huge deal but I would prefer to have my students never get mail from my gmail account.

Is there a way to have Mail warn you when sending to a certain address (or an address that has a certain keyward in it?)


texts:
I have recently read the article Should you leave your smartphone plugged into the charger overnight?

The article listed the following points:

  You can leave your phone plugged into the charger overnight without
  too much risk, provided it’s not a counterfeit charger, and you don’t
  let your phone overheat. For best results with your smartphone
  charging, here’s what to remember:

  Always use official chargers and cables, or certified alternatives from reputable brands and retailers.
  Don’t let your phone get too hot. Remove the case when charging overnight.
  For the longest battery life possible, try to keep your battery between 50 and 80 percent.
  Avoid letting phone battery completely discharge, and don’t charge it from 0 percent up to 100 percent too often.

Is this actually the optimum way of charging iPhones, iPads, MacBooks ?


texts: How to identify codec (AAC vs ALAC) used in an m4a file

texts: Given that the m4a format is merely a container, and can contain music encoded with a lossy (AAC) or lossless (ALAC) codec, is there a simple way to determine which codec was used for a given file?


texts: I'd like to remove my phone number from my iMessage account, but still have my phone enabled to receive messages sent to my email address (also used on iPad, Mac). Is there a way of doing this?


texts: Small font size with 1440p external monitor

texts:
I've connected 27" Dell U2715H to MacBook pro 2012 and have a default resolution 2560x1440. It looks nice but the font size is waaaay too small, so I had to lose some of this niceness by scaling down to 2048x1152.

I wonder is this a usual thing people do? I know this kind of displays (27" 1440p) are popular as an external MacBook monitors. As far as I know, it's not possible to change the global font size. I can't imagine how people go along with this tiny text by default with 1440p.

UPDATE:

a good question came up in comments about what do I consider a tiny font size, it's a good point, here's how it looks (full screen snapshots):

Default 2560x1440: https://i.imgur.com/HWz3N14.png
Scaled down 2048x1152: https://i.imgur.com/neyt4r1.png

My eyesight isn't perfect so I asked my colleague who wears glasses to take a look at it, he confirmed that it does look tiny


texts:
I am reviewing the answer here about Extracting embedded images from a PDF.
It is not in Homebrew.

How can you install pdfimages in OS X El Capitan?


texts: How to access locked notes with forgotten password?

texts: I've forgotten my Notes.app password and the hint I left myself is no help. I have the ability to reset the password in Settings, but all my old notes that used the old password would remain locked. Is there any way that I can access these locked notes? I'm thinking of the sort of program that tries different different combinations of characters until it figures out the password like you would see in a hacking movie if that's real.


texts: How to paste (⌘V) when it only works via context menu but not via keyboard

texts:
I have found the same issue with other apps too, but this is the one I remember. So, I am not sure if it's an OS level issue or an app issue.

I using an app named "4k Video Downloader" (it downloads youtube videos). When I edit the name of the file before saving it, I am unable to paste text with ⌘V but I have the option to paste in the context menu. I have also observed that the app does not have an edit menu on the menu bar. Am I unable to paste via the keyboard as the app does not have edit in the menu bar or is it some other issue?

This is an observation that I have made and as a new Mac user, I just trying the OS better. This is not a support request for "4k Video Downloader". I have observed this in other apps too, but I decided to dig into it after I observed in this app.

Below is the screen grab in case, I have not explained the issue concisely.


texts: Screen capture not working for satellite view of Maps

texts: I'd like to know if it's possible to take a screen capture of the satellite view of 'Maps' on my iPhone 6. It doesn't respond using the Home and Sleep buttons.


texts: USB Drive with Mountain Lion Boot-Up Problem

texts:
I've tried a few ways to restore the Mountain Lion InstallESD.dmg to a USB hard drive to reinstall on my Mac Mini. I've used Disk Utility Restore, Lion Disk Maker and Carbon Copy Cloner.

Each method gives me the same outcome: When booting I get the infamous circle with the slash and spinning gear.

I've tried to boot up with the same USB on multiple macs and they both have the same outcome. And yes, the Macs I'm trying it on have the compatibility to support Mountain Lion.


texts: Remote control from one iDevice to another iDevice

texts:
So what I'm trying to achieve is using my iPad 2 as a media player and I want to be able to control it from my iPhone so I can leave it playing music/movies and I can control the volume, play and pause it without having to manipulate the iPad.
Is this possible? Is there any app that allows to control an iDevice from another iDevice? Please advise. Thanks in advance.


texts: Choosing the default application does not stay as default after reboot

texts:
When I'm opening .avi files, I want to open them with VLC Media player, when right clicking the item, I see this:

As you can see QuickTime is the default player, I want to change it to VLC, so I change it:

After changing it, every .avi I open gets opened by VLC, however, when I reboot my Mac, the default goes back to QuickTime... how do I prevent this and keep VLC as the default.


texts: LaunchPad totally disorganised after reboot OS X Yosemite

texts:
Running Yosemite 10.0 with a clean erase and install, when I reboot, all my launchpad apps are totally disorganised, folders and un-official apps disappears...

After reorganizing the layout twice, I don't want to keep sorting my launchpad every time I restart my Mac.


texts: Difference between installing an application on OS X and Windows

texts:
I've been using Windows for many years so far but just started using a MacBook with OS X.

As far as I'm concerned when I install applications on Windows they just go into Program files (by default). App preferences usually stored in user's folder and probably in the registry.

How do apps get installed on OS X? Do they just go into /Applications directory? Where are the preferences stored? And how using a package manager such as homebrew is different from simply dragging an app to /Applications?


texts: Does iOS 9 update require iOS 8.4.1 to be installed first?

texts:
At work I have 3 devices to experiment with today: An iPhone 5, an iPhone 6, and an iPad mini.

The iPhone 5 had iOS 8.4.1 installed on it. Early this afternoon (US Eastern time zone) iOS 9 showed up on the iPhone 5 as an update.

My iPhone 6 and iPad Mini both have iOS 8.4 on them (Not 8.4.1, 8.4). Software update on both devices offers to update to 8.4.1.

After about an hour of waiting, I decided to try installing 8.4.1 on my iPhone 6. Sure enough, once I was through the install process and actively online, I'm offered an update to iOS 9.0. My iPad mini still shows the next update as iOS 8.4.1, not 9.0.

WTF? These are big, time-consuming updates. It seems silly to have to download and run the full install process for an intermediate step update.

Is this how Apple does over the air updates to iOS 9? I thought Apple bundled updates into a "combined update?" but don't see a way to do hat other than downloading the install image and using iTunes to update over USB.


texts: How to fix broken macbook pro retina 2015 key (key cap, clip and little nub are fine)

texts:
So the n key on my macbook is broken.
There isn't an issue with the key cap or the scissor clip underneath the issue seems to be coming from the little sensor thingy underneath. I was fixing an issue with a different key and made the mistake of taking apart the n key to see how to put the other one back together.
Well, now I am left with a broken n key. Is this something I could fix myself, a hardware issue or a software one? I have tried all the other suggestions online about slow keys and enabling mouse keys but nothing is working.
After noticing the issue the n key would respond really slowly after being pressed and then the letter n would appear randomly when I typed, but now it isn't functioning at all.
Currently typing by using cmd+v to paste the n.
Any help would be appreciated, thanks in advance!


texts:
I have a website up and running on the Apache webserver, but the CGI scripts in /Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables will not run.  Instead, the text of the file loads in the browser instead.

I made the following changes to httpd.conf:

Added the following line to the LoadModules group:

LoadModule cgi_module /usr/libexec/apache2/mod_cgi.so
Uncomment the following line (by removing the #):

AddHandler cgi_script .cgi
Added this to the virtual host file for the specific site:

<VirtualHost *:81>
    DocumentRoot "/Library/WebServer/Documents/"
    ScriptAlias /cgi-bin/ "/Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables/"
    <Directory "/Library/WebServer/CGI-Executables/">
    AllowOverride none
    Options +ExecCGI
    AddHandler cgi-script .cgi
  </Directory>
</VirtualHost>

I am able to run the Perl scripts from the command line without an issue.

Note: this is on High Sierra.


texts: Hide the clock on the iPhone 6+ lockscreen

texts: Is there no way to hide the clock on the iPhone 6+ lock screen?


texts: Mac book Pro is very slow on wifi connection

texts:
I have three computers in my home. My old computer is a lenovo w530 running windows 10 and my new computers are a 13'' and  15'' inch macbook pro 2015.

All computers are connected to the same wifi router.

if I connect my windows machine and my 13'' macbook pro to www.speedtest.net it report a internet connection speed of Download: 57.65 Mbps Upload: 57.96 Mbps

when I do the same thing on my 15'' macbook i see connection speed of Download: 3.2 Mbps Upload: 0.59 Mbps

Why is 15'' mac so slow for wifi as compared to my 3 year old windows and 13'' inch macbook pro?

Edit:: Here are the details requested below

RSSI: -37dBm
Noise: -93dBm
TxRate: 117 Mbps
MCS Index: 15
CountryCode: US


texts: Why are my Terminal.app colors different from iTerm?

texts:
I have set the ANSI colors of both terminals to be the same (see 1st screenshot), but the colors for Terminal.app are really bright, and almost unreadable, and not like the colors I set at all.

It's not just the prompt as well. Even with Vim the colors are different.

EDIT: It's like in Terminal.app, something is overriding colors. B


texts: Deleting a file on the NAS says "delete immediately" but it is still on the NAS's recycle bin?

texts:
I have a WD NAS, and sometimes I right click a file and choose "Move to Trash", a box pops up saying the file will be deleted immediately (and cannot be undone).  So I thought I released the space.

But later on, I found that the NAS actually has a folder called "Recycle Bin," and the deleted files are still there.  So, it looks like the space  is actually not released, and I have to find the Recycle Bin on different volumes and then delete the files.

That is kind of manual and low level and is hard to manage.  Is there a way to do it in the Dashboard or configure it so that it really is "delete immediately"?

P.S. I just found, what's more, if I move some files between Shares in the same NAS -- note that it is "moving", then the NAS actually decrease in storage, and I found the file in the Recycle Bin... so it is like a copy and delete. This makes it even harder to manage.

P.S. I found out Recycle Bin seems to be on a "per share" level, meaning each share can be configured to have a recycle bin or not.  If there is no recycle bin, then the file is immediately deleted and space released.


texts: I am curious how does iterm2 work? I mean it would be a gargantuan task to re-implement all the unix commands and I guess it somehow uses the built-in terminal under the covers to run the actual commands but how?


texts: Add video to camera roll without using iPhoto?

texts:
I have a bunch of video recorded and stored in Dropbox from another iOS device, I'd like to move this onto a new iOS device.

So far, the only way I can see of adding these videos to my Camera Roll is to put them into iPhoto on the Mac, add them to an album, then Sync that Album to the new device.

Any ideas?


texts: What is the safest, quickest and most efficient way to transfer then merge several photo libraries from an old iMac to a new iMac?

texts:
I have an iMac(2009) that has approx. 250gb of photos in 2 or 3 libraries. I would like to transfer all of the photos to my new iMac(2107) and then merge them into one master library. Due to the fact that the old iMac is running a High Sierra beta and the new one is not, I cannot simply use Migration Assistant. What is the safest, quickest and most efficient way to transfer then merge the photo libraries from the 2009 to the 2017 iMac?

I have seen posts suggesting the use of PowerPhotos. I have the app but I need to put the libraries somewhere that PP can access them. The iMacs are connected by ethernet cable an on same network...but PP is not giving me option to simply import the libraries through the app. Alternatively, what I have done is started to import all of the photos to a folder my Dropbox account. Once they are in there I can import them. I am looking for some suggestions on a better/faster/more efficient way. Thanks!


texts:
I have a NAS device attached to my router. I'm using it as a backup device for my Mac Book Pro. I'm getting the following error:

  The backup disk image /Volumes/SHARE-1/MacBookPro.sparsebundle could not be created (error -36).

I'm not sure what the problem is. The NAS device is a Buffalo external device with a SMB (FAT) format. Could this be the problem?


texts: I have an iPad Air 2 that is currently running iOS 8.2. When I search for iOS 9 it says that my iPad is up-to-date using 8.2. I plugged the iPad into my computer and looked through iTunes, same issue, says it is up-to-date. I've done a complete reset deleting all settings and media and it still says that it is up-to-date. Has anyone ever seen this issue or know a way around it?


texts: I have XAMPP on my Mac with El Capitan and the icon is strange and I don't like it. It is not the same one as I am used to, on my other computer running WIndows. How can I change it?


texts: Stop unwanted Keychain sync between users

texts:
Every now & then my mother has a login to some service on her iPad autofill with a login of mine. Initially I thought it was a few Keychain entries inherited as a result of a clumsy first handover of an old iPhone of mine to her (iPhone 3Gs in 2010). However looking at the passwords on Mum's iPad shows that passwords of mine are still syncing to her iPad, or have been until inside the last year, because there are accounts of mine that are less than a year old.
Things I've done...

Manually deleted a bunch of passwords of mine from Mum's iPad (while hoping that deleting won't sync back to my devices).
Checked Accounts on Mum's iPad for accounts of mine & found none.
Checked the Keychain on my Mac for passwords of Mum's & can't find any (making me think whatever is happening is one way).
Checked for devices associated with my Apple ID, where I found Mum's iPhone 7, which used to be mine (Mum inherits my old iPhones when I upgrade but bought her iPad for herself). I've removed that iPhone from devices associated with my Apple ID.

What other steps can &/or should I take to stop accounts of mine syncing to Mum's iPad?
If this was caused by Mum's iPhone still being associated with my Apple ID, can I expect passwords of mine to disappear from Mum's iPad now that I have removed it?


texts: Downloaded podcasts not being saved on iOS, unavailable when offline

texts:
I'm subscribed to a podcast using the default iOS Podcasts app. Whenever I open it and see a new episode I click both Save Episode and Download Episode. It does download the file but then it still shows the cloud icon in front of it. And if I go to airplane mode, that episode gets grayed out, which essentially means it wasn't downloaded.

I've tried this with several episodes during last month, and the app always behaves in the same way.

So I enabled Sync Podcasts and Automatically include *all* episodes of *all podcasts* in the iTunes sync settings on my PC and all those missing episodes magically appeared in iTunes on my computes showing as Unplayed - turns out it did save them, it's just it doesn't list them in the iOS app.

I also tried doing this the other way around - downloaded an episode through iTunes on my PC and sync'd the library with the phone, but that episode it downloaded still does not show up on the phone.

Though I do have one saved episode showing on my phone (the first one I saved), it has the cellphone icon in front of it. I did not do anything special, it's just it worked for that one episode and does not work for all others.

My iOS/iTunes settings are:

limit episodes = off
download episodes = all unplayed
delete played episodes = off
background app refresh = on
mobile data = on
sync podcasts = on

I found this question but it looks like a different issue because in my case the episodes are not getting saved at all.

It also does not seem to be checking for new episodes every 6 hours and does not issue any push notifications, as per the settings.

Am I missing something? Please help

UPDATE I tap "..." and select "Save Episode" and "Download Episode", which it does, but as soon as it finishes downloading, it never saves the file, and if I tap "..." again, it still offers me to download it. So I got really tired of this and deleted the whole podcast feed from my phone, but then it immediately re-appeared with most of those saved episodes marked as unplayed. Well, most, but not all of them - some of the items I can see on iTunes are still unavailable on the phone.


texts: How to login into Gamecenter without my password

texts: How do I login to Gamecenter without my password


texts: Using terminal, how can I install a DMG file without sudo rights?

texts:
All of the answers to this question Is there a command to install a dmg work for me in installing a DMG file from the command line.

But I don't want to have users need to enter the sudo password, it is inconvenient.

How can I extract a DMG file to a executable directory without sudo? Or is there no way to do that?


texts: Change Apple Analytics download format from CSV to PDF

texts: When I first started downloading Metrics reports, the download button gave me choices and I meant to click PDF, but accidentally clicked CSV format. Now it won't bring up the selection list, and I'm forced to download CSV reports. How can I switch it so I can download Metrics reports in PDF? Thanks.


texts: Applescript and Shell: how do I insert a variable?

texts:
I'm using the following code to set a Philips Hue bulb with specific hue, saturation and brightness using Applescript.  It works perfectly.

   set TurnOnBulbA to the quoted form of "{\"on\": true,\"hue\": 65535, \"sat\": 240,\"bri\": 90}"

I'd like to add a random color option.  This seems like it should insert a random number for the hue setting, but instead, it inserts the name of the variable:

set RandomNumA to (random number from 0 to 65535)

set TurnOnBulbA to the quoted form of "{\"on\": true,\"hue\": RandomNumA, \"sat\": 240,\"bri\": 90}"

How do I insert the generated number of the variable instead of the name of the variablel?

The following probably isn't needed, but I'll include it in case it's helpful to anybody.  It's the code that completes the above for turning on a bulb:

do shell script "curl --request PUT --data " & TurnOnBulbA & " http://myIPaddress/api/myhueID/lights/1/state/"


texts: App Compatibility doesn't work on iPhone 5c

texts:
The App Compatibility feature was designed by Apple to list the apps that won't work after a new update is released, and you can find it by accessing Settings > General > About > Applications.

It's supposed to look like this:

And like this:

As the owner of two iPhones, an iPhone 6 and an iPhone 5c both on iOS 10.3.3, both containing the same apps, I have seen App Compatibility function on the iPhone 6 and saw compatibility warnings for some apps, but cannot get it to work on the iPhone 5c for those same apps.

I am now away from the iPhone 6, and would like to make it work on my iPhone 5c.

This is what going to Settings > General > About > Applications looks like on my iPhone 5c:

I cannot click "Applications" on that screen, or get any info on which apps are not going to be compatible with iOS 11.


texts:
I have a macbook pro 8,1 that is having issues starting up. When I first turn it on, there is a small grey loading bar beneath the apple logo and loading circle. After the loading bar is ~20% done, it disappears. After this, the apple logo remains, and the loading circle continues spinning, but it stays like this for over an hour, until I eventually have to force shut it down.

I cannot boot into safe mode, but I can open up Apple Hardware Test, which after multiple passes has not found any issues (both regular and extended tests)

The DVD drive has had a disk stuck inside of it that cannot be removed, so I can't try to boot off a disk (even if I had one).


texts:
I posted this on the Apple forums but, as usual, it goes weeks and weeks without answers.

I have strange problem that has happened before but now is many times worse.  The issue is that I have a Mac Mini running High Sierra and it will stop publishing its shares to my network after between an hour and four hours (I haven't nailed this down exactly) and every one of my Mac's, regardless of OS version, will be unable to access the shares anymore.  If I try to connect to that system in any way from any computer it just tries for a few minutes and tells me it is unavailable.  One interesting additional issue is that when the computer stops publishing shares I can also no longer access the sharing preference pane, always getting the message "Preferences Error - Could not load Sharing preference pane".

This has happened before with much less regularity back when I had upgraded my "server" to El Capitan but it seemed to settle down eventually.

Coincidentally when this computer is in this "state" I can no longer shut down or restart, I have to physically power off the system to reboot it and get it to publish shares for another few hours or I can go to terminal and issue a sudo shutdown -r now and that will reboot it.

This may be unrelated but when this happens there is also a process i see in Activity Monitor that reports that "Login window" is not responding" which cannot be quit or force quit from Activity Monitor but can kill manually with a sudo kill in terminal (but killing  this and then it auto starting again doesn't fix the problem).

Before I erase what is my server (so thus a major issue to totally blow it away and start again) I wanted to see if anyone had some ideas.  I have booted into safe mode and gone into sharing and then shut down and I have reset the PRAM on the computer.

Today I watched Console as I tried to access the now-locked-up Sharing Preferences and did notice this message (not sure if this is relevant or not):

  ERROR: _willSelectSemaphore timeout! (com.apple.preferences.sharing)

Update: Today I've been really logging everything and watching the system constantly and found that if I kill SMB and restart it then everything works again, including unlocking the sharing pane. I use: sudo launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.smbd.plist and sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.smbd.plist

So it appears to be an SMB issue and I'm not sure what I can do to resolve it.  I did add a PLIST script to 'touch' the SMB process but have to wait that out to see if it does any good because it was actually a Mavericks fix that touching SMB would force it to restart.  I put it in Library/LaunchDaemon.


texts:
How can I get an iPhone to work in Israel and also transfer to it all the music and apps from my iPod?

I bought an unlocked 3GS iPhone and brought it to Israel. Initially, I put in my SIM card (from the company Cellcom) and it worked. Then, in order to get my apps and music, I restored the phone through Apple's service. After I did that, the SIM card no longer worked on the phone. I had no success unlocking the phone, so I am returning it to the seller. My question is:  what kind of phone should I get, and how can I transfer my apps and music to it without losing the ability to put in a SIM card?


texts: How to make a bootable disk from an image with Toast?

texts:
I read contradictory information, some say it’s possible, some say it’s not  and Apple’s Disk Utility is required.

I prefer to use Roxio Toast for its multi-purpose but I don’t want to waste blank disks.

So is it possible and if yes how to make a bootable disk (DVD or CD) from an image (dmg, iso, toast, cdr...)?

I also heard that it must be burnt at the slowest speed.