texts: Is there a way to encrypt data on iCloud?

texts:
I currently use Backblaze for online backup. I am thinking of switching to just storing all my documents on my iCloud drive.

With Backblaze, you can set an encryption key. Without this key no one can access your data - not even Backblaze.

I know by default, iCloud does not do this. But is there a 'set-it-and-forget-it` workaround to have files encrypted before they are uploaded?

I don't have anything sensitive in my files. But after all the stories one hears in the media, I would be reluctant to put my files in a place where a rogue Apple employee (or contractor) can just open them up.


texts: I'm locked out of machine as will not accept password as I shut down while using French keyboard

texts:
I cannot get into my Mac Book Pro, I just get the password picture which shakes.

The only different key for the password is a which is q on French keyboard but that doesn't unlock either.  I normally work with English keyboard but was using a French keyboard when the machine shut down.

Is there any sequence of keypresses to bypass the password so I can get into the machine?


texts: I have an iphone 5S.  Sometimes when I use the Google map and enter a destination, my current location is a flashing blue dot which is very convenient.  Lately, the blue dot has been replaced with an arrow which is not as convenient.  How do I get my map to permanently show the flashing blue dot?


texts: Does OS X or Xcode have applications to manage cheat sheet/commands list?

texts:
I'm learning coding on OS X, as I'm a beginner, I have to read cheat sheets and I have bunch of files like that, Git commands, Ubuntu Server commands, Node.js modules command and so on.

Today I saw my friend using Cloud9, it's Cloud IDE, it has a small area called "Commands" where he can search and read tiny description about it, also keyboard shortcut.

I know that feature is so specific to Cloud9, but do we have similar functionality in some app on OS X, where I can create and store my usually cheatsheets? I don't need 100% exactly the same, just same same is ok.

Update:
I'm going to write my own app, I will let you know if I can archive anything.


texts: Documentation for advanced osX server maintenance: How current does it have to be?

texts:
Ok. Apple changes things a fair bit from the user side recently.

I need to really know how to administer a mac system.

Now, this is quite different then programming such a system. the dev docs
are quite detailed. The man pages also are quite good, except for most of the admin pages. Of course, much of the info links back to earlier versions.

10.6 is the last really detailed doc set that was put out. Now, I'm starting to think, and beginning to see, that much of the nuts and bolts knowledge is the same or similar... that I need to know the new features, but that Open directory and other core tools needed to administer users and the like can be learned from the older stuff.

Am I correct in thinking this? It would make things a lot easier, my main tool now is this site and

man -k

and tracing syscalls with DTrace. This can't be how everyone does it, "it" being the taking of man pages and "tips" and assembling them into a coherent mental map of Mac Sysadmin.

To summarize, I am wondering: Do I need the newest docs? Or can I read the concepts from 10.5, 10.6, the basics, and then just move forward from there?

Pls advise.

EDIT: To clarify, it'll be user management and Open Directory issues which I feel the greatest need for clarification. I've just been treating this like a nicer BSD variant, and am unsure of best practices and practical issues with managing users. I have also noticed that often there is an alarming ( to the novice ) gap between what the docs say works, and what the people in the field say. Of course, maybe I am concerned about the wrong things. That's where man pages won't help you, they tell you how to use a tool, but not really when to use a tool.


texts: How can I update my (super old) Mac OS when the App Store shows no available updates?

texts: I am pretty computer-dumb. I am still operating on Mac OS X 10.10.5  MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012 with Yosemite) and have started to lose functionality - some websites don't open, softwares don't work, etc. due to my outdated browser. When I go to the app store to view available updates, there are none. Months ago I tried to manually update the OS to Catalina (I think) and it completely crashed my computer; I had a smart friend restore it, but it is back to the old OS. How do I get something more functional so I can download new browsers, etc?


texts: iTerm2: Select Text keybinding disappeared

texts:
I seem to have inadvertently removed the ability to select text using the keyboard: e.g. Shift+←.

I've scrolled through the default key bindings in both Preferences > Keys and Preferences > Profiles > Keys. In the latter, Terminal.app Compatibility seems the most natural.

And it's probably really simple...


texts: Macbook Pro won't mount external hard drive

texts:
I have been having this problem with a Macbook Pro late 2006 and a Macbook Pro early 2011.

Macbook Pro refuses to mount an specific external hard drive or USB stick, after being able to do so with no problem before, and usually after the operating system disconnects it suddenly.

That particular external hard drive or USB stick is perfectly good since it works OK under linux.

MBP would mount the drive month later when tried again.

It have happen with two external Western Digital Hardrives (myPassport) as well as with a Kingston USB stick.

Disk Utility sees the drive but cannot mount it because it's "incompatible".

Many people seem to be having this problem and no solution has been found.

I cannot format the disk because that's where my backups are.

Again: a Linux box uses the drive with no problem. I don't have another mac at hand to try.

Now I'm going to buy another external hard drive from Amazon.

Which brand and model should I buy in order not ti have this problem again?


texts: What's a free/lightweight way to email a message to force an iPhone alert?

texts:
At my job, we get specific emails that need to be responded to right away.

Currently, I filter and forward those emails to my SMS gateway address provided by AT&T (1234567890@txt.att.net). The problem is that they result in 16 text messages because there are 4 emails and each one results in 4 text messages.

Can anyone recommend a service or app that provides an email address that will result in an iPhone popup?


texts: Displaying combined file size of selected files in Finder

texts:
To find details about a files size, you can right click and select "Get Info":

When I select a large number of files, and want to get information about all if them together as a single selection, such as the combined total size, I get the same window for every individual selection, and not a single view for the selection as a whole.

How can I get total file sizes for file/folder selections?


texts: Disk Utility First Aid has no progress bar?

texts:
It is on "Checking snapshot 1 of 4" and has been for 30 minutes.

There is no progress bar. The drive is a 1TB SATA drive.

Should I quit it and start it again or just let it chug?


texts:
I know how to re-map my modifier keys, so my caps lock can act as a ctrl key, for example.

I'm wondering if there's a way to re-map they dash/underscore key (next to +/=). Instead of it producing a dash or hyphen, I'd like it to produce an em dash. And pressing shift+opt+dash (the current shortcut for an em dash) key would produce a normal dash.

Based on Karl's answer, I tried using BetterTouchTool (as Global shortcuts and also TextEdit specifically), but remapped keypresses just seem to be ignored.


texts: What software can turn off Wi-Fi automatically when closing lid?

texts:
I want to turn off my MacBook's Wi-Fi automatically when closing its lid.
Is there any software can do this?

I have a battery drain problem.  When Wi-Fi is enabled and I close the lid, my MacBook will periodically wake overnight, draining battery.

I have done ton of research and tried many methods.  Turning off the Wi-Fi before closing the lid is the only way to guarantee that my MacBook will not wake.  But, well, it is annoying to disable Wi-Fi every time.  So I need a script or other software to do this job.


texts: How can I downgrade a mid-2010 21.5" iMac from Yosemite to Snow Leopard?

texts:
I had Yosemite on my old iMac (21.5", mid-2010), then decided to try Snow Leopard on it. (It came installed with Lion, but this model did ship with Snow Leopard previously.)

Basically, I tried doing what's suggested in this thread:

How can I downgrade an iMac12,1 from Lion to Snow Leopard?

I put the iMac into Target Disk Mode, then connected to it with my MacBook running SL. I formatted the iMac HD, then ran the DVD install from my MacBook (an old 13" black MacBook), using the iMac HD as the target.

This is where things went awry.

I rebooted the MacBook with the Option held down, but Startup Manager would not show me the iMac target disk. My only option was the MacBook HD.

Is this because the MacBook does not have the right drivers for the iMac?

I have also tried to install the Mac OS X 10.6.8 Combo Update onto the iMac from the MacBook, but that installer will not accept the iMac HD (with the SL install started on it) as a target.

Any idea how I can complete this install of SL?


texts:
We've an old 2007 MacBook that I'd like to connect to a recent TV. If I'm not mistaking, the laptop has a FireWire 400 port, a VGA port, and USB ports. The TV has HDMI ports and USB ports insofar as I can tell.

The laptop can't run AirPlay insofar as I can tell - it's running OS X Lion and is too old to upgrade.

Is a USB/USB cable the recommended way of connecting the two devices in this case, or are there reasonably priced adapters to convert FireWire 400 to HDMI or something to that effect?


texts: Make Yosemite Installer USB drive that does not require internet access

texts:
There are plenty of instructions on how to to make a Yosemite installer USB drive that work using either the createinstallmedia program or Diskmaker X. However, when I take that drive to a machine which cannot be connected to the internet or to wifi, the installer tells me the OS cannot be installed because an internet connection is required. For all previous versions of the OS, it was trivial to do this with Diskmaker X because the installer did not require internet access.

Assuming this is possible, how can I make an installer USB drive which will not require network access?


texts: Gatekeeper refuses validly signed application

texts:
I am trying to publish a signed application, but when downloading it through internet, gatekeeper complains:

Furthermore, the help page says that the app has been tampered with:

Which is actually not true, here is my signing/packaging procedure:

codesign --deep --force --verify -s "Developer ID Application: Nanolive SA (GMLD8K8WH3)" Steve/Steve.app
hdiutil create -volname Steve -srcfolder Steve -ov -format UDZO Steve.dmg
codesign -s "Developer ID Application: Nanolive SA (GMLD8K8WH3)" Steve.dmg

The whole procedure works without a problem, and as you can see, I don't change the package between the signature and the creation of the dmg.

I went through this whole document and I think everything is correct: https://developer.apple.com/library/archive/technotes/tn2206/_index.html

Furthermore, I went through everything in the Checking Gatekeeper Conformance section:

Checking the dmg:

$ spctl -a -t open --context context:primary-signature -v Steve.dmg
Steve.dmg: accepted
source=Developer ID

Using codesign:

$ codesign --verify --deep --strict --verbose=2 Steve.app
--prepared:/Volumes/Steve/Steve.app/Contents/MacOS/ffmpeg
--validated:/Volumes/Steve/Steve.app/Contents/MacOS/ffmpeg

<snip a lot of validated libs>

--prepared:/Volumes/Steve/Steve.app/Contents/Frameworks/libvtkRenderingAnnotation-7.1.1.dylib
--validated:/Volumes/Steve/Steve.app/Contents/Frameworks/libvtkRenderingAnnotation-7.1.1.dylib
Steve.app: valid on disk
Steve.app: satisfies its Designated Requirement

using the check-signature tool:

$ /Volumes/Signature\ Check/check-signature Steve.app
(c) 2014 Apple Inc.  All rights reserved.
YES
$ /Volumes/Signature\ Check/check-signature Steve.app/Contents/Frameworks/*
(c) 2014 Apple Inc.  All rights reserved.
Steve.app/Contents/Frameworks/QtConcurrent.framework: YES

<snip a lot of YES>

Steve.app/Contents/Frameworks/qwt: YES

And lastly using spctl:

spctl -a -t exec -vv Steve.app
Steve.app: accepted
source=Developer ID
origin=Developer ID Application: Nanolive SA (GMLD8K8WH3)

The command line tells me everything is 100% correct, but I still can't launch the app from the user interface because I'm missing something, somewhere, that the command line won't tell me.

Please note that when I bypass the quarantine using the command line, the app launches properly, which implies that I don't have any missing library as far as I'm aware.

The build server runs OSX High Sierra 10.13.6

Thank you for your time and help!


texts:
So, I'm looking at a PDF in Safari 12.0 off JSTOR. And it appears like this:

Which definitely isn't how it should be rendered. But more concerningly, this persists with a number of PDFs from ScienceDirect, Elsevier, and other academic journal aggregators.

This problem doesn't persist in Chrome for the same documents.

Has this problem been encountered before, and are there any fixes?


texts:
I'm working with a 2013 Macbook Pro in clamshell mode using a 2012 Cinema display (on the display port) and magic keyboard and trackpad.  When I leave the office, I would like to put the computer to sleep with the minimum number of steps.  It's easy to see that just unplugging the display and power won't put the Macbook to sleep.  The next thing I have come up with is

Put the computer to sleep using either the apple menu or Launchbar.
Unplug power, Display port, Thunderbolt network.
Leave

This seems to not work. When I arrive at home the Macbook shows 95% battery remaining, indicating that it was running in the bag until it went to sleep due to inactivity.

If I, after unplugging everything, open the Macbook, it shows the password screen, indicating that it has at least locked.  If I then close the Macbook and leave, it seems to go to sleep (and show 100% battery remaining when arriving at home).

How can I put the computer to sleep without opening and closing the lid?


texts:
I am trying to switch from using my desktop to my macbook pro as my primary machine.

I have 2 monitors (each 1600x1200 resolution) I'd like to use as external monitors for my macbook pro (from 2013).  Both monitors support VGA and DVI input (along with s-video and composite, although I've never used those before).

Looking at the laptop, it has 1 hdmi port, and 2 thunderbolt ports.

The 'about this mac' reports I'm using osX 10.10.4, with a early 2013 15-inch Retina display.  Graphics card is nVidia GeForce GT 650M 1024 MB.

How do I find out if this is possible?  If it is possible, how do I do it?


texts: I can't restart my iPad mini by holding the power button and even in the powwr button in AssistiveTouch.Furthermore,I can't use any app that needed wifi.Lastly, my battery life is staying at 96% even after a couple hour.Please tell me how to fix it .tq


texts:
I have custom ringtones on my iPhone5s which show in Tones on iTunes. They were originally setup years ago on older iTunes.

I am trying to setup an older iPhone5c and would like to transfer the custom ringtones, but can't seem to find how.


texts: Unable to turn of screen while making WhatsApp or skype call on loudspeaker ios 10 update

texts: Usually, when I make a Skype or WhatsApp call, while talking, I will switch off the display to conserve the battery as well as my eyes without the need to stare at the screen. This would allow the call to continue without any interruptions. However, since updating to iOS 10, turning off the display disconnects the Skype or WhatsApp call. Please help. Thanks in advance.


texts:
My ultimate goal is to disable password login, as seen here:
Disable password authentication on SSH server on OS X Server 10.8

But I suspect the changes I'm making to /etc/ssh/ssh_config aren't taking effect. Here are my steps:

sudo nano /etc/ssh/ssh_config
Just change the port from 22 to 2222 with this line:
Port 2222 (not commented out)
sudo launchctl stop com.openssh.sshd
That should stop the service and start it again, but it's still on port 22.

Thoughts? Thanks!


texts: How can I enter multiple keywords in a row in Photos 5 (Catalina)

texts:
When adding keywords to my photos in Apple's Photos app, I pull up the Info window, click in the Keywords field, and type them in. In previous versions, comma would commit the keyword but leave the cursor in the field so I could type another. So:

  park,sunset,dog,

would add three keywords. Since upgrading to Catalina, comma still commits the keyword but also (usually) removes focus from the keyword field. So anything I type afterward not only doesn't go in the keyword field, but is interpreted as keyboard shortcuts and does unpredictable things.

Clearly comma is no longer the right way to do this. So how can I add multiple keywords in a row to an image or group of images?


texts: How to get a service working upon launch

texts: A while ago, I wrote a few services and assigned them to key combinations. The problem is, even though services are under application's File menu item, I have to invoke it manually the first time, then I can use the key combination. Is there a way to be able use services when you first launch the application? I looked at this answer, but I'd rather use a 3rd party application only if I absolutely have to.


texts: Removing Citrix Reciver icon from Menu Bar

texts:
I switched companies and no longer need to use Citrix Receiver. I removed the app using CleanMyMac X, but the icon still appears on the menu bar in the upper right. It is greyed out, but I just want to clean this up and get rid of it. Too many bad memories.

Thanks.


texts: How to prevent burst photos in camera timer?

texts:
I can tap the upper-central "live photos" (short video) icon button to assure live mode is disabled.
I can assure I'm switched to "Photo" and not "Video" or "Square" or whatever.
I can tap HDR to "auto" or "off" ("on" is not available for front-facing lens).
I can set the timer to three seconds or ten seconds.
I can try rear-facing or front-facing lens.
I can try a short tap, long tap, or double-tap of the shutter button.

But I can't seem to stop the "burst photo" mode when using the timed photo option.

I don't want to have to choose between ten "burst" shots for every single timed snapshot I take.

I also looked in device Settings / Photos & Camera, and I don't see anything relevant there.

Am I missing something? Thank you.

iPhone SE

iOS 9.3.2


texts: Keyboard shortcuts for switching Spaces?

texts: I have a laptop and a desktop both running 10.11.1; on the laptop I found a way to set up Spaces so that CTRL-1 would take me immediately to screen 1 and similarly for all the other screens.  I rely on that convenience.  But on my desktop I am still stuck with this stupid Mission Control 2-step procedure.  I KNOW it's possible, but I have been unable to reproduce this convenience on the desktop.  Can anyone remind me how it's done?


texts: Is there a way to set a site-specific user-agent for Safari? A website for school says it needs Firefox 3.x, but I have found that Safari 5 works fine. The problem is that every time I tried to log in, it warned me that my browser may not work. I set the default user agent to Firefox 3.6, and it worked fine. Now, big sites like Google and Pandora won't allow me to use certain services. (In Gmail, it just goes back to HTML. In Pandora, it blocks the whole site.) I don't want to use a different browser just for one website, and use another for everything else. I also don't want to manually change the user-agent every time I try to go to another page. Is there a way to do it automatically?


texts: Video playback app for iOS 6 that's like iOS 7's Videos.app?

texts: Is there an iOS 6-compatible app that's just like the iOS 7 Videos.app? I have tried VLC but I want an app that displays the contents of my video library as both text and thumbnails the way the the Videos.app does.


texts:
I have an early 2008 Mac Pro that I use for research involving a lot of statistical computing. Some of this requires a decent amount of memory (storing hundreds of thousands of iterations of simulations, each having many parameter values…). It's fairly slow and seems to be swapping a ton on many of these runs.

My question is how easy and how cheap would it be to add memory and maybe a SSD to speed it up (I don't care about processing speed on its own that much). I don't want to invest a ton of money in a machine that might soon be obsolete (e.g. not supported by new OS versions), but I don't have a ton of money to blow on a completely new machine.

What about other options for a new Mac? Would a new iMac with lots of memory be comparable in cost to the total upgrade price for my current machine? I'm not super tech savvy so don't have a good sense for whether throwing many hundreds of dollars into a 7 year old computer is dumb. Advice would be greatly appreciated.


texts: How to repair external hard drive that fails diskutil with 'Disk Full Error'

texts:
If I run fsck_hfs -y -d /dev/rdisk2s10 it putters along, rebuilds the catalog B-tree then fails when writing the new catalog to disk.

bash-3.2# fsck_hfs -d -y  /dev/rdisk2s10
** /dev/rdisk2s10
Using cacheBlockSize=32K cacheTotalBlock=16384 cacheSize=524288K.
Executing fsck_hfs (version diskdev_cmds-491.6~3).
** Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
** Checking extents overflow file.
** Checking catalog file.
Invalid node structure
(4, 19740)
** Rebuilding catalog B-tree.
BlockFindAll:  1060209 blocks free, but need 2314620; ignoring for now
BlockFindAll:  found 1938640 blocks but needed 2314620
Disk full error
** The volume MongoDisk could not be repaired.
volume type is pure HFS+
primary MDB is at block 0 0x00
alternate MDB is at block 0 0x00
primary VHB is at block 2 0x02
alternate VHB is at block 1953261182 0x746c667e
sector size = 512 0x200
VolumeObject flags = 0x07
total sectors for volume = 1953261184 0x746c6680
total sectors for embedded volume = 0 0x00

Diskutil reports the following for this partition:

Device Identifier:        disk2s10
Device Node:              /dev/disk2s10
Part Of Whole:            disk2
Device / Media Name:      Apple_HFS_Untitled_1

Volume Name:              MongoDisk
Escaped with Unicode:     MongoDisk

Mounted:                  Yes
Mount Point:              /Volumes/MongoDisk 1
Escaped with Unicode:     /Volumes/MongoDisk%FF%FE%20%001

File System:              HFS+
Type:                     hfs
Name:                     Mac OS Extended
Owners:                   Enabled

Partition Type:           Apple_HFS
Bootable:                 Not bootable
Media Type:               Generic
Protocol:                 FireWire
SMART Status:             Not Supported
Volume UUID:              4758CE30-CA9C-3DF1-90D6-0436772E622D

Total Size:               1.0 TB (1000069726208 Bytes) (exactly 1953261184 512-Byte-Blocks)
Volume Free Space:        146.8 GB (146791854080 Bytes) (exactly 286702840 512-Byte-Blocks)

Read-Only Media:          No
Read-Only Volume:         Yes
Ejectable:                Yes

Whole:                    No
Internal:                 No

My suspicion is that the extents tree indicates a full volume, so that diskutil can't find a place to write it.

The man page for fsck_hfs claims that you can rebuild the btrees individually with the R flag.  Doesn't work on Snow Leopard.

Is there a way to fix this short of reformating the drive?

Any recommendations to other commandline utilities to beat up on HFS file systems?


texts: Can I force merge a Catalina "- Data" and system Volume?

texts:
We're all familiar with the "Macintosh HD" and "Macintosh HD - Data" layout.  I don't know what my customer did but he has both Volumes intact but the firmlinks are gone.  They are being treated as 2 entirely independent volumes.  The contents of the "Users" folder on the -Data volume is not being presented as the users on the Mac itself.  And if I create a new user, it puts that user's folder under Users on the "Macintosh HD" volume only, not copied to the "Macintosh HD - Data" volume.
Diskutils says that the "Macintosh HD" volume is in a Volume Group with a different volume other than the "Macintosh HD - Data" volume.
So I'd like to disassociate this 3rd volume and re-associate the "Macintosh HD" and "Macintosh HD - Data" regarding those firmlinks the way they belong.


texts: How to install PhoneGap with Mac OS X Lion(10.7.3)?

texts:
I have a Mac OS X Lion(10.7.3). Now I want to install PhoneGap in my XCode. My XCode version is 4.3.2.

I followed the instruction of installation from PhoneGap web site at the time of installation. But when I create some one project it shows error as well as www folder also not created at the time of project creation.

According to the PhoneGap web site (http://phonegap.com/start) to install I have to have Mac OS X Snow Leopard (10.6). Is it not possible to install PhoneGap with Lion(10.7.3) or I have to wait until the supported version comes up?

Note: I am new with Xcode, Mac and PhoneGape.


texts: How to switch between multiple fullscreen windows of same application in OS X?

texts:
When I'm running several instances of the same app (might be Chrome separate windows, or several IntelliJ projects) in fullscreen mode, I can't navigate to concrete app using ⌘-Tab, it will just show one icon of the app but there are several running in the background.

Also there is no application specific shortcut to do so.

Is there a way to make ⌘-Tab show instances rather than global app icon?


texts: MacBook Pro El-Capitan erase / format CD-RW

texts:
I have a 2012 MacBook Pro running OSX El Capitan 10.11.6. I cannot erase a CD-RW that I have inserted into it. Disk Utility's erase button is disabled for it, and Finder's menu for the mounted CD does not show 'Erase rewritable disc'.

System Information reports that it supports CD-RW and it knows the media in the drive is a CD-RW.

Pictures supporting this are here: screenshots from my Mac:

How the heck do I format this CD??


texts: Aligning, moving and enlarging partitions seems impossible

texts:
A friend's MacBook (mid 2009 model) was stuck at the boot screen and I have discovered that the HDD was failing, so I've replaced the failing regular 320GB HDD with a Samsung 860 evo 500GB SSD.

I cloned the disk with ddrescue and before reinstalling via the recovery partition, I aligned the partitions (EFI, Macintosh HD and Recovery HD) with GParted.

Something went wrong, and when reinstalling El Capitan was complaining that

  some features of macOS are not supported for the disk [...] you can't use FileVault, set up a firmware password, or use Disk Utility to repair the disk

I didn't want to give back the MacBook with this problem, so I tried different ways to align the partitions. I even installed El Capitan by using a removable USB stick so I could format the SSD, but the newly created partitions were again not MB aligned.

My last attempt was by using the trial version of the Paragon Hard Disk Manager for Mac, but it failed. It seems that the partitions couldn't be moved and enlarged (so after the recovery partition I still have ~200GB of unallocated space that I can't use).

Any clues on how could I align the partitions and finally return the Mac to my friend?

Note that I have a backup of all the data, so I can format again the SSD. I would just like to preserve/recreate the Recovery partition in the process. And, obviously, allocate all the SSD's space.


texts: How long is the wait after a file is renamed to when it is searchable in Finder or File Upload?

texts:
I am using macOS Majave, and sometimes I need to upload a file from Google Chrome.

So I searched for the file in the folder Downloads or Documents, and let's say the file is found:

abcdef 12345678.pdf

so I renamed it to:

record docs - abcdef 12345678.pdf

and now go to Google Chrome, close the upload file finder and re-open it (just to refresh it).

But I found that if I search for the file "record" (by filename) or "docs" (by filename), the file cannot be found.  I had to type in 12345678 and match by filename to find the file. (and it will show the file as "abcdef 12345678.pdf")

There seems to be a delay for when the file is renamed to when it can be found. What usually is this delay and can it be speeded up?


texts: How can I find out what is reading and writing so much data on my MacBook?

texts:
In the 20 or so days that my retina MacBook has been turned on, in Activity Monitor I can see that around 2 TB of data has been written and 1.2 TB read. Most of the written data seem to come from kernel_task, with about 800 GB written to disk. However, altogether the processes in Activity Monitor add up to only 1 TB written (not 2 TB, which is the total data written). What's even stranger is that the sum of the read data adds up to about 250 GB, which is much lower than the 1.2 TB read that Activity Monitor shows. When observing Activity Monitor, the data read or written per second goes to around 100 MB/sec even 15 seconds or so.

How exactly can I figure out what is eating my disk like this? I'm afraid that if this continues, my total read/write amounts will go up to nearly 40 TB in a year, and eventually wear out my SSD more quickly than it should.


texts: Convenient Way to Turn an Apple Note to EPUB

texts: Recently I have converted one of my iCloud notes into an EPUB by first copying and pasting its content to Pages (by parts, since the entire content was not willing to be copied for some reason), then by manually designating all the headers as Pages headers (to get the table of contents working), and then by using the Pages "Export to EPUB" option. This was a lengthy and unpleasant procedure. Is there a better way to turn a note into an EPUB? By the way, I specifically need to have all the images from the note in the resulting EPUB document.


texts: Lion sleep (or hibernate) closes all applications

texts:
[Disclaimer: I'm not an avid OS X user so I don't probably use the exact terminology or language]

I had a Mac Pro with Snow Leopard at work and I usually don't turn it off when going home. The next day, I always found my applications in the exact state where I had left them.
Now, I have a new Mac Pro with Lion and every time I come back to work in the morning the system is locked down (i.e. I have to put my password), which is fine, and all applications are closed. They do however re-start and try to recover the state as I left them the day before. Alas, some applications crash (e.g. Mendeley, Quicksilver, Word), others don't succeed but let you recover the previous state (Chrome, Firefox), others simply dissappear (Emacs, scripts running).
The thing that worries me the most is that when I leave work, I usually leave some simulations running that can take more than 12h to finish. I have lost work when I come back in the morning.

Question: what is going on here and how can I disable this "sleep/hibernate/???" behaviour.

I have already tried to change System Settings - Energy Saver - Computer and Display sleep to Never.

Update
It turns out that this had nothing to do with resume. My mac is randomly shutting down sometimes and it happens almost every night. Now it has happened to me while working a couple of times and now I realize why I had a login screen every morning: it was just that the machine was turned off and back on. This is why some apps crashed (they were shut down incorrectly) and some others dissappeared (Emacs, scripts and simulation do not restart when logging back in).


texts: How do I download an older OSX / macos version from the mac app store?

texts:
I'm trying to test my mac app under OSX El Capitan 10.11 and OSX Yosemite 10.10 , and am currently running macos Sierra 10.12. So far I've tried searching under the app store but none of the older version appear when searching. Also have tried checking the apple developer downloads section https://developer.apple.com/download/ , as well as the 'more downloads' section there.

Are there any options besides attempting to download a torrent of the older OS?


texts: When I tether a MacBook Pro to an iPhone/iPad, how can I restrict what apps use it?

texts:
I want to prevent Dropbox, Skydrive/OneDrive, and Google drive from syncing (for example) when my laptop is connected to my phone.

In other words I'd only like to sync email, use VPN, and permit Chrome in these instances.

Is there a product, technique, or hack that will allow me to restrict what apps are permitted to use my internet connection?


texts: Why is Photo on MacBook Pro automatically importing my photos from iPhone?

texts:
I'm not plugging in the USB cable from iPhone to the MacBook. Every time I add new photos on my iPhone, they automatically import to Photos to the MacBook. If I delete them from my MacBook, they also are deleted from my iPhone.

How do I undo this?


texts: I have older Pages files I need to open. I am running Mavericks and get the "This file is too old..." error that tells me to save the file with Pages 09. So I reinstalled Pages 09' at it won't even open without updates and the AppStore says there are no updates. My 09' instal is in the applications/iWork folder. How can I get these files open?


texts: Does a black screen save battery on an iPhone 4?

texts:
Where can I found information about the power consumption of an iPhone 4 display? Which technology is used? Does it save battery lifetime when the screen displays black or dark pixels?

Additionally, there is a brightness control in the settings. Does this setting really affect battery lifetime?

I'm asking about the hardware to learn the details so I can develop iOS applications and be sensitive to power consumption based on the settings I apply in our applications.


texts: How can I get boot details when booting from Snow Leopard DVD?

texts:
I'm running into a situation where I need to repair my main partition but I can not get my machine to boot off the Snow Leopard DVD. It will boot up, let me choose my language, then go to the "Preparing Installation" (I think that's what it says) screen just before you get to the install wizard and utilities. After that the screen goes gray and then the machine cuts off, black screen, no lights, no power.

Also I seem unable to boot into an Ubuntu install cd (which seems to hang up) or into Safe Mode via holding Shift at startup (which gives me folder with a question mark in it).

Does you guys know any way I can get details about what's going on to see what the problem is? The disc I'm using is the 10.6 Snow Leopard DVD when it first came out (no idea if newer burns have updated versions).

Specs:

2008 unibody MacBook Pro 15" 4 gb
1067 DDR3
2.53 Core 2 320 gb HD
10.6.4 OS X (upgarded install from the original 10.5)

I'm tempted to just try installing 10.5 fresh and see if I can do the upgrade, or find out how to get a detailed boot from the Ubuntu install disc.

EDIT: Just as a note, I can boot fine off my 10.5 install disc that came with my laptop originally. I'm just not sure if any changes between then and 10.6 would make using those disk utilities a bad idea. I know the versions are different. Also the memtest utility was successful off the Ubuntu disc, but it just sort of hangs up during the boot process.


texts: Jailbroken iPhone 3GS shows "No Service" after upgrading to iOS 6.1.6

texts: I used redsn0w to jail break after upgrading to iOS 6.1.6 via iTunes. Now it shows "No service" with or without the SIM. How do I resolve this?


texts: How to set macOS Server to prevent DNS zone transfer?

texts:
macOS Server 10.12.6 documentation says that we should prevent arbitrary zone transfers out of our DNS server, and that the way to do this is to firewall port 53 for anyone not on our LAN, with specific exceptions for our secondary DNS servers.

What they don't mention is that port 53 is where all DNS traffic goes, so firewalling that port also shuts off our DNS services for anyone on the road. Yes, we have VPN connections; no, they're not enforced and we don't want to start.

So the question then becomes: 1) how do we instruct the server to make a distinction between transfers and plain old DNS requests; 2) if that were simple, why doesn't the Apple documentation say to do that? I poked around and found the instructions to do this with plain old BIND anywhere but a Mac—and it's the same file the documentation told me to edit two weeks ago to fix a different security issue.

/Applications/Server.app/Contents/ServerRoot/private/etc/named.conf

My next step is to edit the file, try to attack my own server, and if it fails, mark this as done. In which case I can come back and answer my own question. But this requires figuring out how to do a zone transfer attack—and it leaves me back at square one if I follow the vanilla BIND instructions and it doesn't work. Anyone have any ideas?


texts: Prohibited symbol trying to boot into Recovery Mode

texts:
MacBook Pro early 2011 model with El Capitan (10.11.1 - edit - just noticed there's an update. Not sure if relevant but I'm running it now). I can boot fine into OS X and log in. But I'm trying to boot into Recovery Mode (Apple Key + R on boot) but it always gives me the Prohibited symbol. I can boot into Internet Recovery (Apple Key + Options + R) just fine. I can open Disk Utility while logged in with my user, so I ran the First Aid on the disk with no problems found.

The only thing I can see an issue with is there is an old bootcamp partition on the drive.  I didn't put it there, it's just always been there but I've never used it.

The reason I want to boot into Recovery Mode so I can restore my current HDD to an SSD I will connect via USB then swap them out. I just did this on my other (exact model) Macbook yesterday without a problem.


texts: How can I route two audio sources simultaneously as inputs to Skype?

texts: I am attempting to route my mic audio and system output so both can be heard through Skype.  Any ideas?


texts: How do I keep Numbers from mangling numbers when importing a CSV?

texts:
When I open a CSV file in Numbers, it "helpfully" converts fields it recognizes as numeric by stripping leading zeros, converting things it recognizes as dates, etc.
Take for example, you type a UPC code into a Numbers spreadsheet 005566778899, Numbers will automatically convert that to 5566778899. This is not what I would want...
However, the way I use Numbers, I open databases with thousands of UPC codes with preceding zeroes. Some of them also contain dates which Numbers will also reformat. Basically I do not want any of these features, I want my content to be left alone.
How can I get Numbers to leave my data intact when I open a CSV file?
Converting the fields to text after importing won't help since the data was already messed with...


texts: iTunes accidentally deleted on iMac G5 with OS X 10.4.11 - how to install iTunes?

texts:
I accidentally deleted iTunes on my old iMac G5 running Mac OS X Tiger 10.4.11. It is not in the trash, and I would really like to get it back. I tried getting the latest version of iTunes available for my system from https://support.apple.com/kb/dl1056?locale=en_US. When I tried to open the DMG file it gave me, all I got was a notice that said "The following disk images failed to mount: iTunes9.2.1.dmg".

Got any suggestions? I would really like to have iTunes back.


texts: Is decreasing speaker volume of my iMac a Hardware Problem

texts: My iMac is just less than 1 year old.  I have ran the diagnostic that came with Apple Care and found no problem.  Recently, I notice that the max speaker volume of my iMac decreased after I switch on the machine on for quite some time. If I leave the iMac off a few days, the volume will sort of reset again but it is not as loud as before.  I believe this problem has nothing to do will software settings in OSX as I have tried all those settings.  Any recommendation, send the iMac back to Apple?


texts: iTunes "Check for Update" button puts up a dialog box asking for a file

texts:
This is on Snow Leopard.

When I plug in my iPhone or iPad into iTunes and click the "Check for update" button, it puts up a dialog box asking me to choose a file. This is supposed to happen if you press option while clicking Check for Update [which I'd done once], but now it happens every time. Restarting iTunes makes no difference, and it happens both on iTunes 10.4 and 10.5.

How can I get iTunes to check with Apple for an update? Thanks.


texts: How do I download the free Swift Programming Language book (Swift 5 Edition) from the Apple Books Store?

texts:
I'm wondering how to download The Swift Programming Language Book (Swift 5 Edition) from the Apple Books Store?

Easy using iPad or iPhone, but I'd really like to use the download on an alternate machine (Program on Mac, reference on nearby big screen using Windows or Linux...). The link shows 4.3 MB of data, it must be a file somewhere, somehow.

Anyone know how do I download this book? (and/or other free book resources as well?)

For reference, here's another valuable resource from Apple:

Intro to App Development with Swift


texts: My ipad wifi "switch" does not work, even after a complete reinstall. Is this something I could buy a spare part and repair my self?


texts: "The required index.xml is missing" in Pages and "You need a newer version of Pages to open this document"

texts:
I have the newest Pages 4.3 and Yosemite 10.10 so the report makes no sense, Pages has been messed up. I tested the conversion between pages file and zip and it recompiled pages to a folder but it did not work -- only getting the error: you need the new Pages.
How can I fix this I-Cannot-Open-Any-Pages-File-On-My-Computer-Anymore with Pages?


texts: How do I change date and time on photos on IOS?

texts:
I have an iPhone 7 running iOS 13.

For some reason, many of the photos are time stamped in 2045. I've not found a single linkable article explaining how to do this.

I tried downloading Pixelgarde and the download failed.

Can I change future date / mislabeled photos from February 2045 to August 2012?


texts: Permissions error when exporting slideshow as a movie in iPhoto

texts:
I recently upgraded to Lion.

Now when I try to export an iPhoto slideshow as a QuickTime movie it goes through the initial rendering process but an error message appears with the iPhoto logo saying that I don't have permission for this task.


texts: iPhone 7 won't charge consistently from MacBookAir 2015

texts:
I've had my MacBook 11' 2015 Air since July 2016 and my iPhone 7 since April 2017, and my phone never had any issues charging on my Mac. I'm not sure when it started, but at some point both USB ports in my MacBook won't charge my iPhone 7, it just keeps going from charging to not charging very rapidly which only makes it even more annoying and frustrating.

I've tried multiple different cords, reset my iPhone, shut down and reset the NVRAM on my Mac, force quit USBD, deleted (and later reinstalled) the Thunderbridge network.

I'm far from a computer person, so I am very frustrated and currently want to smash both devices :-). I've googled it plenty, but hopefully I can get some new results that actually work.

If you have any solutions, please help me out here and explain it clearly to someone who knows how to operate a computer, but has little knowledge of coding or most of the inner workings of a computer.


texts:
I have macbook pro 15.4 2011 (Core i7, 4gb, 500HDD), Lion is running on it. The annoying thing is that the boot time is too much, it takes roughly 70 to 120 seconds for machine to boot and display login screen :(

I have removed all programs from Login items.

Any way I can fix this issue?


texts: I have an '08 Mac Pro. If I try plugging in my Belkin N150, it works. Then if I plug in my iPad to the slot beneath it, the wireless kicks out. Then if I plug the wireless back in, they both work. So I think the slots are competing for power? What are some solutions?


texts: Run Script on Logout Without Use of Logout Hook

texts:
I've been looking into running a few cleanup commands when a user logs out, however the old logout hook feature, although still functioning, has been deprecated for some time now so may not be with us for much longer.

Unfortunately, although launchd provides a convenient alternative to login hooks, there is no such obvious replacement for logout hooks.

I've already experimented with creating a shell script that is launched on login, and simply sleeps until a kill signal is received, however this doesn't seem to work (the script never receives the signal during normal operation).

Otherwise I'm not sure what the best way to run a quick command on logout would be? I know there are some third party utilities that can do it, but is there a "correct" way to do this anymore?


texts:
When I look at System Preferences > Java > Update, I see

  Your system has the recommended version of Java.
  Java 7 Update 79

From Terminal, java -version:

  java version "1.7.0_71"
  Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_71-b14)
  Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 24.71-b01, mixed mode)

From Terminal, export:

  JAVA_HOME="/Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_71.jdk/Contents/Home"

In addition to that, I also have the Java from Apple/Oracle installed as well (when first prompted to install when opening a Java-based app when there's no Java yet installed)

Questions:

Is Java 7 Update 79 == jdk1.7.0._71.jdk? Or are these separate?
When running some thing with Java, there is always the following:

  objc[63077]: Class JavaLaunchHelper is implemented in both
  /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_71.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/bin/java
  and
  /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/jdk1.7.0_71.jdk/Contents/Home/jre/lib/libinstrument.dylib.
  One of the two will be used. Which one is undefined.

I'd be more than willing starting from scratch had I understood the steps to do that properly (remove, re-install). If it matters, am running OS X 10.10.


texts: I changed my Apple ID for the 3rd time because my password keeps getting changed. How can I access my iTunes music from the first two Apple IDs?


texts: I am wondering if my iTunes rental purchased from my iPhone is available on my Apple TV?


texts: Mysterious WindowServer process calling every 3 seconds

texts:
I use a program with a GUI design a little bit different than usual and a strange issue:
With all drop-down menus, something is forcing the window to close and therefore prevent me to use it.
I noticed in the console some spamming errors from the WindowServer (SkyLight) process, appearing around 20 times per minutes.
This is message I get:
"_CGXWindowIsOrderedIn: Operation on a window 0x132 requiring rights private by caller private"
I find it very strange and almost "virus-like".
I hope I'm wrong.
After scouring the web for a few hours, I can't find a way to get rid of these errors.
Is any of you have an idea of where this could come from or what can I try?
Note: It's not happening on my others user account on the same machine.
EDIT: Finally, I found the culprit!! It was an app called Witch developed by ManyTricks so nothing like a virus or a malware. I'm contacting the devs right now to see if they can fix it.


texts: Is it safe to connect external screen to MacBook via USB-C from the warranty perspective

texts:
Since power is supplied to the MacBook there is a (small) risk to damage the laptop.
How does it stand from Apple's warranty perspective? Do screen manufacturers such as Dell or LG have any agreement with Apple?
Technically, we're plugging in a non-standard power adapter; can it void the warranty?
Edit: By "non-standard" I meant "non-Apple".


texts: Make full screen app to launch on particular display

texts:
I don't know how it happened, but one of my full screen apps, when launched for the first time, opened on my secondary display. Now no matter what I try, the app always launches on this secondary display.

How can I tell this app, to use primary display?

I use two displays, one horizontal (primary), one vertical (secondary). I tried assigning the app to particular desktop, but this does not help because the app window remains vertical on my horizontal display.

[Update]

I managed to drop the app into windowed mode after it launched. Then I moved the window to the primary display and maximized it again. It worked fine, however when I quit and launch the app again it starts full screen on my secondary display.

Is it possible that it's the app itself that chooses the secondary display instead of primary for full screen work? That wouldn't make much sense.


texts: Uninstall non-loaded extension from Safari

texts:
When opening Safari I get this error:

Now I want to uninstall this extension, however it doesn't show up in the Extensions preferences:

How do I uninstall this?


texts: How to resolve "Cannot connect to AppleID server" error on macOS?

texts:
This is a problem that is getting bigger and bigger for me.
My Apple ID works perfectly on my iPad and iPhone. I can change the password etc and it all works fine. On my computer however it continues to give me the message (Cannot connect to APPLE ID SERVER).This means I can't backup to icloud or do any updates etc. I feel like I have tried everything imaginable to get this to work including talking to APPLE SUPPORT on the phone. WIFI connections all fine. This has been a problem I have had for quite a while.
Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thank you


texts: iPhone SE, iOS10, why does it randomly *require* the lock code?

texts:
I have my iPhone SE set to use my fingerprints to access it, and this is normally the way I get into my phone.  By at seemingly random intervals (absolutely no pattern that I can detect), the phone will require I enter the actual unlock code.  The phone has definitely not been rebooted, crashed, or anything of that sort.

What causes it to just randomly sometimes want the lock code?  It happens anywhere from once per week, to once every couple of months, but never with any pattern to the frequency that I can detect.


texts: Disable badge for specific app with a script

texts:
I know that I can turn on/off the badge from the notifcation center, but is there a way to do it with a script?

If possible I would love to do for a specific app, otherwise it will be fun to turn it off for all the apps.

So far I was able to do this:

tell application "System Preferences"
activate
set the current pane to pane id "com.apple.preference.notifications"
tell application "System Events"
   tell process "System Preferences"
        select row 2 of table 1 of scroll area 1 of window "Notifications"
        click checkbox "Badge app icon"  of group 1 of window "Notifications"
   end tell
end tell

end tell

It has only one problem:

the list must stay the same and you have to know the Index. Is there a way to access by name?

PS: i've used the very handy http://pfiddlesoft.com/uibrowser/index-downloads.html for finding out how to identify objects


texts: How to make iFile not cache .plist files after updating to iOS 8?

texts:
A friend recently updated to iOS 8 on his iPhone. The iPhone is jailbroken and has an iOS 8 supported iFile version installed.

Before the update he was able to start an app and then tab out to desktop, open iFile, find the app's .plist and exchange it for a different .plist. When he resumed the app the new .plist would take over and continue running the app.

After update, he can tab out of app and exchange the .plists but when he tabs back into app, iFile reverts back to the original .plist file.

My question is, does iFile for iOS 8 have a cache that is storing .plist files in different places and if so, how do I go about locating them or is there possibly some options that can be turned off either in iOS 8 or in iFile that will stop this from happening?


texts: External Apple LED Cinema Display works intermittently with MacBook Pro Retina

texts:
I have a 15-inch mid-2014 MacBook Pro Retina. All the ports work perfectly (I've tested them individually with different peripherals). I recently purchased an Apple 24-inch LED Cinema Display from 2009 second-hand; the vendor is someone I trust, and the monitor and cables are all in working order.

The LED Cinema Display (LEDCD for short) has a power cable, which needs to be connected to a power outlet, and a second cable that splits into three cables: DisplayPort, USB 2 and one that goes into my laptop's charging port (it actually doesn't fit into my laptop's charging port, but I have an adapter). It needs to be connected to my laptop via either DisplayPort or USB. The cable that goes into the charging port is for using the LEDCD with my laptop closed (which I'm not interested in doing; I want two screens); I leave that one unplugged at all times.

I've connected the LEDCD to my laptop via DisplayPort (I tried via USB, didn't work). It works perfectly for a while (hours at a time): no flickers, blurry image or distortion of any kind. But then it stops working (the display goes completely dark, as if it were unplugged).

Unplugging it from my computer and replugging it doesn't work. Neither does unplugging it from the power outlet and replugging it. I've also tried putting my laptop to sleep and waking it up with the LEDCD connected, to no avail. If I leave it several hours and then plug it back into my laptop, it works again for a few hours before stopping once more. I tried restarting my laptop with the LEDCD connected. That made it last a little longer than usual, but then it stopped working, as before.

I've tried the relevant steps under "If the display image is blank or unusable" on this site. I still have the problem. I haven't tried resetting my Mac's NVRAM and SMC because they don't seem to be related exactly to my problem (e.g. I'm not trying to use an iMac as an external display using Target Display Mode, I'm trying to use an external display as an external display).

Since the LEDCD is an Apple product, I didn't think I needed to download a driver to use it, but I might be wrong. It is five years older than my laptop, after all. However, there are no updates in the Apple Store (the site I linked to says to check for updates with the external display connected).

The LEDCD isn't Retina, of course. I doubt this is the problem, since it does work normally for a while, but I could be wrong.

The LEDCD doesn't get hot. I've checked a few times when it's stopped working, and it's always been at room temperature.

Please help.


texts: Bash Script which calls osascript stops working when run by launchd

texts:
I am trying to troubleshoot a problem with a bash script that gets called  by launchd.  Here's a quick summary

Calling the script manually by itself works fine with no errors.
Within the bash script it calls an AppleScript that posts a notification  That AppleScript works fine.
The .plist gets loaded and kicks off at the correct interval and calls the bash script.  So that works properly
The .plist is called from /Library/LaunchDaemons (so it can run regardless if anyone is logged in or not).  This means everything is run as root.

The problem occurs within the bash script which calls an AppleScript to post a notification - it just never happens.

#!/bin/bash
# ------------------------------------------------------------------

sleep 11
echo "This is a test" > test.txt
/usr/bin/osascript /Users/allan/Documents/Scripts/AppleScript/notify.scpt "This is a test" "-Test Test Test" "nosound"

exit 0

That's it.  A quick summary of what I am doing:

sleep 11 - launchd needs a min. of 10 seconds of program execution time by default.  I just put this in here to accommodate launchd
echo "This is a test" - I just write a simple string to a text file to make sure the bash script is getting called.  This file gets created with the expected string; this works.
/usr/bin/osascript /Users......blah blah blah... this fails.  This is just a simple AppleScript that takes three arguments (body, title, and sound) to provide a notification.

Running by itself or bash script that calls it, it works:

When the bash script is called from launchd it seems to just not work.  Can anyone point me in the right direction?  What am I missing?

(OS X 10.11.6)

This is the .plist I am using (yes I know it's set for a 45 second interval...I'm testing)

<?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>com.user.podcastCleanup</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/Users/allan/Documents/Scripts/Unix/podcastCleanup.sh</string>
    <key>StartInterval</key>
    <integer>45</integer>
    <key>WorkingDirectory</key>
    <string>/Users/allan/Documents</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Following is the notify.scpt AppleScript that is used to generate the notification.

on run argv

    set Message to item 1 of argv
    set Title to item 2 of argv
    set aud to item 3 of argv
    set STitle to "Terminal"
    set Snd to "Blow.aiff"

    if (aud = "sound") then

        display notification Message with title Title subtitle STitle sound name Snd
    else
        display notification Message with title Title subtitle STitle
    end if

end run


texts: Should I restart after uninstalling software or drivers on a mac?

texts: I know that the Mac doesn't use a registry, but is there anything I'm unaware of that would make it better to restart a mac after an uninstall of software, a printer etc.?


texts:
If you tell iTunes to upgrade your iPhone from os4 to os4.versionupdate (example)...

Does iTunes automatically back it up before attempting upgrade?

my phone is currently in recovery mode - and I don't know whether it backed up or not (you rookie!!!)

EDIT I have browsed to the back up folder, i.e.

C:\Users\<MY USERNAME>\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup

There is a folder with todays date: \a6fbdb939e60771c51f18a68a41e8e0e2d230dcc - would this be the backup done before attempting software upgrade?


texts:
When starting the Books app I get the following error message:
Apple Books Can't Access Your Library

Make sure the disk containing your library is connected, then click Try Again.

Library Location: (null)

You can also reset your library, then sign in to view and re-download your purchased books.```

How can I reset the location? Clicking on "Reset Location" does nothing.
I found the library with the books still there, but there is no way to set the location.

Running Mojave 10.14.6


texts: When I first got my iPod I was given the option to set up an iCloud address. At the time I didn't want one; however, I want one now. So, how do I get one now?


texts: I'm wondering if anyone knows what features will be offered in iOS 4.3 for Apple TV?  I'm primarily trying to find out if the Netflix app will be updated to support subtitles.


texts:
I'm trying to swap Ctrl and Fn on Catalina without downloading a new app. As suggested in multiple articles, I tried going to System Preferences > Keyboard > keyboard > Modifier Keys.. in hopes to simply swap the function of two keys. However, Fn is missing from the list of modifier keys. Am I missing something here? Do I need to do something else to make Fn key show up there?
EDIT: I'm using Macbook Pro with touch bar.


texts: Apple Numbers, matching string variations in a SUMIFS function

texts:
I'm using a SUMIFS function to get values from a column in another table depending on if they have a certain string in a corresponding memo column. I'd like to be able to check for a few variations on the string, i.e.

SUMIFS(Amount-column, Memo-column, "this-string*"||"that-string*")

Anyone know how to do this?


texts: Safari (and system) share menu - Messages and other items missing in Sierra

texts:
System configuration

Running Sierra (10.12.5)
MacBook Pro 13" (Early 2015)

Issue

Messages and many other options are missing from the system Share menu, both in Safari and in the Share Menu extensions pane.

These among others are missing:

Messages (most annoying)
Facebook
Twitter
Linkedin
Vimeo
Flickr

Here's what I've tried so far with no success:

Update to latest Sierra 10.12.5
Run this command line to force-reload launch services
Disable and re-enable iCloud contacts
Disable and reenable System Integrity Protection

Related observations

Under Preferences -> Internet Accounts, I cannot check the box next to 'Share Menu' for Facebook, Twitter, Vimeo etc, even though accounts are correctly configured.

Really appreciate any help!

Update 7/11:

I just got an old 2011 MackBook Pro repaired, and upgraded it from El Capitan to Sierra. The Share menu works as expected, with Messages as an option. Still not working on the machine with the problem.


texts: Automatically mounting an external Firewire drive after reboot, without login

texts:
I have an iMac that is running Mavericks with OS X Server. I have the Time Machine service set up on that machine, referring to a directory on an external drive that is connected via Firewire. Other Macs in the house use this as the Time Machine backup location.

All works fine as long as someone is logged into the server. However, if the server is rebooted, and nobody logs in, then all client machines' Time Machine backups fail with an "unable to connect to disk" error. As soon as anyone logs into the server, everything starts working again.

So, apparently the external drive is not mounted until somebody logs in. What is the easiest way to fix this?

I have found various pages around the net showing how to use automount and the /etc/auto_master configuration file to mount remote NFS and SMB shares automatically. Is this the way to do it, and if so, what do I put in /etc/auto_master for an external local drive?

Or do I need to create an /etc/fstab file and put something in it? (I find conflicting information about whether that is still used or has been deprecated.)

Or do I need to do something with launchd?

FWIW, here is the output of mount -v when the external drive "My Book" is mounted:

/dev/disk1s3 on /Volumes/My Book (hfs, local, journaled)

Update: After experimenting more, it seems that sometimes everything works as expected (that is, external disk gets mounted and clients can backup), and sometimes it doesn't.  Maybe there is a race condition between when services start and when external-drive mounting completes?


texts: In MacBook Terminal login history, does console mean that someone physically logged into my MacBook?

texts:
In terminal, I used the last command and got the following:
Paul  console                   Tue May 11 15:46 - 15:49  (00:03)
paul  console                   Tue May 11 09:17 - 09:18  (00:01)

I wasn’t at my computer at that time. Someone else was using my computer with a different username. Does this mean that someone physically logged into my computer under the username paul when I wasn’t there?


texts: Saving online videos (e.g. YouTube) and moving them to iPad for later offline viewing?

texts: I am looking for a solution that would allow me to save online videos, especially YouTube, to the iPad for later offline viewing.


texts: How to view Adobe Photoshop PDFs on my iPad

texts:
I'm attempting to deploy a PDF I created in Photoshop on my iPad using the PDF Pro app. When I view a text PDF, everything works flawlessly - however, when I put my image-loaded PDF on the device, it fails to load (and, if it matters, displays a completely wrong file size next to it). I'm willing to use other means, but I need to be able to view PDF's with images ASAP for a company meeting tomorrow.

How am I able to get this to work?


texts:
To replace my mid-2011 iMac (12 GB RAM, 2.7 GHz i5, Radeon 512 MB), whose Radeon Graphics card is slowly passing away, I purchased a mid-2011 Mac mini (10 GB RAM, 2.5 i5, Radeon 256 MB) with same HD capacity, and carried over my data with Time Machine.
After successfully repairing an issue with the Startup Volume in Recovery mode, I am finding the mini to be incredibly slow to do anything.
For example, opening a Finder window takes a good 2 minutes. Even my mom's never-upgraded 2009 iMac is much, much faster with lesser specs.
Since I migrated the data from a (rather fast) iMac, I am ruling out malware or system cache issues. I didn't see anything peculiar in Activity Monitor and Disk Utility says all is okay.
Here is the detail of the HD and the RAM installed.
My first suggestion would be that the culprit is the Ram that is installed being from different vendors and capacity, but I am baffled to find out how I could be sure that this is the problem before I open it up in case I have to return it.
What is possibly making this Mac mini so slow and how can I know for sure?


texts: Can I boot my mac from my old windows hard disk?

texts:
Recently, my old windows computer broke down and I decided to purchase a Mac to replace it , and so far, it has been great!

I have thought about using bootcamp to install windows on the mac as well, as I need several windows specific programs for my college work.

Rather than installing through bootcamp, I was wondering if it is possible for me to buy an external hard drive enclosure, place in my old windows hard disk (which has been reset and only contains a fresh windows 10 install) and boot my mac from that?

If possible, is there a way for me to get the Apple Windows Support Software separately in order to install all the required drivers on the windows disk?

Thanks


texts: How do I make my MacBook Pro (mid 2009) running Lion, DNLA compatible?

texts: I would like to view photos and videos on my smart TV.  I do not do video games and am not real technically knowledgeable so need answer in layman's terms.


texts: I wish to compile the Gimp plugin  "Save for Web"  on Mac 10.8.4. I use  brew  for package management but libgimp2-dev is missing. I've downloaded Gimp 2.8.6 from  here . I've downloaded the latest source cd into that directory, but when I run ./configure I get the error of package requirements not being met (gimp-2.0|gimpui-2.0 needs to be greater than 2.3 / gimp-2.0|gimpui-2.0 not found)


texts: Quickly create screenshot, add border and cut & paste

texts:
I often need to do screenshots of regions of the screen and paste them into mails, Jira, Confluence etc. On another OS, I use a screenshot tool which lets me select the region, add a nice border with one click, and put it into the clipboard with a second click.

I know how to take a screenshot, but I didn't find an onboard utility which puts a sleek border around it with a single (or very few) clicks, routinely.

(As an added bonus: ⇧ + ⌃ + ⌘ + 4 does not show a loupe while selecting the rectangle; if there is a tool or workflow which would include this in addition to the border, that would be great...).

What would be an easy way to achieve this?

I am technically inclined and not averse to scripting something with some tool... any solution based on that would be fine as well.


texts: How do I type š on an international keyboard?

texts:
I'm currently writing emails frequently to a Slovenian who has the letter š in his name. I use copy and paste for the letter š, which is quite inconvenient.

I'm using the US keyboard layout.

How can I type this letter directly from the keyboard?


texts: Seemingly Irreversible Custom Keyboard Shortcut

texts:
I have a late 2010 Apple MacBook (If that matters) and when I had OS X Snow Leopard installed, I created a keyboard shortcut that I seemingly can no longer reverse.  After upgrading to OS X Lion and now OS X Mountain Lion the shortcut is still carried over.

The keyboard shortcut is: whenever I click the 'fn' key, it will 'show desktop.'

I have searched all of the 'Keyboard' section of System Preferences to see if I can deactivate anything there.

I do remember that when I made the shortcut originally on Snow Leopard, it could be changed back.

I remember when I had OS X Lion, I wanted to change it, but I couldn't figure out how (like now)

I have tried the 'restore defualt' option in System Preferences > Keyboard, but that didn't work.

If anyone knows how to fix this or even has some sort of guidance to help me try and fix it, it would be greatly appreciated as this is becoming an increasingly inconvenient and frustrating problem.


texts: Which Macs support Airplay mirroring on Mountain Lion?

texts: Some people are reporting that Airplay mirroring doesn't work on their Mac running Mountain Lion. Which Macs support AirPlay?


texts: (macOS) Two windows side by side: is there a way to allow stretching one window to minimum width?

texts:
My daily case: I usually have .pdf viewer for articles + MS Word side by side and Web browser + markdown side by side.
My struggle is windows stretching - for example, when I read .pdf I would like to shring MS Words window to minimum, however, macOS allow me to like 35 % (my guess), some goes for the Web browser + markdown.
Is there a way to set the stretching percentage of each window?
This is an illustration of my question:


texts: Solid State Drive for small commercial print shop

texts:
I do graphic designing, prepress & most of the file management at a small (2 owners – 5 employees) print shop. Although its not a huge operation, we're very busy and the iMac that I work on has taken a decent beating over the past few years, and definitely needs an upgrade because the performance of the HDD thats currently being used can be pretty bad at inconveniently random times. I use an SSD with my MacBook at home, and the performance between the two is always noticeable, so we're looking to get a SSD running on the iMac.

My question is, since we will have a lot of file reading/writing, and are constantly running relatively big applications like MS Office and the Adobe Suite, even though I'm intending on setting up a separate external drive for file storage, does anyone have experience with what SSDs perform best both in terms of longevity and speed in a commercial printing environment such as what I mentioned, and which perform best for Macs? We're also trying to keep the cost below $400 or so.


texts: Does mac os x have any command tool like pidstat in linux?

texts: It can tell me the current status of a process, for example, whether it is still running or has been terminated.


texts: Does FileVault hurt responsiveness on a spinning HDD?

texts:
I have a 5k iMac (Late 2015), with a spinning hard disc, running El Capitan.

I'm considering enabling FileVault, but I'm concerned if it will hurt responsiveness. Will it? I understand that it doesn't on a SSD, but this machine has a spinning hard disc.


texts: iCloud prompts me to create a free @me.com email address to turn on Notes sync

texts:
I'm very aware this question is probably about to become obsolete with the release of iOS 6 at some point soon, but thought I'd ask anyway.

I have an iCloud account set up on my phone with the email address (Apple ID) of myfullname@gmail.com.

This iCloud account has Reminders, Photo Stream and Find My iPhone all switched on without issue. However, whenever I try to turn on Notes sync (to work with my recent Mountain Lion upgraded Mac), the iPhone displays a dialog:

Create a free @me.com email address to turn on Notes.

            ╔════════╗      ╔════════╗
            ║ Create ║      ║ Cancel ║
            ╚════════╝      ╚════════╝

It seems I can't use my current, otherwise fully functional, iCloud account with Notes sync. Is that right?


texts: Does FileVault encrypt my BootCamp partition?

texts:
If I enable the new FileVault feature in Mac OS X Lion, will it also encrypt my existing Windows bootcamp partitions? (And/or any new bootcamp partition I create?)

Update: If not, where can I get information about using FileVault and BootCamp? I'm looking for info on how to enable FileVault 2 with an existing BootCamp installation, and also for creating a BootCamp installation after FileVault 2 is already installed.


texts: Will Time Machine backup of an encrypted HDD be encrypted?

texts:
My MacBook is running Mac OS X Mavericks with FileVault HDD encryption. I use Time Machine to backup this drive to an unencrypted USB HDD.

Will this backup be encrypted? Or does Time Machine decrypt files from my internal HDD and save them in an unencrypted form on the USB HDD?


texts: What CAD software is depicted in screenshot

texts: This screenshot (source here) apparently depicts a CAD software (German version) for macOS. Which software is it?


texts: dd cloned NTFS partition will not boot from flash drive

texts:
I have a MacBook Pro with OS X 10.10 and a Windows 7 Boot Camp install.

I just bought a 64 GB flash drive that I would like to put a bootable copy of Windows on, to reestablish the hard drive as OS X only, and figured it would be easiest to just clone the BOOTCAMP partition that I already have.

I formatted the USB to GUID/NTFS and used dd to clone it:

dd if=/dev/rdisk0s3 of=/dev/rdisk2s2 bs=512 conv=noerror,sync

After 12 hours it finished, and does not work. Windows displays the partition as "RAW"

Anyone have any tips?


texts: I've got two Macs, an iMac and a Macbook Pro. I do web development work on both, my data is synced with a local cloud solution. But how do I keep my Macports installations in sync? At the moment I try two manually install the very same packages, but with all the port variants I'd hope for a more sophisticated solution.


texts:
I have an iPhone SE and I wonder how my device uses 1.93 GB for only 133 stored photos? This is the information I get to the 'storage' part of my phone, where it shows how much storage each app is using. In addition, only 0.53 GB of iCloud storage is used. How is this possible?

p.s. I had live photos enabled but this should only be applied for at most half of the photos I've taken. Wish there was a way to turn it off for all photos in one click (I use Windows sadly)


texts: MacBook Pro crashes when plugging in 3 4k screens

texts:
I have a Late 2013 MacBook Pro with NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2GB graphics card running macOS High Sierra 10.13.1, and when I attempt to connect 3 4k screens (2 Mini DisplayPort, 1 HDMI) while running the internal screen, all screens go blank, and the system freezes until I hold in the power button to force power off.

Things I've tried:

Using just the 3 4k screens without the internal (this works, but doesn't allow me to use the internal)
Using 3 non-4k screens (1080p + 2k + 2k) and (1080p + 4k + 2k) with the internal (this works)
Using 1080p + 4k + 4k + internal (this crashes the system)
Unplugging one screen after it freezes (system is still frozen)
Checking the logs (couldn't find anything (maybe I'm looking in the wrong place), and there's no kernel panic log)
Plugging in the 3 screens and then opening the laptop to turn on the internal screen (Freezes like before)
Booting with everything plugged in (It just doesn't finish booting)
Booting to recovery with everything plugged in (gets stuck on the apple with progress bar)

My computer has no trouble with the 3 screens without the internal (low CPU, not running slow), so it doesn't seem like it's just getting overloaded.

I know this computer can drive 4k screens and can also drive 3 externals plus the internal, but maybe I'm hitting some undocumented limit here by trying to combine them. Is there anything else I can try or somewhere I can look to see what the error is?

I'm considering getting a 4k compatible USB -> HDMI video adapter to drive the screen I won't use as much, but I'm not sure if that will trigger the same issue, and I'd like to see if there are any other ideas.

Hardware stats:
  Model Name:   MacBook Pro
  Model Identifier: MacBookPro11,3
  Processor Name: Intel Core i7
  Processor Speed: 2.3 GHz
  Number of Processors: 1
  Total Number of Cores: 4
  L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
  L3 Cache: 6 MB
  Memory: 16 GB


texts: ZSH paste from the clipboard a command takes a few second to be write in the terminal

texts:
When I copy from the clipboard a long string command in my iTerm, the terminal freeze for seconds.

for example, if I copy the following test and I paste in my iTerm console:

echo 'test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test test'

take a couple of seconds to be written in the terminal.

If the command is longer can take 15 seconds.

ZSH version '5.3'


texts: Locking down all apps except the phone/call app on the iPhone 4 running iOS6?

texts:
Is there a way to lock out all apps except just the phone app in order to make calls?

I understand "Guided Access" isolates you to a particular app and not let you move out.
This works fine but is annoying as you cannot lock the phone (in other words "The hardware buttons are always off") when its on. Is there a way for me to enable just the lock button?

Please advise.


texts: I’m trying to activate a DHCP server using Server.app but all I get is an empty window "Loading…" and a spinning wheel "Getting service state…" which spins forever. All other services seem to run without problems (except for the spinning wheel which somehow often does not stop spinning). How would I go about troubleshooting this problem?


texts: How to remove an image or movie from iDevice but not from iCloud Photo Library?

texts: Since I turned iCloud Photo Library on on my iPad, I have all my pictures from Photos on Macbook. These not downloaded yet (little thumbnails) are loaded fully onto my iPad when I try to preview them. But the question is how can I do this from the other side. What to do to have it on iCloud but on on my device. Once I need it I download my movie again, and it is working on my device again. Is it possible? I cannot find this.


texts: Is there a way to turn off autosave feature in Lion OS X?

texts: How can I turn off the autosave feature on all applications in lion?


texts: Best file system for USB stick for backup purposes

texts: I bought a 128GB stick to back up my MacBook Air (Time Machine). This way I don't need to re-format my external HDD I use for backing up files from my Windows machine. Since I won't be using the stick with my Windows machine I thought I might format it with a "better" file system than exFat. Would you recommend formatting it to HFS+?


texts: Why does my iPhone keep asking me for passwords for random WiFi networks?

texts:
My iPhone 3GS running iOS 5.1 (although this also happened when running 4.3) keeps interrupting whatever I do with it (I might be playing a game or browsing the Web) with a dialogue asking me to enter a password for some WiFi network the phone appears to have found in the vicinity.

It's very annoying.

In the Wi-Fi Networks settings "Ask to Join Networks" is set to "off".

Why does my iPhone do that and how can I get it to stop doing that?


texts:
A while back I erased the HDD on my old iMac, without installing a new OS.
Today, I plugged in a bootable High Sierra USB and installed that on it. I expected it to be a clean install, but somehow all my old files are there. I didn't even have to create a new user account as my old one still appeared to be active.
It's a good job I didn't give it away to anyone or sell it.
I think I noticed a 'recovery' partition when I went to boot from the USB, could this have happened because of that? Is there a way I can just erase all my old data and start afresh?


texts: How long is the duration of exposure on an iPhone 6 in iOS 8?

texts: How long is the exposure (not the range) duration on an iPhone 6 camera? I am running iOS 8.


texts:
I've purchased an SSD drive INTEL SSDSA2CW120G3 and had a guy in Apple Reseller store clone the original HDD to the SSD.

The problem is, that the original HDD was almost dead and there were some problems while cloning. They also cloned some kind of hidden/encrypted partition, which is required for Lion.

They told me that I should use my Snow Leopard install DVD to format the main data partition and then reinstall Snow Leopard and upgrade to Lion from App Store.

They also said something about having problems with cloning the hidden partition.

Is there any safe way that I can check, if I'm going to be able to install Snow Leopard and then safely upgrade to Lion after I format the SSD? Or even better, is there any way to install Lion directly?

edit: looking at the restore partition, it looks like it's empty


texts: I have an iPad 3 which I would like to use to play music to Bluetooth speakers in the background while I play various games and the like. The problem is that the foreground apps interrupt the sound of the background radio app. In Windows you can control which programs are allowed to output sound with the volume mixer; similarly, is there any way to lock sound output on an iPad to one background app?


texts:
I have a Macbook Air 128 Gb and its always short on hard disk!
Since Photos app came out, I started using it. I did the initial migration of iPhoto to Photos app (don't know which settings i chose). The issue now is :
I have 2 photo libraries

Photo library (35Gb)
iPhoto migrarted library (27Gb)

I don't think I've 70gb worth of photos in there and when i try to open the migrated library it says already migrated to photos app. All tools like whatsize shows them like different files and even when I copy both in my external hard drive it takes a combined storage of 70Gb. My mac does not have that much data but still only 5 Gb is left.

Now, is it safe to delete iPhoto migrated library, how can I be double
sure that no data is lost! I'm in serious need of space.

To make my question unique from this , there user's iPhoto and photos app library were taking combined 35Gb, here they are taking 35+27 = 62Gb!
My libraries take individual space, so please don't mix this question with the other one, it doesn't answer my question!

1st one is with photo library and other one is with iPhoto!


texts: Is there some way for me to connect old technology to airplay?

texts: I have a Mid 2010 MacBook Pro with El Capitan, I'm not able to use AirPlay because I simply don't have the hardware for it. However, I'm trying to work through the thought experiment of how I might be able to connect my computer to an Apple TV. Is there some external hardware that I could hook up my computer to the Apple TV (Gen 3) through Airplay (the same way that I could use an external wifi usb)?


texts: Alternative to "luit" which is available via homebrew

texts:
I have a few legacy commands which I need to run in the terminal. Unfortunately they only work with ISO-8859-1 encoding being used.

For now I manually switch the terminal encoding, but that bugs me. On Linux I use luit, which can convert the in- and output from utf-8 to iso and vice versa (transparently for the run command).

Is there something similar for OS X, preferably available through homebrew or available as binary?

Greetings
-Sascha-


texts:
I'm trying to edit my hosts file, because doing ssh <some host in hosts> fails to translate to ip.

according to the Finder UI it is found under:

however when trying to run cat hosts from the terminal I get an error:

➜  /etc  cat hosts
cat: hosts: No such file or directory

I tried to create a new hosts file but then I see another one is created next to the first one

but when I try to edit the second hosts I need to duplicate to anther destination. I copy it to /etc and again the first problem occurs.

I have tried to change the permissions to everyone can read and write. But yet it didn't help.


texts: Force Quit Keyboard Shortcut Not Working

texts:
I have a problem where the shortcut command+option+esc does not open the force quit menu. I've tried resetting the NVRAM and the SMC, but this did not fix the issue.

Also, sometimes when I reboot the computer the keyboard shortcut does open the force quit menu, but then the touchbar acts strangely: when I tap the buttons on the touch bar, I'm brought to the corresponding section in System Preferences instead (e.g. when I touch to lower brightness, I'm brought instead to the brightness section in system preferences).

So either the touch bar doesn't work properly or the force quit keyboard command does not. How do I fix this really strange behavior?


texts: OS will not mount the VM partition. Virtual memory must be forced to work

texts:
Virtual memory was broken on my Mac (cMP 5.1) for several months, with Sierra, High Sierra, and Mojave. Apple support was useless.

I finally figured out that I was missing all the invisible partitions on the boot drive (vm, recovery, etc.). Probably a casualty of a Carbon Copy Cloner mistake. But CCC allowed me to restore the partitions from a backup.

Still, the system doesn't use the vm partition. I can get it to work manually with sudo diskutil mount -mountPoint /private/var/vm disk1s4, but it doesn't remember this after a restart.

Any ideas on a permanent fix?


texts: Make fn the default function key behavior only for some of the function keys

texts:
I find myself using the actual F* only for F1 to F6, but for music and sound controls I use the function instead. I've tried using functions by default, and it works great for F7 to F12, but then I need to use fn for the first half. I've also tried disabling the functions by default, but then I end up using fn for the other half of the function keys.

Is there a way to configure the keyboard so they trigger the actual F* only for some function keys, and the function for others?


texts: Can't merge "Free Space" with Macintosh partition

texts: I have deleted a messed up bootcamp install and now I am stuck with 50 GB in "Free Space" that I am unable to "delete" or merge with my Macintosh partition. Anyway to do this?


texts: Delete downloaded files in Firefox and Safari

texts:
I have a Mac Pro with Firefox and Safari as browsers.
I have tried several methods to delete individual downloaded files while in both browsers. How can I delete downloaded files?


texts: Customize the Boot Camp Drive Icon in Lion

texts:
A while ago, I remember having customized the Boot Camp drive icon with a pretty simple hack.

It was on Mac OS X Tiger.
And it was that hack.

Now I'm running Lion. Windows 7 is comfy on his Boot Camp partition, and i'm willing to get some candy finish for my Mac OS' desktop icons.

The problem is: I can't find any way to do it in Lion. Google has been of no help. The hack above isn't working anymore. (It wasn't working in leopard or snow leopard neither, as far as I remember)

Magical solution needed, anyone has a clue about it?

Does OS X Lion discard completely the use of non-writable drive icons?


texts: I have a raw image of a Time Machine disk made with ddrescue, now I'd like to know if I can hook it up on the Mac and restore data from it.


texts: Apple Mail not showing mails in Smart Mailbox after upgrading to 10.15.2

texts:
There were around 500 mails in my Smart Mailbox. I upgraded from Catalina 10.15.0 to 10.15.2. Now it is showing only 3 mails.

Inbox folder shows all the mails. They just don't appear in "Smart Mailbox".

Smart Mailbox settings

Discrepancy in mails

Inbox shows 503 while Smart mailbox shows only 3.


texts: How to set an iPad back to factory settings where I have forgotton the restrictions passcode?

texts:
I am trying to help my uncle reset his iPad. He has not had it long and has forgotten the restrictions passcode (to manage restrictions in Settings). He is OK with putting it back to the factory settings. However, the restrictions code is required to do the reset. How do we bypass it and reset it?

The restrictions passcode is required to set and enforce limits on age restrictions, categories and other parts of the iPad's interface in Settings.


texts:
I was wondering if it is possible first of all to get the overall power consumption for my MacBook?

And if it is possible can I get this power consumption for each peripheral running (like consumption CPU, GPU, Wifi,...)?

Have checked the activity monitor, but nothing really interesting there, except for a very vague energy impact number.


texts:
I run brew search stdbuf and get

No formula found for "stdbuf".
Searching pull requests...
Closed pull requests:
coreutils: upstream fix for stdbuf (https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew/pull/32955)

I run brew install coreutils but get Warning: coreutils-8.23_1 already installed.

I do but see no stdbuf in my system.

$ std [tab]
stdethers  stdhosts

My PATH is

/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/opt/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:
/sbin:/opt/X11/bin:/usr/local/git/bin:/usr/texbin:/Users/masi/.cabal/bin

Uninstall Macports

Using Macports and Homebrew together cause conflicts.
Final solution is to uninstall Macports which is immature.
Regardless of what your PATH is, Macports causes conflicts with programs in the PATH.
I realised the core of the problem here at the end of the body about How to Enlarge Disk Image in VirtualBox?

How can you use stdbuf in OSX Yosemite?


texts: Creating a search engine within Numbers on a Mac

texts:
I want to know if it’s possible to create a search box directly within my Numbers document without the use of scripting, automator or terminal.

The idea is that users could enter search terms in the box and it’d return any matching results, just like using a search engine. The data to be searched is also within the same Numbers document, but in a separate tab.

I’m sorry if this question seems like I haven’t shown any research efforts, but so far I’ve searched within Numbers Help, Apple’s Numbers support pages and done general Google searches. These haven’t produced any results either way, so I think maybe what I want to do isn’t possible.

Can someone hear confirm either way?  If possible, how do I achieve this?

MORE INFO

My Numbers document contains two tabs. The 1st tab is called Search and the 2nd tab is called Data.

I would like the search box to be in cell B5 of the Search tab.

The data being searched is located in Column B of the Data tab, from rows 2 to 4,500.

The search results should appear below the search box.


texts: Finder error -36 when copying from data Blu-ray to HD

texts:
I've been having a re-occurring problem reading data from self-burnt data Blu-ray discs. I'll try to copy the contents of a disc to an external HD and nearly every time, at some point during the copy, I'll get a -36 Error code from the Finder (data can't be read or written).

Just before this error the drive spins down and I can hear the head jumping around, like it's having trouble finding data. The drive will do that for between 2-10+ minutes before giving up finally and showing me the error code.

This tends to happen on similar types of file – usually files that are packages (Logic files, Photos library), Logic project backups and EXS24 sample files (AIFs). Sometimes copying that file again works, sometimes not.

These discs were originally burnt through the Finder and they all passed post-burn verification. So the question is: where might the problem be? Is it the OS? Is it the drive? Is it the discs? Really I have no answer.

(I'm running fully updated Mac OS 10.10.5, Blu-ray drive is a Samsung SE-506, discs are TDK-branded light blue face.)


texts:
I have some backup HDDs with around 500GB in files. I want to back these files up in the cloud, but I don't want the iCloud folder taking up space in my mac (which has only 256GB).

Is it possible to use iCloud as a storage solution for old files I don't want in my computer or is it supposed to only be a synced backup of files in my devices?


texts: Why is my mac sharing the macintosh disk, and home folder?

texts:
I have just fresh installed an ubuntu 18.04 on my desktop and decided to try connecting each other (my macbook pro) via SMB.

To my surprise, when I connected to my mac, using my ubuntu desktop, the Macintosh (the disk itself), and the home folder, along with the public folder is completely accessible.

The problem is, aside from enabling the smb file sharing on my macbook pro, I have not added anything to allow for file sharing, aside from the public folder, which is the only entry on the file sharing settings.

How do I prevent access from the disk, and the home folder?


texts: I have a 2013 iMac with a broken logic board and display. It's too expensive to repair, but I'd like to salvage the fusion drive. If I put the drive in an external case will it work?


texts: How can I connect a third monitor to my MacBook Pro 13"?

texts: I already have one VGA monitor connected to my Macbook Pro's Mini Display Port, but there is only one mini display port on my mac, so I'm not sure how to hook up a second external monitor.  Should I get a VGA splitter and power them both from the one mini display port on my laptop? Should I find a USB to VGA adapter?  USB to Mini Display Port?  Something else entirely?  Please help!! Thanks!


texts:
I'm using the TTS voices for some of my app. Sometimes I download new voices to check how they sound to probably move to them later. I heard that Alex voice is one of the best free voices on iOS, so I downloaded it. It weighs around 800 MB, which is pretty much.

After some time I've filled up my device storage, so only around 50 MB are left. After that I proceeded to filling it up downloading new apps and at some moment this Alex voice started to show app as not installed, so in the list of voices it shows up with cloud button to the right. Also, in the app where I used it, some other voice started to speak instead of Alex one.

Is it possible that iOS automatically deletes some too heavyweight voices in order to make more free space?


texts: Using osadecompile to get plain text AppleScript runs certain actions from the script

texts:
I've been using this solution to decompile AppleScript files before adding them to a Git repository. It basically creates a filter using osacompile and osadecompile to convert between plain text source and a compiled AppleScript.

I noticed however, that some applications referenced in the scripts are unexpectedly starting on git add and the culprit is osadecompile.

Example:

When I run osadecompile script.scpt against the following script, a Firefox starts up:

tell application "Firefox"
    open location "https://apple.stackexchange.com"
end tell

It doesn't open the location specified, however the Firefox process gets started and remains running.

Questions:

Is there anything I can do to avoid this?
What exactly is happening here? Does the script run in background (other actions  from the scripts - like say "something" do not seem to run)?


texts: Actual working tutorial of installing catalina on an external drive?

texts:
I want to know where the working tutorial for installing Catalina on an external drive is.
All the tutorial I managed to google up for some reason failed to mention the "missing a firmware partition" error.
I tried to install it using clover or raw official installer, under a GUID scheme. All got stuck at this "firmware partition" gag. I tried to use apple FS but to no avail.
Would someone please help me? This is driving me nuts. My MacBook is genuine, not HacBook.


texts: iPhone/iPad GMail Stopped Sync'ing Properly

texts:
I have a couple of GMail accounts which I track on my iMac, iPhone, and iPad. On the iOS devices, both of the accounts are setup as Exchange accounts with Push delivery. I read that this is the recommended way to setup iOS with GMail and everything has been working flawlessly with this configuration for years.

A few days ago, the iOS devices stopped sync'ing properly. They receive all inbound emails immediately. However, if an email is read or deleted on my iMac, this isn't reflected on the iOS devices at all unless I force-quit the email app and restart it. It's getting really irritating because the iOS devices are constantly showing unread mail even when my inbox(es) are completely empty.

What happened? Does it have something to do with this latest iOS update (6.1.2)? The release notes said it had something to do with Exchange but I didn't read closely because technically, I don't use Exchange and I figured it didn't apply to me. Did they screw something up somehow? Shall I revert back to prior iOS version?

Any ideas appreciated.


texts: iOS App That Delivers Push Notifications for Twitter Hanshtags

texts:
Is there an iOS app (free or paid) that sends push notifications when a new post with a certain hashtag or keyword is tweeted?

I see Twitterrific can send a push notification when I get @mentioned or get a direct message, but I can't see how to configure it to subscribe to a #hashtag and push me a notification.

Can this be done with one app or multiple apps/services?


texts: Macbook Air doesn't recognize external display

texts:
Problem

When connecting an external non Apple Display to my macbook air with an VGA to thunderbolt adapter the external display won't show my Desktop. Instead it will only show for a second my desktop and then go black.

Analysis

My mac knows that there is a display connected as I can see from the display settings.

When not mirroring my Desktop I can actually move my windows over to the second display, but the actual display stays black, just plain black (but it is still on and active as I can see from my display status light).

I was able to reproduce and log the problem in console. The log shows following actions:

I am logged into my account and plugin the VGA to thunderbolt adapter cable with the external display connected
My MacBook Air notices that a second display has been plugged in and switches it's display mode.
My external display shows for a moment my desktop and the turns black, but stays active (The external display status light indicate this to me) as if it would be still showing my desktop

Console Log error black display @ pastebin.com

I was also able to log what happened when my external display would finally start to show my desktop. If I am not mistaken I have just plugged out the VGA to thundebolt adapter and changed from mirrored display to not mirrored. This is what I have been doing afterwards:

Plugin the VGA adapter cable with connected display
The extended desktop shows up on external display

Console Log display recognized @ pastebin.com

Temporary solution

Fiddling around with mirroring and not mirroring the display can
sometimes solve the problem
Pulling out the VGA to thunderbolt adapter and plugging it in again can sometimes solve the problem
Plugging out the electricity for the external display can sometimes solve the problem
All actions above combined in different order can sometimes solve the problem