texts: Can't start up MacBook Pro from OS X install discs

texts:
I wanted to re-install my mid-2010 15-inch MacBook Pro (Intel Core i7 2.66 gHz 8 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 RAM) which is currently running Mac OS X 10.6.8.

I inserted the retail Mac OS X 10.6 install disc, and held the C button on my keyboard to boot the machine. The disc can be heard spinning up, and the grey Apple logo appears. However, the computer hangs at that step, there was no grey spinning wheel and the installer never starts. After a few minutes, I can hear the disc SPIN DOWN, and the machine still sits at the Apple logo after more than 40 minutes.

To boot from the install disc, I also tried (1) holding down the Alt key during boot to choose the disc, and (2) using System Preferences to set the disc as the startup disc. However, the boot still hangs at the grey Apple logo.

To diagnose the problem, I tried other startup discs, including my retail Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard install disc. They all hang at the grey Apple logo.

Also, just to see if it was a problem with my optical drive, I followed instructions to use Disk Utility to make a disc image of the install disc, and "restore" that image to an USB flash drive. I am see and choose to boot from the USB drive when I hold down Alt during startup, but again it hangs at the grey Apple logo.

Next, I ran Micromat TechTool Deluxe that came with my AppleCard protection plan to check my hardware, all tests passed. I also held the D button during boot to run the Apple Hardware Test, again it found no problems.

Finally, I tried to reset the NVRAM with no success, and I used Disk Utility to verify the internal hard drive which produced the following message:

Verifying volume “Macintosh HD”
Performing live verification.
Checking Journaled HFS Plus volume.
Checking extents overflow file.
Checking catalog file.
Checking multi-linked files.
Checking catalog hierarchy.
Checking extended attributes file.
Checking volume bitmap.
Checking volume information.
Invalid volume file count
(It should be 1071709 instead of 1071710)
Invalid volume directory count
(It should be 200209 instead of 200208)
The volume Macintosh HD was found corrupt and needs to be repaired.
Error: This disk needs to be repaired. Start up your computer with another disk (such as your Mac OS X installation disc), and then use Disk Utility to repair this disk.

I installed Applejack to fix the problem and scan my computer again. Nonetheless the problem remains...

Is there anything else I can do to get my MacBook Pro to boot from the install disc? Thank you very much!

P.S. As an additional test, I booted other Macs with the install discs I have, they all worked fine...


texts:
Is there a way to change the default volume setting for headphones/line out, i.e. the one you get after plugging a jack in for the first time since you've turned your Mac on and started OSX?

I'm using a 2008 unibody (aluminum) Macbook, running Snow Leopard. And several times I've run the risk of hurting my ears because of that default value (half of the scale).


texts: AppleScript click Ui Element with modifier keys

texts:
I want to click an Ui Element button with modifier keys pressed.

Here is my code:

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "Pro Tools"
        tell (1st window whose title contains "Edit: ")
            tell table "Group List"
                tell row 2
                    tell UI element 2

                        click

                    end tell
                end tell
            end tell
        end tell
    end tell
end tell

I tried adding key down (option) and key up (option) between the click lines, but it doesn't work.


texts: Whenever I take screenshots everything seems fine, but then when I wake up, in photos all my screenshots are doubled. Mixed in with each other randomly there are two copies of each screenshot. This always happens overnight some time, since I never see it happen. Anyone else have this happen?


texts:
What is the recommended amount of video memory to assign to OS X El Capitan running in VirtualBox?

Currently, I've set it to 48 MB on ad hoc basis, and would like to know if this is something I should adjust. I've seen a few different figures. Clearly, the default 16 MB setting may be too low.

I am running the VirtualBox on an iMac with a 2 GB AMD graphics card. In case that can be used to accelerate the VirtualBox, then I'm assuming that there is some leeway to increase the video memory setting. But is it necessary, and how much is indeed recommendable?


texts: Macbook Air will not connect to Wifi even though other Macs work fine with same Wifi

texts:
I'm having some issues and I feel as though I have literally tried everything. I am at a complete loss on what to do.

Situation:

I had multiple Mac computers including this one for a while. All working fine with router.

Then I replaced my router because it was getting slow and dated, the new one I got worked fine at first, but then started to drop connection every other day and even sometimes every day. I replaced the replacement router, then my macbook air had ridiculously slow connection speed. It would take google 5-10 minutes to load. But my iMac computer worked fine. I didn't change anything, nor do anything different to either computer except get this new router. The router even managed to corrupt my time machine. So I called up the ISP and they worked me through the issues, so now everything is working fine EXCEPT my Macbook Air.

I have tried starting from scratch with the router, with the Time Machine, I have rebooted all devices. But the internet remains the same. It's good on my iMac, my phone, my TV, but not the macbook air. I wanted to call Apple, but it costs $60 to talk to a someone which is not affordable for me. I am really frustrated with this.

I went through all the changes with my Airport Utility. I even reset my Macbook Air to factory default settings. Still I have the same issue.

What can I do to troubleshoot this problem?


texts: Screen on Max Brightness Appears Slightly Dim After Sleeping, MacBook Pro 2015

texts:
The issue:
Screen appears about 2-3 dots dimmer on max brightness after waking from sleep for more than 30 minutes. I only noticed this a few months after upgrading to Catalina, it's been ongoing ever since.
My settings:
No auto-adjusted brightness, disabled screen temperature modifiers like NightShift/Flux, slightly higher gamma color profile for better contrast/brightness (it looks a bit faded otherwise).
My computer:
MacBook Pro 13" early 2015 mid-tier model with Catalina 10.15.4. (bought in 2017 used, no repairs or hardware issues the whole year. Great battery cycle life).
My Temporary solution:
Resetting the PRAM (cmd + opt + P + R). This fix lasts until I close my laptop and let it sleep overnight usually. Sometimes I've had success reducing the brightness before putting it to sleep. I am not completely sure if this is hardware or software related.
Edit:
There have been rare/infrequent occasions when my display would do weird things after waking from sleep. There was one incident of my display completely blanking out with a white pixelated screen for a moment (like an old static TV out of tune). A few other incidents where the display blinks black or totally freezes. It was at first a problem with video playback and hardware acceleration, but now I am beginning to believe it may be a hardware-related problem (though this Mac doesn't have a graphics card).
Thanks for your time and consideration!


texts: Change default highlight format in preview

texts:
To highlight text in pdf files, I select the text and hit the highlight button:

The default was yellow highlight. Somehow, it got changed to a red underline. How can I change this back to yellow highlight again?


texts: How to get into Windows 10 Safe Mode on 2016 MacBook Pro?

texts:
I'm told I need to get into Windows 10's Safe Mode running under Boot Camp, but I'm on a Mac Book Pro, 2016 model, which does not have function keys at start up.

How can I force Safe Mode for Windows 10 on the most recent MBP?

Previous Question: Can't boot Windows 10 past loading animation under Bootcamp


texts: Application for managing a pdf document library

texts:
I'm looking for an application that can help manage a library of pdf documents.  I prefer open source (or just free beer), but that's not absolutely essential.

I am aware of calibre and use it often for my ebooks, including those in pdf format.  However, I'd like something for more general purpose use, especially PDFs that are largely - or entirely - graphics based, or contain small amounts of text (like keyboard shortcut reference cards and the like, research papers, and the like).

Easy management of metadata, search and filter, and easy access to the files from an application interface are the other main requirements.  I don't need any device-sync or transfer capabilities, all the documents in this library would reside only on my MBP.

Anything out there that would be useful in this context?


texts: Can I keep apple music when switching apple IDs

texts: My son currently uses my apple ID on his phone with my credit card, and we have an apple music memebership, if he starts his own apple ID, can he still keep all the apple music and just use it under my account on his phone, i.e when he opens apple music he needs to type in the password for my account?


texts: How to add MySQL to $PATH variable to resolve "mysql: command not found"?

texts:
I installed MySQL on my Mac, and now I would like to add it to my $PATH variable. I want to be able to type mysql anywhere.

I tried adding the following to my .profile file:

export PATH=${PATH}/usr/local/mysql/bin/

I have restarted my Terminal but it does not do the trick. It still says: -bash: mysql: command not found.

How can I add this properly to my $PATH?

I am using OS X Yosemite.


texts: Running uname -m Gives x86_64 On M1 Mac Mini

texts:
When I run uname -m in zsh (run via Terminal.app) on my M1 Mac Mini, the output is x86_64, instead of the expected arm64. This is occurring both in zsh and in bash. This is causing issues with installing native ARM wheels with pip, which thinks that I am running an x86 system. I couldn't find any information online about this, and am wondering if it is a bug, or something that I have overlooked. Any ideas of what is going on? Is this expected behavior? I am running macOS 11.3.1. The following other information is output by uname:
uname: Darwin
uname -a: Darwin macmini.local 20.4.0 Darwin Kernel Version 20.4.0: Thu Apr 22 21:46:41 PDT 2021; root:xnu-7195.101.2~1/RELEASE_ARM64_T8101 x86_64
uname -p: i386


texts: iTunes asks me to subscribe to iTunes Match again when I try to turn iTunes Match back on

texts:
I wanted to disable iTunes Match temporarily, so I selected Turn Off iTunes Match from the menu bar. Now when I try to select Turn On iTunes Match, iTunes shows me this screen:

How can I turn iTunes Match back on, or did I get unsubscribed from iTunes Match?

(The answer is really obvious, but it took me so long to figure it out that I'm documenting it here by answering myself.)


texts: What's the equivalent of "do shell script" with javascript automations? (Yosemite)

texts:
Support for javascript automations started with Yosemite.

How could I run using javascript an external command? (i.e. the equivalent of do shell script of applescript?


texts: How can I get Network drive shortcuts added to the Finder sidebar in Mountain Lion?

texts:
I updated to Mountain Lion from Lion and I noticed that my network drives are no longer shown in Finder's sidebar under Devices.

Under preferences I have all checkboxes ticked. And when I click on "My MacBook Pro" I see the Network drives mounted but when I drag them to Devices (like I used to in Lion) they don't "stick".

Can I only get shortcuts by adding them to my favorites? And even there they get lost when I restart my computer.


texts: Time Machine Avoid Full Backup after Clean Install

texts:
I have an iMac 5K with Mojave 10.14.6. The iMac has an internal SSD and 3 external USB HD drives connected.
All these drives are backupped by Time Machine.
I need to perform a clean install of Catalina on the iMac and I would like to avoid Time Machine to backup all the drives another time.
My Documents on the internal HD are stored on OneDrive.
How can I do?
After clean installation and after restoring documents from one drive may I use tmutil inheritbackup?


texts: When looking for directions, Google Maps says "first of three suggested routes."  It shows the first, but I can find no way of finding out what the other two suggested routes are.  I've searched the screen and can see no way.  How do I do it?


texts: The operating system of my MacBook Pro is Mac OS X 10.5.8. What is the compatible browser I can safely download?


texts: How to save an iTunes Podcast to a USB stick?

texts: I have downloaded WWDC 2010 podcast from iTunes. How can I find the Podcast file and save it to a USB Memory stick so people who doesn't have iTunes can play it using quicktime?


texts: iPad opening downloaded document in wrong app

texts: I have downloaded some word documents off safari, but when I try and open them, they open in Adobe Acrobat Reader, rather than Microsoft Word. Is there anything I can do to resolve this issue, and make the documents open in the correct application.


texts: If my stolen iPod touch gets reset, will I receive a notification from iCloud?

texts: My iPod touch was stolen. If the person type the wrong password 10 times, it will erase all my data. And, if that happens, will I receive the notification ("find my iPod") I requested in iCloud when it goes online?


texts: iMac boots to blinking cursor after changing boot partition

texts:
I have an old iMac (2009) and I've been digging through to make sure there's nothing we want to keep before wiping it to sell. Once upon a time it had dual boot through Bootcamp. I was looking at the partitions in recovery mode and noticed that it still had the bootcamp partition. If I recall correctly, I managed to set it so it would boot to that partition (I was curious to check that there was nothing we wanted to keep)
After restarting, it makes the start up chime on a light grey screen, doesn't show any logos, then goes to a black screen with a blinking cursor. I can't get it to boot into recovery now using the usual means.
How can I get it to boot correctly again? I've done nothing else to it, so the OS should still be there.


texts: Why is it that I cannot open file in terminal when in root?

texts:
I have a file in MacOS that I want to change that is protected by permission restrictions. I cannot access it with my normal account. I use terminal to log in to root, and try to open the file as such:

open -a "TextEdit.app" file

However, the terminal returns the following error:

LSOpenURLsWithRole() failed for the application /Applications/TextEdit.app with
error -10810 for the file ...

The open command works for my normal user account on files, but when terminal is logged into root, the command returns this error.

I have looked at many articles, but none seem to solve the problem.

Thanks for any help.


texts: Buying in the Mac App Store for the enterprise

texts:
We're looking to buy an app in the Mac App Store (iBarcoder) for our graphic designers using Macs, and after read this article on Macworld.com, we're not too sure how to go about it.

  Does that mean I could buy one copy of an app and install it on every Mac in my business?

  No, the license you agree to when you enter the Mac App Store says
  that app downloads are for Macs that you personally own, and that's a
  license for personal use. Apps that are intended for professional use
  are licensed for you or for a single computer used by several people.
  While there's no technical impediment to you installing them on
  multiple Macs at work, you'll be violating the license agreement. It's
  the same scenario as if you buy a single-user copy of iWork and
  install it on ten Macs at work—you can do it, but you're violating the
  license agreement, making the act ethically questionable.

We know about the volume licensing that Apple offers, but it seems as though it's only for education and not for the enterprise. Surely creating a new Apple ID for every Mac isn't the best way to do this, right?

Thanks!


texts: Big bug: why does iCloud Keychain remember the wrong expiration month for all of my credit cards?

texts:
I've been adding credit cards to my iCloud Keychain for years, and after a few months, I notice that my payments receive errors when I use the autofill from iCloud.

The bug:

I've realized that iCloud Keychain consistently changes the expiration month (and nothing else) to one month earlier.

What I've tried:

I used to think that I'm entering it incorrectly the first time around. But then I went and purged all of them to be correct, but, alas, after some time, the months are incorrect again.

I've also tried deleting these cards and adding them fresh. To no avail.

Questions:

(1) Should I be worried that someone has access to my account? Or is this just a (major) bug in the iCloud Keychain?

(2) How do I fix this for good? I've just gone and corrected all of the months again.

Update: I've changed all of them and started fresh, and it just keeps happening. No news from Apple. Does anyone else experience this?


texts: Can you scan a document directly, instead of an overview scan first?

texts:
It honestly really annoys me that every time I have to scan a document it requires me to do an overview scan. Isn't there a way to skip that part if you just want to scan A4 color/B&W using Image Capture on OS X.

I've got a Canon MG5300 printer, although this is irrelevant as an overview scan is required on every printer.

If this can't be accomplished natively, a (great) third party app would be sufficient.


texts: How can I automatically have my Trash emptied when disk space gets below a certain point?

texts: Sometimes my hard drive gets low on space, and various things don't work properly until I empty the Trash and free up some space. I know there are applications that empty the Trash after a set interval—but what I want is an app or script (or other means) to empty the Trash whenever there's e.g. less than 2GB of free space on a given hard drive.


texts: Mojave SMB file sharing authentication issues

texts:
I'm trying to set up SMB file sharing from one Mac running macOS Mojave to another. The serving Mac runs Server.app and an Open Directory master with Local Network Users. The client is bound to the master. The user accounts on the client are 'Mobile Accounts' except for the administrator account on each Mac.

I have a HFS+ volume on the computer that shares, which enabled me to separately test AFP and SMB sharing. AFP sharing of a folder on the HFS+ volume works (with registered user). SMB sharing of a folder on the APFS volume does not work. It looks like an authentication/configuration problem.

Looking on the serving side, I see this in log:

default 10:02:52.426557 +0100   smbd    Server requires signing, but not auth-bound to Directory Service
default 10:02:52.427298 +0100   smbd    Too many groups requested (2147483647).  Can cause performance issues when network directories are involved
default 10:02:52.433288 +0100   smbd    Too many groups requested (2147483647).  Can cause performance issues when network directories are involved
default 10:02:52.448680 +0100   digest-service  digest-request: uid=0
default 10:02:52.448713 +0100   digest-service  digest-request: init request
default 10:02:52.452971 +0100   securityd   found a non-proper sample, skipping...
default 10:02:52.468923 +0100   opendirectoryd  Failed to talk to secd after 4 attempts.
default 10:02:52.472453 +0100   digest-service  digest-request: init return domain: ALBUS server: ALBUS indomain was: <NULL>
default 10:02:52.472607 +0100   smbd    Server requires signing, but not auth-bound to Directory Service

It does work when I set the "Windows File Sharing" flag for a user on. But that only is possible for Local Directory users not Local Network Directory users. I think I should be able to solve this by solving the smbd   Server requires signing, but not auth-bound to Directory Service issue. Or I must find to add the Local Network Directory users to "Windows File Sharing" (but given the lower security of that it is not what I would like).

I've done all the 'normal' things such as rebooting, turning services off and on again (and both), add specific access in Server.app (pf) for SMB and (S)LDAP and I'm now officially out of options.


texts: How to slow down iPad keyboard response, to get fingers off the keys before the letters repeat?

texts:
My Dad has a Parkinson's like disease.

His fingers move very slowly and so he gets multiple repeats of lettttters, like that.

Is there a way to slow down the keyboard response to that he can get his fingers off the keys before the letters repeat?


texts: How can I correct/delete iOS holidays on iDevice

texts:
I discovered a number of strange entries in iCal on my iDevices which I didn't enter, and also were just on this device and neither my Mac nor the other device.

After a little search I found that my iPhone has a calendar for German holidays and the iPad a calendar for Swiss holidays. This is rather strange as I live in Austria and haven't visited these countries since the time I got these devices (>2 years). These calendars are in the section where also birthdays are and can not be edited or deleted. They also don't show up on iCal on the mac. I also checked the timezone on the devices - but this is set to Vienna - Austria.

So how would I fix them to Austrian holidays? - or at least delete so I won't be irritated by them.


texts: Just announced MacOS Mojave: what level of support for Metal is required?

texts: The general consensus is that older Macs can run Mojave if they have a graphic card supporting Metal (c.f. appleinsider for example). But Metal-readiness comes in different degrees. Has Apple disclosed what is the lowest bar yet?


texts: Can I be reached on FaceTime on Mac using my non-iPhone phone number?

texts:
I have a Mac and an Android phone. I can use FaceTime and people can call me using my email address.

I want people to be able to place calls with me using my phone number.

So I've added my phone number to my Apple ID as explained in "Choose how people can call you in FaceTime on Mac". Got an SMS with validation code, validated the thing, and now the phone is associated there. So far so good.

Then I've signed off & on of FaceTime, restarted the Mac, to no avail: in FaceTime preferences, the number does not appear.

Is it simply because FaceTime requires an iPhone and there's no way around it? (The support page does not tell this)
Or am I missing something?

I'm on macOS 10.15 Catalina beta, as a developer I needed this to work with latest Xcode beta features.


texts: Creating a static route through a specific interface

texts:
My problem involves a High Sierra Mac Pro, a NAS and an old house. Things are like this: Mac Pro and NAS sit close together, and are connected via bonded Ethernet through a switch allowing for ultra-fast transfer speed between the two.

Being in an old house, the switch itself is connected to the main router only via a PowerLine interface. While this actually brings web surfing to the Mac Pro's Ethernet, the truth is that for this purpose only WiFi is way faster (about 10x).

For the sake of this example let's assume the web router is 192.168.0.1, Mac is 192.168.0.2 and NAS is 192.168.0.3; wifi is en2 and ethernet is bond0. I need my Mac to route all traffic through en2, except for traffic directed to 192.168.0.3 which should go through bond0 only.

I tried moving Ethernet on top of service order stack and removing its IPV4 Gateway, but my Mac still keeps connecting to the NAS via WiFi even though Ethernet comes first.

I understand I would need some kind of static route to do this, but after reading a lot of (contradictory) posts I'm still not sure how to exactly accomplish this...

Can someone help me? What sort of code should I type in Terminal to create this static route and make sure it's still there after reboot?

Thank you.


texts:
Is there a way I can set a background image in ReFit boot loader?
I'd like to use my 1280X800 desktop wallpaper, is that possible?


texts: select a menu item of a window instead of a process using Applescript

texts:
I'm quite new to applescript (and a beginner programmer) and I've hit a dead end. I figured out how to access a menu item of a process but I do not know how to do it once I have multiple windows. Thanks for any help you can give!

background:
I'm trying to use Applescript with Fiji Is Just ImageJ (FIJI) to process a couple hundred image files at a time. I need to use the "Plugins>Segmentation>Simple Neurite Tracer " plugin but it's not working well with FIJI's native macro language so I am trying applescript.

What I've tried:
I've already set up something that will loop through the images one by one and lunch the plugin but after that I can't figure out how to access the new menus on the windows that pop up.

tell application "Fiji" to activate
delay 3
menu_click({"Fiji", "Image", "Type", "8-bit"})

-- `menu_click`, by Jacob Rus, September 2006
--
-- Accepts a list of form: `{"Finder", "View", "Arrange By", "Date"}`
-- Execute the specified menu item.  In this case, assuming the Finder
-- is the active application, arranging the frontmost folder by date.

on menu_click(mList)
local appName, topMenu, r

-- Validate our input
if mList's length < 3 then error "Menu list is not long enough"

-- Set these variables for clarity and brevity later on
set {appName, topMenu} to (items 1 through 2 of mList)
set r to (items 3 through (mList's length) of mList)

-- This overly-long line calls the menu_recurse function with
-- two arguments: r, and a reference to the top-level menu
tell application "System Events" to my menu_click_recurse(r, ((process appName)'s ¬
    (menu bar 1)'s (menu bar item topMenu)'s (menu topMenu)))
end menu_click

on menu_click_recurse(mList, parentObject)
local f, r

-- `f` = first item, `r` = rest of items
set f to item 1 of mList
if mList's length > 1 then set r to (items 2 through (mList's length) of mList)

-- either actually click the menu item, or recurse again
tell application "System Events"
    if mList's length is 1 then
        click parentObject's menu item f
    else
        my menu_click_recurse(r, (parentObject's (menu item f)'s (menu f)))
    end if
end tell
end menu_click_recurse

I used accessibility inspector to try and figure out the names of the windows so I can use the same process i did to launch the plugin but I wasn't able to comprehend it. The name of the window itself is predictable so I can take the name of the file I open and add "Tracing for:" before it.

I was at another page which was similar but I couldn't adapt it either sadly - no button but still clicking a menu item in a window instead of a process: How do I click a button using AppleScript?

activate application "Fiji"
tell application "System Events" to tell process "Fiji"
click menu item "Quit" of menu "File" of menu bar 1 of window 1
--click button "Quit" of window 1 of window 1
end tell

I then tried to use MouseTools but it does not seem to work consistently. The first mouse click registers perfectly but the second works sometimes and sometimes not.

-- move the mouse to the x/y coordinates (as measured from the top-left part of the screen) and perform a mouse left-click
set mouseToolsPath to (path to home folder as text) & "MouseTools"
set x to 60
set y to 44

do shell script quoted form of POSIX path of mouseToolsPath & " -x " & (x as text) & " -y " & (y as text) & " -doubleLeftClick"

set x to 219
set y to 598

do shell script quoted form of POSIX path of mouseToolsPath & " -x " & (x as text) & " -y " & (y as text) & " -doubleLeftClick"


texts: Any program that can automatically split photos in one scan?

texts: I am about to scan my photo collection. To save time, I would like to scan multiple photos at once. How can I automate the splitting of photos in a single scan?


texts: Is there a way to read/respond to iPhone text messages on a Windows computer?

texts: I would like to be able to read/respond to my text messages on a computer.  I only seem to find a place to do this if you have a Mac.  Can this be done on a Windows computer or Chromebooks running Chrome OS?


texts: New MacBook Pro: Migration Assistant or Time Capsule?

texts:
I'm in the process of buying a new MacBook Pro.

My actual notebook is a MacBook Pro Core Duo which dates back to July 2006.

My actual operating system is Snow Leopard, and I have a Time Capsule unit in place since 2010, so my backups are OK.

Now the question is: when my new computer arrives it'll have Lion; I'd like to take back my whole digital life from my backups in Time Capsule, but I'm wondering they are coming from Snow Leopard. Could this represent a problem for system restore?

Would it be better in this case to proceed with a Migration Assistant operation?


texts:
My iPad has just been updated to iOS 11. The new app store doesn’t seem to show the download size of each update any more.

As you can see in iOS 10, the size is really easy to spot in both the list and details view.

How can I find out the size of the updates so I don’t use too much data?


texts: How can I enable invisible files with "Transmit" FTP client?

texts:
How can I enable invisible files with "Transmit" FTP client ?

It asks me to show them only if I override one of them. I actually would like to always see them.


texts:
I have a 2010 Mac Mini with no DVD drive and a 5,400 RPM hard drive. Of late, it's begun to get quite sluggish, and I'm fairly sure it's the slow HDD that's to blame.

I took a look at the means of upgrading it, but since it involves practically taking the entire thing apart to get to the hard drive, I decided it wasn't something I wanted to do myself.

My first option is to simply do a complete format of the machine (I only really use it for Plex media streaming), and see if that helps speed it up. This hasn't been done in the few years I've owned the Mini, I've just always kept it updated, and I guess it may have become bloated (though there's not much installed on it).

My second option is to attempt to downgrade the Yosemite install that's currently on it back down to something older (and presumably quicker). I can probably go back as far as Lion/Mountain Lion if need be, combined with the full format. So basically revert to stock Lion, re-install Plex, and away I go.

So, a couple of questions:

In this situation, is a complete format / re-install of Yosemite likely to help? If so, will the recovery partition handle this?
If not, what's the best means of downgrading back to an older OS such as Lion, and if I do this, am I likely to see speed increases purely because the older OS's are less demanding? Can I make an installer on a USB stick, since my Mini has no disc drive?


texts: App downloading stuck at the end on Catalina (blue circle around square indicator completes then stuck)

texts:
on MacOS 15.15.5 Catalina, I have a particular app that won't finalize downloading. The download progress circle completes around the square, then gets stuck there. Tried restarting laptop, and signing out and back into app store. Tried deleting the app in Applications directory, and download again (same behavior-- completes but stuck at end). Downloading other app is OK, just this specific app.
NOTE: This app had a free download on the developer's website, which I tried first. Maybe that's what's confusing the App Store installation? After getting stuck, I deleted the trial version/manually-installed version, and reinstall, to no avail.
Is there some cache somewhere that I should clear?  Hints appreciated.
(app developer unreachable -- website feedback form is broken)


texts: How can I rename my files with datestamps in Aperture and keep them in order?

texts:
Here's the problem:

If I shoot in continuous mode, I can have several images per second.  Aperture will happily import these and rename them with Date @ Time, but subsequently sorting either by version name or by file name will bring results up in mixed order for a given time stamp.

My camera supports the exif field subsectimeorginal and the field shows up in Aperture, but in Aperture, the field is always blank.  And there is no primitive to add this to to creating filenames anyway.


texts: Can I use Chrome Enterprise deployment to secure extensions on my child's Mac?

texts:
I want to 'force install' some extensions on my son's Mac (to limit access to sites), and was looking at Chrome Deployment documentation.
I'm at a loss on the last step ... is there a way to install Chrome on his Mac with policies in effect, without paying for an expensive professional MDM?
Unfortunately Apple's Screen Time does not work in Chrome (yet).


texts: How can I let top show in byte for memory usage on MacOS?

texts:
I use below command to show memory and cpu usage on MacOS but it shows in G not byte. How can I make it show byte in the output?

$ top -l 1 -n 0
Processes: 432 total, 2 running, 430 sleeping, 2306 threads
2018/01/16 11:23:44
Load Avg: 2.54, 4.00, 5.70
CPU usage: 6.58% user, 10.63% sys, 82.78% idle
SharedLibs: 193M resident, 55M data, 24M linkedit.
MemRegions: 166609 total, 6388M resident, 85M private, 1820M shared.
PhysMem: 15G used (3079M wired), 593M unused.
VM: 3253G vsize, 1098M framework vsize, 10135734(0) swapins, 11401593(0) swapouts.
Networks: packets: 3462765/3440M in, 2340820/1677M out.
Disks: 6698979/126G read, 3697913/112G written.


texts: Find source of Spotlight Dictionary result

texts:
When we look up the meaning of any word through Spotlight:

There is no 'source' information.

Even the Dictionary.app, which Spotlight uses, does not show the source.
The best I can find so far is to disable / enable different Dictionaries in Dictionary.app's Preferences, until the definition disappears / changes, to figure out from what dictionary the meaning is from.
How can I see where the definition comes from without this pain?


texts: iPhone: Why does the keyboard language switch randomly?

texts:
Currently on my iPhone (current iOS, but this has been an issue since long ago), the keyboard language switches randomly between English and Chinese, every time I go to a new app or an input field.

There doesn't seem to be a pattern, like what was the input language when I last used the app. Sometimes it appears to switch to a different language even for the same app (e.g. Safari) when I switch somewhere else and switch back. I have 3 input languages installed: English, Simplified Chinese and Emoji. Though the input never defaults to Emoji.

Any idea what is going on? Are there any fixes?


texts:
Some people have reported to me that messages that I send them that originally contained diacritics were garbled, or the diacritics are replaced by boxes/stars etc.

Is there a way to make Messages send all messages without diacritics? (I guess this could be achieved also by making the autocomplete not using diacritics, since I never actually write the diacritics, they are there only because the autocomplete changes some of my words.)


texts: How to copy found text (highlighted) in TextEdit

texts:
I'm looking for copying the patterns that I find. For example for this, I would like to copy all the "bcbc":

and being able to paste it somewhere like "bcbcbcbcbcbcbcbcbcbc" (bcbc x5).

Do you know any way to do it?

Thanks in advance.
Regards.
Rafael.

This is the pattern exactly:


texts: TV app on Catalina truncates/destroys meta-data (description field)

texts:
This is really a bug report, not sure if there's a better place to submit that - if apple have a process for that.

On the new TV app in Catalina, for Home movie, or a film added to the app and changed to category 'Film', if you do 'get info', and enter text in the Comment or Description fields, text is accepted of any length, and can be saved, but will simply be lost.

I wanted to add a short review of a film I watched and did so but the text is truncated to about 128 characters and the rest of what you enter is lost with no warning.

Calendar also does this with its 'notes' field but that is of a much larger maximum size and is more understandable since it's a network hop. Also, google calendar service does the same.  But here it's a local app.

When a movie is set to category 'Film' has a 'Short Description' field, and provides a one line text box. If set to category 'Home Movie' then that becomes 'Description' and provides a text area, which even though that invites input of large paragraph size, accepts said text and simply truncates it to ~128 characters, data loss without warning.

This is one of the main reasons I was keen to use the TV app, to help organise a library. So, it seems this feature has not been tested prior to release by apple.


texts: Connecting Apple monitor to Dell latitude E6540

texts:
I have an Apple monitor with mini DisplayPort and a Dell laptop E6540 that I want to connect. The Dell provides output for HDMI and VGA, its docking station also provides DVI.

Although I have found adapters for miniDP to DVI or VGA (e.g., to connect a Mac to a projector) I have not been able to find the inverse adapter (DVI, VGA or HDMI to miniDP).

Does someone know where I can find such adapters?


texts: WhatsApp calls with background data disabled

texts:
With Mobile Data and background app refresh turned off, can WhatsApp receive a call while the Wi-Fi is enabled, and the iPhone is connected to a Wi-Fi access point with active Internet connection?

If the iPhone is resting on a table, will I receive a normal WhatsApp call or not? Or will it remain closed, unless I pick the mobile in hand and turn-on the screen.

I will be using my iPhone in another country with international roaming active.


texts: Safari 9.0.2 on OS X crashes on special file-URL

texts:
I've been working with KompoZer to author some web pages. When I use the "Browse Page" function it opens the web page with this file-URL: file:///.file/id=6571367.190169036. This works fine.

When I click on any of the links on the page browsed the browser crashes.
After a few tests, it seems to crash on any URLs that starts with file:///.file/, except for the one URL used by the "Browse Page" function.

I use latest update of OS X Yosemite on a Mac Book Pro.

Any solution to this issue?

Update: I can verify that this issue is still present after an upgrade to OS X El Capitan and Safari 9.1


texts: Macbook Pro becomes very hot after a minute or two of high CPU use

texts: My Macbook Pro seems to become very hot after just a minute or two of high CPU usage by iCloud related processes. Is there any way to improve cooling. This happens while using my Macbook on a woden desk, I've tried the standard SMC Resets and other suggestions but to no avail :(


texts: How do I delete purgeable space detected by Disk Utility?

texts:
I am French so I apologize in advance for any possible language errors. I'm running macOS Mojave (version 10.14.2).

Recently, I tried to run Bootcamp because I would like to install Windows. I went through the deletion of many files I didn't need to obtain more than 64 gigs of free space on the disk.

However, now that I would normally have the space to install Windows, Bootcamp tells me that there's not enough space on my disk because "The disk must have at least 40 GB of free space." I've checked Disk Dtility and it shows me there's 95,05 gigs that are purgeable. How to purge them?

I've searched for answers everywhere but it couldn't help me. It appears that the free space detected by the Disk Utility is different from the one shown by the global storage viewer. Pic related :

driveinfo free space analysis

I've also used "diskutil verifyVolume disk1" in terminal :


texts: MacBook Pro 2019 reset to factory: Mojave or Catalina?

texts:
I am new to Macs. I need to reset my MacBook Pro 2019 to factory settings. It was on Mojave originally then I upgraded it to Catalina. My questions are:

Should I follow the steps of reset for Mojave or Catalina?

What happens to FileVault encryption key when the laptop is reset? Does the encryption key remain the same?

What I mean by factory reset is, see for example here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kPvfTdq_Vs
Please, advise. Thanks


texts: Unable to get Intel HD 4000 graphics and audio working on EFI install of Windows 10 Bootcamp on Macbook Pro mid 2012

texts:
I have installed Windows 10 on my Macbook Pro mid-2012 (MacBookPro9,1) using the EFI method. Note: I am intentionally wanting to use Windows 10 in EFI mode instead of the legacy MBR/BIOS method.

Below are the basic specs of my MacbookPro9,1 model:

15inch display with NO Retina
i7-3720QM 2.6GHz with Intel HD 4000 integrated graphics
Nvidia GeForce GT 650M dedicated graphics
8GB RAM
EFI and SMC firmware are updated to latest by installing macOS Sierra

I used this guide to install Windows 10 using EFI method: https://fgimian.github.io/blog/2016/03/12/installing-windows-10-on-a-mac-without-bootcamp/

I was able to successfully install Windows 10 using EFI method. After installing Windows 10, I installed the latest v6 of Bootcamp drivers and support software. Everything works except for the below listed below.

Problem

I am unable to get audio to work. There is no sound from the speakers or headphones. Device manager shows "This device cannot start. (Code 10)" for High Definition Audio Controller. After reading around in other forums, the audio issue could be related to Intel graphics drivers. I am unable properly install the integrated Intel HD 4000 graphics drivers also.

As shown in the attached image, the Device Manager shows a yellow exclamation mark on "Microsoft Basic Display Adapter" and "High Definition Audio Controller". The attached image shows the device error for each of these.

To get the audio/sound working, I tried running the following two files. However, this still didn't fix the issue:

BootCamp\Drivers\Cirrus\CirrusAudioCS4206x64.exe
BootCamp\Drivers\Cirrus\CirrusAudioCS4208x64.exe

I tried updating the drivers for the Microsoft Basic Display Adapter to Intel HD 4000 drivers using multiple methods (listed below). In all cases, the drivers are detected but while the drivers are being installed, Windows crashes and automatically reboots.

Letting Windows search automatically for updated driver software
Bootcamp drivers located in BootCamp\Drivers\Intel\IntelIvb_Win10\Graphics
Intel HD 4000 graphics drivers on Intel's Download center website

If I am connected to the internet, Windows 10 by default automatically tries to install the latest display drivers in the background. This leads the computer crashing and rebooting. I have to manually prevent Windows 10 from automatically updating the drivers to stop the crashing from occurring.

Is there way to at-least get the audio to work?  Is there anyway I can properly get the Intel HD 4000 drivers to install in the EFI install of Windows 10 on Macbook Pro mid 2012?

See image below also.


texts: Is an iPhone 5C suitable for Development in 2017?

texts: I am working on a Unity game, and I cannot afford to buy both an iPhone 7, and my main phone that I am upgrading to (Galaxy S8), nor can I afford to buy a Mac right now. Would developing on a Virtual Machine running on a Windows Laptop, along with using an iPhone 5C to test and debug on be a good idea? I have heard some problems with developing with the 5C due to the 32 bit processor, but I do not know if that would also apply to games.


texts: How can I copy a PDF from OneDrive to iBooks using the OneDrive iPhone app?

texts:
I have a PDF file in OneDrive that I would like to copy to iBooks on my iPhone. Usually apps have an option to copy the PDF to iBooks, but apparently the OneDrive app doesn't. I tried pressing the button on the top right corner after opening the PDF in the OneDrive app and then selecting "Share a link", but it doesn't seem like the iBooks option is available there:

I clicked on More to see if there was an iBooks option that was hidden, but no.

I also tried Open in another app, but nothing happened. The other options in that menu (delete, rename, etc) don't seem to have anything to do with what I want to do.

I also tried opening the PDF online on OneDrive's website with Safari, since Safari usually has an option to copy PDF files to iBooks, but that didn't open it as a PDF file but as a webpage, so copying it to iBooks that way created a screenshot in iBooks and not the actual PDF.

The only solution that I found was sending the PDF to myself by email and copying it to iBooks through the Gmail app, but I would like to know if there is a better way to do.

Is there an easy way to export a PDF from OneDrive to iBooks on an iPhone, preferably directly from the OneDrive app?


texts: What's this last device in AirPort Utility's Wireless Clients list?

texts: I can match all other devices to my physical devices. But I don't know what the last one is. It doesn't even have a name, only a hardware address.


texts: How to export Memoji Avatar in macOS Big Sur?

texts:
I use Memoji avatar in my iPhone X that shows up in my Mac as well (running Big Sur).
It is showing as the user avatar.
Is there any way to export it or find its local location so that I can use it anywhere I want?
A local PNG or SVG or any other format?


texts: Why iPhone apps gets pushed to background after sometime?

texts:
As we know iOS pushes apps to background after some time if you keep the phone idle.

I notices that this doesn't happen with the native apps like phone, messages and mail.

It comes really handy when you are opening the mail app and it opens quickly. but any third party app like Gmail app for iPhone doesn't behave this way. each time I open it, it takes 1 minute to open.

Push works perfectly though but opening the app takes lot of time.

Can anyone advice on how to prevent that? there must be some tweak by which we can prevent selected apps from being purged after inactivity and make them available all the time?


texts: Automate arranging files into folders based on beginning of file name?

texts:
Looking to quickly arrange a whole load (talking about multiple thousands) of files into subfolders, and the files come in sets of three (left audio, right audio, video) separate files. Not experienced in terminal really but messed around in Automator before.

Example:

00015_A01.mxf
00015_A02.mxf
00015.mxf
00016_A01.mxf
00016_A02.mxf
00016.mxf

I want to automate it so that Finder looks for files with matching first characters, and puts them in a sub folder (preferably with the name of that file but I’ve managed a workaround for that.)

So the result would be:

[00015] (folder)
00015_A01.mxf
00015_A02.mxf
00015.mxf

[00016] (folder)
00016_A01.mxf
00016_A02.mxf
00016.mxf

Any ideas? I checked around on here but the answers were a bit over my head...


texts:
I have an older iMac running El Capitan.  I want to run a shell script when a DVD is inserted.  I used Script Editor to create an Applescript that runs the shell script.  The Applescript is just

do shell script "sh /Users/shannon/bin/myscript"

I used System Preferences > CDs and DVDs to configure the action when a DVD is inserted to run the Applescript.

It didn't work, DVD Player still runs and the script doesn't.

I used Script Editor to save the script as an application and configured it to run the application.

Still didn't work.

I copied the application to /Applications and changed it to run that copy of the application.

Still didn't work.

I changed the ownership of the application to root (sudo chown -R root /Applications/myapp).

Still didn't work.

No matter what I do, my script/app won't run, and DVD Player runs instead.

What am I doing wrong?

If I run the app by double-clicking on it, it runs correctly and invokes my shell script, so I know the app itself is working correctly.

Do I need to do something special in or to my application to convince the OS that it's capable of running when a DVD is inserted?

(This is very similar to this much older question, which has no answer.)

I tried changing the configuration to open Text Edit when a DVD is inserted, and that didn't work either, so the problem has nothing to do with my program or my script.  It appears that this feature just doesn't work at all.


texts: keyboard input stopped being accepted after login

texts:
I just disabled my screensaver successfully by entering my password, then after that my machine no longer accepts keyboard input.  The only thing I was able to do is change windows with option-left/right/up/down, but no other keys worked.  The mouse worked.

I have ssh and vnc sessions open.  The VNC session also does not accept keyboard input, so it cannot be a physical problem with the keyboard.  The ssh session does, so the computer is alive and well in some limited sense.

How can I debug this?  Are there any command-line equivalents to KeyboardViewer.app?  Any recommendations short of 'reboot the machine' would be very helpful.

(running 10.6.8 on this machine)


texts: Does opening the Mac mini 2018 for cleaning void the warranty?

texts:
I've had my Mac mini 2018 for just over two years. I am concerned that there has accumulated dust inside of the computer – not because anything seems problematic at the moment, but my experience with MacBook Pro laptops has been that you need to clean them every two years. There is usually a dust coasting landing on top of the Mac mini, so I am suspecting it needs to be cleaned also.
If I were to open the Mac mini and attempt to blow it clean with compressed air, would that void any remaining warranty?
NB: I believe my product is actually already outside of Apple's limited warranty. However, does Apple not want consumers to open the Mac Mini, so that if something were to break at some time, that an authorized service shop would refuse repair?


texts: Yosemite won't recognize my (admin) user password

texts:
I Installed Yosemite and it won't recognize my (admin) user password.

Yes - I am positive that I am using the correct password.
No - Caps Lock is not on.

What is the problem?


texts: Broadcast a private wireless network from Mac to iPhone via ethernet

texts:
Situation: I use my mac's ethernet for internet, because my apartment doesn't have a working router. However, I need wifi for my iPhone. Wifi is available from other apartments in the same building, however it's a weak/slow network speed.

Question: Can I setup a wifi hotspot coming from my Mac, that is connected to the internet via ethernet? This hotspot would require a password, so only my iPhone can connect to it.

Models: mid-2012 Macbook Pro Retina. Updated to Yosemite 10.10.2. iPhone 5s, updated to current software available, I don't remember the number.

Research: I have researched this topic. Majority are out of date, or are about iPhone TO mac hotspot, rather than Mac TO iPhone. Or they discuss from wifi to wifi. Seems no one uses ethernet anymore. (Ethernet OP btw).

Thank you! Hope I provided enough information.


texts: How can I hide the Biography and Similar Artists panel in iTunes?

texts: For one of the artists on my iTunes music library, I've purchased music from iTunes Store. With iTunes 12, there's now a Biography panel and Similar Artists panel on the right that I can't get rid of - so far I've disabled "Show Apple Music" in the General preferences, and I've also disabled "Apple Music Connect" in the Parental preferences. Unfortunately it's still showing. Is there any way to not have that panel show?


texts: BenQ PD3220U with 2014 MacBook Pro Retina (USB hub question)

texts:
I want to buy the BenQ PD3220U monitor but I am not sure if I will be able to use it how I intend to. As The following post shows that I should be able to connect to the monitor from my Thunderbolt 2 port using an adapter: Is Thunderbolt 2 to Thunderbolt 3 (type C) possible?
This way I should be able to get 4k 60Hz output. I don't know however if I will also be able to use all it's other features such as the integrated USB hub and KVM switch. Does anybody know if it will work?


texts: Download old version of Mac OSX legally as Apple Developer?

texts:
I have an Apple Developer license, and an old MacBook that I want to use only as a build server for developing Phonegap applications.

The Mac is too old to get anything newer than 10.9, but in order to use correct IOS SDK, it needs 10.9 or newer.

I was able to find and upgrade from 10.4 to 10.6 with no problem, but I can't seem to find Mavericks as a complete install or update file.  Unless I am missing something.  I looked in the developer downloads, but all those downloads seem to be upgrades only for people who already own 10.9.

Does anyone know how I can do this?

I never owned any version of OSX that I can go back and get the installer for as this computer was a gift that had never been updated beyond 10.4. My intention is 'pure'.  Seems like I should be able to do this somehow.

Thanks


texts: How do I install Minecraft mods on macOS

texts:
There are so many mods for Minecraft and reading online everybody talks about a mods folder that I can't find. What's wrong with macOS and how do I get it working?

I found the answer to this question and I'm posting these info as Q/A on this website in the hope that it can help someone.


texts: Recurring window manager performance issues in 10.10.x

texts:
I've been having graphical performance problems with Yosemite since early developer previews.  The main expression of this is trying to switch applications.  When going from Terminal to Messages or Adium or any other application that has a text entry field, it is readily visible that the app is very slow to respond in allowing the user to actually enter text into the field.  There is a 1.5 to 5 second delay each time one switches between such apps.

This is not an issue in Mavericks and after having spoken to some other developers, there is a known bug in the Window Manager that is causing some serious performance problems, but I'm not sure if it is this precise problem.

Has anyone seen this issue and / or been able to resolve it properly?

The only thing I have been able to do so far that seems to mostly resolve this issue is to go into System Preferences -> Accessibility and turn on Increase Contrast.  Once I do this, applications seem to be fairly responsive again, but this is a very troublesome issue for a few reasons; one of which is that some system UI elements are visually unappealing and hard to read (yes, funny when this is supposed to help, but buttons are particularly affected).

I'm running 10.10.2 on a Mac Pro (Mid 2010) with 48 GB RAM and an ATI Radeon HD 5870 (1GB).


texts: Spotlight does not seem to work in finding apps

texts:
I have a Spotlight to search for the applications.

However, nothing shows up when I searched the application.

What might be wrong? I use Yosemite, and I made sure that spotlight works with this command.

sudo launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.metadata.mds.plist


texts: How do i fully delete an old account so that it stops asking for updates?

texts: My ex-partner had an account on my Mac. When we broke up, we deleted his account. However, some of the applications that he has downloaded keep asking for updates. I cannot delete these apps, as it wants him to sign in but I do not have his log-in details. How can I delete these apps and stop the computer from continually asking for updates!?


texts: How can I find all *old* Keynote presentations on my computer?

texts:
I have some old Keynote presentations. When I try to open them with the latest Keynote (6.5.2 (2119)), I get the following warning:

This presentation can’t be opened because it’s too old.
To open it, save it with Keynote ’09 first.

I've managed to get Keynote '09 installed, and I can open with that, save, open with the current version, and save again.

It will be a pain to do this with all of my Keynote presentations, but it seems it has to be done if I want to be able to access them in the future. Or I should convert them to PDF so they are in a format with more long-term access options.

How do I find all of the Keynote presentations on my computer that are outdated? Is there an mdfind option that will allow me to find just the old versions?


texts: VirtualBox No Internet Win7 Host, OS X Guest

texts:
I have set up Mac OS X 10.9 in a Virtual Machine and I'm struggling to get any internet connection. In my network settings (Mac), it says I'm connected but nothing works. Safari doesn't load any page, AppStore doesn't load anything (all greyed out).

In VirtualBox, the only settings that showed any connection at all within the VM was Bridged Adapter with an Adapter Type of Intel PRO/1000 MT Server.

What can I do to get a connection going within the VM?


texts: Apple Maps: Renaming Favorites or Marked Locations

texts:
There must be some really obvious trick which has escaped me.

If I favorite a marked location on MacOS Maps, or on iOS Maps, I can’t see how I can give it a custom name.

Tapping or clicking on Info doesn’t seem to help, and I can’t see any other method.

I have tried the technique of selecting favorites from the search bar (in MacOS), selecting edit and trying, but the text remains uneditable.

I would even consider a third party app if there is one.

I am using MacOS Mojave, and iOS 12.


texts:
I'd like to create a tarball using the xz compression tool. According to google, as of 10.10 there is an undocumented "--xz" switch for tar but I can't get it to work. On linux there is a "-J" switch that allows for xz compression but that isn't supported directly on OS X.

The man page for tar references xz compression but does not show a working example of how to use it. My other searches all result in something similar to:

    tar cf - some_dir | xz -1 > some_dir.txz

However, decompressing that from the command line is less than intuitive and requires xz to handle the decompression before handing the file off to tar.

So, what's the "state of the art" in using xz compression directly from tar?


texts: Set java version for one specific application

texts:
I have multiple Java Versions installed and want to run a packaged application (JabRef) with a specific version at /Library/Java/JavaVirtualMachines/zulu-8.jdk which is not JAVA_HOME.

If I would run the .jar directly, I could just specify the version. However, in my case the App is packaged in an .app package.
Is there a way to simply modify the application to use a specific java jdk?

The Info.plist looks the following:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist SYSTEM "file://localhost/System/Library/DTDs/PropertyList.dtd">
<plist version="0.9">
<dict>
<key>CFBundleName</key>
<string>JabRef</string>
<key>CFBundleExecutable</key>
<string>JavaApplicationStub</string>
<key>CFBundleIconFile</key>
<string>app.icns</string>
<key>CFBundleInfoDictionaryVersion</key>
<string>6.0</string>
<key>CFBundlePackageType</key>
<string>APPL</string>
<key>CFBundleSignature</key>
<string>????</string>
<key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
<string>com.install4j.0034-7691-1464-4754.23</string>
<key>CFBundleVersion</key>
<string>5.0-dev--snapshot--2019-07-29--master--f6eb5344a</string>
<key>CFBundleShortVersionString</key>
<string>5.0-dev--snapshot--2019-07-29--master--f6eb5344a</string>
<key>CFBundleGetInfoString</key>
<string>5.0-dev--snapshot--2019-07-29--master--f6eb5344a</string>
<key>CFBundleDevelopmentRegion</key>
<string>en</string>
<key>NSHighResolutionCapable</key>
<true/>
<key>LSHasLocalizedDisplayName</key>
<true/>
<key>NSSupportsAutomaticGraphicsSwitching</key>
<true/>
<!-- I4J_INSERT_DOCTYPE -->
<key>i4j.baseDir</key>
<string>$APP_PACKAGE/Contents/Resources/app/</string>
<key>LSMinimumSystemVersion</key>
<string>10.7.3</string>
<key>i4j.appId</key>
<string>0034-7691-1464-4754</string>
<key>i4j.allowPassthrough</key>
<true/>
<key>i4j.minVersion</key>
<string>1.8</string>
<key>i4j.maxVersion</key>
<string>1.8</string>
<key>i4j.vmIdPrefix</key>
<string></string>
<key>JavaVM</key>
<dict>
<key>MainClass</key>
<string>com.install4j.runtime.launcher.MacLauncher</string>
<key>VMOptionArray</key>
<array>
<string>-Dfile.encoding=UTF-8</string>
<string>-Dinstall4j.launcherId=23</string>
<string>-Dinstall4j.swt=false</string>
<string>-Dexe4j.moduleName=$APP_PACKAGE</string>
</array>
<key>OptionsFile</key>
<string>$APP_PACKAGE/Contents/vmoptions.txt</string>
<key>ArgumentArray</key>
<array>
</array>
<key>SearchSequence</key>
<array>
<string>EPATH</string>
<string>Y</string>
<string>EJAVA_HOME</string>
<string>EJDK_HOME</string>
</array>
<key>VersionInfo</key>
<string>0_512474297</string>
<key>ClassPath</key>
<string>$APP_PACKAGE/Contents/Resources/app/.install4j/i4jruntime.jar:$APP_PACKAGE/Contents/Resources/app/JabRef-5.0-dev--snapshot--2019-07-29--master--f6eb5344a.jar</string><!-- I4J_INSERT_CLASSPATH -->
<key>WorkingDirectory</key>
<string>$APP_PACKAGE/Contents/Resources/app/.</string>
</dict>
</dict>
</plist>


texts:
My network has a .internetconnect file which allows iDevices to connect to the network. However, they also have a really irritating rule which means we have to passcode our devices to get on, which is the last thing I'd like to do.

I've got the file open in the   or   display, but I'm unclear which one defines the passcode as on - can someone help me out?

It's a work network so I can't easily share the file but there is nothing that obviously defines the passcode as on.

Thanks!

The file can be found here.


texts: How do I get VMware Fusion to use the native screen resolution within a scaled OSX desktop?

texts:
I'm using VMware Fusion 7.1.1 to run both Windows 8.1 and Windows 10 on a mid 2014 15-inch retina Mac. I've heard it is possible to run VMware in such a way that the screen's native resolution (in my case, 2880x1800) is displayed without any scaling.

After lots of trial and error, I discovered this works fine using the default desktop scaling in OSX. However, I normally run OSX in a scaled display setting (the default scaling makes everything too big to my tastes), where it actually renders everything at 3360x2100 and then downscales that to 2880x1800. It seems this also happens when using VMware Fusion, which means the perfect 2880x1800 picture from Windows gets stretched to 3360x2100, only to get scaled down to 2880x1800 again, leaving me with edges and text being blurrier than they should be.

Is there any way to prevent this from happening? I'd rather not change back to default desktop scaling in OSX every time I want to use VMware Fusion.


texts: Dual booting Yosemite/Mavericks: Stuck in Yosemite with an 'Install OS X' volume instead

texts:
I've made a partition on my hard drive, so I currently have Macintosh HD (call it 1) and Macintosh HD 2 (call it 2).

I downloaded the Yosemite installer with my Mavericks install on 1, then ran it and selected 2 as the disk to install on. It worked fairly well and I'm running Yosemite without any problems.

But tonight I tried to switch over to Mavericks, so I rebooted and held down option. When the list came up, it contained recovery volumes for OS X 10.9 and 10.10. It had Macintosh HD 2 on it (my Yosemite partition), but not Macintosh HD. Instead of my Mavericks partition, it showed an 'Install OS X' volume. Selecting this shows the Apple logo with a progress bar under it, then boots into Yosemite.

I can view /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/ and see that everything is still there.

How can I boot back into my Mavericks install?


texts:
I wonder if someone can help me with my mess. I created hybrid MBR which was working in the beginning, The I decided to delete the Bootcamp partition from the disk utility. This is where the things got messed up. Then I tried following this guide because I had the original data:

Disk /dev/disk1: 1000215216 sectors, 476.9 GiB
Sector size (logical): 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): DF8BA5A4-2A3A-4A1B-9F1F-AA6A6332D9A5
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1000215182
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 3213 sectors (1.6 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              40          409639   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System Partition
   2          409640       707245575   337.0 GiB   AF0A  CATALINA
   3       707246080      1000212479   139.7 GiB   0700

Command (? for help): c
Partition number (1-3): 3
Enter name: WIN10APFSL

Command (? for help): w

Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING
PARTITIONS!!

Do you want to proceed? (Y/N): y
OK; writing new GUID partition table (GPT) to /dev/disk1.
Warning: The kernel may continue to use old or deleted partitions.
You should reboot or remove the drive.
The operation has completed successfully.
g5@G5s-Mac-Pro ~ % sudo gdisk /dev/disk1
GPT fdisk (gdisk) version 1.0.4

Partition table scan:
  MBR: hybrid
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT.

Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/disk1: 1000215216 sectors, 476.9 GiB
Sector size (logical): 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): DF8BA5A4-2A3A-4A1B-9F1F-AA6A6332D9A5
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 1000215182
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 3213 sectors (1.6 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              40          409639   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System Partition
   2          409640       707245575   337.0 GiB   AF0A  CATALINA
   3       707246080      1000212479   139.7 GiB   0700  WIN10APFSL

And I did

sudo gpt remove -i 2 /dev/disk3

Attempted to add:

sudo gpt add -i 2 -b 409640 -s 707245575 -t apfs /dev/disk3

But got this error:

gpt add: /dev/disk3: error: no space available on device

This is the current state now:

 start        size  index  contents
           0           1         MBR
           1           1         Pri GPT header
           2          32         Pri GPT table
          34           6
          40      409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
      409640   706835936      2  MBR part 175
   707245576   292969607
  1000215183          32         Sec GPT table
  1000215215           1         Sec GPT header


texts: RW mounted NTFS drive not shown in finder

texts:
I mounted my NTFS drive in OSX with

UUID=<some-uuid> none ntfs rw,auto,nobrowse

in fstab, but finder does not show the drive. I can do open /Volumes/drivename and will see the files and can even write on it. How can I force finder to show me the drive. (and the unmount icon)


texts: Recovered Messages Mailboxes. How to get rid of

texts: The Recovered Messages mailboxes  in "On My Mac" com.apple.Mail.Backup should be safe to delete. When I use "delete mailbox" option they do not delete, nothing happens. The mailboxes are empty I do not want them left  there. How can I get rid of them and will it do any damage or create a problem somewhere else ?


texts:
I want to delete a user account before selling my machine, so I chose the secure delete account option in System Preferences > Users & Groups. I think I saw a progress bar at first as it was deleting the account.

I've come back to the machine after a few hours. There is no progress bar. System Preferences is open and if I try to quit, it says "Users & groups is removing a user account and home directory". In grey writing, it says "Deleting Account..." under the user name. In Activity Monitor I can see that 'writeconfig' is using 10+% of the CPU, followed by 'opendirectoryd' and 'mds'.

Is it doing anything? How long is it supposed to take? It's been 6 hours already.


texts: Converting M4A file to MP3 - Selected files could not be found

texts:
iTunes IOS 12.9 on PC

I want to convert M4A files (in this case, audiobooks) to MP3. This is what happened.

Changed the iTunes import settings to MP3.
Selected the book.
Selected File > Create MP3 version.

But iTunes displayed None of the selected files could be converted because they could not be found.

I did a general web search and found and tried two purported solutions:
 - Exit and reopen iTunes (did not work)
 - Use Ctrl-A to select all of the tracks (did not work)

In the next post, I explain what did work.


texts: Looking for help with calendar notification or alert not appearing after due date/time!

texts:
HW: MBA 2017
OS: catalina 10.15.5

The issue I am facing is, I have several recurring events month on month basis, post due date/time these events are not showing notifications/alert or notification/alert don’t appear anymore!

For example:

Event: pay electric bill
Starts on: 25/June/2020, 16:00
Ends on: 26/June/2020, 17:00
Alert set to appear: at the time of the event
Repeat: every month 25th

Now the notification/alert for above shown event appears at the mentioned time (25/June/2020, 16:00) and stays till end time (26/June/2020, 17:00) then the notification/alert disappears! I want this to stay until I mark it as completed. How this can be done?

If I failed to open the laptop on both the days, then don’t even come to know about this event!
So how to make sure overdue events show notification at a later point of time?

Long time windows + MS outlook user and with MS Outlook, until I dismiss the event it stays. So looking for similar option with Mac calendar

Can someone suggest an option or workaround for this?

If there is a limitation with native calendar app then kindly suggest any free/paid apps which can help with this.


texts: How to delete an app from device using iTunes?

texts:
How do you delete (not just hide) an app? The Facebook app is corrupted and is causing my phone to crash and restart. (4 times just yesterday!) I really don't want to have to restore my entire phone, losing everything on it. It would be much easier if I could delete the app and re-download a version that is not corrupted.

In the past we could do this, but with this latest version of iTunes, I can't figure out how to!


texts: Mixing 10/1000 Device w/ other Gigabit Devices to Apple Airport Extreme

texts:
My Mac Minis (which support Gigabit Ethernet) are physically connected through Gigabit Ethernet to my current generation Apple Airport Extreme (which has Gigabit Ethernet switch ports).

If I add a Apple Airport Express (which is a 10/100 Mbps device does not support Gigabit) will it negatively affect network transfer speeds between the Mac Minis?  Because it's on a switched network it shouldn't right?  Will I experience flow control issues?


texts:
Today i made a payment of 99$ to get some certificate for developement but now apple just sent me a email saying:

The billing information you used on the Apple Online Store to purchase an Apple Developer Program membership does not match the billing information you provided during enrollment. Before your membership can be activated, we'll need a copy of your government-issued photo ID.

So i did the payment with my father Debit Card and i was wondering if is it gonna be okay if i send my passport photo, contact them, send them some papers saying that my father was conscious of this payment or should i send them something else?.


texts: I reassembled a Mac Pro A1186 and have extra parts left over. What do they go to?

texts:
I disassembled a Mac Pro A1186 for cleaning and upon reassembly found that I have several screws and what appear to be some kind of nuts. I don't remember what they go to.

This system did not have any hard disks. I did not remove the only optical drive. Everything else was removed for cleaning including the motherboard.

I did not encounter any other similar screws during reassembly. It is therefore presumed that they are totally unique for their purpose.

The nuts are also unique and I'd have thought obvious enough considering their size and number to be remembered. But I can't find a place for them.

What do these parts go to?

For your personal entertainment I must also mention that that, although I am an experienced PC user, this is my very first Mac. It is very embarrassing for me to have reassembled a computer and not only have parts left over but have to ask someone else where they go.

For a while during disassembly I kept thinking how nice and obviously thought out everything was. But then all of the different parts and pieces started piling up and I knew that I was in trouble. And, well, here we are!

Answered:

As Tetsujin answerer already, the nuts are part of the locking mechanism that s initiated by a level at the back of the case. I had removed these while trying to figure out how to extract the power supply.

The other two screws, which I found to be identical to the ones which secure the 5.25” drives, secure the cage around the memory boards and secure it to the bottom of the case.


texts: How to download all photos and videos stored in iCloud?

texts: I'm a mac user. Latest yosemite and itunes installed on my mac. Want to download all data from iCloud photo library and to disable auto upload future. Is there any way to download all photos and videos all at once?


texts: Cannot fully disable message forwarding (as of iOS 11.3)

texts:
Intention

I wish to disable message forwarding for all conversations in the Messages app that comes with iOS.

Problem

After updating to iOS 11.3, some message conversations are shared between two devices (an iPhone SE and an iPhone 7) on one Apple ID. None of these messages should be forwarded. In settings, message forwarding is disabled on both devices and “Send & Receive” address sets for each device are mutually exclusive (no address is enabled for both the SE and the 7).

The conversations which get forwarded seem random, with no relationship to how many people are in the conversation, which contacts are involved, who in the conversation (if anyone) is using SMS protocol, or to which phone the conversation is supposed to go; but either all messages in a given conversation are forwarded to the other phone, or none of them are.

None of the other devices on this Apple ID seem to be affected.

Attempted Solutions

First off, I read all of the official support pages for the Messages app that I could find, plus some discussions (this, this, this, this, and this on the Apple community forums, and this, this, this, and this on Ask Different). I also went through an ioshacker article and an imore article that looked sort of relevant. None of this taught me anything new, so I just started trying things.

For each phone, I have:

Permuted all of these actions:

toggled “Send & Receive” addresses and then returned these to the desired values (this approach worked for a similar problem in iOS 10)
toggled handoff on and back off again
toggled message forwarding on and back off again (this is the first time I’ve ever turned that setting on)
toggled “Calls on Other Devices” in “Phone” settings and all FaceTime addresses for good measure

Deleted conversations on whichever device wasn’t supposed to receive them.
Restarted the devices.
Reset settings.
Repeated steps 1–3.
Crossed my fingers and hoped really, really hard (I’m quite serious).

On the SE, I have also turned iMessage off and back on again, and logged out of the Apple ID and back in.

Other Notes

I don’t have enough running message conversations to do any sound statistics on them.
I don’t want to disable iMessage as a long-term solution because (and this might sound stupid) I find the green bubbles stressful.
I’ve gotten myself locked out of another Apple ID account trying to fix a similar issue with app syncing, so the “use a different Apple ID for each phone” solution is a last resort, but I am aware that it exists.


texts: How can I discover Windows hosts to add a printer

texts:
I have a Windows print server on the network. I am trying to one of the printers on this server to a Mac with the latest OSX. I can ping the Windows PC, but when I go to the Windows tab in the add printers window, the PC doesn't show up.

Is there any way to make OSX discover all hosts on the network? I've tried the following command as suggested in a similar question on Super-User:

arp -a

But to no avail. Any thoughts?


texts:
I would like to edit my calendar either on iCal (running on my MacBook) or on Google calendar (running on my Samsung Galaxy), and see the calendar updated on the other device.

I gathered that it is not possible to use iCloud for this objective. One must use Gmail. (Feel free to contradict.)

Leaving alone the sync between iCloud and iCal is not good either. I'd like to cancel syncing with iCloud to debug syncing between iCal and Gmail/google calendar. (Right now System Preferences under Mail, Contact & Calendars shows both iCloud and Gmail, and yet I do not see the calendar on Gmail -- or on the Android phone.)

If I cancel the sync with iCloud, most of my history disappears. Thus my question is:

How do I move the calendar entries that I currently have with iCloud to Gmail?


texts: How to track hardware resource usage statistics on OS X?

texts:
Are there any applications that persistently track statistics like those displayed with iStat Menus (network, CPU, RAM, temperature, etc.)?

Having this data would be cool on its own, but it would also be useful if such a program broke down the data by day of the week, time of day, programs running, location, etc.


texts: GNU version of locate - gupdatedb fails with "gfind: failed to read file names from file system"

texts:
I try to test GNU version of locate command. First, I have to create the database like this :
sudo gupdatedb --prunepaths=/Volumes --output=$HOME/locatedb_gupdatedb

Unfortunately, 1 minute after launching the command, I still get the following error :
gfind: failed to read file names from file system at or below '/': No such file or directory

I don't understand where this error could come from ?
UPDATE 1: I replaced gfind by find commad and correct path of find which is /usr/bin/. Unfortunately, I get embarassing error messages like this when I launch the gupdatedb command like this :
sudo gupdatedb --prunepaths='/private/tmp /private/var/folders /private/var/tmp */Backups.backupdb /Volumes /System' --output=$HOME/locatedb_gupdatedb

Here the error messages :
find: /System/Volumes/Data/.Spotlight-V100: No such file or directory
find: /System/Volumes/Data/.PKInstallSandboxManager: No such file or directory
find: /System/Volumes/Data/.PKInstallSandboxManager-SystemSoftware: No such file or directory
find: /System/Volumes/Data/.cleverfiles: No such file or directory
find: /System/Volumes/Data/mnt: No such file or directory
find: /System/Volumes/Data/.DocumentRevisions-V100: No such file or directory
etc ...

I tried to modify into /usr/local/Cellar/findutils/4.7.0/libexec/bin/gupdatedb file, the option :
: ${FINDOPTIONS="2 > /dev/null"}

But the issue is this option is set in front of the command find, not at the end, so it is not correct in the following of the file.
Given the fact there a lot of find commands after in the script, I can't add manually each time the 2 > /dev/null terminal option.
Anyone could see how to suppress all these error messages from find command when I launch a gupdatedb command ?
UPDATE 2: I finally managed to create a database with gupdatedb (GNU version of MacOS updatedb command) by doing :
sudo gupdatedb --prunepaths='/private/tmp /private/var/folders /private/var/tmp */Backups.backupdb /System /Volumes' --output=$HOME/locatedb_gupdatedb

The issue now is, when I do a research on a substring of a file or directory, the informations seems to be duplicated in results (sub_string  is simply the part of a file or directory name) :
For example, if I do a : glocate -d ~/locatedb_gupdatedb sub_string
Then, I have duplicates results like :
/System/Volumes/Data/Users/fab/sub_string.dat
/Users/fab/sub_string.dat

I don't know how to exclude '/System/Volumes/Data/' from these results : however, I have well specified in --prunepaths option the directory System, why isn't it taken into account in database created by gupdatedb ?
Or maybe I should perform a :
sudo gupdatedb --prunepaths='/private/tmp /private/var/folders /private/var/tmp */Backups.backupdb /System/Volumes/Data /Volumes' --output=$HOME/locatedb_gupdatedb

??
Any help is welcome to exclude this directory
/System/Volumes/Data

from indexing database.
UPDATE 3: Here is an example of quickly generating a database with updatedb on Debian 10 Buster. Few modifications of normal using have been done between the timestamps of the 2 commands updatedb.

So I conclude there is a really a difference betweeen GNU/MacOS and GNU/Linux implementation.
Any explanation is welcome.


texts: Missing hot corners and Dock keeps defaulting

texts:
I recently installed a Jamf software in order to recieve the latest MS Office, and during the installation the dock was reset to the default preferences.

After installation I went to customize my dock by removing and adding apps to the dock, setting the magnification zoom, and auto hide. This is when I noticed Hot corners didn't work too.

This is where the problem starts – I tried to set the hot corner settings, but the moment I press the back button or exit out of settings, it doesn't save the settings.

I have tried PRAM and SMC resets, removing Jamf files, resetting home folder and ALCs, repairing disk permissions in recovery mode, trying hot corners in safe mode (which it still doesn't work) and killing the Dock and SystemUIServer in terminal with no avail.

After trying all of these, turning on the macbook back to normal, the hot corners still doesn't work, and also the dock has resetted back to it's default settings again.

Is there any help to this? I feel uncomfortable using the keyboard, dock or using the 4 finger pinch to access launchpad.


texts: How do I repair permissions of a specific directory?

texts:
I want to repair permissions of a user defined directory along with it's subdirectories. How can I do this?

So far, I've looked for options in finder and tried to drag the folder into Disk Utility. But none of my ideas brought success.


texts: 'Screen Time' fails to report children's usage correctly due to an extra, non-existence device

texts:
The Screen Time function is supposed to be able to report children's usage to their guardians.

However it fails to report a correct figure for my situation.

Here is the main screen time for my kid 'A':

Here it reports 16s of usage. It is definitely not corrected.

When I checked the 'Devices' I can see three drives are shown:

The 'iPhone' device is non-device. Kid 'A' only has access to an iphone and an iPad. The 'iPhone' is probably the old phone that has since been replaced by a newer one 'A's iphone'

I have already cleaned up the device records on A's icloud account a few day ago. However it is not reflected on my phone.

Is there any way I can remove the spurious device from my end?


texts:
I am trying to install Windows 10 on a partition with this Virtualbox method, where I create a vmdk link to the partition and use it as the drive, run the installer and then reboot.

This worked fine on a device running Mavericks, but on one with El Capitan does not work, and prints out a VERR_ACCESS_DENIED

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/RawWinDisk.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk0 -partitions 1,4

This is supposed to make the vmdk file. I did do a chown to /dev/disk0, disk0s1 and disk0s4. I also tried a chmod -R 777 on them to see if it helped, but it still did not work. Running command as sudo does not work either.


texts:
I borrowed a Core 2 Duo Mac mini. I want to back up the HDD and wipe off the OS Leopard that it has so that I can later re-install it back. Then I want to upgrade to OS X Lion. Can this Mac mini run Lion? What steps should I take?
specs here:
mac mini 3.1
Intel core 2 duo 2.26ghz
4gb ram


texts: "Sign in to download from the App Store" with a different Apple ID

texts:
I am trying to update software on a Macbook. Before doing so, apparently I have to "Sign in to download from the App Store." It provides me with a form asking for an Apple ID and password to do so.

However, the Apple ID field already has an Apple ID in it, which is not the one I wish to use, and the field is disabled, so I can't change it.

Why is the field disabled? How do I enable it so I can change the Apple ID to sign in with?


texts: How do I make OS X say something when it finds the word "burning" in Console?

texts: How do I make OS X monitor the Console and say something when it finds the word "burning" in there?


texts:
Possible Duplicate:
  iOS 4 - can I close and app without it staying open in the background?

From what I know, pressing on the home button on iphone 4 will merely hide the application, instead of closing it.

So how can I make sure that all the unwanted apps are closed, so that the memory can be reused?


texts: eGPUs to enable utilization of (even) more monitors with MacBook Pro?

texts:
I know this is not the primary use case for using external GPUs, but I drank the Space to Think kool-aid in a serious way. Can anyone find a source or share personal experience that confirms that I could potentially use e.g. 2 additional (to the spec below) 4K or 5K monitors with a new MBP (so e.g. 4 5K monitors: 2 powered by internal MacBook Pro GPU and 2 powered by an external GPU)?
According to Apple, the new MacBook Pro (MacBookPro14,3 A1707, sans eGPU),

Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display at millions of colors and:
Up to two displays with 5120-by-2880 resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors
Up to four displays with 4096-by-2304 resolution at 60Hz at millions of colors
Up to four displays with 3840-by-2160 resolution at 60Hz at over a billion colors
...


texts: MacOS Catalina 10.15.7 is causing a Kernal Panic - Forced an update to T2 chip by installing Big Sur - My machine is now bricked

texts:
So only in the last 2 weeks has my Macbook Pro 2018 starting having this kernal panic problem. I was on 10.15.7 and after disabling the power nap and vault encryption suggestions I still had no luck preventing the kernel panic. The firmware of the T2 chip was 17P6610 with Darwin Kernel Version 19.6.0.
I then tried to do a clean install of OSX High Sierra and the issue persisted (The T2 chips firmware was still 17P660 - It didn't roll back). As a last ditch effort I went ahead and installed OSX Big Sur because I though that I might be able to force a firmware update to the chip to a later version but ran into a fatal problem. The install completed just fine but when I restarted my Macbook it turned off and has not turned on since. I can hear the fan spin up quickly and then cut out but nothing happens. It is a complete brick right now. I would not advise anyone to do what I did unless you have a high level of expertise to figure out what might go wrong if you did what I did.
My question is: Has anyone been in the same position as I have and successfully recovered their machine? I am reading up on how to use Apple's Configurator 2 in DFU mode to revive the chip but I have never done this before. Any inputs on where I should go from here? I am saving a trip to the Apple store as the absolute last solution but it feels like I am getting closer to have to do that.


texts:
I have been using the Preview.app that comes with Mavericks until El Capitan.

The reason that I have been copying that application instead of using the newer version is that it works better for my workflow and for a lot of other people, such as here, here, and here.

I have been copying the version on every system upgrade without any problems but it seems this can't be done with Sierra.

Is there a way I can get this app to run on newer macOS Sierra or some other clone of this app I can use?

Console.app show this error:

Application failed to launch (id = com.apple.Preview, version = 7.0 reason = kLSIncompatibleApplicationVersionErr)
OSActivityID: 0x800000000034078c
com.apple.message.domain: com.apple.launchservices.launchfailures.oldAppVersion
com.apple.message.signature: com.apple.Preview - 7.0
com.apple.message.result: failure
SenderMachUUID: C10E9E98-E1E0-3795-A40C-252F709E6C93


texts: Transfer Clash of Clans village with iOS 6

texts: I would like to know if there is any way to transfer your village in clash of clans using iOS 6. I recently erased all the data of my iPod and re-downloaded all my apps. I opened clash of clans with my old Game Center and tried to get my village back but I received a message saying i need iOS 7 or higher to transfer my village, but I can't upgrade since I only have an iPod fourth gen. How can I get my village back?


texts: Why does iPhone Maps app sometimes ask to enable Wi-Fi for "accuracy", even though Location Services (GPS) is enabled?

texts:
Background:

I have an iPhone 3GS with iOS 5.1, and a 3G data plan that I keep enabled. I also keep "Location Services" (GPS) always on, since I use applications that take advantage of it.

However, I make a point of keeping Wi-Fi turned off because it's a battery sucker and I seldom use the phone within range of a base-station for which I'd be authorized – and I dislike the practice of hopping onto unsecured "free" networks, even briefly.

Scenario:

Sometimes when I need to look up an address or directions I use the Maps app.  When I launch the app for the first time in what seems a while, I see a dialog telling me I should "enable Wi-Fi to improve accuracy".

I forget the exact text for the dialog, but that's the general message and the buttons are "OK" and "Settings". ("OK" apparently meaning "I get it, now go away", as opposed to "OK, enable it.")  I find the dialog both irritating, and puzzling.  When I dismiss it, I still get an accurate location, far as I can tell!

So I'd like to know:

Why is it that Maps is telling me the location accuracy would be improved with Wi-Fi enabled?  Is there some problem with GPS that Wi-Fi can somehow compensate for?  I fail to see how this would be helpful.  Isn't GPS accurate enough?
In terms of dealing with the annoyance: Is there a way for me to silence that dialog once and for all?  I dislike continuing to acknowledge something I've been informed of dozens of times already.

Thanks!


texts: How can I replicate the full-day calendar widget view that was removed in the Catalina-to-BigSur update?

texts: In Catalina, the calender widget (notification bar) showed you the FULL day of all your appointments and included a red line indicating the current time... this was basically the single-day view of the calendar app.  I found this incredibly useful for quickly calibrating my brain to the events in my calendar.  In Big Sur, this view has been removed in favor of a simple appointment list.  It is true that you can see that times for each appointment, look at your clock, and do the math... but I would MUCH rather return to the Catalina version of the widget where I could just see exactly where I was in my day in relation to all of my appointments.  I can also just keep a full-day view of the calendar open on my desktop, but it'd be so much better to just get back the Catalina version of the widget... is there a way to accomplish this, or a 3rd party app that would do the same?


texts: Should I stick with programming on my Apple or switch to Linux?

texts:
I was wondering whether or not the switch to Linux would be worth it.  I feel like programming on my MacBook Pro is fine and I was wondering what the advantages would be for staying or switching.

What would you do and why?


texts: Finder accesses SMB share while computer sleeps

texts:
I have a networked drive being served over SMB which is regularly accessed from my Macbook Air. The problem is that it spins up even after my Macbook Air has had its lid closed and has been sleeping for 10 hours, with no other networked devices accessing it. My goal is to not have the networked drive spin up unnecessarily.

Running sudo lsof | grep " /media" on the server tells me that the only process using the drive is smbd, i.e. the Samba SMB daemon. As soon as I properly power the Macbook off, there are no longer any open file handles for the drive.

Powernap is disabled both with and without power plugged in, so that didn't solve it.

Is there a straightforward way of making macOS leave networked shares alone when it's sleeping?


texts:
I'm not sure whether this is a request for a fix, a warning to others, or just a 'did you see this too?'

Mac Pro 4,1 [firmware upgraded to 5,1]
2 x 3.46GHz X5690
Aftermarket Samsung 1TB Evo 840, AMD 7950
All behaving nicely before the update.

App store this morning wanted to update Safari & a new Security update 2016-003 10.11.6
As usual, I let it do its thing & allowed it to go ahead & restart.

After restart I noticed the usual grey screen Apple logo + 'thermometer' rather than ticking through for a few steps then going to my auto-login, instead stared with the thermometer completely full.
It then went to a total light grey screen + [working] mouse cursor... where it stayed until I forcibly shut it down.

Things I tried with no joy...

NVRAM & SMC resets
Single user fsck
Verbose boot [couldn't see anything useful]
Safe Boot [same symptoms]
From TTP eDrive:-
TechTool Pro
DiskWarrior
DiskUtility
all showed no problems
Restored the entire OS from the Recovery Partition... no improvement.

Then some news
Safe boot gave me the opportunity to log to another admin account
which surprisingly had no issues.

I used that account to disable the auto-login & tried again, with many variations.
I ran Onyx & did a lot of cleaning, checking.
I watched Console & Activity Monitor.

From a regular boot, logging to the spare admin account had no issues, logging to my main account I could barely move. The Finder spent an hour trying to draw the contents of the Applications folder, & even then wouldn't launch anything, claiming every app was damaged.
I could switch to the other account & launch the same app with no issues.

Console showed constant crash reports in launchd each time with a new PID
I couldn't find which process coresponded to any given PID as it was changing too fast but it looked like mdworker was also struggling.
I used Activity Monitor from the other account to kill all mdworkers & also spotlight & things settled down - though I couldn't go back to the main account without it starting over.

Eventually I gave up & did a full restore from Time Machine.
Fine. Worked.

I then split the updates & tried again.
Safari update, OK.
Security Update... back to square one.

[fade to black]

I'm now on another Time Machine restore & am not going near that Security Update on any machine in the building until I hear better news from elsewhere.

[I have probably missed 42 steps in my exploratory method, it's been 12+ hours... please ask for clarification - bearing in mind I don't have the console logs as they were wiped with each restore]


texts: Macbook not detecting all USB keyboard keys

texts:
I have a Macbook Pro 2019. I recently purchase the Corsair K68 RGB keyboard which has a common USB Type-A connector. I used OTG for USB A to USB C.
The first time mac detects the new device. Worked great.
When I disconnected and reconnected the keyboard it only detects keys from A-Z. Not even spacebar or num keys.
Tried going to keyboard settings >> Change Keyboard Type. It does not detect my keyboard.
It only starts to work again when I restarted my mac. Now every time if my keyboard unplugged accidentally, I have to restart my mac.
Is there any other way to do it without restarting macbook again and again everytime?


texts: Screen overlay application for preventing long-term OLED burn-in on mac?

texts:
I recently acquired an OLED display for my Mac, and I'd like it to last as long as possible without suffering burn-in issues.
I already set up obvious things such as using Dark Mode, turning on auto-hide for Menu Bar and Dock, using a solid black wallpaper, having no icons on the Desktop, and using a blank screen saver with a 1-minute delay. This on top of all the screen saving features provided by the display itself.
However, I am still worried about situations where there might be static elements displayed on the screen for quite long, e.g. when working on some development project. I think that a nice way to deal with that would be to have some application display an overlay on top of the screen content. Something that is as non-disruptive as possible. What comes to mind is the "bubbles" screensaver on Windows.
Any ideas?


texts: Issue Enabling VNC Access on Mojave 10.14

texts:
I am aware of the answers posted online for this, mainly that I need to allow permission to /Library/vnc/vncagent in the Security & Privacy section of System Preferences.

However I cannot find "vnc" under the Library folder, or any mention at all of "vncagent".


texts: Is there a way to Split one 42 Inch TV into Multiple Displays or Virtual Displays?

texts:
I am a video editor and I want to split up my 42 inch TV into multiple desktops. I want to shrink the display into multiple shrunk sections, so the Mac Pro thinks that there are 2 or 4 monitors hooked up but there is actually only one super freaking huge TV, made to look like 4 monitor displays. I want to have sharper resolution. Just having a bigger screen isn't doing it for me. I need 2 monitors for Final Cut Pro - not just big Final Cut Pro windows.
I do not want to "Size Up" or Split the screen into multiple windows, I want multiple displays. I want to trick my monitor into thinking that there more than one display.
Any ideas. It looks like Microsoft has similar programs but nothing for Mac.


texts:
I accidently merged my BOOTCAMP and Mac OSX Partition via diskutil.
Is there any way to recover my data from the Bootcamp partition?


texts: Re-connect Apple ID (iCloud) to macOS user

texts:
I recently got my first MacBook (Early 2015 13" MacBook Pro, running macOS Mojave) and have been setting it up for the past few hours.

I changed my Apple ID email and my password a few times and then ran into a problem. Although I was signing up with iCloud password, my Mac would still recognize an old one. So I created a separate password for my Mac with the intention of connecting it to iCloud again to refresh the sync process(?). Now that I have the separate password, there is no option to re-connect to iCloud again.

How do I do it?

Would it be better to delete this user and create a new one? Do I have to reinstall macOS Mojave, erase disk?

All I want is for my user account on the Mac to be connected to iCloud and use the same password (and sync changes to it).


texts: Mac OS X - Terminal window shows up but closes immediately

texts: I'm using Mac OS X Lion 10.7. I open Terminal and its window shows up but immediately close and its icon remains in the dock. It's working fine a moment ago. I don't know what i have messed. I looked at the log file in the Console application and see "login: USER_PROCESS 172 ttys000"