How do I move my iPhone contacts to Gmail? I have an iPhone that is already synced with my iMac, but I am away on leave and am using a Windows 7 computer. I need to send the contacts I've created on my iPhone to my Gmail account online, because I am going to update my iPhone's operating system and want to be sure I do not lose the contacts on my phone. I know I will probably lose my music, but that's okay.

Since end of 2012, Google has ended support for the Exchange protocol, so you would not be able to sync your iPhone contacts with your Gmail account via Exchange. Instead use the Gmail account method directly via Settings > Mail, Contacts, Calendars > Add account... > Gmail, enter your Gmail account credentials and enable contact sync.

You can alternatively export your iPhone contacts to your computer to a single vCard file and then import the contacts file to your Gmail account.

If you're looking to just move your contacts in bulk, you could buy this $5 app and be done in a few seconds - https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/contact-mover/id456984826


Change default indent size in mail.app My mail.app seems to default to a barbaric 8-space indent-size.  Is there anyway to change this (e.g. is there a plist file somewhere that includes this specification)?
Thanks!

This is normal.
(It cannot be changed)
The standard tab size for an 80 column page (typewriter or console) is 8 spaces.
You also must remember, that email is for sending correspondence (letters)  and indentation here is "old fashioned."  In other words, you shouldn't be indenting in your letter writing.

What Is an Indented Letter Style?
How to Write a Letter

In the second link, you do indent, it should be 1" and that is approximately 8 characters.


How can I stop DiskUtilities from requesting permission every time I try to create an image from a CD I have a big stack of CDs from the 90s that I want to keep the data from, but don't want the physical CD anymore. So I'm using Disk Utility to create the disk images.

Every time I do (by right-clicking the volume in Disk Utility and clicking "Image from {volume name}"), I get this message:

The first time it happened, I figured it would be a one-time thing, but it happens every time. Googling the message results in no helpful information. How can I prevent it from asking for permission each time?

Running macOS 10.13.6, Disk Utility 17.0.3, using an Apple USB SuperDrive with a MacBook Pro 15" from 2016.

Mac OS X Snow Leopard is a DVD not a CD and I'd imagine some of the other discs you're trying to copy are DVD's too. Anyway, I can replicate your situation however, I also can do it from Disk Utility without being prompted for my password.

To do that, first unmount the disc and then select the parent node, e.g. on my Apple SuperDrive it's HL-DT-ST DVDRW GX40N, and option-click (right-click) and select: Image from HL-DT-ST DVDRW GX40N Media

In the subsequent dialog box change Save As: to something more user friendly, and change Format: to: DVD/CD master

Click the Save button and the disc will then start coping without being prompted for your password.

When finished click the Done button.

You can mount then disc image by double-clicking on it in Finder.

The above instruction are for Data DVD/CD discs  not Audio CD discs. Also note that I do not have a Hybrid Data DVD/CD/Audio CD disc to test whether or not the method shown above will work with that kind of disc.

I wouldn't use Disk Utility to make a copy of a CD.  The reason you're seeing the password dialog is because Disk Utility accesses the "raw" disk device.  You don't need to do this to make a copy.

There are a number of "better" (and free) alternatives.

XLD - X Lossless Decoder.  It's an old GUI app that hasn't been updated in about a year (at the time of this post), but it still works on  El Capitan, Sierra, and High Sierra.  It even has binaries for PowerPC based Macs.
dd - a Terminal based utility that makes bit-for-bit copies of any type of CD.  Just use the command:

$ dd if=/dev/diskX of=/path/to/image.iso

Where X is the disk identifier of the CD/DVD drive and the path/to/image.iso is the location and file name of the disk you want to save
ffmpeg - A free library that included with many Audio/Video applications (i.e. Handbrake).  You can use this in Terminal as well.  Just issue the command to get a lossless copy of the CD:

$ ffmpeg -f libcdio -ss 0 -i /dev/diskx /path/to/image.flac

Again, where X is the disk identifier and the /path/to/image.flac is the location and filename of the CD image you want to create.


Data Backup/Storage Using an NAS with Mac OS X and Windows It's probably not pertinent, but I'm a Mac user since the 1980's. I freely confess that as a middle-aged dog I find it increasingly harder to keep up with the latest and greatest in available Apple technology.

I also use Windows and for the last six years or so my main desktop was a Windows XP system. I have files spread over three different HDDs on this machine.

I now have a 2011 iMac running Lion and Windows 7 and I am gradually migrating to this machine. I'd like to be able to keep applications on the internal HDD and data-- documents, photos, and so forth-- on an external HDD. I have considered buying this drive and partitioning it (half for Windows, half for Mac), but before I throw any money at this I thought maybe I should ask the wise folks here what they think of this idea.

I also have a related question. I recently upgraded to a new router, and it has a USB port, so I was thinking to attach a separate external HDD to the router and use it for Time Machine. I'm also wondering about the wisdom of this.

Thanks in advance for any helpful replies.

In order to use the drive for both purposes, you would need to partition it into two. In my breakdown below, partition 1 is for moving data and partition 2 is for Time Machine, but this can be swapped around if you prefer.

I would recommend formatting the partition on which you access data on in ExFAT. It is newer than FAT and does not have the 4GB file size limit. It can be read and written to on both Mac (Snow Leopard and later) and Windows (Vista and later, XP with a supplementary download). This allows for easy transfer between both platforms.

I would read up on the formats that the router supports, as I cannot access an ExFAT drive connected to it. If that does not work, the best option for connecting from both platforms is FAT, but keep in mind that there is a 4GB file limit.

The other partition can then be formatted in the HFS+J format as Ethan mentioned in his comment.

In order to get the drive working remotely, I first set mine up on my Mac and started a backup. I then cancelled this and deleted it. I then attached it to my Airport Extreme and then browsed to it through Finder. I needed to access the drive before Time Machine would pick it up (on both my iMac and Air). I cannot say whether the router you link to will work in the same way or not. Please be aware that the way I am doing it is not recommended or supported by Apple and if you do a similar approach, you do so at your own risk.

Format as FAT32 and it can be read by both Windows and Mac OS X.  I do not know if Time Machine works with FAT32 as it stores less details with the file.


What is the recommended (official) way to backup apple books (iBook) purchases? What is the recommended way to make a backup of all the books I have purchased with Apple books (formerly known as iBooks), preferably using macOS?

Or may there is even an official way recommended by Apple?

Apple’s recommended method for any local  backups is Time Machine. While other options exist, none of them match your combined wishes in question.

When you select the options for the book (...), you can Share PDF and simply e-mail it, save to files, etc.


Internet keeps timing out on Yosemite 10.10.5 I have really strange WiFi issues on my early 2015 MBP. I'm running Yosemite 10.10.5 and for some strange reason wifi/internet stops working for up to a minute and then starts working again. In the meantime I am not disconnected. I say wifi/internet because I'm not sure where the root cause is. All my other equipment still works when my MBP decides to stop working. Even my old 2009 MBP still works fine when my MBP drops out. Since I haven no clue where to start looking to fix this problem, I was hoping to find some guidance here.

It was a strange issue with my configuration as far as I know. I ended up simply moving /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/ to another location (or just renaming/deleting) and rebooting my MBP. Everything has worked fine ever since.

Try rebooting the gateway. Type 192.168.0.1 in any search bar and look for an option that says "Reboot/restart router". Click it. Wait a while, then see if your internet connection is faulty. If it is, check your wi-fi card, or try upgrading to OS 10.11 El Capitan, maybe this will fix any bugs in your system. If not, success!


How to use screen capture UI standalone, to edit existing images? When doing screen capture in MacOS, you get a pop up in bottom right corner. If you click on it, you get UI for simple edits on this image. Nevertheless, I love it! It looks like this

But how can I use it for existing files?

By default, since macOS Mojave, when taking a screen shot a floating thumbnail briefly appears in the lower right-hand corner of the Desktop, which one can click on to edit the screen shot.

The editor which appears, because by default Show Floating Thumbnail is checked in the Options for taking a screen shot, can be used on an image file or screen shot afterwards by selecting the image file in Finder and then right-click on the image and select: Quick Actions > Markup

You can also, after selecting the image file, press the spacebar to bring up a quicklook view and click the Markup button.

I do a screen capture using Shift-Option-4 and I don't get any UI for this. You can open the file in Preview and it has some simple editing tools. You can adjust the exposure, for example, by using the Adjust Color selection under the Tools menu. There are other options as well. The menu bar you show looks very much like the menu bar in Preview.


Homebrew putty installation does not make the putty command recognisable I would like to instal putty with use of Homebrew. I'm performing the following command:

brew install putty

which gives the seemingly correct output:

==> Downloading https://homebrew.bintray.com/bottles/putty-0.67.el_capitan.bottle.tar.gz
Already downloaded: /Users/thisuser/Library/Caches/Homebrew/putty-0.67.el_capitan.bottle.tar.gz
==> Pouring putty-0.67.el_capitan.bottle.tar.gz
  /usr/local/Cellar/putty/0.67: 11 files, 1.5M

However, the putty command is not recognised:

thisuser-541/41:~$ putty
-bash: putty: command not found

Update: Current stable version (.67) of putty can't be build with gtk+2 support on OS X using homebrew. This is a know issue #40951. It seems you can install from HEAD version (brew install --HEAD --with-gtk+3 putty) and for me that is also broken.

brew install putty by default installs from a pre-built bottle. The pre-built bottle for putty doesn't include putty, puttytel or pterm.

If you want putty then can try installing from source. First remove the installed putty formula by running brew remove putty. After that install putty from source by running brew install --build-from-source --with-gtk+3 putty.

NOTE: As of this writing building putty from source is broken with homebrew

If someone is getting an error like this: invalid option: --with-gtk+3, all installation options are removed with the latest version of the brew. source

Putty can be installed with three easy steps:

1. First Open the terminal
2. Install the homebrew
3. Run command "brew install putty"

You can get the detailed steps at BrewInstall
Search for any mac app or packages here and get steps to install it.


Terminal problem with Ctrl + Arrow and Shift + Arrow keys I am running Mavericks on a new Macbook Pro. When I use the Ctrl and Shift keys together with the arrow keys, I get some sort of key codes as output in the terminal. I am pretty sure that this problem is new and that it didn't happen a few days ago. But I am not 100% sure. Anyway, this is what happens:

If I press Ctrl+← (Left arrow), ;5D is output in the terminal. Similarly:

Ctrl+→ (Right arrow) outputs ;5C
Shift+← (Left arrow) outputs ;2D
Shift+→ (Right arrow) outputs ;2C

As I mentioned, I am pretty sure that before today I could use those shortcuts to move between words and select text. Has anyone seen this before? I have already looked through some of the existing questions about arrow key shortcuts, but I have found no references to this exact problem.

Also, note that I have turned off the keyboard shortcut that moves between desktops using the Ctrl + arrow keys.

The same thing happens on my 10.9 and 10.8 VMs. Control-arrows and shift-arrows don't do anything by default in bash. Where were you even using shift-arrows to select text? emacs or vim?

If you want to use control-left and control-right to move between words in bash, add these lines to ~/.inputrc:

"\e[1;5C": forward-word
"\e[1;5D": backward-word

To use shift-arrows in Emacs, map shift-up to \e[1;2A, shift-down to \e[1;2B, shift-right to \e[1;2C, and shift-left to \e[1;2D. If pressing shift-up results in a message like <select> is undefined, try setting TERM to xterm-vt220.

An alternative:

In Terminal preferences go to Advanced and unselect 'Paste newlines as carriage returns'.

Then use Sublime to write out complicated com


My iPhone settings are not showing Siri I have an iPhone SE with iOS 10.3.1. The Settings app does not show the Siri option. I want to enable Hey Siri and I have restrictions disabled.

Here are some screenshots:

Settings View

Inside General Settings

Inside General Settings Scrolled

Inside General Settings bottom

How do I enable Hey Siri?

This works for iOS 11 and earlier (Restrictions were changed in iOS 12):

The easiest way to get Siri back (without doing a Soft Reset or Reset All Settings), do this:

Go to Settings→General→Restrictions
Enable Restrictions; give it a password.
Disallow Siri & Dictation.
Return back to General settings.
Go back to Restrictions, putting in the password.
Allow Siri & Dictation.  Go back to Settings and Siri & Search should now be available.
Disable Restrictions.

This worked on an iPhone 6s Plus on iOS 11.2.5.

Does Siri turn on when you hold down the Home Button?

The only problem of why you don't see Siri is the restraints,then try to enable them on Siri (looks casually if it appears in the settings) and after remove.

Try to press the Home Button and the Power Button at the same time,for about 10 seconds,until you see the Apple logo.


Does memory size increase the weight of the iPhone 6 Plus? Are the 16, 32 and 64GB models the same weight or does increased memory increase the weight?

As a general answer normally an increase in memory capacity of that order won't have a significant effect on weight. I'm not sure exactly what memory chips Apple use in the iPhone 6 Plus but 16GB is in the realm where a single chip can be used. As an example a TSSOP-56 package is pretty common for FLASH memory  and if you read a typical Package Material Disclosure the total maximum weight is 221 milligrams each.

If they added an additional three and you allowed a little extra for solder it would still come in under a gram. So when Apple don't list a seperate weight based on memory capacity they probably either use higher density FLASH or don't consider the weight significant enough to list.

My iphones do feel like larger memory is significantly heavier. We have iphone 6 64GB and 128GB. We also just got iphone 7 plus 128GB and 256GB.

I'm surprised why no one reports this difference in weight.(I just spent an hour googling this, so many iphone reviews and discussions but nothing about this issue.. I just don't get it why my wife's phone is lighter..)


Subtract files in folder A from folder B I've got folder A with 8000 images and folder B with 9000 images. Folder B contains the 8000 images from folder A as well as additional 1000 images. I would like to delete the 8000 images which are already in Folder A, leaving only the "new" 1000 images.

Does anyone know an elegant way to get the job done? (btw. I can not sort them by date and get the newer ones)

You can use a simple bash script to do this::

for file in *.*; do if [ -f "/FolderA/${file}" ]; then rm "/FolderB/$file"; fi; done;

This script assumes you are already in FolderB, which is where you want to delete the files that already exist in FolderA.

You can tweak it if you know the extension of the image files (ie, .png, .gif, etc) and you have the exact folder names. So instead of *.* you can use *.png or *.gif.

A MUCH safer version:

for file in *.*; do if [ -f "/FolderA/${file}" ]; then mv "/FolderB/$file" ~/.Trash; fi; done;

This will move the file to the Trash.  Using rm is a one-way-street.  Once you hit enter on an rm command, it's done; that file is gone forever.  Move to the Trash to ensure you got the results you are looking for.

If folder B has all the images from folder A plus an additional 1000, then just delete folder A!

Simples!

However, if you have folder B has 9000 images and folder A has 9000 images but there is a disparity between them that folder B doesn't have all the images of folder A then use diff to find the difference.

Having said that, this will only be a file name difference. You might have two images that share the same name, which is an entirely different issue!

The code:

diff -rq folder1 folder2

  The r tells diff to look at each directory recursively, including subdirectories. The q switch sets diff brief mode. If we didn’t set brief mode, diff would not only tell you which files are different between the two folders, but also show the actual line-by-line differences for any text files that exist in both locations but are not identical.


How do I reset safari to a state equal to that of a new user? There is a website (happening.im) which does not work in my user account, but does work when I switch to the guest user.
So the problem is in my user profile somehow.

I've tried deleting ~/Library/Safari but that didn't do the trick.

How do I completely reset safari to the state that the guest user has?

This website has a list of steps you could take:
http://www.macissues.com/2015/06/22/how-to-fully-reset-safari-on-your-mac/

I was trying to find help with the same problem. I went into the guest user profile and copied the preference information from there to my profile.


I just bought the wrong album on iTunes. How do I give it back? I just bought the wrong album on iTunes. How do I give it back?

http://www.apple.com/support/itunes/

Contact customer support via e-mail and hopefully you can get a refund.

In the United States, call 800-692-7753 (1-800-myapple) and when asked what you need, say "agent". Repeat "agent" until you get a human. You can then start the refund process.


Cannot "Enter Time Machine" from Mountain Lion Upgraded to Mountain Lion yesterday. Time Machine backups continue to run without any reported errors. (Backups are to a HD shared by a Lion Server on the network).

Problem is When I choose Enter Time Machine (or double-click on the Time Machine application icon) nothing happens. No window. No error. No...nothing. I do notice that the remote HD mounts in the Finder... but that's it.

I've reviewed a similar question which appears to be Lion (or perhaps Snow Leopard) related. But this is not acceptable as I don't want to erase my whole backup and start anew...as I can't afford to toss my only Lion backup.

Anyone know what's up? And how to get my TM working properly under MLion?

I had to reformat the external drive I use for Time Machine. It said there was a permissions problem, that it was Read Only - which it wasn't, and a look at the Info for it confirmed it was Read & Write. Still, I just erased the drive and started again. Works fine now.

While in opened time machine, press Shift-Command-C it will make TM clickable.  Apple is too busy to change sizes of iPhones, iPads to call it a new version and they forget of about their softwares.


What are the OS X Mavericks hardware system requirements? I have a fairly old (I am not sure when it was bought) iMac 5,1 running OS X 10.6.8, but I just saw the free upgrade to Mavericks. It looks tempting, but I'd rather first know if my computer can handle this OS before I try to install it.

Processor: 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 4 GB 667 MHz DDR2 SDRAM

(I guess that covers the most relevant hardware, if something else is important I'll add it.)

System requirements can be found at Apple - Upgrade your Mac to OS X Mavericks. Click the View compatible Mac models link under the Check your Mac hardware step to view the supported models.  Currently:

  Mac models compatible with OS X Mavericks

  iMac (Mid 2007 or newer)
  MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer)
  MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer)
  MacBook Air (Late 2008 or newer)
  Mac mini (Early 2009 or newer)
  Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer)
  Xserve (Early 2009)

From the Apple menu select "About This Mac" and then click the "More Info…" button to determine exactly what model you have.

According to the information at How to identify iMac models, the iMac5,1 is the Late 2006 model, which is not compatible with OS X Mavericks.

I think maverick should run inspite of apple official required models. Y also have a i mac mid 2006 with snow leopard.


Why do local network hostnames resolve only in certain cases? I have a linksys router which runs "tomato" Linux and serves as the local DNS server. It runs dnsmasq.

I recently upgraded from OS X 10.4 to 10.6. Since then, resolution of hostnames on my local network works in some cases but not others. Previously, this all worked as expected.

Here's an example:

tesla:~ cell$ ping watt
ping: cannot resolve watt: Unknown host

tesla:~ cell$ ping watt.local
ping: cannot resolve watt.local: Unknown host

tesla:~ cell$ ping -c1 192.168.42.1
PING 192.168.42.1 (192.168.42.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 192.168.42.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=64 time=0.659 ms

--- 192.168.42.1 ping statistics ---
1 packets transmitted, 1 packets received, 0.0% packet loss
round-trip min/avg/max/stddev = 0.659/0.659/0.659/0.000 ms

tesla:~ cell$ host watt.local
watt.local has address 192.168.42.1

tesla:~ cell$ host watt
watt.local has address 192.168.42.1

My guess is that the host command is querying the DNS server directly, whereas ping and any GUI apps (ie. Safari) are using some sort of Mac DNS resolution routines, which are not working properly.

Please let me know if there's any other info I should provide.

Edit: included pinging ip directly in above example

Edit 2: My domain is using .local

If you're serving .local via unicast DNS (instead of multicast DNS, as specified in this draft internet standard), include an SOA record for .local; as of v10.6, OS X detects this and switches .local resolution to unicast DNS.  Earlier versions of OS X have other methods of forcing unicast resolution - see Apple's KB article #HT3473 for details.

solution: don't use '.local' as your domain name.  lame.


Safari 6 refreshes when I go back I have this annoying problem with Safari 6, each time I go back or forward (both the toolbar buttons or two singer swipe) the tab refreshes. Here is a quick video to illustrate the problem: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/3257155/safari-refresh.mov

Normally I wouldn't really mind, it kinda grown on me over time (I'm not really sure this started when I updated to Safari 6 or to Mountain Lion - there was about a week between the updates), but my client found a bug in the web app I build (some buttons stop responding when he goes back - he is still on Lion) and I can't reproduce the problem because my Safari refreshed every time.

So my question is, what is the normal behavior for Safari? And how/if can I make Safari not refresh?

UPDATE

Turns out the problem was that Safari doesn't (by default) fire the onLoad even when on the "back action". I couldn't reproduce the bug on my machine because apparently the 1password extension causes the onLoad event even when you go back.

Turns out the problem was that Safari doesn't (by default) fire the onLoad even when the "back action" is performed (using the back button or the two finger swipe) but I couldn't reproduce the bug on my machine because apparently the 1password extension causes the onLoad event even when you go back.

Further explications at Render's request:
So let's assume this code on all pages:
$(document).ready(function () {
    alert('test');
}

And this sequence of actions:

open page-1.html
open page-2.html
Go back
Go forward

Safari won't show the alert after step 3 and 4, so I the onLoad event is not fired and the page .js continues the execution from where it left off when you navigated away from the page.
Also in the current version 6.0.3, having 1password extension (3.9.14) seems to have no effect over this behavior.
Hope that helps. This shouldn't matter in most cases, it's only when you write bad code (like it did) it will bit you in the arse :)

While visually it looks like the page is refreshing, if the original response had the appropriate cache headers, it will be served from the cache and no request is made to the server until the cache is stale.

While testing this I did ran into a problem where Safari's Web Inspector does not seem to properly indicate wether a page was loaded from the cache, but while monitoring my server logs it appeared that Safari is respecting the cache headers being sent back after all.

When a server sent headers which disallow caching with the response, or the cache has expired in the meanwhile, Safari just like any other browser will make a new request when revisiting a page from the history.

Also note that you can completely disable caching from the Develop menu (if enabled). Make sure you did not enable this option.


How can I convert a Word (.doc or .docx) file to a PDF on an iPad? I would have thought this was one of Goodreader's many tricks, but it doesn't seem to be the case.

If you have network access you could send it to Google Docs (upload, email, whatever) and then fetch the PDF from there.

Easiest way that I've found if you're using the Microsoft Office App for iPad.

1) File
2) Print
3) Open in Another App
4) Import to iBooks
It will automatically save as a PDF file in iBooks. From there you can choose to print or email the PDF. You can also connect iBooks to your iCloud Drive and have it saved there as well.

Hope this helps! =]


Need to Switch from Mac Thunderbird to Apple Mail. But First I want to backup Mac Thunderbird. How Can I Do It? I recently switched to a new company. As I am the sales head, I receive a lot of emails to look at daily. Earlier I was using Mac Thunderbird as my daily email client but now here it is mandatory to use Apple Mail. So I need to switch from Mac Thunderbird to Apple Mail. The only thing that I require is to backup all my emails before I make the switch so that I don't loose any while migration. I am looking for a quick backup solution that won't take long to do the backup procedure.

Thanks for the help in advance.

Have you tried Time Machine to Backup your emails?

A more elaborate procedure is explained here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cd2YaBCXpaM

You can also opt for third party applications: http://mac.softpedia.com/get/Utilities/Mail-Backup-X.shtml

I hope this helps. Thanks

Here are the instructions to transition from Thunderbird to Apple Mail


How to recover apple id without having apple id and email that associated with that apple id I forgot my apple id and email that associated with this apple id, but i know the password of my apple id.

how can i find my apple id?

note that this apple id doesn't set on any other devices.

You can’t typically brute force a missing email through https://forgot.apple.com website for several reasons. If I understand your question correctly, to rephrase the situation, you have the pin code to get to your voicemail but you forgot the telephone number. It may not make sense to start dialing every number possible and keep trying your pin code on each unless you have some idea what “number” you chose.
Unless you used that email and saved receipts, wrote things down, used that ID for other services, you’re out of luck. There is no reverse lookup possible to show all the emails that used a specific password.
I’m not sure why you would even want back an ID you didn’t use, but maybe there’s more backstory or a different problem you’re solving but didn’t include in the body of your question.

You can go through Apple's "Find my Apple ID" process at https://iforgot.apple.com/appleid#!&section=appleid
Hope this helps!


External SSD drive fails to respond after some frequent writes I am using a Sandisk SSD.

It has happened a few times already in last two days. After some frequent writes, suddenly I will have trouble accessing the drive.

In the latest occurance, I did not read from or write to the disk for about 3 hours.

Output from mount

/dev/disk3s1 on /Volumes/ExtremeSSD (apfs, local, nodev, nosuid, journaled, noowners)

More info from Disk utility

Just a FYI, here is the info of my main SSD:

What I can see in the log

default 07:18:36.860460+1000    kernel  disk3: I/O error.
default 07:18:36.860479+1000    kernel  nx_buf_bread:592: buf_biowait() failed, error = 5, b_error = 5, buf_flags_after_io = 0x101, crypto = [unencrypted  ]
default 07:18:36.860487+1000    kernel  _vnode_dev_read:811: *** got err 5 reading blknum 28635 (num read errs: 377524)
default 07:18:36.860502+1000    kernel  apfs_vnop_blockmap:10831: ### obj-id 537613/537613 err 5 offset 0 size 131072 mapflags 2 dstream 2364702/2883584 ###
default 07:18:36.880386+1000    kernel  disk3: I/O error.

If I want to eject the disk, it will take many trials to force eject it, despite I have ensured no application is using the drive.

Here is how I use the drive:

I wrote up a python script which downloads files and write to a directory which is symlinked to a folder on the SSD drive.

At the time of writing this I can see a lot of errors from python like

[Errno 2] No such file or directory: '10000_files/1vVwd9tQQw6DAaRCgtQB.data.FD2A0e73' -> '110000_files/1vVwd9tQQw6DAaRCgtQB.data'

or

[Errno 5] Input/output error

How can I improve the stability of the drive?

The usb-c cable was faulty. That's why the read/write started to fail after a certain duration of high volume data transfer.

Once I replaced the usb-c cable that connects the SSD drive to the MBP, and the SSD drive is working as expected.

A disk I/O error means that the operating system (in this case macOS, but applies to every OS) is having difficulty executing a read/write command of the physical device.  Note:  this is not that it doesn't understand what it's reading but that it cannot read it.  It's the difference between looking through a window in a house and not understanding the feng shui and looking through the same window and not seeing anything because the window is boarded up or covered with dirt and grime.

  How can I improve the stability of the drive?

You can't because it has failed.  You need to get a new drive.

It could be the USB controller or the NAND flash chips.  Unless you disassemble everything at test out each component, it's impossible to tell.


Way to logout a user from the command line in OS X 10.9 I want to logout my Mac OS X from the command line. My OS X version is 10.9.
I tried command pkill -KILL -u uid, but this command didn't work out.
Is there a command that can be used to log out a user from the system using command line only, not AppleScript?

sudo launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u <username>)
or
sudo launchctl bootout user/$(id -u <username>)

Replace username with the target user's user name or replace the whole subshell with the user's uid.  This tells launchctl to teardown the users login session (gui specifically refers to the user's temporary login session, user specifies the users background processes).

You can log yourself out without the sudo to test this.

Note that this will ONLY work on macOS 10.11.x or newer (see launchctl help for more)

if you're logged with ssh to a remote computer you can logout by simply typing 'exit':

[host:~user]$ exit


MacBook Air attempting to shutdown after a couple of seconds of inactivity I have a a MacBook Air that works fine except popping up a shutdown dialog if left untouched for a couple of seconds (seems to be a consistent duration around 3 seconds or so). Hitting Cancel or Esc prevents the shutdown.

If I keep fidgeting around with the keyboard or trackpad, there's no shutdown attempt. I can even place something on the Fn key to keep the OS from shutting down.

It seems like some inactivity timeout etc. gone awry.

When taken to the Genius Bar for initial assessment, the guy there said it was probably the power button needing a replacement. But, I don't think this is the case, as the power button is functioning normally: I can still press it to explicitly initiate a sleep/shutdown.

There's a chance this was triggered by water damage. There was a recent water spill incident to which I acted quickly by turning off the machine + turning it upside down + not using it for a long while + keeping it in a box with rice to absorb any leftover humidity. But even if this is a water damage, I can't imagine a damage that manifests itself with this very narrow malfunction of wanting to shutdown on a short period of in activity. Absolutely nothing else seems to be wrong with the machine.

Any pointers? Any things I can try to (a) diagnose the root cause fix or workaround the problem?

I have the same issue with my Macbook Air after a very small amount of coffee hit the keyboard. Apple store wanted to gut for $800+. It was less then a year old and I was dropping another $800 into it. What has worked for me for the last 6 months, I pressed the eject button down and wedged a toothpick to hold it down, than cut off the excess. Everything works perfectly and since I don't use a external drive that key was unused. I also found it was the only key that didn't interfere with other functions. I would love to find a programmer who could write a script that when the key is pressed once it's on and pressed again it's off. That would be the perfect fix without spending hundreds of dollars. Any script writers??? :)

I just want to let everyone know that this link worked for me.
I've Macbook air (mid 2011). I had dropped liquid over my mac. even when i cleaned it, it burnt my keyboard part etc. Anyway, I paid $300 (in budapest) and get it done. However, after 2 weeks i got this problem. My mac was consistently asking me to shutdown. Note that this time i have not dropped any liquid. Anyway, when the message to shutdown came the only thing i could do was to cancel it but it was coming after every 10 secs.

Anyway, I came to this page and saw this link for PowerBlock third item down
http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/labs/

i have ran it. It's been 30 minutes after running this link and my mac has not asked me about shutting down. i presume that it has already solved the problem. Note that previously i was unable to run my mac even for 5 mins without getting this message.

thanks


Can you force a mobile site on your iPhone to show full desktop view? Is there a way to force websites, when browsing them on your phone, to go into full desktop view? For instance, when I go to the NASCAR website on my phone, it displays a mobile version. But the mobile version doesn't give everything the full desktop site does.

I can trick the site to think I am browsing it on a computer by putting something after the .com,like .com/News and it will work, but then when I go to their homepage by clicking on the logo, it redirects to the mobile version. I am using an Apple iPhone 4 for my device.

I don't think you can do this in Safari on the iPhone but you could use a 3rd party browser app. Many of those will let you set the browser agent. One browser I know does this is  'Atomic Web Browser'. This may not work in all cases as some websites may use other ways of determining which content to show, for example, some will detect the screen dimensions.

I've tried this on my iPhone with Atomic Web Browser. Within the browser, I went to settings, 'Identify browser as' and selected 'Safari Desktop'. Then I went to nascar.com and tapped on the nascar logo. It showed me the desktop version of the page.

I checked in mobile safari and doing the same indeed took me to a mobile version.

I used Diigo browser, its got option to identify as desktop browsers and works fine with fb! - FREE too! ;)


How can I supervise/monitor the iPhone of my kid? I use an iPhone 8 and  my 12 year-old  daughter had an iPhone 6 just purchased.

I'm worried about Internet sites mainly and would like to monitor text messages of certain friends she has been in trouble with at school. I have spoken to her about this and it was one of the conditions she was allowed her own phone. Can my iPhone monitor her web sites and sms texts ? Can I block both from my phone?  I have seen some apps but was told they could be circumvented.

Parental controls are more so about restriction rather than monitoring. Although your intentions seem honest and reasonable, someone could maliciously use a feature like this to spy on friends or significant others.

Explore Apple's robust iOS Parental Controls instead.

Parental Controls

In iOS you can only use to set up rules in parental controls but Apple do not allow any monitoring even if you have any 3rd party software unless you jailbreak


Music Player with ability to repeat a specific part of the song I'm looking for an app with ability to repeat a part of the song playing. I need this as I'm using it for practicing listening skill.

Quick Time Player -

  Trim function

can do that.

Then use the Loop function to play over and over :)

iTunes can do that (but not so handy)

Right click on the song- Get Info.

In there click on Options tab and select the Start and End time.

Learn That Song (PLAY Edition) app (not their Remix edition) is working with Apple Music streaming.


How can I permanently add my SSH private key to Keychain so it is automatically available to ssh? It seems that ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/id_rsa will load your key but will ask for the password each time you reboot.

I am looking for a solution that would not require me to re-enter the key password between logins.

On OSX, the native ssh-add client has a special argument to save the private key's passphrase in the OSX keychain, which means that your normal login will unlock it for use with ssh. On OSX Sierra and later, you also need to configure SSH to always use the keychain (see Step 2 below).
Alternatively you can use a key without a passphrase, but if you prefer the security that's certainly acceptable with this workflow.
Step 1 - Store the key in the keychain
Just do this once:
ssh-add -K ~/.ssh/[your-private-key]

Enter your key passphrase, and you won't be asked for it again.
(If you're on a pre-Sierra version of OSX, you're done, Step 2 is not required.)
Step 2 - Configure SSH to always use the keychain
It seems that OSX Sierra removed the convenient behavior of persisting your keys between logins, and the update to ssh no longer uses the keychain by default. Because of this, you will get prompted to enter the passphrase for a key after you upgrade, and again after each restart.
The solution is fairly simple, and is outlined in this github thread comment. Here's how you set it up:

Ensure you've completed Step 1 above to store the key in the keychain.

If you haven't already, create an ~/.ssh/config file. In other words, in the .ssh directory in your home dir, make a file called config.

In that .ssh/config file, add the following lines:
 Host *
   UseKeychain yes
   AddKeysToAgent yes
   IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_rsa

Change ~/.ssh/id_rsa to the actual filename of your private key. If you have other private keys in your ~/.ssh directory, also add an IdentityFile line for each of them. For example, I have one additional line that reads IdentityFile ~/.ssh/id_ed25519 for a 2nd private key.
The UseKeychain yes is the key part, which tells SSH to look in your OSX keychain for the key passphrase.

That's it! Next time you load any ssh connection, it will try the private keys you've specified, and it will look for their passphrase in the OSX keychain. No passphrase typing required.

Add the public key in:

.ssh/known_hosts

Public key usually are on:

/home/user/.ssh/id_rsa.pub

Hope that helps


Remove application from App Store's Update section I've got an application in my Updates list which I never installed. It doesn't appear under Purchases nor Hidden Purchases. I can't hide it by right-clicking on it. When I click "Update" it asks me for some different Apple ID I've never heard of.

How can I get rid of the update showing up?

I had the exact same problem and this solved it:

  All app downloaded from Mac AppStore(MAS) contain a receipt inside
  their app bundle (example: appname.app/Contents/_MASReceipt/receipt).
  MAS will scan this file to check whether the new version is available.

  You can use this application (Find Any File) to search any receipt on
  your drive: http://apps.tempel.org/FindAnyFile/

  Launch 'Find Any File' and search for: _MASReceipt
  Go through each result that you think could be the culprit, copy the receipt to your desktop as a backup, and after that delete the
  receipt inside
  _MASReceipt folder.
  Open MAS and let it scan for software update. If it's still showing the wrong ID, it means that you've deleted the wrong receipt.
  Restore the receipt backup from your desktop to it's previous
  location.
  Repeat the process until you've found the problem receipt.

In Terminal type:

cd /Applications

then type:

grep -r "EnsenaSoft"

This will deep search your applications folder for any sign of that application or it's receipt. It could take a while; if any results show up make a note of the path and then you can trash/delete the app.

Hit Control-C anytime during the grep search to cancel it.


How do I check an iOS device's battery health? I am looking for a way to check the current health of a battery for iOS devices, similar to how coconutBattery works for OS X.

How can I check the battery health for an iOS device?

There are apps that you can use to assess battery health, but I recommend a Mac/PC app called iBackupBot. Tether your device (non-jailbroken works) to your computer, navigate to the lower left window pane, select the device, and click the link for ‘More Informations’. The top portion of the resulting window will look something like this:

From Check iPad iPhone battery charge cycle count without jailbreaking - iCopyBot:

  Connect your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch to computer, then launch iBackupBot.
  Select your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch in Devices window, then click More Informations in right side window
  iBackupBot will pop up a window to show many informations about your iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch, include the battery charge cycle
  count, battery campacity and more

The best iOS app I have used to provide this info is BatteryLogger Plus. However, it requires a jailbreak. Non-JB apps seem to provide optimal operating information, but not cycle count information. This may be a function of App Store limitations, which is why BatteryLogger Plus is a Cydia store app instead.

Yes, many apps can check the battery status, I use Battery Doctor.


Where does the sudo .bashrc file reside? Where doe the sudo .bashrc file reside? I'd like to add some things to it.

I prefer to use sudo --set-home and/or sudo --login when I care about the dot files so that the environment gets set up more like the normal user than the restricted environment.

This seems a bit like an XY problem though, it really depends on what you are trying to do if setting up a proper root user with a proper environment is needed or if you can modify the sudo behavior using standard flags and functionality.

You can find the home folders generally with this set of commands:

sudo -s
who am i
whoami
pwd

In the first case, you are the normal user with root - sticking to the old user home folder and dot files. If you instead do sudo --login you'll see the home folder for root. By default it is /var/root

.bashrc is usually in /Users/your_username/

To access this path, open Terminal :

$ open ~/.bashrc


Macbook Pro buttons are pushed on their own I play a game, for example Kerbal Space Program, and sometimes (pretty often) buttons are pressed on their own. No mods. It can be spacebar (stage separation) or "m" for Map. And it could be a problem in the game, but it's not because some similar stuff going on in Terraria, suddenly your character  starts to go in one direction. It's like some button is stuck, but actually it's not, keyboard is ok. What is it can be?
MBPr 2014 El Captain 10.11.1

There is a very good chance that your battery must be replaced. Check it in Applications → Utilities → System Information → "Power": check the "battery condition": when it says "replace" or "service" replace it asap. Do not buy non-apple crap, they die faster than they are bought. In OWC there is a possibility that they have a replacement oem battery which is good. Only there.
Note: a bad battery swells (and can go leaking also) and presses the keyboard on the underside.

So I think it's a bug of games, that comes out from using trackpad and keyboard at the same time. Sorry for bothering!


How can I disable the iPhone Restrictions code? I have forgotten my Restrictions passcode.

Is there a way that I can change it without resetting the iPhone? I have tried updating it and have contacted Technical Support, but they suggested that I back up my files to iCloud and restore to factory settings.

There is no way to remove the Restrictions passcode without restoring the device in iTunes or from the device. However, you can save your data by backing it up to iCloud or iTunes and restoring all content to the device after it has been restored.

You could ask the Apple Store employees to give you a new iPhone, or you could ask them to attempt entering your Restrictions passcode on your device.

Hope that works!


AppleShowAllFiles does not show hidden files I use OS X 10.8, I type the following

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES
killall Finder

but still I cannot see any hidden files like .bash_history, .Trash, .cups, .gem etc. in user directory.

The bundle identifier is com.apple.finder in lowercase.

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles YES would also write the setting as a string, but it doesn't usually matter though.

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true
osascript -e 'quit app "Finder"'

Use the -boolean option:

defaults write com.apple.Finder AppleShowAllFiles -boolean TRUE
killall Finder

YES is not automatically interpreted as a boolean, but as a string.


What is the security impact of installing a macOS configuration profile containing certificates? I want to install a configuration profile to automatically connect to my university network but along with the two wifi network configurations there are also two certificates, their description is "AC du fournisseur d'identité" (in English: CA of the identity provider), those are certificates "TERENA SSL CA 3" and "DigiCert Assured ID Root CA", both emitted by "DigiCert Assured ID Root CA".

What is the exact impact of this on the security of my system ?

Does it only sign the profile or does it install new trusted certificate emitters for the websites I can consult for instance ? (which would augment the risk of man in the middle attack)

Thank you

The file eduroam-OS_X-UdS.mobileconfig  contains five certificates. Three of them can be retrieved by entering openssl pkcs7 -inform DER -print_certs -in ~/Downloads/eduroam-OS_X-UdS.mobileconfig.

At least two of the three belong to the chain of trust to validate code signing of the mobileconfig file.

You can verify this by clicking on verified

The other two ("TERENA SSL CA 3" and "DigiCert Assured ID Root CA") are the chain of trust to validate the identity of your university's RADIUS server. By opening eduroam-OS_X-UdS.mobileconfig with a decent editor you can see and extract them. By saving each of them as a *.cer file you can compare and validate them yourself by opening them with Keychain Access.app: choose one of the two certs and right-click it > evaluate cert > Generic.

If the TERENA cert isn't evaluated successfully it doesn't catch the Digicert root certificate properly. Simply hit the button Go Back and repeat the step.

"DigiCert Assured ID Root CA" is a duplicate of a certificate already existing in your System Roots keychain and "TERENA SSL CA 3" is an intermediate certificate authority. Both are required to ensure the identity of the Radius server. If possible you should choose to "Validate the (RADIUS) Server Certificate" though. I don't know (and haven't been able to find) the DNS-name of your university's RADIUS server.

None of the certificates lower your system security. If everything is properly configured (especially on the server-side) an MITM shouldn't be possible: Security Considerations.

If something is configured improperly and you are a victim of an MITM your l'identifiant E.N.T and le mot de passe E.N.T will be "lost".

I think your question is a VERY GOOD ONE and also a very wide scope of what can be effected.  So first what components can be in a profie:

And according to APPLE:
A configuration profile contains a number of settings that you can specify, including:

Restrictions on device features
Wi-Fi settings
VPN settings
Email server settings
Exchange settings
LDAP directory service settings
CalDAV calendar service settings
Web clips
Credentials and keys

I say your question is wide scope because those plus more can be modified and I'm certain have many items to be configured

HERE IS EVERYTHING APPLE HAS TO SAY ON IT:
https://developer.apple.com/library/prerelease/content/featuredarticles/iPhoneConfigurationProfileRef/Introduction/Introduction.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40010206-CH1-SW4

My take is you need to decipher the profile first and see what has been set....


Cannot connect to App Store via iPhone - Wrong Password although password is right So I have this weird problem. I can connect to the App Store via iTunes on my Macbook. However, if I try to connect via the  iPhone appstore using the same email and password I get:

  "Verification Failed Your Apple ID or password is incorrect" error
  message "

I have already tried resetting my password via Apple ID management and successfully changed my password with a new one. I still get the same error message.
Any Ideas?

Edit: The problem occurs in only one of the iTunes account I use (Polish Appstore account). I can connect to my other account thru both my iPhone and my Macbook without any problem. So, I do not think there's a problem with the iPhone or its settings. I also don't think that it has anything to do with my internet connection.

If the servers are broken or the network isn't working between you and the servers, your password isn't actually wrong. Even when all lights are green at http://www.apple.com/support/systemstatus/ it could be an issue that'e exclusively server side, and you'll need Apple Support to get to that conclusion.

Barring that, you can certainly to go through "the usual troubleshooting steps" on iOS since you're unlikely continuing to type the password incorrectly.

You should start with the support article below:

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT203005

Before you contact support (the link at the bottom of the page - the next step if that doesn't work) is to maybe try a restart. Since the app store needs an accurate time and date:

Sign out of the store from preferences
Turn off "automatically set time" in the settings app, General, Date & Time
Put the device in Airplane mode
power off the device and maybe go make some tea while it powers itself off
When you start it up again, set the clock manually to within 10 seconds of a good time source and then enable WiFi or cellular data as you please.
Try to sign in to the Settings App - iTunes & App Stores section
After one failure, turn on automatic time setting
Try to sign in to the App Store

THANK YOU!! GOT IT FIXED BY FOLLOWING THIS INSTRUCTION:

This fixed it Settings>iTunes and App Store > logged out of existing account and logged in with account I wanted.


Yosemite Messages: Support for a separate speaker for notifications? I'm using a jabber account with Messages for voice and video calling, as well as chat. I also use a headset most of the time, and have it set as my primary audio device, but want to hear if someone tries to call or send me a message.

Does Messages support the ability to set different speakers for conversations and notifications a la Skype?

I have poked around in the preferences and done a bit of Googling, with no luck.

Looks like this is not possible after all.


Calendar and Time Zones in iOS 9.2 & OSX 10.11 I am confused by the time zone settings in the Apple calendars, especially by the wording.

I book a date here in Melbourne (UTC+10 ignoring DST) for an event in the Netherlands (UTC+2). I want to enter the event as 06:00 here, but really mean 06:00 in the Netherlands local time. The calendar is in iCloud.

This happens all the time when booking flights — the times are always in local time, which is, of course, appropriate.

What is the correct setting in the iPhone and on the MacBook for this to work? I think the wording has changed, but I never thought it was clear.

Currently I add the local time in the notes just in case. I was caught out in the past when the event showed the wrong time (fortunately it meant I was too early for the flight).

I have spent a lot of time in order to have clean calendar entries for flights over multiple time zones. I couldn't find any good solution, because iOS and OS X only support ONE time zone per event (by the way, so does Microsoft Exchange).

The best solution I found was to create two events :

One for the take-off, specified in its local time zone.
One for the landing, also in its local time zone.

And when your phone or computer changes time zone, you have the correct local time.

In a perfect world, an event should be able to have 2 time zones (one for the start time and one for the end time). Apple could do it, but it would probably break compatibility with other applications like Outlook.

Don't you think it's ridiculous that a calendar app like that on the iphone provides no way for you to enter the time zone of an event? Di people with iphones never catch planes? The only way this can be done is for the user to change the default time zone for the whole calendar, enter the event, then restore the original setting.
You'd have thought this would be possible. In fact, support is already there: if you receive an ical appointment file in an e-mail, it's time zone specification will be used. So how come you can't enter it yourself?
The only way I've found so far is to type times into a Notes document, with the GMT offset, eg 2015-12-17 19:00+08:00 for a Singapore time. This is properly recognised as a date, highlighted as a link when you stop editing. The link invites you to create a calendar entry. When you do, annoyingly, the offset information disappears, but the time, adjusted to current local, is correct.
There is definitely room for improvement here.


Mail.app smart mailbox "match any" problem Anyone know why this doesn't work?
If I remove either of the rules I get emails but never if I have both.

Apparently it's a known bug.

  Helpful AnswerRe: Mail.app : smart Mailbox misbehaves with condition "any"
  15-Jun-2011 08:47 (in response to Claude Cauwe)

  That's a known bug.  I've reported it, and was told that it was already something Apple is aware of.  Evidently hasn't been fixed yet, though.

Edit: I've just checked, and the bug appears to be fixed in Mail.app from Lion. At least it works as expected (mich732).

Your rules require the email to contain BOTH yandexbot AND slurp in order to qualify.

It is frustrating because there is no option for either yandexbot OR slurp, which is what I think you want.

Have you tried to put both words in one rule, separated by a comma?  That just occurred to me as a possible solution.


Offline DNS resolution on Sierra I have configured dnsmasq to resolve all .dev domains to 127.0.0.1. This works great as long as my Mac is connected to the Internet (using Wi-Fi or even my iPhone in hotspot mode).

As soon as I turn off my Wi-Fi or there's no coverage (say I'm nowhere where there's no Wi-Fi connection available) I can't access my .dev websites anymore. Safari refuses to connect saying I'm offline. I would have to put my phone in hotspot mode but in this way I can't truly work offline.

Is there a way to have this setup work? I do remember it was working back in the days of Snow Leopard. Even up to Mavericks for sure.

All CLI tools work fine. Cocoa apps don't.

My dnsmasq config is as simple as:

address=/dev/127.0.0.1
domain-needed
bogus-priv

I've got the same problem and tried and searched a lot, but no solution in the horizon.

But Chrome seems to be not affected by this problem, so you can use it when in no-net mode.

I'm hoping for a better solution.


Is it possible to upgrade the camera on an iPhone 4S? I'm a 4S holdout but would like to upgrade the camera (particularly the sensor). Is this possible to do? Is there an improved part that I can order and do the replacement myself?

If you are good enough to design custom cable from say iPhone 5/5S/6 camera sensor to logic board of iPhone 4S then provided there is drivers for that sensor in 4S iOS code it might work.

But no there is no off the shelf solution.

If you had a 4, and wanted a 4S's camera, maybe that might be possible. But a camera from a 5 or newer, no.


How to stop an iPhone from automatically deleting trashed emails over a week old? Not for the first time, I'm adding an IMAP account to my iphone with over a year's worth of email in the Trash folder and my iPhone has deleted them all as the default setting is to purge emails over a week old. I am currently in the process of restoring them from backups.

Strangely, I can't find anyone else complaining about this but it's not OK with me. Is there a way to stop this happening?

To change the setting, go to Settings → Mail, Contacts, Calendars → iCloud → Mail (under Advanced) → Advanced → Remove (under Deleted Messages) and set the time period after which deleted messages are removed.

You should not expect anything deleted to persist at all. You have instructed for it to be deleted and this is what you should expect.

Darren: Yes, the Default setting is 1
week and you don't like it. So change it to Never.

My hubby accidentally deleted a Proposal. Bc his Mac techie set his iPad Mini up (a talented guy but my hubby refused to wait for me to use the Mac techie, an Apple Beta tester, who has been setting up all my devices for years). When I went to my own iPhone which my Mac Wizard synched with all my other 5 devices: 3 iPhones. 2 iPads, a Mac laptop and the desktop, the Wizard KNOWS to change those kinds of silly things Apple does, my own Mail Trash accounts are set to Never delete.

Best of all, there's always AppleCare support if you invested in it as we always do for the maximum allowable period, a Senior Tech Advisor took over the call and case: Apple was able to RESTORE almost all of his Sent emails which had disappeared for no reason. He got back 97 of Proposals, spanning more than 1 year. The emailed Proposol was NOT among them but I knew enough about iOS to go into Advanced Settings to check on what was the time limit on Deleted emails. Sure enough, the techie he used left it in Default (Mac Wizard would have known my hubby's tech skills are poor and would have safeguarded us by changing the Delete settings to Never). My other devices are all set to Never after being in the Mac Wizard's hands for syncing a few months ago. If you call Apple in Cupertino, you usually get better service (fewer mistakes) than making a Genius Bar appointment. If you have a problem communicating with a particular CSR, politely hang up and call back for another one. With Apple, there is usually more than 1 way to solve any problem. One must simply exercise patience and courtesy. Best of luck.


Sparrow for iPhone: Download all mails I use Sparrow for iPhone with Gmail.

Sometimes it confuses me because the unread count for some of my labels doesn't match with the one shown in the Google Mail app (it's lower, presumably because Sparrow doesn't download all mails).

The thing is, that I know the expected unread counts of most labels, and if they differ from the official app, I can't quickly see whether there is something new in or not.

I think for this to work correctly, Sparrow would have to download all mails, or update the unread mail counts from the server instead of the mails it already has on the device.

Is that possible?

Sparrow computes the number of unread emails based on the downloaded emails in the specific folder.
That would be possible to show the number of emails based on the server but some servers shows the wrong information, some servers requires to consume lots of bandwidth to get that information.

No need to waste all your bandwidth on downloading all mails. According to the Sparrow website, there is one button where you can select all your mails as read...


How can I disable CPU throttling and CPU disabling? On a 2011 17" MacBook Pro (i7, 10.6, 16GB ram) I do not have any options in the energy saver preference panel to control CPU throttling.  I need to be able to disable CPU throttling for short periods of time - or at least force OS X to a certain state and stay there so that I can get consistent results from test to test in a performance comparison situation.

Are there methods or apps that allow me to control the energy saver features and particularly CPU throttling and CPU disabling for recent (sandy bridge) Macs?

CHUD does not appear to support this machine (it doesn't correctly report the CPU type) and while I can manually disable hyperthreading and processor cores using /Library/Application Support/HWPrefs/CPUPalette.app it doesn't give me the option to tell OS X not to throttle anything.

This particular machine is a second generation Core i7, which includes Intel's Turbo Boost technology.

This is, essentially, a power management processor that has the ability to change the clock speed and disable/enable processor cores on the fly.  It requires no software intervention, the entire algorithm exists in silicon on the i7 processor itself.

While utilities to control it are starting to appear for windows, Apple doesn't provide a method to disable it, nevermind control it, and I have not yet found any utilities that would allow me to disable or control it on OS X.

So, at this point, the answer is that you cannot disable CPU throttling or power control under OS X for Turbo Boost capable processors - it's all automated inside the processor, and Apple doesn't have a public API to control it.

There are two apps I have found. Both require you to disable Macs kernel level protection.
But you should first also download intel Power gadget https://software.intel.com/content/www/us/en/develop/articles/intel-power-gadget.html Because its cool.

Turbo boost switcher.
https://www.rugarciap.com/turbo-boost-switcher-for-os-x/
works for me.

Volta
http://volta.garymathews.com/installation.html
I found very buggy. I did not get to work. But I have Mojave. I never got it to work.
I have macbook pro mid 2012 - "On the web, Volta developers warn of one that only works on computers with Hasswell and Broadwell processors (between 2013 and 2015) "


What's the shortcut for plus (adding) and minus (removing) by default In list elements inside System Preferences, I see a "plus" and a "minus" to add or remove elements (see photo below for example of Networking System Preferences).

In Windows these are usually associated with Insert / Delete or AltA / AltD. Is there keyboard shortcuts for these keys? I am trying to add keyboard shortcuts in preference without using a mouse but I have to rely on tab key to achieve this.

Alt 0177 ±
Hold ALT key and type 0177 on keypad

https://fsymbols.com/keyboard/windows/alt-codes/list/


Turn off macbook screen when connected to a monitor When connecting my 2017 15' macbook pro to a 4k external monitor it gets a little bit warmer (65° celsius, while it's only at 35 without the monitor) than I want it to be, even if it's just idling.
Since I don't ever use the macbook screen as a secondary screen when connected, I thought I might turn it off completely and hopefully cool the machine down a little bit. Is there any way of doing this? I figured out I could just set the brightness to 0 but will this prevent the machine from actually rendering images?

If the idea was to just hide doubled picture on laptop display, you can just lower brightness level to 0 using fn + F1

There is a possible ay to accomplish this you can first click on System Preferences by searching in spotlight or in the dock then click Misson Controls then Click on Hot Corners and click on one of the corners – it’s up to you which one. Once selected, pull down the menu next to it and choose Put Display To Sleep.Connect the external display to your MacBook and then move your mouse to the corner you selected above. It should turn off only the internal display. Close your MacBook lid and wait a couple of seconds. Lift the lid and it should stay off. You can use the trackpad and keyboard in this way as well.


Which program installs *osxfuse* files in / (root folder)? $ ls -al /*fuse*
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel   25400 Dec 17  2011 /libmacfuse_i32.2.dylib
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel   25400 Dec 17  2011 /libmacfuse_i64.2.dylib
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  388048 Dec 17  2011 /libosxfuse_i32.2.dylib
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel     990 Dec 17  2011 /libosxfuse_i32.la
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel  388080 Dec 17  2011 /libosxfuse_i64.2.dylib
-rwxr-xr-x  1 root  wheel     990 Dec 17  2011 /libosxfuse_i64.la
-rw-r--r--  1 root  wheel     332 Dec 17  2011 /osxfuse.pc

Is it ok to delete them?

After some investigation, the *macfuse* files were mv'ed to root folder by a mis-configured bash script.

The script was supposed to move the *macfuse* files to somewhere else and ln from /usr/local/lib/*.macfuse*, to kill some homebrew warning. Too bad, the destination path of the script was missing and so files were mv'ed to root folder.

It's now fixed by:

rm all symbolic links of *macfuse* from /usr/local/lib/
mv *macfuse* files to a proper folder
ln each file from /usr/local/lib/

I do not know about you, but I would not delete files out of the root, since you might break the dependencies and get problems with that.

Since you system is not generating errors with those files, and you do not know what app on your system is using it I would just leave them in peace.

About:

OSXFUSE is a file management utility for Macs.  Essentially it enables Macs to work better with the file systems of third-party applications.

For example SugarSync needs it, so do others.

  If your Mac doesn't already have OSXFUSE, SugarSync will install the
  latest version along with the actual SugarSync application.  This
  happens automatically.  There is nothing you need to do.

This does not mean you have the sugarsync but just and example.

If you must then:

Here is some reading material.

Scan for Osxfuse app on your system to see where it is located.

Open console and type osxfuse in search, it will show you who called it in the lines before.

It is up to you if you want to just remove the osxfuse and find out which app is now generating errors.

There is also a script here, but I have NOT tested it


Are there any good TouchID enabled banking apps Recently my online savings bank (CapitalOne 360, formerly ING Direct) forced me to change my credentials and now doesn't allow me to use a simple x-digit passcode to open my iPhone app.

I have to type in my strong web password every time - this is stupid; my iPhone is secured with a strong password/TouchID and I shouldn't have to type in my entire website password every time (for access through the web makes sense because anyone could try to access my account from anywhere and TouchID hasn't been introduced on Macs).  So either I have to make my web-password insecure enough so I can remember it every time, or I have to look it up .. every time I use the App!

Looked around and don't see many options - does anyone know of a good bank or credit union (US-based) that has a decent iOS app with TouchID functionality?

Note: thought about using 1password browser/safari plugin, but features like check-deposit don't exist on the mobile site, and require the app.

I am willing to move my account to whatever bank takes my iPhone banking seriously.

After a bunch of searching, decided to move my CapitalOne 360 to Discover Bank.  Only app I found, and they do everything I need so far (cash checks, bill pay, direct deposit).  App has TouchID :)

Still not clear why no other major financial institutions offer TouchID support - even USAA!

Capital One, Chase and AmEx all allow TouchID sign-in.


Which photo websites have iPad support for editing and ordering prints, cards and books? I've tried the Shutterfly iPad app, which allows uploading photos, but doesn't support any other functionality available on the website. And I can't edit photos or design cards and books from the Mobile Safari browswer on the iPad, presumably because those features use Flash.

Are there any other photo websites that provide either a full-featured iPad app (that includes creating cards and books and ordering prints) or an iPad or iPhone app that allows uploading photos and a website that allows one to create cards and books and order prints in Mobile Safari?

Note: I download photos directly from my camera to the iPad, so I'm trying to figure out how to avoid any need for a PC.

Update: Someone (on vark.com) recommended Apple's MobileMe.  But the official features list doesn't show that it supports editing photos and ordering prints, cards, and books.  Does anyone have experience with MobileMe?

Adobe apps which fit your need according to editing photos or graphic designing.
https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/catalog/mobile.html

Canva online editor and app. I haven't used it, but have seen people.
https://www.canva.com

When using an iPad you will have to use an app for anything complex. Mobile browsers aren't built to deliver the desktop experience to mobile devices because they don't function like desktop and laptop computers.

Look for apps that you can use to edit photos, then an app to create cards, then an app to order prints. There maybe a few apps that do all three, but you will be limited in one way or the other regardless of which apps you choose.


What does the mute switch on the iPad do? We got an iPad not long ago, and I noticed that the so-called "Mute" switch doesn't mute the sound for all apps. I am aware of the iPhone mute switch dilemma, but what exactly does the mute switch on the iPad do? Is it like the iPhone's mute switch or is it different?

The iPad mute switch is identical to the iPhone's mute switch except it can't control a ringer/vibration choice. Other than that, it's effect in-app will be identical.

Not all apps respect the 'mute' switch. Apps that have no purpose EXCEPT to be listened to (music apps, youtube, etc.) will not be any different in either switched mode.
Frequently, games or other apps with "ambient music" will silence the music and often the sound effects as well when the switch is set to mute.

It is due to this inconsistency that I choose to set the switch to control orientation lock, and just use the volume controls as needed.

One of the main reasons why I use the mute button is to effectively turn-off the sounds made by notifications. It's handy because you don't have to manually go into Settings and mute the specific notifications for the apps, however the main drawback to using the mute button is that it mutes everything so you won't be able to hear all of the notifications when using it as opposed to manually selecting which notifications to mute in settings.


Can I trust Apple Store's employees with my laptop? This might be a bizarre but crucial question, can I fully trust leaving my laptop in repairs (Genius Bar) while they have full access to it ?

I recently went to the genius bar to get my display fixed, and apparently they asked for my laptop's password just in case they need some "testing" after they're done. Can't they do that as a guest account ?

I got sensitive information on my laptop such as passport copies etc, as well as passwords saved in Safari's keychains for my bank account, paypal, amazon etc ..

The service is due later on today, shall I change my password and ask them to contact me directly if they need something specific ?? They're going to fix in 3 hours so I'll be in the mall whilst they finish.

You can probably trust the average genius team (since the machine will be under the watch of many people while it is out of your possession). From a legal standpoint, you have agreed to the AppleCare Repair Service terms and conditions by signing your property and data over to Apple. For the rest of this discussion on the contract between you and Apple relating to your data, I'll focus on the English north american contract.

It lays responsibility on the person bringing in the equipment to remove all confidential or proprietary information from the system. It also lays responsibility on Apple for having "security measures, which should protect your data against unauthorized access or disclosure as well as unlawful destruction." which a lawyer will focus on should which is more binding than may but less binding than shall/must. It continues with

  You will be responsible for the instructions you give to Apple regarding the processing of data, and Apple will seek to comply with those instructions as reasonably necessary for the performance of the service and support obligations under the Plan. If you do not agree with the above or if you have questions regarding how your data may be impacted by being processed in this way, contact Apple at the telephone numbers provided.

But why not be a bit skeptical and ask why you might trust them. Sure they are probably trained to protect personal data of customers and respect privacy and there is social pressure to not be a jerk with your personal data.

Some devices (iPhones, iPads, Air and retina MacBook) require advanced skills and potentially damage to the equipment to remove the storage module, so this is something worth exploring a bit as not everyone can simply pop out the hard drive during service like older MacBooks allowed.

I would say never give your password until you understand why it is being used and you are fully informed and willing to take that risk by disclosing your secret. I would also say, when I choose to not entrust a specific password, that I've done one of four things when I have something in for service that was in the category of data requiring more protection than none.

Wipe the drive - if things are truly sensitive - I have no business saving time by not securely wiping all data that's sensitive before it leaves my control. (or paying for a higher level of service to ensure confidentiality)
Change the password to either my account or my keychain.
Make a new temporary account for the testing and give that. Sometimes I give them admin rights - other times I do not.
Give them a cell phone number and permission to call me 24/7 if they need the password and can explain why it's needed at that point of the repair.

Basically, If you hand your computer to Apple - you are handing it to someone with the tools and help to bypass all passwords(including firmware and normal physical security of the case) and read the data from the hard drive or just take the storage and keep it. Unless you have FileVault or other encryption (like 1Password) and withhold that pass phrase. A technician could if they wanted, make a full copy of your data and perhaps even go snooping. I would ask the genius (or technician) to help educate you to how security works before you proceed with this repair.

If you had a few extra-secret files, you cold put them into encrypted disc images.

There are many repairs where a password is needed to complete the service if your service involves software changes. Normally, this password is asked for to speed up the repair for you and let them replace any and all parts needed to complete the repair. If they are in and find you need a new motherboard, they could just do that if you give them the extra permission and password they need to do all possible work without stopping to contact you and explain what/why.

In your case, I would simply say you'd like to know a bit more about how they secure your password and your data during service. I would bet that the person asking for your password was lulled by the 100th time they've checked in a machine and forgot to ask you if you had any questions or perhaps missed your uneasiness about what was being asked. Once you've made your concern concrete by asking why they need it - you can then say you'd feel better not giving it and ask if that will either delay or prevent the repair. Any shop I trust will spend time to address these concerns to your satisfaction before they would accept your password. They would also lay out for you how to secure things again after the repair - change these three passwords, etc...

As a class, my opinion and experience is that Apple service technicians are highly professional, trained on privacy of your equipment and information and have thought out very well what, how and why they ask for someone's password. But even if bad things have never happened despite good training and policy, mistakes can and will happen in returning the wrong laptop or theft and your data is at risk when in the shop.

It is you in the end who have the right (and responsibility) to be a little suspicious - especially when it's not clear how your password will be used during a repair. The clearer you can be with your concerns - the more comfortable you will be with your choice to trust the specific team you interact with on a case-by-case basis.

What kind of question is this?

How do you ever know you "can trust" someone?

Trust involves data.  You must have past experience that shows they can be trustworthy.  If you're really worried about it, find a different service: one that you trust.

Or move your sensitive stuff off your laptop while they work on it.  There's a process I imagine that HR does to avoid getting unethical workers in.  It's called an interview.  100% accurate?  No.  Employees will always follow rules?  No.

This is the world we live in.  Protect yourself, but I always extend others the same trust as I would want them to extend me.  I give an appropriate amount of access and I take it on faith that it won't be abused.  If I find there's a breach, I look for how I failed, not how to blame the other.  Because indeed, it is my failure.  I didn't have to give them my sensitive information and full access to it.

EDIT: with regards to "What kind of question is this?" - what I'm getting at, is this is not a question of technical nature.  It is highly subjective and worse still, may inspire fear, without basis, into readers of it.  There's no actual, real answer to be had here: it's about who you're willing to trust.  Keep your security in mind and evaluate for yourself.


I can't write to my flash drive, and it is already in the MS-DOS (FAT) Format. Why? This is my first question on this website. I am using a Mac Air, and I have a flash drive in which I can read from. I am able to copy files from this onto my Desktop, or anywhere on my computer for that matter. I cannot write to my flash drive, however. I know this is a common problem for some people. I looked into their solutions. There is one difference between the cases I've found, and my case. The flash drive's format is normally a 'NT' format, which is a Window format from my understanding.

My flash drive is formatted in 'MS-DOS (FAT)' according to Disk Utility and the 'Get Info' window from Finder. It did tell me I had removed it wrongly before. I am not sure how to fix the flash drive. Do I reformat it? If so, how and what do I format it to. Please let me know.

Thank you in advance for your help,
  ~Rane

Screenshot:

I do have the flash drive selected in the Disk Utility picture.

So, here's what I did after much face-palming and cursing of Apple and their absolute disregard for their users:

From the terminal:

Identify your USB by NAME and IDENTIFIER:

diskutil list

Output is:

/dev/disk3 (external, physical):
#:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE    IDENTIFIER
0:               FDisk_partition_scheme              *2.0 GB     disk3
1:                 DOS_FAT_32 MIXTAPE                 2.0 GB   disk3s1

In this case, NAME=MIXTAPE and the IDENTIFIER=/dev/disk3s1

Now unmount the USB:

sudo diskutil unmount /dev/$IDENTIFIER

Example:

sudo diskutil unmount /dev/disk3s1

Output is:

Volume MIXTAPE on disk3s1 unmounted

Now create the Volume directory - this appears to be the key!

sudo mkdir /Volumes/$NAME

Example:

sudo mkdir /Volumes/MIXTAPE

No output.

Now mount the USB to the Volume:

sudo mount -w -t msdos /dev/disk3s1 /Volumes/$NAME

Example:

sudo mount -w -t msdos /dev/disk3s1 /Volumes/MIXTAPE

No output.

Validate that the USB is now writeable:

touch /Volumes/$NAME/tmp.txt

Example:

touch /Volumes/MIXTAPE/tmp.txt

You should now be able to see that you were able to create the tmp.txt file on your USB in the Finder app or by:

ls -al /Volumes/$NAME

Example:

ls -al /Volumes/MIXTAPE

Sticky tape over the lock switch - sm sq, ~15 mm, diagonally, not over card contacts.


How to sync usernames/passwords between Mac Firefox & iPad Safari? I use Firefox on my Mac and have hundreds of website passwords saved in its password store. I don't even remember my passwords half the time for the various sites that I use. How can I sync the usernames/passwords between the two devices? I'd also like to be able to sync my bookmarks if possible. I use Firefox Sync to keep my various computers in sync, but of course this will not work with the iPad.

For passwords, I highly recommend 1Password.

It will enter the passwords into Safari for iPad and it will sync your passwords with your Mac (if you setup the sync), and then you can search for what you need on the iPad.

If you create a Firefox account, you can sync your bookmarks and passwords across all devices. I created an account so I could access all my bookmarks and password across an android, iOS, windows, and Mac devices. It works brilliantly to sync everything and back up your information.


Messages brings macOS to its knees with soagent and callservicesd When I launch Messages on macOS and attempt to do anything at all with it (or even, it seems, if I just wait a while until a message is received) the two processes soagent and callservicesd start maxing out CPU and don't stop until Messages and they are all force quit.

Messages is in effect now unusable on my Mac. My iCloud account is the only one that syncs contacts and the only one used in Messages (the use of multiple accounts in either case is suggested as a trigger of the bug).

What can I do to fix this? Deleting and readding all of my Internet accounts is not an option.

Update: The trigger for this behavior seems to be Apple's (terrible) spell check. I can use Messages without soagent taking over my machine until I mistype. But one mistyping, and Messages hangs for a while, and then soagent takes off and can't be stopped except by force quitting.

Searching for errors containing "contacts" I get:

error   08:33:58.523010 -0500   accountsd   "Cannot check access to a private account type: <private>"
error   08:33:58.526106 -0500   accountsd   "Cannot check access to a private account type: <private>"
error   08:33:58.561595 -0500   accountsd   "Cannot check access to a private account type: com.apple.account.AppleAccount"

and

default 08:38:32.371678 -0500   AppleSpell  Rebroadcasting external notification ABDistributedDatabaseChangedNotification from process accountsd (<private>)
default 08:38:32.405900 -0500   suggestd    Rebroadcasting external notification ABDistributedDatabaseChangedNotification from process accountsd (<private>)
default 08:39:33.801123 -0500   ContactsAccountsService There was an error while trying to load accounts. We'll return an empty array. Error Domain=NSCocoaErrorDomain Code=4099 "The connection to service named com.apple.AddressBook.ContactsAccountsService was invalidated." UserInfo={NSDebugDescription=The connection to service named com.apple.AddressBook.ContactsAccountsService was invalidated.}

As the issue is related to the spell checking feature I would suggest you to reset text replacement.

You can erase (or save, if learnt spelling matters for you) all files in:

~/Library/Spelling

Do not forget to kill the spell process (something like AppleSpell) but remember to quit Message.app before doing so.

Also try to delete all the entries (if you ever added one) by hitting minus sign in Settings.app > Keyboard > Text Replacement

Note that your problem seems to be closely related to this one (as pointed out in some answers). To sum up the solutions discussed:

Navigate to ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.soagent/Data/Library/Preferences and delete (Drag to Trash) the com.apple.soagent.plist and then Restart the computer.
The second solution was pointed out by Everett.

I think removing/not syncing Google and other contacts also works. In System Preferences > Internet Accounts, uncheck Contacts retaining only iCloud Contacts.

After doing this, I also did https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/321509.


Disable special characters such as Tilde (German keyboard) I am using my Mac to write Java code in Eclipse. Not frequently, but commonly enough I need special characters such as ^, ~ or `.
The problem with these is that I have to press the key(-combination) followed by a space in order to insert the character, since these keys are used to create special characters such as ã or è. However, this is really impractical since I can't use them in Java anyway.

Is there a way to disable this feature globally on OS X Yosemite (german keyboard layout)?

You just need to change input source. Probably you have U.S. International, just change it U.S. and this ugly feature will disappear.


What functionality do 'marks' offer in the El Capitan Terminal? Since upgrading to OS X El Capitan, I've noticed a change in the Terminal: Executed lines show an opening bracket on the left, and a closing bracket on the right, as shown in this screenshot:

Similar questions have been asked here:

https://superuser.com/questions/974714/previous-commands-wrapped-with-square-brackets-in-os-x-terminal
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32888295/why-is-a-being-added-to-my-prompt-after-upgrading-to-os-x-10-11
Changes to Terminal in El Capitan
Why is there a left bracket before my bash prompt?
New Terminal behavior after upgrading to OS X 10.11

Some of the questions are referring to these brackets as marks, and the Terminal's Edit menu has a couple of entries related to marks, for example:

Edit > Marks > Mark as Prompt and Send Return
Edit > Clear to Previous Mark
Edit > Navigate > Jump to Previous Mark

Is there a summary of what these marks can be used for? I have not seen any reference to this new feature in any of the El Capitan feature overviews.

Marks in the Terminal

The new Terminal marks (available starting with OS X 10.11 - El Capitan) are similar to Bookmarks, which are also available in the Terminal, allowing you to mark window positions and then giving you the option of going back at a later point.

Marks (or Bookmarks) don't refer to your command history, but to the scroll buffer used in the Terminal window/tab.

Marking a Line

By default, every time you press Enter in the Terminal window, the line is marked, which is displayed using an opening bracket at the beginning of the line and a closing one at the very end. This default behavior can be turned off using the Edit > Marks > Automatically Mark Prompt Lines menu entry. When this is disabled, you can still manually execute and mark a command using Cmd+Enter (or with the Edit > Marks > Mark as Prompt and Send Return menu entry).

If you have automatic marking enabled and want to run a command without marking it as a prompt, you can do this using Cmd+Shift+Enter (or with the Edit > Marks > Send Return Without Marking menu entry).

Disabling Marks

Automatic marking of lines can be disabled using the Edit > Marks > Automatically Mark Prompt Lines menu entry.

From the command line, the same can be achieved using

defaults write com.apple.Terminal AutoMarkPromptLines -bool NO

Hiding Marks

If you want to use the mark functionality, but don't want to see the brackets at the beginning and end of the line, you hide them using the View > Hide Marks menu entry. This will keep the below functionality intact, but will no longer show the brackets.

Jumping between Marks

Once a line has been marked, you can quickly jump to the previous mark using Cmd+Up or to the next one using Cmd+Down. Similar options are provided for Bookmarks, and for selecting to the next/previous mark:

Manually Marking a Line

In addition to the automatic marking, you can also manually add marks by selecting a line in the terminal output using the mouse, and then selecting the Edit > Marks > Mark as Prompt menu entry (or Cmd+U).

Use Cases

The Marks functionality is useful if some of your executed commands produce lots of output, and you quickly want to scroll to the position where you entered the command. Pressing Cmd+Up will take you there. Pressing it repeatedly will take you further up, while pressing Cmd+Down will take you back down again. The target location is conveniently highlighted as you jump/scroll around.

Selecting Content

The same marks functionality can be used for selecting Terminal output. Pressing Cmd+Shift+Up will select the content up to the previous mark, while Cmd+Shift+Down will select down to the next mark. This is useful when wanting to copy log output or other content from the Terminal.

This functionality is also available from the Edit > Navigate menu while pressing the Shift key:

Summary

Having used this for a couple of days now, I find it incredibly useful. Scrolling up through hundreds of lines of output to find the beginning of the command's output has suddenly become a lot easier.

I wonder why this new feature isn't mentioned more prominently - I haven't seen it in any of the El Capitan walkthroughs. The Terminal help currently does not provide any details on this feature either.

Looks like a form of 'quick/light bookmarking'. I guess disabling 'Automatically mark prompt lines' makes its function more evident. After doing that, Cmd-Enter explicitly saves the mark, and Cmd-Up/Down jumps between them.

As you can convert marks to bookmarks and vice versa, I'd see them as lightweight or second-level bookmarks.


HP Easy Scan - "HP Scanner 3" will damage your computer I have been using a HP Envy 4500 printer with my iMac for 2 years using HP Easy Scan - with no issues.
Today I tried to scan a document, when I press the "scan" button on the app a pop-up appears stating:
"HP Scanner 3" will damage your computer
this file was downloaded on
an unknown date. Report malware to Apple to protect others

A second popup also appeared stating:
Scanner reported an error
Failed to open a connection to the device

To me this indicates the macOs has decided to block the program.
Why has this started happening? and how can I tell macOS that "HP Scanner 3" is no malware.
Edited to add:Using etc built in Apple/macOS scanner (which doesn't have all the features of HP Easy Scan) works so that proves this is not a hardware issue.

This message happens when the certificate used to sign software gets revoked. The OS does check for revocations online so yes it blocks apps even if you don’t update the apps or the OS.
For HP printers and scanners, the problem is the revocation of the certificates HP used to sign their software, not that macOS checks for revoked certificates. Things are working technically how they should, but from a support and culture perspective, I am certain thousands (perhaps millions) of people are realizing “suddenly” that this is built into their OS.

https://eclecticlight.co/2020/10/23/why-have-my-hp-printers-stopped-working-how-to-check-their-software-signature/

The vast majority of HP apps for macOS (which are slightly different than the driver stubs needed for printing) were signed by now revoked certificates.
You are correct in scanning software will not work unless you ignore revoked signed apps or update your software. Here is the package we pushed to thousands of Macs around noon yesterday to address yesterday’s specific certificate revocation.

https://ftp.hp.com/pub/softlib/software12/HP_Quick_Start/osx/Installations/Essentials/hp-printer-essentials-S-5_14_8_4.pkg

Run software updates and you should see updates for HP or worst case see if you can get support from them (they will be very busy the next few days while this all sorts out)

If you want to check your software, here are two apps I love and use to check certificates and signing status.

https://objective-see.com/products/whatsyoursign.html
https://eclecticlight.co/32-bitcheck-archichect/

No, sorry. That particular message does not indicate macOS has decided to block anything. That wording is so clearly wrong, it indicates someone is trying to scam you. Prolly, the scam will involve an instruction/suggestion to replace the "suspect" software.
I've been providing tech support to both Apple and HP users since before there were Macs, let alone macOS, and I've never seen or heard of that wording.
The meaning is exactly as speculated but the wording did not come from either Apple or HP
If you have support contracts call Apple and HP and ask them to ignore the general meaning and explain the specific wording.
Failing that, here in the UK you might take the same Question somewhere like Stormfront… next-best thing to an Apple Store but with reasonable prices.
' "HP Scanner 3" will damage your computer…' is not wording Apple or HP use. If it were genuine, that would at best be Windows-style wording… doubly interesting since malware-merchants tend to wean themselves on Windows.
'this file was downloaded on… an unknown date' is not a detail Apple or HP would be interested in, even if it was their wording. 'from an unknown source' might work - though usually, that's macOS or its affiliates being over-zealous and "warning" the poor User about something that matters not at all.
'Report malware (to Apple) to protect others' might be Windows-style wording, if it were genuine.


Solving: Unable to add server. The plugin encountered an error processing request. (10001) How do I join an Active Directory domain when I get the 10001 error? What is the real cause of the failure?

This question is about the famous failure to join an Active Directory from OS X which seems to appeared somewhere around 10.7 or so, but which seems to still be consistent, even with 10.9 or 10.10 (beta).

Assumptions:

ABC hostname of the OS X machine
EXAMPLE.COM is the domain to be joined (not a .local domain)

Checklist (collected from various sources)

Current OS X username does is admin and does not overlap with an AD username.
OS X hostname resolves with the DNS of the domain to be joined to (ABC.EXAMPLE.COM). Test that it works from other machines too. This is a documented reason for failure to join on Linux machines, tested it myself and solving this solved the problem on Linux.
Machine is on LAN during the Join (better to disable Wireless while doing this)
AD user is allowed to add machines to the domain. In some cases this does not require the user to be an Admin (that's my case)

In progress (bring more info and a full join script with debug logging)

    8544.14278, Node: /Active Directory, Module: ActiveDirectory - Authenticate to LDAP using Kerberos credential - 0
    8544.14278, Node: /Active Directory, Module: ActiveDirectory - verified connectivity to '10.80.0.150' with socket 13
    8544.14278, Node: /Active Directory, Module: ActiveDirectory - Computer account either already exists or DC is already Read/Write
    8544.14278, Node: /Active Directory, Module: ActiveDirectory - Adding record 'cn=nibbler,OU=MAC Machines,OU=EMEA,DC=example,DC=com' in 'example.com'
    8544.14278, Node: /Active Directory, Module: ActiveDirectory - ODNodeCustomCall failed with error 'Plugin error' (10001)

Resources:

https://discussions.apple.com/message/17793818

in my case, I got this error when tried to Bind MacBook Pro to Windows Domain. I had to shorten Mac Computer name by few characters to make it work. I guess there is a limitation in Windows AD on computer names.

firs step Check the date and time of the AD and your compiuter


Turning Off Messages App Vibration While in a Conversation I really don't need my phone to buzz every time I get a text message, so I've done my best to turn off all of the vibrations associated with the Messages app. I have done the following:

In Settings>Sounds>Text Tone I have set Vibration to None.
In Settings>Notification Center>Messages>Alert Sound I have set Vibration to None

After setting both these settings, It's almost working exactly how I want it except for the one most annoying problem of all:

When I have the Messages app running and in the foreground and am in a conversation with someone, if that person replies to the conversation, my phone vibrates. If another person texts me and I do not have their conversation currently open, it does not vibrate!

This is literally the only time a text message will cause my phone to vibrate and it's the main reason that I wanted to turn off all text message vibrations in the first place! Why would I want it to vibrate when I'm currently looking at the conversation as the text comes in?

Does anyone know what combination of settings I can set to achieve what I'm trying for? I just don't want any text message or iMessage to ever vibrate my phone.

I've read both this question and this question which seem related but out of date.

You can make the LED flash instead of Vibrate when you have notifications.

Go to Settings > General > Accessibility and scroll down to 'Hearing' where 'LED Flash for Alerts' resides.

I played with my settings and did some testing with a friend and I think I found a solution.  I did steps 1 and 2 like you did, but I also turned down the volume of the alert down to about 10%.  After I did your first 2 steps I thought it was still vibrating, but as it turns out, the speakers are so good that the alert sound makes it feel like it is vibrating.