texts: How to disable Gatekeeper alerts on opening text files synced with Dropbox?

texts:
I use WriteRoom to create and edit text files on the Mac (10.8.2). I keep these files in my DropBox (v1.6.14) folder so that they're synced to the cloud and can be edited on my iOS devices and other computers.

I had Gatekeeper set to allow applications downloaded from the App Store and identified developers:

And when I tried to open text files in my DropBox folder with WriteRoom, I got this Gatekeeper alert (which doesn't seem appropriate for the type of file it is):

I found this annoying, so I set Gatekeeper to allow apps from 'anywhere'. But then I get this message on trying to open these files:

I don't really mind how Gatekeeper is set but I would really like to disable these annoying warning messages. Does anyone know why they keep appearing and how they can be stopped?

Thanks for reading.


texts: Audio Problems: Related to ReportCrash Continually running and SimulatorTrampoline?

texts:
Every ten seconds or so I get static on my audio with distorted sound.
In Activity Monitor I noticed that ReportCrash was consistently running.
Checking the system log I see a lot of messages like:
Feb  1 14:03:14 Steves-MacBook-Pro-4 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.xpc.launchd.domain.pid.mdmclient.5492): Failed to bootstrap path: path = /usr/libexec/mdmclient, error = 108: Invalid path
Feb  1 14:04:10 Steves-MacBook-Pro-4 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.mdworker.shared.08000000-0400-0000-0000-000000000000[76300]): Service exited due to SIGKILL | sent by mds[145]
Feb  1 14:04:13 Steves-MacBook-Pro-4 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.CoreSimulator.CoreSimulatorService[10386]): Service exited due to SIGABRT
Feb  1 14:04:13 Steves-MacBook-Pro-4 com.apple.xpc.launchd[1] (com.apple.CoreSimulator.CoreSimulatorService): Service only ran for 0 seconds. Pushing respawn out by 10 seconds.

To track this down I put in a little ps loop:
while (true) do ps -aef | grep CoreSimulator | grep -v grep; done;
This outputs:
  501 20410     1   0  2:06PM ??         0:00.05 /Library/Developer/PrivateFrameworks/CoreSimulator.framework/Versions/A/XPCServices/SimulatorTrampoline.xpc/Contents/MacOS/SimulatorTrampoline

Since these are started by the system process, it's not clear how it is started.
From my research, SimulatorTrampoline is a service that needs mic access. Could this be causing the audio problems?
Is this a common problem? How do I track down which process is starting SimulatorTrampoline?


texts: Time machine "Don't use" option on disk select

texts: I had time-machine set up to backup to a disk over a network (SMB mount) and all worked fine.  I then had some problems with the backup file (became inexplicably locked) and while I was trying to figure that out I clicked on the "Don't use" option in the disk select panel (big mistake as it turns out).  The disk disappeared from the list of those available.  I subsequently fixed the problem with the backup file.  I can now mount it and time machine can see it under "browse other disks".  Is there any way I can "undo" the "Don't use" option to make the disk visible again for use as backup?  I can't delete/re-install the remote disk so it would need to be something local.  Does anybody know where the flag that prevents that disk being displayed is located?  (I am running Mavericks on an imac).


texts: How to distinguish a terminal window currently connected via SSH?

texts:
I'm coming from Windows, where I used to use Putty whenever I needed to connect to a server via SSH.

On MacOS this is much easier, as I can ssh into the server directly from the terminal. This is nice, but comes with a caveat: I might have a few terminal windows open at the same time, and mistake a terminal opened locally with a terminal ssh'ed into a remote server (and make nasty mistakes).

Is there any way I can visually distinguish a terminal window connected via ssh, from another one on my local machine?


texts: Folders add up to more that total disk size

texts:
This is driving me nuts, on my new MacBook it initially had iCloud turned on by default and when I started copying the couple hundred gigs of files from my old MacBook to the desktop of this one it quickly ran out of space on iCloud. When I realized this, I didn't want to pay for storage so I disabled iCloud and that very scarily deleted all of my files off my desktop and actually brazenly moved them to the "iCloud Drive (Archive)" folder. After I realized all that and copied the files back to my Desktop, I just left this folder as a backup. But now a few months later when I look at the size of the folders in both Finder or with du something doesn't add up. It says Desktop is ~289GB and iCloud Archive is ~209GB, but the disk is only 466GB. And I recursively searched for symlinks in the folders to make sure they weren't any and didn't find anything, so I'm not sure what the discrepancy is? Thanks for your help.

wendy@Wendys-MBP:~$ du -hs -I Library *
      0B    Applications
    464K    Creative Cloud Files
    289G    Desktop
    288K    Documents
    8.0K    Downloads
    1.9G    Dropbox
     16K    Movies
    128M    Music
     12K    Pictures
      0B    Public
    136K    bin
    209G    iCloud Drive (Archive).old
wendy@Wendys-MBP:~$ df -h
    Filesystem                      Size   Used  Avail Capacity iused               ifree %iused  Mounted on
    /dev/disk1s1                   466Gi  438Gi   21Gi    96% 1192024 9223372036853583783    0%   /
    devfs                          188Ki  188Ki    0Bi   100%     654                   0  100%   /dev
    /dev/disk1s4                   466Gi  6.0Gi   21Gi    23%       6 9223372036854775801    0%   /private/var/vm
    map -hosts                       0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%       0                   0  100%   /net
    map auto_home                    0Bi    0Bi    0Bi   100%       0                   0  100%   /home
    darwin:/home/www/htdocs/wendy  458Gi  236Gi  199Gi    55%  364662            30166922    1%   /Volumes/wendy
    /dev/disk1s3                   466Gi  487Mi   21Gi     3%      37 9223372036854775770    0%   /Volumes/Recovery


texts: Migration assistant won't let me use an umlaut in the password for the encrypted time machine backup

texts:
I'm trying to restore a mac from a time machine backup. The time machine backup is found but requires a password and it happens to include one of those funny letters with an accent. The usual way to type those letters would be with option + u and the character you want the dots above, e.g. a. But when I click the option + u key I hear an error sound and no new character is added to the password field. Even ignoring that the password won't work as it likely doesn't write it out properly. I can't copy past things, there is no accessibility keyboard... it seems I am unable to write my password...
Any way I can solve this at all?
I tried typing the password into the username field in an earlier screen and copy it but the clipboard is empty or pasting is disabled in the password field here.
I also don't think you can remove/change passwords from encrypted backups even if you have the password?
Can I restore the computer with something other than the migration assistant?


texts: How to merge pictures using adobe acrobat?

texts:
I want to add 20 pictures onto one page (like a collage) using Adobe Acrobat.

What am I am going to do with this one page is print it so that it consists of all pictures (on a paper like the Polaroids) and hang it on the wall as a big one.

Someone did this before and I asked for the software and he told me it was done using Adobe Acrobat. But I've now opened it and don't know how to combine them all onto one page. If I did the using a collage app instead, it will certainly lose quality.

So if someone understands and knows how to do this, please help. Or if there are any other ways to do the same on a Mac (Photoshop, something else) please explain how as I have no idea where to start.


texts: Dimmed screen that is locked by password

texts: So my son was dimming his screen and then he locked his screen with a password. But the screen is dimmed so much it is black and cannot tell when to put in the code? Help


texts: How can I get Automator to mount a network volume?

texts:
I am writing an Automator "script" that rsyncs media on my 10.6.3 MacBook Pro to my Ubuntu 10.10 HTPC. I can make Automator run my shell script for rsync commands, but I can't make Automator mount the three volumes on the HTPC (folders for music, videos, and pictures).

I automatically mount these volumes when I login (these computers connect via a wifi network), but sometimes the HTPC volumes get unmounted, so I'd like to remount by default.

Is there a way to mount the volumes in Automator? I am open to shell scripting, too. Thanks!


texts: Why is Face ID on used iPhone X and XS often not working?

texts: I have seen plenty of used iPhone X and XS that say the phone works fine except Face ID. This made me quite curious as to why most iPhone X or XS have their face corrupted? Apparently it's a depth camera — are depth cameras more susceptible to faults?


texts: Until when is my device going to be supported?

texts:
I got a MacBook Pro 13 inch, mid 2012 version. I would like to know if Apple does discontinue support (e.g. OS updates) for devices and if so, how I can find out what the max is going to be for my laptop.

I found the following: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201624

Does this mean that devices will be supported until they have been out of production for 5+ years?


texts: Visible Hidden Folder Disappears After Renaming it to [Dot Underscore]

texts:
I was temporarily changing the name of a folder before moving it. The name I randomly chose was "._". The folder immediately disappeared and Finder would not allow me to undo the operation. (I know; bad convention, but it was going to be temporary, so didn't think it would be an issue.)

*** NOTE: Viewing invisible files/folders was already turned on before this incident. *** (I can still see hidden files except THIS one.)

Looking through Finder, the folder was no longer visible. It was also not indexable (of course) by Spotlight Search.

So, two questions...

Primarily, "How do I get it back?"
Why did this happen? Is "._" a reserved system name? Is this repeatable?

UPDATE: Language addressing $ cd into the wrong working directory was removed from OP to reduce ambiguity and verbosity. Corrected solution moved to answer section.


texts: Disable Calendar Location Correction in Yosemite

texts: In Yosemite, the Calendar application will automatically clean up addresses entered in the Location field of a calendar entry. Unfortunately, it does so badly. For example, an entry for Brasserie Zedel, 20 Sherwood Street W1F 7ED gets corrected to 20 Sherwood Street London England W1F 7ED United Kingdom, adding some information that's not needed (London, England and United Kingdom are all pretty much implicit) but deleting the crucial item, the name of the restaurant. Is it possible to disable this flawed autocorrection? Disabling general text autocorrection does not do the trick.


texts: How do I remove a ColorSync profile from a JPEG image from Terminal in El Capitan?

texts:
I have several images that I would like to strip the ColorSync profile from. Eventually, I would like to automate this in bash so I could easily process this on a file or folder from the contextual menu using an Automator service.

How do I strip a color profile from an image file using Terminal?


texts: Control haptic engine and force touch from terminal

texts: Is there any way that I can create haptic feedback with the integrated force touch trackpad on my rMBP using a terminal command (preferably without AppleScript, but if that's the only way, then sure.)?


texts: What port does iPhone native Facebook app use?

texts: The network at my place is using a proxy. So I have set up the proxy in iPhone. I can connect to the internet and access Facebook using the Safari browser without any problem. However when I access Facebook using the native app, it gives me a connection error. Why is this so? Does the native app use different ports instead of getting JSON objects through HTTP port? I am quite new to this, so bear with me.


texts: problem searching for text with in a pdf in iBooks?

texts: I have a very long pdf document in iBooks and it won't let me search for text in it. I click the search button, type what I want to search and nothing happens. This happens every time, no matter what I type. Please help.


texts: Is there a way to track a run with a map on Apple Watch 2?

texts:
As we know, the Apple Watch 2 has GPS and provides accurate distance and cadence information when going for a run, for example, even without an iPhone. However, I'm having trouble finding a way of seeing a map of where I ran. Is there an app or way to track a run (without an iPhone) and get/save a map outline as well?

I've tried the Workout app and RunKeeper.


texts: Isn't it redundant to have Versions as well as Time Machine?

texts:
Versions and Time Machine seem to me to offer duplicated features: both do hourly backups, and their interfaces for browsing previous versions of files are very similar.  The only difference I can see is that Time Machine backs up all files regardless of whether their associated applications support the TM interface, so even if the app I use to view the file doesn't work in TM, I still have backups of my files - whereas Versions has to be supported directly by each application.

I can understand having Versions' file and document versioning support there under the hood in order to enable multiple applications to open a single file without causing corruption - but why present this versioning system to the user when we already have Time Machine with the same features and a near-identical user interface?  Why use more disk space to provide the same feature twice?

Is there a crucial feature or use case for either Versions or Time Machine which means it makes sense to have both?


texts: MapMyRide contains erroneous points on occasion

texts: Usually my iPhone 4s and MapMyRide work well together, but occasionally I get weird records where the location recorded 'jumps' from where I really was to another location maybe 5-10 kilometers away - the track between true and false locations being recorded as a straight line. Is this a MapMyRide problem, an iPhone software or hardware problem, and how to fix?


texts: Can I still set my account picture to an image from disk in OS X Mountain Lion?

texts:
I can't seem to browse my hard disk for a custom image to use as my account picture anymore since installing OS X Mountain Lion.

The new popover shows that I can now only choose from the default set of pictures, pick something I've recently used, or take a new one with my Mac's iSight camera:

(I have no real inclination towards golf.)

There was always a Choose button in the panel dialog in previous versions of OS X, but now it's gone. Is there no way to browse my disk for a custom image anymore on Mountain Lion, or is there hopefully a defaults switch somewhere that I need to flip to enable it again?


texts: Email with attachment received in iOS Mail is converted to plain text

texts:
In iOS Mail when a user sends a message with an attachment (typically a pdf), the message is received in iOS Mail as plain text, prompting the user to 'Download as html'.
The server is Office365, and we are using HTML signatures via CodeTwo, which outputs an Exchange rule to always output emails as html.
For some users we see the signature converted to plain text, which outputs tags and looks ugly.
Once downloading the email as html it looks fine.
Emails sent without attachments remain as html and do not get converted to plain text.
Why is this conversion/prompt occurring when adding attachments?


texts: Why doesn't my calendar alert me when events are upcoming?

texts:
I have my Google Calendar synced up to my iPhone 4S and by all the settings I can find, it looks like I am supposed to recieve alerts 15 minutes before every event.  However, this has never happened.

How come there is no alert being displayed when an event is upcoming?  I can see it in Notification Centre, but there is no banner or alert.


texts: Colored dots on iCloud calendar are too dim, any setting i need to change?

texts: When I add an event to my iCloud calendar, all the colors but purple have been dimmed for some reason, is there a setting I need to change to get the colors to stand out like they used to?


texts: MacOS Mojave update deleted calendar events

texts:
I've just installed the macOS Mojave on my late 2013 MacBook Pro, and it's deleted all of my calendar events, past, present, and future. My calendar now looks brand new, and not even the newly installed Siri can help me.

How do I retrieve my lost calendar events?


texts: Install Mac OS on external drive: disk locked

texts:
I am trying to install Mac OS Big Sur on an external drive (Samsung portable SSD T5 256GB) following the macworld directions. I get to the very last step, however there is a message that the disk is locked and it can't be selected, so can't install macOS on it.

I have previously installed macOS on the drive using restore from backup, but I just want a minimal OS install, not all my stuff from a backup.
I have also tried to select the drive as the boot disk, but get a message that I can't select the drive because "the bless tool was unable to set the current boot disk".

There is a previous question Disk Locked” macOS reinstall! however I don't think that helps, there's also a post on an Apple discussion forum about the bless tool, but that doesn't help either.
Any ideas on how to rectify this?


texts: I have an iPhone that is completely dead. Tried to fix it but there was a problem with the internal circuits if I remember well. I thought about selling the iPhone to people that want parts of it (e.g. screen) but I was doubting if they could somehow reach private information that was in the iPhone.


texts: Creating wrapper script for Mail.app to send mail from Terminal

texts:
I'm trying to send mail from terminal with the help of bash and applescript. I use bash for taking care of arguments and the email message body. Then I have tried using Applescript to send the mail with Mail.app. I have run into some problems though, when I try the following I get: 4:4: syntax error: Expected expression but found end of script. (-2741)

#!/bin/bash

if [ $# -ne 2 ]
then
    echo "Arguments: <subject> <recipient>" >&2 #stderr
    exit 1
fi

read message

applescript="
tell application \"Mail\"
    set theMessage to make new outgoing message with properties {visible:true, subject:${1}, content:${message}, address:${2}}
    send theMessage
end tell
"

# send the message
osascript -e ${applescript}

Updated version:

#!/bin/bash

if [ $# -ne 2 ]
then
    echo "Arguments: <subject> <recipient>" >&2 #stderr
    exit 1
fi

read message

echo "tell application \"Mail\"
    set theEmail to make new outgoing message with properties {visible:true, subject:\"${1}\", content:\"${message}\"}
    tell theEmail
        make new recipient at end of to recipients with properties {address:\"${2}\"}
        send theEmail
    end tell
end tell" | osascript


texts: MS Word for Mac, show outline on the left panel

texts:
In MS Word for Windows, I can see an outline panel that shows headings so that I can jump to desired section quickly. But I don't have such an outline panel in Word for Mac.
It does not have 'view' tab in the ribbon.

I'm NOT talking about 'outline view' that you can choose on the lower-left corner of the window.
I want an outline displayed on the left-hand side and main text in the middle.


texts: Macbook won't sleep with VGA monitor connected

texts:
My macbook pro will not sleep with a VGA monitor connected, via a MiniDisplayport to VGA adapter. When I close the lid, all of the windows shift over to the second screen, and the light on the macbook continues to stay solid (rather than pulsing like it usually does when the monitor is not plugged in).

I can unplug it, but it is a nuisance and I'm wondering if there's a way to fix it.


texts: Grey screen on startup of OS X when using Boot Camp 5

texts:
I'm afraid I've corrupted my OS X install. When choosing to boot up with the system I get a grey screen (there's a short load sequence before this, after klicking the system icon in the bootup menu). I can hover my mouse around but there is no content. Earlier today I tried installing Windows 8 as a second system using Mountain Lion and Boot Camp 5.

I did the following:

Created a volume for Windows and installed Win7 + windows drivers
Began installing Win8, only to realize that I needed more disk space (apparently using the online upgrade requires a LOT of disk in between the switch). Chose to quit the installer.
Tried returning to OS X to delete the Windows volume but ended up with a grey screen.

Worth noting is that I see my OS X Recovery volume presented along OS X and Windows. My guess is it should be there but it could also be an indication that there is something wrong.


texts: Can the Apple menu be moved to the right a substantial amount (screen failure)?

texts:
My macbook pro fell and the left side of the screen is now black. So about 20% of it is not visible due to breakage. I am working around this using an external display when I can locate one, but on the go I'd like to limp along until I can afford the repair. Is there a software solution for MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014) Running macOS Sierra version 10.12 to adjust the screen resolution or placement to squeeze it without messing up proportions to the left so that it covers only the part that's not broken.

Is there a way to manually adjust resolution through underscan/overscan (which is not visible to me for my own display) or through other means?

I'm trying to push everything to the side so that it's visible (including the apple logo menu on the top left)

I tried downloading DisableMonitor but it only sticks with proportions and doesn't allow me to push the content to the right. All the resolution switches assume the whole screen is working - I need to shift the content over and not otherwise change the scale of the remaining screen.

Basically, can the window manager itself run in split screen mode with nothing critical shown in the left side split?


texts: Bluetooth antenna went bad - can I just get a dongle?

texts:
I have a late-2010 Mac Mini (maxed out at Mac OS X 10.7.5) with 2 bluetooth devices (keyboard and headphones).  I've had intermittent issues with bluetooth connectivity, but this past weekend, the connection went out while I was watching a movie and I could not get either device to reconnect.  So I think that the antenna has just gone bad.  I discovered that I can confirm this diagnosis using "Bluetooth Explorer" (part of XCode).  I installed that remotely and intend to test it out when I get home.

Assuming that I confirm that the antenna has just gone bad (or even if it hasn't), can I just purchase a bluetooth dongle, such as the "Kinivo BTD-300 Bluetooth 3.0 USB adapter" and expect to be able to circumvent the issue or will the built-in & faulty bluetooth capability interfere with the use of the dongle?


texts: iMac doesn't wake from sleep via USB devices

texts:
I have an iMac here which does not wake from sleep when I press keyboard buttons or click the mouse button. Also while in sleep the iMac is not charging my iPhone via USB. So it seems that the USB ports are completely disabled.

Strange thing is, that this "deep" sleep mode is active after a few hours "going to sleep". Within this time waking via USB works.

I booted this system (on SSD) a while ago on a MacBook Pro – it took a while to initialize and boot – maybe there are some power management tools get activated from a MacBook system?

Any idea of internal settings that turn completely off the USB ports after a time?

Can someone please check these settings on his iMac?

pmset -g

# typing "pmset -g" in Terminal gives me this result:

System-wide power settings:
Currently in use:
standby                1
Sleep On Power Button  1
womp                   0
halfdim                1
hibernatefile          /var/vm/sleepimage
powernap               0
autorestart            0
networkoversleep       0
disksleep              0
sleep                  10 (sleep prevented by useractivityd)
autopoweroffdelay      28800 <- maybe this setting?
hibernatemode          0
autopoweroff           1
ttyskeepawake          1
displaysleep           10
standbydelay           10800 <- maybe this setting?

Maybe autopoweroffdelay or standbydelay parameter is responsible for this "deep" sleep?


texts: Can I send encrypted e-mail using Mail and self-signed certificates?

texts:
I want to be able to send signed and encrypted e-mails between a Mac using Mail and another Mac using Thunderbird, by using self-signed certificates on both ends.  I used to be able to do so, but over the years things have gotten more difficult on both ends.  To make the Thunderbird end work, I now have to create a self-signed certificate authority and then use that to make an e-mail certificate.  But I can't get encryption to work on the Mail end.  (I think Apple broke it in Mountain Lion.)  In my keychain on the Mail end, I have the CA from the Thunderbird end, which is marked as trusted, and the e-mail certificate created by that CA, which says "This certificate is valid".  But when I create an e-mail going to the other Mac, the encryption button is dimmed.

I read somewhere that the secret is to add the "key encipherment" extension when creating the certificate, and I did that, but it still doesn't work.


texts: Formatting Boot Drive As Encrypted For Clean Install

texts: I don't know if my google-fu is broken today or something, but I can't seem to find any information about why I would or wouldn't want to erase and format an internal boot drive and/or partition thereof as Journaled, Extended prior to doing a clean OS install. Everything I've come across only mentions using Disk Utility to format an external storage drive as Journaled, Encrypted, using Disk Utility to format a boot drive/partition as Journaled or using File Vault to encrypt an already formatted drive. What differences are there between formatting the drive and partition as Journaled, Encrypted and then, also, turning on File Vault vs. formatting the drive and partition as simply Journaled and then turning on File Vault?


texts: Snow Leopard OS X Partition (El Capitan)

texts:
I have a couple things I'm trying to do that I can't find a solution for.

The end goal is to be able to run DVD Studio Pro 4 on my Mac which has El Capitan installed. The software is pretty old but I need it for a client so I'm trying to figure out a way to get Snow Leopard installed on a partition that I set up on my drive. The only real reason I need Snow Leopard (10.6) is because it's the last version of OS X that runs 'Rosetta' which is required to run PowerPC application (which DVD Studio Pro is).

I set up a partition, plugged in my Apple USB SuperDrive (I have a Mid 2014 Macbook Pro so I no longer have a disc drive), put the Mac OS X 10.6 installer in, rebooted the computer and tried to boot it from disc by holding 'C'. It recognizes the command then opens up the old Apple start screen so I know it even recognizes the disc in the drive since it's clearly pulling up an old OS X start screen. The issue is that it never gets past that initial screen. I'm not sure if I need to wait it out longer but I've let it run for 10 minutes with no result.

I then tried to boot holding 'Option' but my SuperDrive didn't show up as one of the options.

I then went into the contents of the disc itself because technically I can install Rosetta because it's part of the 'Optional Installs' for that operating system and if I can just run Rosetta it will solve my problems. Of course when I try to proceed the Mac gives me a pretty strongly worded warning that I probably shouldn't do it because this old software is not compatible with the current OS installed on my computer (the whole reason I was trying to create a partition anyway).

To clarify, I can't just run the installer off the disk for the OS because the application is actually a PowerPC application and has the 'no' symbol on top of the application so I can't run the installer directly.

My main questions are:
- Is there a way to just install the OS on the partition without doing the reboot? And if so, will it work running a PowerPC installer on my Intel Mac.

Is it ok for me to install Rosetta directly on my El Capitan system? (I know the answer is likely 'no' but just thought I'd ask in case...)
Is there another boot approach I could try to get past that first screen?

Thanks for your help!


texts:
I can't login to skype it tells me service not available right now.  However, I can log into Skype on other devices that are connected on the same network.

I Already tried, but didn't work:

Signing out, quitting ("Signing in..." stays even when signed out), then signing back in.
Everything on the Skype support page for Why can't I sign in to Skype for Mac OS X?.
Removing ~/Library/Application Support/Skype.
Reinstalling Skype


texts: What i need to do to backup and secure my mobile data before sending it to repair

texts:
I have iPhone 11 and its screen was broken, so I will send it to an authorized reseller for Apple. but before doing so I will remove all the data I have these data include; photos, videos, apps (mail app, WhatsApp, and other apps).
How I can securely remove the data inside my phone, so it can not be recovered when I send it to the technician?


texts: Backing up a disk image with Time Machine

texts:
I'm storing backup of my Gmail account in a disk image, to cut on number of files on the main HFS+ volume. This makes Time Machine ignore the existence of this volume, just because it's in a disk image.

Is it possible to get Time Machine to treat the disk image as a regular disk, and get Time Machine to back it up as if it were a "physical" volume?

This is on Mountain Lion 10.8.2, on late 2009 white unibody Macbook.


texts: Disable auto-update of Google Chrome with Firewall?

texts: I need to keep using an older version of Chrome to access an old work VPN which requires Java applets and for some reason crashes after several minutes when launched from Safari. The latest versions of Chrome has Java applets disabled, so I need to download an old version of Chrome and disable the autoupdate. I know you can disable the updater interval, but can I disable it by blocking certain domains in /etc/hosts by pointing them to 127.0.0.1 or using Little Snitch to block connections?


texts: Change the link underline color in Keynote

texts: How do I change the color in keynote of the link that underlines text? I have a presentation template where the links are underlined in teal. This is annoying. I want them underlined in black. I can change the color of the text, but not of the underline.


texts: How can I have Qt Creator to recognize my environment variables?

texts:
I use Qt Creator as my main IDE for cross-platform C++ application development. In doing so I had set it up so that it depends on a set of environment variables that I define in .bashrc.

On Linux (Ubuntu specifically) that works fine but on OSX Lion I cannot get it to work. I have defined my variables in .bashrc and .bashrc is sourced inside .bash_profile. The variables are defined when I do echo $VAR inside the terminal but when I open the IDE (from Dock) it does not recognize the variables. Does Dock not use bash to launch applications?


texts: Unable to remove default shortcut for iCloud Drive from MacOS Catalina

texts:
I have been trying to follow various posts on how to replace system default shortcuts, but been unable to replicate results. I'm currently on Mac OS 10.15.6.
Initial attempt
I want to remove the default shortcut:
Shift-Command-I: Open iCloud Drive.
And replace with a Services shortcut:
Shift-Command-I: New iTerm2 Window Here.
I've implemented the shortcut in the Keyboard page, however, the shortcut still just opens iCloud Drive when Finder is open. Outside of Finder, the shortcut works.
Next attempt
I've tried following posts on here, like this one on how to read and write global shortcuts, however I fail to find any. My assumption is that the shortcut would be available through com.developer.finder based on what I've read.
defaults write com.apple.finder NSUserKeyEquivalents -dict-add "iCloud Drive" nil

However, even after running this, I'm unable to see any NSUserKeyEquivalents.
defaults read com.developer.finder NSUserKeyEquivalents
# 2020-08-24 08:06:47.084 defaults[1073:19364]
# The domain/default pair of (com.developer.finder, NSUserKeyEquivalents) does not exist

I've tried running with "Open iCloud Drive", writing to com.apple.Finder, but nothing has worked.
Questions
So:

Have I fundamentally misunderstood how doing this is supposed to work?
Are the shortcuts under the Finder --> Go menu able to be changed in this way?
Is there another method to remove the open iCloud keyboard shortcut?

Thanks.


texts: Is Apple changing OS X branding to macOS retroactively?

texts:
I have seen certain places where it is claimed that Apple is retroactively rebranding Mac OS X/OS X as macOS now that Sierra has launched. Some people disagree that this is occurring since as of now, not everything (not even the majority of material) reflects the change.

Is there solid evidence of this changeover?


texts: Can't run launchctl agent in Catalina. Is this a permissions problem?

texts:
I have some launchctl scripts on Mojave that I am trying to now run on Catalina, but can't seem to get them to run. I made myself a very simple little plist as follows
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
  <key>Label</key>
  <string>local.moveit</string>

  <key>StandardOutPath</key>
      <string>/Users/pheon/Library/Logs/local-moveit-stout.log</string>
  <key>StandardErrorPath</key>
      <string>/Users/pheon/Library/Logs/local-moveit-stderr.log</string>

  <key>ProgramArguments</key>
  <array>
    <string>mv</string>
    <string>/Users/pheon/Desktop/test/fileA</string>
    <string>/Users/pheon/Desktop/test/fileB</string>
  </array>

  <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
  <dict>
    <key>Minute</key>
    <integer>1</integer>
  </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Then I loaded it with
launchctl load local.moveit.plist

Restarted my machine.
Checked it was running.
$ launchctl list | grep moveit
-   0   local.moveit

It is simply supposed to rename a file (which does exists), but it doesn't do anything, it doesn't report any errors. It seems dead.
I had read that there could be permission issues, so I gave mv, launchctr, sh and zsh "Full Disk Access" in System Preferences. I also downloaded LaunchControl.app to see if that would help. But it still doesn't work, and nothing is reporting that anything is amiss.
I have the following questions.

How do I get this to work?
What is it with this permissions thing? Is it safe to give those apps "Full Disk Access". Should I turn SIP off and on again? (What does that do anyway?)

ETA.
An error message finally turned up in the log.
mv: rename /Users/pheon/Desktop/test/fileA to /Users/pheon/Desktop/test/fileB: Operation not permitted


texts: In the manage storage section on my phone, if I delete the backup of another phone from my iCloud, will I lose the pictures currently on my phone that were taken from this other phone?


texts:
When I try to use the top bar in Safari to Google something, it sometimes URL-encodes the entry.

Safari treats this as a URL and gives an error, since this is not a valid URL. If I ignore this it will stop after some time, or I can restart Safari and it fixes the issue.

I started using MacOS in High Sierra and now use Mojave, both have had this issue.

Since I am new(ish) to MacOS, maybe I am using some key-combo that changes
to URL search instead of Google?

Below, are my specs. This also happened on my late 2016 MBP, previously.


texts:
Mac newbie here. I need to have a case sensitive file system. I am planning to create a separate data partition for that. 100GB (Mac/home directory) + 151GB (data partition). I have a habit of making a separate data partition since my Linux days (while building a new system). It seems like the separate data partition appears as /Volumes/data_partition on Mac, while it appears as /data_partition (as in, direct descendant of / ) for Linux. Is my understanding correct?

What kind of Formatting should I use for the separate partition? Again, I want to make it case sensitive, and it needs to work with Linux too. Is "Case-Sensitive, Journaled" okay?

My first preference is a separate partition, but do you recommend a dmg (not sure about advantage/disadvantage) in stead of separate partition? Any major disadvantage of using a separate data partition? I am assuming it will be slightly slow considering it’s a different partition. My MBR has an SSD, so I am assuming it shouldn’t be too bad.

Please note this partition will only be used to hold data (not as a boot partition as I am not planning for dual boot).

Thanks in advance!!!


texts: Whatsapp backup issue on iCloud with iOS 12.2

texts:
I've been using this iCloud account for 3 years and now it is having issues with the WhatsApp backup. If I try to do a manual backup in WhatsApp settings, it sticks on preparing or either goes to max 5%. When I try daily auto backups, it says the data is backed up but in the iCloud storage management, it shows as the screenshot attached below. Only 106.1 MB of 5 GB is used in iCloud but the items below show that the WhatsApp backup on the iCloud is taking a space of 1.8 GB.
Also if I sign in with another iCloud ID the WhatsApp backup will work fine with that and show total space used along with the space WhatsApp backup is using.

How can I make it work as expected?


texts:
I bought myself a new pair of AirPod Pros and I am trying to decide if they are defective or if I was expecting too much of the noise-cancelling feature.
When I have the AirPods in noise-cancelling mode and I snap my fingers I can hear the snap. I can also hear people talking around me. (The volume of the talking goes down, but I can still hear people talk) Is that normal?
Stuff I have checked:

I have done the ear tip fittest and I get a good seal result on both
ears.
I have Switched to transparency and off mode and back to the
noise-cancelling mode and I can still hear my fingers snap in
noise-cancelling mode.
I have (obviously)turned it off and on again.    Same result.

Let me know if you need any more information.


texts: Macbook air 2012, installed new battery, bottom of trackpad sounds loose/clicky now, ideas?

texts:
My other one couldn't hold a charge well but didn't look bloated at all to have warped anything in my system.
All that was weird that happened was that I lost one of the bottom case screws (small ones), could this cause it? (I could get replacement from amazon).
I'm going to go back in and tighten all the case screws, battery screws and tighten the trackpad screws, that's about all I can do right?


texts: Looking for a tool for creating or editing file and folder bookmarks (finder aliases)

texts:
I created a bookmark / Alias (via finder) for an smb share after mounting it. That's quite fine and working for me at it's best. It automatically mounts the smb store when acessing the alias and I can browse into the share without huddle.

But: Other users are not very familar with it and would be pleased to get such a link pre-installed.
The problem is, that my bookmark automatically contains personal information (username in SMB:// URI and in some cases personalized path names for the share.

I'm not able to edit this (binary) mac bookmark file in vim and it includes lots of unreadable information.

The question is:
Is there any tool that will allow editing such a Mac System Alias (Bookmark) file so I can create presets for other users?
You aren't able to edit this in Finder natively nor through any text editor.


texts: MacBook sleeps on changing lid inclination

texts:
I have a MacBook Pro 13 inch early 2015 model. For the last few days, my MacBook started to sleep when I change the inclination angle of the lid. On repeated pressing of the Shutdown button, it wakes up.

Has anyone else experienced this? Does anyone know the root cause?


texts: Application Switcher (Command-Tab) Showing Generic App Icon

texts:
I've had this problem for several days now.  The Application-Switcher [cmd-tab] does not show the correct icon for my application, it shows a generic icon.  Does anyone know how to fix this?

See attached image:

The Terminal is supposed to look like this:

This doesn't happen every time, only every once in a while.  It happens with random applications, not just Terminal.

I found where Terminal through Finder (to make sure the app shows up with the proper icon in finder) and then I closed the open Terminal app and opened a new Terminal session by double-clicking through finder instead of using spotlight.

Now I get the correct Icon:

If I get the "generic" Icon again, I'll come update.  If it works for 24 hours, I'll come back and post the answer.


texts: Are there any good iPhone camera apps that properly rotate photos?

texts: I have an iPhone 4s. I'm happy with the default Camera app, however every time I import photos to Picasa or email them or use them on a website or something they're improperly rotated. This is because the iPhone doesn't rotate the photo, it only saves rotation in metadata, and it is extremely annoying. So are there any good camera apps that actually rotate the photo (not just metadata) and saves photos to Photo-stream and saves photos and videos to the camera roll/Photos app? I'd even pay $1 or $2 if need be, but it has to save pictures to the same place that the default app does and has to rotate properly.


texts: Outlook 2016 for Mac won't return "current messages" from main window

texts:
In Outlook 2011 for Mac, I was able to use an AppleScript to move currently-selected messages from the main Outlook window. The script started like this:

tell application "/Applications/Microsoft Outlook.app"
    activate
    set myMessages to current messages
    ...

This worked regardless of whether there was a Reminder pop-up window currently on the screen or not.

Starting with the Outlook for Mac Preview, and continuing with the final 2016 version, this script now only works when the Reminder pop-up window is not on screen. If the Reminder window is on screen, the script treats whatever items currently appear in the pop-up window as the current messages, even if I first instruct Outlook to make the main mail window active. (I suspect this may have something to do with the fact that the Reminder window is always "on top" regardless of what you have selected.) As a result, the script fails when the Reminder pop-up is open (i.e., it indicates that no mail messages are currently selected).

Are there any suggestions for how I can force Outlook to return the set of messages selected in the main mail window rather than the Reminder pop-up?

Thanks.

EDIT

Building off of the answer below, to minimize the inconvenience of closing the Reminders window, you can add the following code before the call to "current messages":

--Workaround to fix Outlook 2016 Reminders window bug, part 1
set windowClosed to false
if "Reminder" is in (name of the front window) then
    set windowClosed to true
    close front window
end if

And then add this at the end of the script, to re-open the Reminders window if it was closed by the script:

--Workaround to fix Outlook 2016 Reminders window bug, part 2
if windowClosed is true then
    tell application "System Events" to keystroke "9" using command down
end if


texts:
I've created a very simple AppleScript app which currently, when run, displays a different image from the desktop depending on which day of the week it is as seen below:

set currentDay to weekday of (get current date)

if currentDay = Monday then
    do shell script "open ~/Desktop/Mon.png"
end if

if currentDay = Tuesday then
    do shell script "open ~/Desktop/Tue.png"
end if

if currentDay = Wednesday then
    do shell script "open ~/Desktop/Wed.png"
end if

if currentDay = Thursday then
    do shell script "open ~/Desktop/Thu.png"
end if

if currentDay = Friday then
    do shell script "open ~/Desktop/Fri.png"
end if

if currentDay = Saturday then
    do shell script "open ~/Desktop/Sat.png"
end if

if currentDay = Sunday then
    do shell script "open ~/Desktop/Sun.png"
end if

However, my real question is whether it is possible for an AppleScript to handle a Quick Look request. I.e. when I press spacebar on the app, is there a way for it to display the image rather than the details about the app?

I understand that once an AppleScript has been run, it can use this Quick Look feature by running the shell script qlmanage -p /path/to/thefile and this will display a Quick Look image of the specified file. However, this is not what I need, I would like it so that this can be done by simply pressing the spacebar on the app itself and not actually running it.

Is this possible to do?

Thank you in advance for any help,

Kind regards,
Tom


texts:
I am using iCal. I have a strange problem. If I make a task in my Google calender, iCal automatically shows that task on the calender. But, if I put a task in my iCal, Google calender does not update that task. I do not know why??

For your information I am using

Mac OSX Lion: 10.7.5
iCal: 5.0.3

Thanks, in advance.


texts: How do I remove Keybase from my Finder Favorites?

texts:
Keybase adds a folder to my Finder favorites that I cannot remove. I've checked the Keybase issues database and this appears to be a known but still not addressed issue, so I think I need to (1) stop using Keybase and (2) fix this in the Finder.

How do I do (2): how do I force the removal of an item from my Finder Favorites that I cannot remove in the normal way (using the items menu or dragging out of the sidebar)?


texts: Sync Apple Maps Favorites across personal devices

texts:
I have a MacBook (running macOS Mojave 10.14.5) and an iPhone (running iOS 12.3.1). I want to share my Favorites in Maps app between both the devices. They doesn't appear to sync whether I add Maps to iCloud (I can only do this on the MacBook via the iCloud Drive option under System Preferences, not sure it's related at all) nor when I sync via iTunes.

Do I really have to exchange Maps links between devices to get it on the intended device?


texts: Move Photos App and data to external drive to make room on main drive

texts:
I am trying to make space on my Mac. It's overloaded and slow. I wanted to know if I can remove my photo application with all it's data and store it on an external drive? I understand that I couldn't access it if the external drive was not connected to my Mac.

Can I do this?

I have a MacBook Pro running Sierra (10.12.3).


texts: How do I update Ruby from the default version to 2.1.6 via terminal?

texts:
I don't want to update my pre-installed Ruby to the latest version.

My question is: how can I upgrade the version of Ruby to version 2.1.6 on Mac via terminal?


texts: Booting into Internet Recovery after erasing OS

texts:
I'm in a situation that I put myself in accidentally. So I needed to erase the OS and put a new one using Internet Recovery, first steps I did well there's no more OS, next quest is to put the OS back in, using "Reinstall OS X" button. Here comes the problem, it says "You need to have internet connection to do it"(something like that). If I reboot the computer to connect the cable(I need to transport it to the other room), can I go back to Internet Recovery mode?

Thanks in advance.


texts: Apple Time Machine doesn't see my WD My Passport 2 TB using USB 3.0

texts:
I have Yosemite 10.10.2 on my Early 2008 24".  Time Machine has been backing up to my WD external hard drives for years.  I just purchased a new 2TB My Passport using USB 3.0.  It's formatted in Mac OS Extended (Journaled).  The device shows up on by desktop and it does store files that I drag into it.  However, Time Machine does not recognize it.

Any thoughts?  Is it Time Machine or the 3.0 USB?


texts: I think I noticed this in progress indicator getting misplaced from next to my Time Machine when I ejected a USB stick, but is that some sort of oddly placed AirDrop indicator? (the arrows are spinning)


texts: MacBook Air - unable to access websites without http/https

texts:
I am using a MacBook air and I am unable to go to websites unless I specify http or https

My version is 10.10.5

Websites which automatically have https work like youtube.com and netflix.com

cnn.com does not work.


texts:
Why can't I set root as folder owner?

diskutil erasevolume HFS+ "VTest" $(hdiutil attach -nomount ram://1165430)
cd /Volumes/VTest/
mkdir TDir
sudo chown root:wheel TDir/
ls -l
drwxr-xr-x  2 user  staff  68  7 янв 16:06 TDir

But it works fine for folders on any other drive(physical)


texts: How to recover IMAP folders from iCloud?

texts:
I accidentally (!!) deleted a synched IMAP folder on iCloud from Mail.app. It was a large project folder with many clients in it but none of them show up in deleted messages.

This is incredibly urgent and devastating. Can anyone tell me how to perform a recovery? Initial Google searches have revealed surprisingly little on that scenario.


texts:
I just tried to upgrade nmap with my package manager but got knocked back because it's supposedly not installed. Even though it is:

brew upgrade nmap
Updating Homebrew...
==> Auto-updated Homebrew!
Updated 1 tap (homebrew/core).
No changes to formulae.
Error: nmap not installed

nmap --version
Nmap version 6.40-2 ( http://nmap.org )
Platform: x86_64-apple-darwin10.8.0
Compiled with: liblua-5.2.2 openssl-0.9.7l nmap-libpcre-7.6 nmap-libpcap-1.2.1 nmap-libdnet-1.12 ipv6
Compiled without:
Available nsock engines: kqueue poll select

brew info nmap
nmap: stable 7.60 (bottled), HEAD
Port scanning utility for large networks
https://nmap.org/
Conflicts with:
  ndiff (because both install ndiff binaries)
Not installed
From: https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-core/blob/master/Formula/nmap.rb
==> Dependencies
Required: openssl ✔
Optional: pygtk ✘
==> Options
--with-pygtk
    Build Zenmap GUI
--HEAD
    Install HEAD version

Is it possible to find how a package, utility, or application came to be present, and/or installed on a macOS host? I recall being able to do something like this in the past, on a Linux (Debian) host, and figured there might be some kind of system or utility in place for macOS.


texts:
Can I create a virtual MIDI keyboard that plays a .mid file?

I have the Piano VST Addictive Keys, and would like to be able to play .mid files using the sounds that this VST provides.

I thought I could use a virtual midi device as the input device for Addictive Keys.


texts: I have an iMac (PPC) with iSight. How can I re install Tiger without the original install or recovery DVDs?


texts: I want to add new purchased songs to my itunes library. When I plug in my phone to my work pc and I am logged into my itunes, I get a box asking to remove songs movies books.  Do I approve or will all songs and ringtones be deleted from my iphone? Or once I approve and sync will I be able to put all the songs and ringtones back onto my iphone?


texts:
I use Mac. When I do a presentation or make a screen recording, sometimes I need to zoom in to the part where the focus is; then I need to zoom out to restore the normal screen size.
I have seen people doing this, but I don't know how they achieved that by keyboard and mouse.
Does anyone know?


texts:
I am downloading two files from Internet. Their combined speed would be around 80Kbps, but the activity monitor shows a huge data transfer, more than 200Kbps. I already turned off auto-update. Below is the screenshot of downloading in the browser and the activity monitor:

Please guide me; what can be wrong here? Maybe my knowledge is not accurate about this.

I am using macOS Sierra 10.12.4.


texts:
I have a 2011 15" MacBook Pro with a higher resolution display (1680 x 1050), an option that was offered back then. Unfortunately, in many of the Apple apps the default 100% zoom level displays normal font sizes (12, 14) way too small to be comfortably read.  In most apps, Pages, Safari, TextEdit etc. I can simply adjust the zoom level, so that the display correctly. However, the Notes app doesn't provide that functionality.

Does anyone know of a hack to change the default zoom level of the Notes app?

I don't want to change the font size, i.e., change the font from from 12pt to 16pt as is suggested elsewhere (and here) since my notes are synced with the iPad and I don't want them to look too big there.
Nor do I want to change the entire screen zoom (accessibility feature).

Rather I am looking for a way to change the size in which the Notes app displays the text on OS X.  Any hints much appreciated.

I know that there is no straightforward way to do this, but the Notes.app must get its information for how many pixels to use for a given point size font, for example 16 pixels for a 12 point font from somewhere, no?  That is what I hope to tweak somehow...


texts: Why can't I move notes from my "On My iPhone" to iCloud?

texts:
I have an iPhone SE running iOS 9.3.3.  I use the Notes app extensively to share between my iMac running Mavericks, and my phone and iPads.

Recently I accidentally moved 4 notes from iCloud, to the phone itself.  I thought this was trivial and I could just move the notes back, but I cannot.  There is no option to do so.

First, I should say that I am running the "new" Notes app (the one with doodles, photos, etc.)  Second, when I go into my local folder on the phone and hit Edit, I  get the "Move All" option, but iCloud is not presented as an option to move to, only my local phone and a New Folder option.  There is no way presented to move the notes to iCloud, either en masse or individually.

I have tried turning Notes off/on in iCloud, as well as signing out & back in to iCloud, without success.

How can I get these notes to move back to iCloud again?


texts: OS X installer booting instead of Macintosh HD

texts: Accidentally closed MacBook Pro while installing El Capitan. Now only bootable disks are my bootcamp, Recovery, and OS X installer. Macintosh HD shows up in Disk Utility and I've tried repairing it, no errors. On the properties it shows that it isn't bootable, that's it.


texts: Not receiving push notifications for iCloud 2-factor authentication

texts:
I followed the instructions on this sixcolors.com blog post to disable and re-enable 2-factor authentication on my iCloud account in order to upgrade to the "newer" version.

However, now when I attempt to log in on the web or on a device, I no longer receive a push notification with a 2-factor authentication code on my devices.  I am able to receive a text message or generate a code from Settings but I no longer receive an automatic push notification with the code.

Has anyone else encountered this issue, or have any idea what I could do to fix it?  I tried disabling and re-enabling 2-factor authentication on my iCloud account once more but it didn't help.


texts: Finder: Spotlight shortcut and command+tab switching apps stopped working

texts:
Both these functions stopped around the same time.
El Capitan, but I think these worked after the upgrade and now don't.
Both functions work in other apps. Just not in Finder.
Repaired permissions on MacHD, checked and unchecked the command for spotlight in System Preferences>Keyboard>Shortcuts>Spotlight.
Using command+space in Finder gives the error chime.


texts: Three EFI disks have started showing up on my desktop. What are these and can I eject them

texts:
Several weeks ago three icons that look like a disk have started showing up on my desktop. All three have the name EFI. When I right-click on them and 'get info' they all three have a format as MS-DOS (FAT 32) and all three have the same creation date of Dec31, 1969. What are these and can I eject them. Will they stay ejected? If not how do I keep them from reappearing?
I have a 2010 iMac running High Sierra 10.13.5. This may have started when I purchased and connected an external 4 TB drive for backup.


texts: How to use `tmutil compare snapshot_path`?

texts:
man tmutil shows

compare [-@acdefglmnstuEUX] [-D depth] [-I name] [snapshot_path | path1 path2]

If a snapshot path is provided as the sole argument,
tmutil will compare the computer to the specified snapshot.

Does the 'snapshot' mean the result of tmutil listlocalsnapshots / (APFS snapshot)?

I tried several ways but I could not make it work.


texts: How to tell if an iPhone is third party unlocked?

texts:
Is there a safe way to find out if a used iPhone is intended to work on a particular carrier or is factory unlocked VS. having been unlocked by a third party?

I'm on the Rogers network. I'd want a phone intended to work on the Rogers network, or intended to work on any network, rather than one that might become relocked by a future update. (Also, I had a third party unlocked phone once before, and it liked to spontaneously restart. I don't think that was a coincidence.)

Jailbreaks don't concern me, since I can always revert those. But having a hacked baseband is something I'd want to know about.


texts: Dismissing Big Sur permission dialogs via keyboard

texts:
I know that since Mojave, MacOS has started presenting more dialogs when apps would like to do specific things. However, in Mojave, I was able to control the dialog that appears using the keyboard (tab & space etc.).

However in Big Sur, I no longer seem to be able to control this type of dialog by keyboard. This is more annoying than serious, however it would be good to not have to reach for the trackpad or mouse to allow/reject the permission request. I have no idea if this would have been the case in Catalina as I skipped that release totally, going straight to Big Sur from Mojave.
I have the "Use keyboard navigation to move focus between controls" option selected in the keyboard preferences, and most other dialogs appear to respect that and can be controlled. It seems just this type of permission request dialog cannot.
Is there another preference setting I am missing? In the screenshot above it was iTerm2 I was using to start a vagrant instance and I had to provide an admin password in order for vagrant to update my exports file. However, other apps, such as PHPStorm will also present a similar dialog (for a similar reason).
I'm quite willing to accept the fact that this type of dialog cannot be keyboard controlled, but wouldn't have thought that was the case. This isn't about the reasons for the dialog or how to prevent the dialog in the first place - just being able to control via keyboard.


texts: How to securely erase an arbitrary SATA drive, utilizing the drive firmware to do so?

texts:
The problem with using Disk Utility or dd if=/dev/zero to erase a disk is that:

It applies unnecessary wear to SSD drives.
It sends the drive's capacity worth of zeroes over the drive's interface. If you're on an older Mac that has a poorly performing USB 2 ports, it'll take much longer than necesary. It'll also tax your CPU and USB subsystem with sending all those zeroes around.
The firmware-based secure delete can be much faster than sending zeroes to the drive, even on spinning platter drives. For drives with encryption support, it'll be almost instantaneous, as all the drive needs to do is to overwrite the encryption keys and the data becomes useless. On those drives, and on SSDs, a secure erase should take 1-4 minutes (!).

All modern drives support ATA Secure Erase commands. These commands have the drive's firmware perform the erasure of the data.

On Linux, the hdparm utility exposes this functionality to the user - see hdparm --security-help for details.

Unforunately, there's no hdparm for OS X, since OS X doesn't provide any way for userland to send arbitrary SATA commands to the drive :(

Is there an easy workaround?


texts: Airport Extreme: How to share a hard drive over the guest network?

texts:
I'm offering my Internet to somebody living in another apartment and used an Airport Express to extend my Airport Extreme signal. Since the Aiport Express only extends the "main" network, the other person is using the main network whereas I'm using the "guest" network myself.

I recently got an external hard drive and connected it to the Airport Extreme's USB port because I want to use Time Machine to automatically backup my MBA.

However, the hard drive is automatically connecting itself to the "main" network. Is there a way for me to access the hard drive through the "guest" network instead?


texts: In Xcode 8 beta how do I view storyboard as a generic (square) device?

texts:
I selected:
Main.storyboard > View Controller > Attributes inspector > Size: Inferred

I also selected View as: iPhone 6 from the menu at the bottom of the storyboard window.

How do I view it as a generic or square device?


texts: Missing emojis from iPhone English keyboard on iOS 9.3.1

texts:
How do I restore missing emojis to the English keyboard on my iPhone 6?
They were there, and after a reset of my phone and restoring it from a computer backup, the emojis are missing.
I tried rebooting my device and that didn't work.
What should I do?


texts: How can I know my current administrator password without resetting or changing it

texts: I really need to access the administrator password but I forgot it. BUT I really don't want to reset or change it. I just need to know the current password.


texts: Help needed to add text to the end of a string using the "sed" command in Terminal

texts:
In Terminal.app, I used the curl ftp... command to get a directory listing of folders and files from my friend's computer and I directed the output to a file called "curlFTP.txt". Each line of this file appears like these following 3 examples…

drwxr-xr-x   1 nobody   root     4096 Aug 02  2014 WEDDING_SINGER_4X3
drwxr-xr-x   1 nobody   root     4096 Aug 02  2014 WEEKEND_AT_BERNIES
drwxr-xr-x   1 nobody   root     4096 Aug 02  2014 WEIRD_SCIENCE

From each of these lines of that file, I only need to keep the directory names, which would be...

WEDDING_SINGER_4X3
WEEKEND_AT_BERNIES
WEIRD_SCIENCE

Using the cut -c 52- command, I was able to extract only these folder names which I then directed its output to a file I named "curlFTP2.txt"

The next step I needed to do was prepend each line of the file "curlFTP2.txt" with the text...curl ftp://1.1.1.1/Disk\ 1\ Movies/Movies\ 1/ and direct its output to a file named "curlFTP3.txt". Now each line of the file "curlFTP3.txt" would look like these following three examples...

curl ftp://1.1.1.1/Disk 1 Movies/Movies 1/WEDDING_SINGER_4X3
curl ftp://1.1.1.1/Disk 1 Movies/Movies 1/WEEKEND_AT_BERNIES
curl ftp://1.1.1.1/Disk 1 Movies/Movies 1/WEIRD_SCIENCE

Here is the full command I used, which worked incredibly well and was extremely fast, considering there was 760 lines in the file to edit.

cat curlFTP.txt | cut -c 52- > curlFTP2.txt ; sed 's|^|curl ftp://1.1.1.1/Disk\ 1\ Movies/Movies\ 1/|g' curlFTP2.txt > curlFTP3.txt

(the IP address I used in this is a substitute for the IP address I actually used)

Here is where I'm jammed up… what I need to do is use the sed command with the -e argument so I can add an additional sed command to the code from above and add a "/" to the end of each line of that file because each listing is a directory.

I need each line to look like this:    curl ftp://1.1.1.1/Disk 1 Movies/Movies 1/WEDDING_SINGER_4X3/
Instead of each line looking like:  curl ftp://1.1.1.1/Disk 1 Movies/Movies 1/WEDDING_SINGER_4X3

I was able to figure out that using the sed 's|^|blah|g' command, for example, the "^" character would mean adding "blah" to the beginning of each line.

So here is my question… is there a similar character I can use, like the "^" character, that would allow me to use the sed command to add text to the end of each line?


texts: Prevent Time Machine From Resizing Disk Image?

texts:
I've been trying to get Time Machine to stop filling up my NAS with backups, but so far it seems determined to do-so no matter what.

Since Time Machine fails spectacularly with Linux disk quotas, using partitions isn't an option (even if my NAS let me, it's too late to set it up now), I decided to try resizing the disk image using hdiutil resize, which seems to be a common suggestion.

This did seem to work for a while, but as of today Time Machine has inexplicably decided that it knows better than me, and as such the first thing it does is immediately resize the image so that it will inevitably fill all free space on the drive.

As you can imagine this is infuriating, as I'm trying to backup multiple machines on my NAS, but it also runs a few services and other things as well, so I can't have it running out of space.

Is there some way to limit the size of Time Machine's sparse bundle, such that it won't just immediately resize it again?


texts: Why can't Finder quicklook the mp4 I just encoded with ffmpeg?

texts:
I just did ffmpeg -i My\ Movie.mov vid.mp4 to convert iMovie output to an MP4.
I can't quicklook the mp4 as usual (by pressing space), nor does Finder show a thumbnail for it.
Here is ffmpeg -i information for a quicklookable mp4:
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'playable.mp4'
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    encoder         : Lavf58.45.100
  Duration: 00:00:21.04, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 746 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv420p, 640x360 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 612 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 12800 tbn, 50 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : ISO Media file produced by Google Inc.
    Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 128 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : SoundHandler

Here is ffmpeg -i vid.mp4:
Input #0, mov,mp4,m4a,3gp,3g2,mj2, from 'vid.mp4':
  Metadata:
    major_brand     : isom
    minor_version   : 512
    compatible_brands: isomiso2avc1mp41
    title           : My Movie
    encoder         : Lavf58.45.100
    keywords        : iMovie
  Duration: 00:00:53.40, start: 0.000000, bitrate: 316 kb/s
    Stream #0:0(und): Video: h264 (High 4:2:2) (avc1 / 0x31637661), yuv422p10le, 480x270 [SAR 1:1 DAR 16:9], 190 kb/s, 25 fps, 25 tbr, 12800 tbn, 50 tbc (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : Core Media Video
      timecode        : 00:00:00:00
    Stream #0:1(eng): Audio: aac (LC) (mp4a / 0x6134706D), 48000 Hz, stereo, fltp, 119 kb/s (default)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : Core Media Audio
    Stream #0:2(eng): Data: none (tmcd / 0x64636D74)
    Metadata:
      handler_name    : Core Media Video
      timecode        : 00:00:00:00

How am I meant to use ffmpeg to turn My Movie into an MP4 that can be quicklooked?


texts: backing up an OSX image to an NTFS drive?

texts:
I would like to make an image of my entire OSX install, so that I may restore to it if necessary. I'd LOVE to have incremental backups, so bonus points if anyone can figure out how I can do this!

I've enabled full reading/writing to an NTFS drive by following steps similar to those outlined in this guide: http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-13727_7-57588773-263/how-to-manually-enable-ntfs-read-and-write-in-os-x/

I have an NTFS-based drive (which must remain NTFS based as it's used by a windows install as well). I'd like to be able to backup an image of my OSX to the drive.

I cannot find any solution that simply makes a compressed image of OSX and allows you to save it somewhere; all the solutions seem to require formatting the drive (for example, Time Machine wants to create an entire partition on the drive). I don't want this, I just want an image file of the drive (smaller size the better), which I can backup to my NTFS drive and restore from incase needed.

Bonus points if the solution allows incremental backups, so I can just have 1 image that is updated regularly.

Please, any advice is MUCH appreciated!


texts: Is shutting down and restarting different from doing restart?

texts:
A first-level Applecare rep recommended shutting down and then turning on my computer to deal with an issue.  Specifically, she told me to do select "Shut Down" from the Apple menu, wait 20 seconds, and then turn it back on, explaining this is different from selecting "Restart".

This surprised me, because I thought restart incorporated a full shutdown, followed by an auto-restart.   She said no, that the software shutdown executed when one selects "Restart" is not as complete as the software shutdown executed when one selects "Shut Down".  She further explained, colloquially, that the latter allows the system to more fully reset (and that to truly get a full reset, you additionally wait ~20 seconds before turning it back on).

Is what she is saying correct?

Independent of (but related to) this, my computer freezes unless I do a restart about once a week.  An Applecare engineer explain this is likely because of errors that can accumulate in non-ECC RAM, which a shutdown flushes out.  He said the rate at which they accumulate varies with usage.  For some reason my usage causes fairly rapid accumulation of these errors, which is why I have to reboot more frequently than most.  I have found that restart (as opposed to shutdown + restart) is sufficient for this, suggesting that the former is sufficient to flush RAM.   Is this correct?


texts: How to use internet on a Wi-Fi only iPad in a residence with no Wi-Fi?

texts:
I want to speak on Skype on my Wi-Fi-only iPad Air iOS 7 from my residence. However, the people tending the residence don't want to install Wi-Fi. There are only ethernet cables. Here's what I've considered:

Getting ethernet directly on my iPad (as explained here)
This is not practical, because ethernet cables are in public rooms at my residence. If I spoke on Skype there, I would disturb everyone else in the room.

Sharing my phone's data plan to my iPad
This would probably get expensive way too fast.

I have a Sony Vaio laptop, but the fan makes a lot of noise, and Skype conversations are impossible.
Currently, whenever I want to speak on Skype, I have to go to a group study room at the university's library. This means that I have to cope with the library's tight opening hours and a very small room that renders poor audio to whomever I speak with.
How can I get some internet on my iPad Air in a private room of my residence with no Wi-Fi or ethernet connection?


texts: Can the ambient light sensor be adjusted to shut off the keyboard backlight?

texts:
I have a 2011 Macbook Air and I find that the ambient light sensor does a great job of setting an appropriate backlight brightness level. It's particularly good at not blinding you when you open up the machine in a dark room.

However what I noticed is that it tends to set the keyboard backlight in much the same way as the screen backlight, that is to say it turns it up when ambient light levels are high.

The problem with this is that when ambient light levels are high the correct thing to do is to turn the keyboard backlight OFF because the key markings are clearly visible in this situation. I'd be fine with it coming on if I am plugged into AC power (for optimal visibility?) but this is clearly a waste of power otherwise.

Is there a way to set this? An ideal way to control this is a setting that allows me to configure the ambient light level point at which the machine will switch on the keyboard backlight. So as ambient light level darkens we start with zero backlight, then it goes to a high level of backlight at some threshold level, then goes down from there.


texts: i set up my son's mini iPad with my Apple id thus i could keep track of The purchases. Now i can only download apps on his mini iPad And not on my iPad nor iPhone ;( What can I do to fin this problem?


texts:
I used to take tons of screenshots that included the cursor with SnapzXPro. It’s stopped working in past OS releases requiring a patch, but has stopped again and I’m not sure Ambrosia is paying much attention.

I’ve been through Skitch, CloudApp, Grab, and the new mechanism migrated from iOS that uses Markup, and none let the cursor remain.

Anyone know of a way to take a screenshot that includes the cursor without editing the screenshot or having to use timers?


texts: Knowledge Request- Automatically Log Out of Google Services Script

texts:
TL;DR- is there a way to set Gmail to automatically log itself out?
I am in the process of distancing myself from Google's services, and while it is inevitable that one will always interact with Google's services ("Hello, Youtube."), even with certain practices set in place (i.e. using Duck Duck Go's privacy Safari extension, a VPN, remaining logged out of Google's main search page, etc.) I do still need to use Gmail during this transitional period.
Sure, one could log out after using the service, but sometimes I forget. Is there a script that could automate the process of logging out or is there possibly * gasp * a setting within Google's preferences?


texts: Safari is using very high % of CPU for no apparent reason

texts:
I've been having this problem lately where Safari starts hogging the CPU for no apparent reason. It's not a plugin or a specific webpage that's causing the issue, it's actually the Safari process itself:

What could be causing this issue, and how can I fix it?


texts: Show Downloads folder on the Dock as fan instead of opening immediately

texts:
I am trying to get the Downloads folder on my dock in the Fan view, as seen in this picture:

However, when I click on the folder, the folder immediately opens instead.


texts: Why doesn't trackpad work in Preview or TextEdit?

texts:
I open a PDF document.  It's a document I've created.  I have my trackpad set on "tap to click" from the trackpad system preferences.  Right now the tap with one finger doesn't work when I have the PDF document open. Physically clicking with the trackpad doesn't work.  The two-finger tap for a right click works.  Physically clicking in the area of the trackpad that signifies a right click works.  No left click works.  This is true for all PDFs I open.  This is true for any file I open with TextEdit.  Everything works fine in Chrome, Safari, Mathematica, etc.

Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.  I have tried this with a mouse since I don't have a mouse.  I'm using a Macbook Air 11" late 2011 model running Lion.


texts: Trackpad often does not register first left click

texts:
I have an issue in which I often have to left click twice in order for a single left click to register. This issue is described very nicely in this question. In summary, the first trackpad left click often does not register, which requires that I left click again. It frequently, but not always, follows a short period of trackpad inactivity.

It appears that several other questions have been asked about this very issue. These questions have been asked over a span of more than eight years (as of mid 2020), concern multiple hardware platforms both older and newer than my mid 2012 Air, and have garnered many thousands of views. So I guess this is not an isolated problem.

Unfortunately, three of the four questions were resolved by addressing troublesome software that I don't use (jTouch, Mumble, Spotify) and the fourth has no posted resolution. I don't currently have any software installed that is intended to modify my trackpad input. I can only think of one application (OpenEMU) that could be relevant since it has Input Monitoring permission, but I rarely use it, it isn't currently running, and I think that's just for the keyboard anyway. Here are a few of my machine's specifications:

Macbook Air (13-inch, Mid 2012)
Intel i7-3667U
8 GB RAM 1600 MHz DDR3
macOS Catalina 10.15.4 (19E287) [Upgraded last week!]

Does anyone have any idea how I might go about troubleshooting this issue? It's driving me crazy!


texts:
The MacPorts installation guide says:

  Download the latest MacPorts-2.3.1-....pkg installer from the MacPorts download directory. [...]
  Double-click the downloaded package installer to perform the default “easy” install.

In between steps 1 and 2, however, a user may wish to verify the integrity of the downloaded package, using the PGP signature file also found in the Macports download directory.

If SIGNATURE_FILE is the name of the signature file, I get the following result:

$ gpg --verify SIGNATURE_FILE
gpg: Signature made Thu 26 Jun 00:37:12 2014 BST using DSA key ID B4AAE6CD
gpg: Can't check signature: public key not found

Where can I find the public key? Google doesn't seem to know.


texts: Can I trigger an Automator workflow from a Notification Center alert?

texts:
I know there are ways to trigger Notification Center alerts inside an Automator workflow. I'd like to do the reverse.

I'd like to set up an event listener which, when a particular app emits a Notification Center alert, I can trigger a workflow from it. Is this possible?

I'm running Mavericks.


texts: On High Sierra, how to make a writable disk image open a window automatically?

texts:
I have some read-write disk images (some .dmg format, some in .sparseimage format) that I want to automatically open a Finder window to their base folders when I double-click them.  Up to now, I have been able to do that using the bless command, like:

sudo bless --folder dirPath --openfolder dirPath

but that no longer works as of High Sierra.  Is there an alternative?


texts:
For programming it is very convenient to have a built-in terminal inside a text editor. Therefore my favorite text editor on KDE-Linux is kate which has great ability of a built-in terminal below the text which is synchronized with the text path. Navigating through the open files and do terminal commands with them is then extremely easy.

I have installed kate via macport on OS X 10.10, but the terminal does not appear even though it shows its icon. Any idea if this a a kate bug or 10.10? If kate is not fully compatible with OS, is there any other text editor on Mac with a built-in terminal?

Thanks!


texts: Issue with 2 stage authentication on new Apple iPhone and MacBook Air

texts:
I am quite the predicament and my Google searches have not been fruitful at all.

I have an iPhone 5 that has now decided to not go past the Apple logo and won't turn on. It appears the battery is swelling and pushing the screen out.

I have borrowed an iPhone 6 off a friend and have restored an old backup from the 5 which was fine.

I travel a lot and as a result have different SIM cards (many) in various places. At some point I have accepted the 2 stage authentication process with Apple but now have no idea what the phone number is attached to this process and did not make a note of the recovery code (or cannot find it anywhere).

I attempted to log in using my Apple ID and have subsequently been locked out. I do not know the phone number to unlock the account.

I have phoned Apple support and they advise I need that phone number.

My iPhone 5 is the only trusted device I have other than my Macbook but feel even if I gain access it will advise my account is locked and need to know the trusted phone number to unlock.

The Find my Phone is switched on so I cannot even do a restore on the phone using iTunes unless this is deactivated and again needs the apple account unlocked.

I am at a complete loss and have no way of accessing all the necessary areas to set the new phone up.

If anyone has any experience with this or knows a workaround I would be most appreciative.


texts: Developer of a tool says I need to run an exe file and chmod it on mac

texts:
I am trying to use a tool written to help convert output of one program to a file useable by another.
The tool when downloaded is a lot of files and a .exe file.
I assumed this is not the Mac version, but the developer says that it runs on Mac OS and I need to CHMOD +x it and it will run.
I can't even get to the stage of trying that as my mac defaults to use the Unarchiver for  .exe files. I have tried both SwiftDefaultApps and RCdefault apps to try and de-allocate the unarchiver to those files, but neither works.
I've changed the suffix manually to .app and tried to run that but am told "You can’t open the application because it is not supported on this type of Mac."
I have dug into the terminal and think I have chmod -x the file.
Is there something I should be doing, or is it just that an exe just never going to work on a mac?
I'm a bit confused.
Thanks for any pointers.


texts: Is there a name for the common ground between Lion and iOS 5?

texts:
While working on the wording for another question, I wanted to refer to the parts of the Apple environment which are, by design, the same in Lion and in iOS 5.

For example, it is reasonable to expect that the available relationship types will be the same for iOS 5 Contacts and Lion Address Book.  It is surprising that Siri understands son, but that iOS 5 Contacts knows only child; this is attributable to Siri's beta status.

For items that sync in iCloud, Lion and iOS 5 probably use a single canonical structure specification or separate structure specifications which are kept conformant by engineering discipline.

What is the name of the set to which these item's structures belong?  Would one write "the iCloud address book entry format", "the Mac address book entry format", "the Winesap1 address book entry format", or what?

1speculative


texts: Whenever I request a ride it defaults to Apple Pay so I have to change it to my card. I don't see a way to make it so that it defaults to my card every time.


texts:
Is there any way to disable the delay for text dragging in OS X?

There is a small delay between selecting and dragging text, if you start dragging the text right after you selected it - it will instead re-select the text which can be annoying. Some apps don't have this delay (for example Sublime Text 2/3 where you can drag the text immediately after selecting it) but in most apps you would have to click the left mouse button and hold it for a bit before you can drag the selected text.


texts: Install OS on iMac with blank hard drive

texts: Is is possible to get a late 2010 iMac with a blank/new hard drive up and running with the latest OS and XCode?  All the answers I've seen involve duplicating or restoring an existing OS.  Is there a way to do it from scratch?


texts: Install Mac OS X Lion from newly installed SDD in Mac Book Pro A1260 (2008 model)

texts:
I have an old Mac Book Pro A1260 (2008 early model), and I need to replace the old HDD with SDD. In doing so, I'm thinking about installing Mac OS X Lion.

Can I install Mac OS X Lion directly to my Mac? Do I need to install snow leopard first, and then upgrade to Mac OS X Lion?


texts:
I just updated Filezilla, but now it moved strangely out of the screen bounds. CF screenshot.

I haven't found any way to make it appear entirely: the upper bar is unreachable and the app edges can only resize it! Anyone knows?

Thanks.


texts: How can I make my MacBook Pro screws stop screwing around?

texts:
The title might be a bit misleading, but it's precise: the screws keep screwing out by themselves!

It's quite random and I'm not even sure how I've managed to never lose one so far. Most of the times it's the bottom ones who try to run away, some times are the side ones. The top ones, 3 of which are much bigger, never joined the dance and always stayed right where they belong.

What always happens is that I feel them getting out when handling the notebook and then I just screw them back with my nails until I get ahold of a screwdriver. What I wished to happen is they simply stay there, keeping the lid in its place as they were meant to be and quit acting up on me!

Anticipating some comments:

The screws look all right and fine to the point that doesn't make me think I'd need replacements. This is a behavior I expect more people have with their MBPs so I'm also looking for shared experiences (the photo shows the same MBP model, by the way) here. And then again, maybe all I need is replacing them. But do I?
There are no Genius bars here in Brazil and I'm not willing to go on apple stores searching for something Apple probably doesn't care about <-- I'm looking for practical solutions like the one accepted there. And trying to understand what could be causing this weird issue.


texts: How to select power direction over USB-C

texts:
I have a USB battery which has a USB-C port on it.

When I connect it to my MacBook Pro (regardless of whether the MacBook Pro is running off its battery or via the mains), the Mac doesn't charge the battery, but instead uses the battery to power the Mac.

If the Mac is not on its own power supply, it will use the USB battery for charging (very slowly, but useful in a pinch).

In every case, the Mac tries to make power flow from the battery to the computer.

How do I reverse this? How do I make power flow from the Mac to the battery?

Apparently this is selectable, and other OSs provide an option.


texts: How to add location info to Calendar using "Quick Event"

texts:
In OS X Yosemite Calendar, I can quickly add an event by pressing Cmd-N and typing "lunch tomorrow 1-3pm at McDonalds".  But how can I set a location?  In this example, the event title will be "lunch at McDonalds" and the location will by blank.

For example, these attempts at providing parsing hints do not work:

Attempted Text -> 'Interpreted Event title' [Interpreted event time]

Movie Friday 7pm at 1 Infinite Loop -> 'Movie Friday 7pm Infinite Loop' [1pm today]
Movie, 1 Infinite Loop, Friday 7pm  -> 'Movie, 1 Infinite Loop,' [Fri 7pm]
Movie at 1 Infinite Loop, Friday 7pm -> 'Movie at 1 Infinite Loop,' [Fri 7pm]
Movie, location:1 Infinite Loop, on Friday at 7pm -> 'Movie, location:1 Infinite Loop,' [Fri 7pm]

(The desired outcome is an event with title 'Movie', time Friday at 7pm, location '1 Infinite Loop'.)

Is there some syntax or hint for the app to parse the quick event text to populate the location field?


texts: Restore iOS default settings without user interaction

texts:
I have some iOS devices in a device farm that I'm trying to automate as much as possible. I'd like to be able to clean them after use (i.e. restore them to a set state) without having to physically interact with the devices.

So far, I've found I can do this:

Install idevicebackup2 from libimobiledevice
Run idevicebackup2 backup /tmp/iphonebackup
Run idevicebackup2 restore /tmp/iphonebackup --system --reboot
Wait for reboot

After the reboot, "Update Complete", then "Welcome to iPhone" screens are present. These interfere with automated operation of the device (e.g. launching apps). I hoped I could launch an XCUITest to navigate through this pointless wizard but I get Could not launch “WebDriverAgent”: Unlock the device “iPhone” and repeat the action in Xcode when attempting this.

Is it possible to skip this setup wizard after restoring settings? Or is there another way to reset the phone to a state where I can interact with it from the command line successfully?


texts: I'm looking for a way by which I can see what I'm seeing while recording on another screen such as Macbook's screen or a monitor. For example, in this following image, I can turn the screen to myself to see myself while it is recording. Similarly, I wish to make the screen as Macbook's screen or a monitor while recording on my iPhone.


texts:
I'm trying to listen to a podcast through Apple's headphones on my Macbook Pro (Retina, 13 Inch, mid 2014), running OS X 10.10.1, but the audio keeps cutting out.

When the audio cuts out, the following log messages appear in the Console app:

26/11/14 18:27:51,370 AirPlayUIAgent[348]: 2014-11-26 06:27:51.369515 PM [AirPlayAVSys] AirPlay became the default audio device
26/11/14 18:27:51,378 discoveryd[51]: AwdlD2d AwdlD2dStartBrowsingForKey: '_raop' Browsing service started
26/11/14 18:27:51,379 discoveryd[51]: AwdlD2d AwdlD2dStartBrowsingForKey: '_airplay' Browsing service started
26/11/14 18:27:51,407 SystemUIServer[198]: 2014-11-26 06:27:51.407192 PM [AirPlayAVSys] AirPlay became the default audio device
26/11/14 18:27:51,437 coreaudiod[597]: 2014-11-26 06:27:51.436712 PM [AirPlay] Set up for stream GeneralAudio, PCM/44100/16/2 -> ALAC/44100/16/2
26/11/14 18:27:51,437 coreaudiod[597]: 2014-11-26 06:27:51.436854 PM [AirPlay] Available DNS names: Infra [84383554262E@Julia\032-\032MacBook\032Air._raop._tcp.local.%4], P2P [intentionally disabled]
26/11/14 18:27:51,437 coreaudiod[597]: 2014-11-26 06:27:51.436997 PM [AirPlay] Pairing not required. Connect over Infra with "Julia - MacBook Air" via 84383554262E@Julia\032-\032MacBook\032Air._raop._tcp.local.%4
26/11/14 18:27:51,438 coreaudiod[597]: 2014-11-26 06:27:51.437740 PM [AirPlay] Add Peer without AWDL at MAC <<NULL>> with infra critical
26/11/14 18:27:51,438 coreaudiod[597]: 2014-11-26 06:27:51.437835 PM [AirPlay] MAC 00:00:00:00:00:00 has 0 connections, 1 require infrastructure
26/11/14 18:27:51,000 kernel[0]: IO80211AWDLPeerManager::setAwdlPeerTrafficRegistration Clearing AirPlay peer 00:00:00:00:00:00
26/11/14 18:27:51,438 coreaudiod[597]: 2014-11-26 06:27:51.438200 PM [AirPlay] Register AirPlay traffic for AWDL at MAC 00:00:00:00:00:00 with target infra critical PeerIndication=2 err=0
26/11/14 18:27:51,000 kernel[0]: IO80211AWDLPeerManager::setAwdlPeerTrafficRegistration Clearing AirPlay peer 00:00:00:00:00:00
26/11/14 18:27:51,000 kernel[0]: IO80211AWDLPeerManager::setAwdlPeerTrafficRegistration Clearing AirPlay peer 00:00:00:00:00:00
26/11/14 18:27:55,436 coreaudiod[597]: 2014-11-26 06:27:55.436424 PM [AirPlay] ### Start taking too long...continuing asynchronously

Every time it happens, the first message seems to be AirPlay became the default audio device, but I'm not currently using any airplay devices as far as I'm aware. How do I stop this from happening?

Rebooting doesn't help. Also, I'm in a library, so I currently can't test playing audio without headphones.


texts: Two-way scroll on magic trackpad on Windows 7

texts: Using the bootcamp drivers, I am able to use an Apple Magic Trackpad on my PC running Windows 7. Everything seems to work fine. When I'm in Google Chrome (and other applications), I can use the two-finger swipe to scroll left and right. However, when I try to use the two-finger scroll (left and right) on Adobe Photoshop/InDesign/etc, it doesn't work at all (scrolling up and down works fine). Any ideas?


texts: DNS Lookup Failure on Terminal Only (Mavericks)

texts:
I recently did a clean install of Mavericks, and ever since I have, I've been having intermittent DNS lookup failures on the terminal only.  Browsers work fine (Chrome, Safari).

But nothing works from the command line (ping, tracert, curl, git clone, etc.).  The problem will eventually just go away (sometimes 30 seconds, sometimes 10 minutes), and it does help to switch between the network and the guest network (running a 2 year-old Apple Airport Express), but the problem will eventually express on either connection.  It's maddening.

It seems bizarre that the problem is restricted to the terminal; it seems like network requests from the terminal would use the same mechanism as a browser.

OSX 10.9.4
Chrome 35
Safari 7.0.5
git 1.8.5.2
curl 7.30.0


texts: PDF reader that allows user to alternate between reading on PC and on Mac

texts: I have to read a lot of PDF files and am wondering whether there is an app out there that allows me to alternate between reading on Windows PC and on Macbook Air.  I am thinking about an app that syncs all the notes and markups between devices and opens with the last page I read.  Could anyone please help?


texts: any way to restrict to newsstand only in guided access mode?

texts:
In guided access mode, can I restrict to Newsstand alone, so users can only view Newsstand and the subscribed newspapers and magazines?

It seems that the guided access mode can only restrict to a single magazine.


texts: Can I use 2019 iMac as monitor for Wii/Wii U?

texts: Does anyone know of a setup to somehow plug my Wii into my 27' 2019 iMac? I'm fine with any strategies here, no matter how complex.


texts: Strange background color on external drive folder names

texts:
I had folder on local Mac drive. And when I ls on terminal I see this:

But when I copied on external HDD (FAT filesystem) I see this when I call the same ls command in the same directory:

What does the background color mean?


texts: Why does my AirPlay stream distort at high volume?

texts:
I have an airport express connected to basic (but not crappy) speakers. When I run audio directly to them it plays fine, but when I run audio from either my iPhone or Mac to the speakers via AirPlay, I get crackly distorted sound if the volume slider is above about 75%.

Does anyone know why this could be? I have the airport set to extend my current network; could that affect it?


texts: If I send a text and then change my mind and delete it, will the other person still see it on their phone?I clicked on the body of the text and the window popped up, giving me the option to delete the message. Does it only delete it on my end or also on the other person's end?


texts:
I have several Apple devices and all are connected to the iCloud. My iMac however will not download any files from the cloud, it is an empty file! I have done the following.

Signed out and back into my iCloud account.
Restarted.
unchecked the sync button and rechecked.

What can I do?


texts: What is the domain name for the iCloud Activation Server?

texts: I am just wondering if anyone had the current hosts of the iCloud Activation servers, as I am currently writing a script that utilizes them. Any help is much appreciated. I know that it used to be albert.apple.com, however I am away from home and don't have admin privileges to install a packet sniffer at work.


texts: Is there any way to remove an app icon (especially stickies) on mac's application switcher (cmd+tab menu)?

texts:
On Mac's application switcher I want to hide some applications such as Stickies. I always use Stickies, it is really useful for me that's why it's always running. But, I'm really fed up with it on ⌘ CMD+⇥ TAB. I want to get rid of it

Is there a way to do within altering any settings in macbook or using any third party software?

I tried the solution at "Is there a way to hide certain apps from the cmd+tab menu?". But it doesnot work maybe because of OS X Yosemite.


texts: 2006 iMac will not respond to standard command to restore or anything

texts:
I have a 2006 iMac and a backup and would like to restore the to the original install. However, it can't be upgraded, its too old, so finding software is impossible.

Tried the Mac OS X Tiger system disk, which is the oldest I have, but its too new!

Tried setting NVRAM, no response.  Command+R, no response.

Does anyone know how to do it?


texts: MBP retina 2015 with usb 3 to ethernet and active wifi sharing fails at iMessage

texts:
So here's the thing. My iMessage on the MBP is simply not working, when I use my MBP the way I want to. What way is that? Since it has no Ethernet connector, I bought a USB 3 to Ethernet box, that does its job nicely. iMessage does work with it. I have no WiFi in my office, so to keep costly traffic away from my iPhone I setup the MVP to share its internet connection via WiFi. From this moment on, iMessage will no longer work. And I know why, but I don't know how to fix it. Reason for the why is that iMessage (as opposed to every single other application on my MBP) explicitly takes en0 as the networking device to send and receive data. But en0 is the local WiFi, my Ethernet device is en3. The local WiFi is just a bridge for my iPhone, not "the internet". But iMessage is to dumb to get that. It is smart enough to know not to use en0 when WiFi is turned off or not connected though, and then will use en3 readily. So the question is:

How can I convince iMessage to always use en3?


texts: How to make my Garage Band '11 ringtone louder?

texts:
I created a ringtone using Garage Band '11 and my bass directly inputted to my MAC. I was able to create the ringtone I wanted, and selected the 30 second loop, however the volume is really low. I've tried bumping up the volume on both the track and the monitor locations but still way lower than, say a purchased ringtone.

Anyone know of a place I may be overlooking?

UPDATE:

I adjusted the settings in preferences under Audio/MIDI

And I also unchecked Export Projects at Full Loudness just to see if there was any difference in the output. But it sounded identical to the previous export:


texts: Can Safari receive desktop notifications from YouTube or Facebook?

texts:
Since switching from Chrome to Safari, I've noticed that I no longer have an option to enable desktop notifications from YouTube or Facebook. For example, going to YouTube's settings > account notifications would yield this on Chrome:

from which I could turn on desktop notifications. On Safari, I only see this:

Likewise, going to Facebook's notification settings would reveal an option to receive desktop notifications on Chrome, but not on Safari. Is there any way I can enable them?


texts:
When I go into recovery mode by holding the power button, I get into the normal menu. I then see the options symbol and a loading sign. My disk never shows up here even after an extended period of loading time. When I go into the options, it says "examining volumes" before it just stops with a message "There are no users to recover". I then tried to enter the Startup Disk utility. Again, it never stops loading and never finds a system I want to use to start up my computer.
I haven't ever done anything to my mac, that could be considered unusual.
I would appreciate any help.