How can I tell iTunes to stop playing a song? I do mean stop, not pause. If one navigates to, say, the iTunes Store, the Pause button changes to Stop, but I want something that always works no matter my location in iTunes.

Workarounds (such as AppleScript) are acceptable as long as they aren't too difficult to set up.

The AppleScript for this is pretty simple:

tell application "iTunes" to stop

You can make this easily accessible by creating a Service.

Open Automator and create a new document. Select the Service document type. Set the Service receives: menu to no input. Drag in a Run AppleScript module and paste that code into its text box. Save the service and give it a name.

You'll now be able to activate it by going to the current app's menu and choosing Services-> Stop iTunes (or whatever you named the service).

You can assign a keyboard shortcut by going to System Preferences-> Keyboard-> Services, finding the service (it should be under General at the bottom) and adding a shortcut.

You can't! What I do is either "Quit iTunes" or delete the tract (I only delete if I already have the song on a DVD; I can add it back to my library at a later date).

iTunes is not user friendly. I use it sparingly.


Why does iOS 13 not trust my own Root CA? No matter what I do, I can't get Safari on the iPhone or iPad to trust a certificate from an internal website. I can look at the certificate and it is shown as "not trusted".

I have imported the Root CA, and I enabled trust for the Root CA. This worked before with iOS 12, but no longer seems to be enough.

The tool "SSL Detective" shows a trusted certificate chain. Safari on the Mac has no issues with the website / certificate (of course, the Root CA had to be imported to the keychain first).

Is this a bug in iOS 13.1.1? Or are there even more hurdles that I don't know of to enable an internal CA?

iOS 13 have increased the security regarding these root certificates. It is thus not a bug, but rather that you have to meet higher requirements in order to get this working.

First of all the process for manually trusted the root certificate has been made slightly more complicated to ensure that users do not unwittingly do this. Before you could import a profile and be done with it, but now you have to also open up Settings > General > About > Certificate Trust Settings, and then toggle "Enable Full Trust for Root Certificates" on for the certificate.

In addition to the above mentioned process change, the requirements for the actual certificate have changed as well:

If you're using RSA, the key size must be at least 2048 bites.
The hash algorithm must be SHA-2, and not SHA-1.

You can read Apple's explanation of these new requirements here. Note that most of the requirements are only for "server certificates" - you only need to comply with the new requirements for "issuing CAs".

As per your comments, it seemed that your question title was really incorrect and it wasn't the "root CA" trust you had problems with - it was the server certificate that wasn't trusted. In this case, remember that the server certificate should follow all the new requirements listed in the above mentioned link.

These new requirements are, for all server certificates:

When used for TLS (as you do in Safari), the DNS name of the server must be in the Subject Alternative Name field

Note that this requirement also means that if you're requesting your web page using an IP-address instead of a name, then the IP address (without port number) should be listed in the SAN field.

And for server certificates issued after the 1st of July 2019, also the following two requirements:

When used for TLS, the certificate must contain an ExtendedKeyUsage field with the id-kp-serverAuth OID (i.e. don't use a certificate listed as a client certificate, code signing certificate, email or VPN certificate, etc)
When used for TLS, the certificate must be valid for 825 days or fewer

As it turned out your problem was with the validity period of the certificate being more than 825 days. You'll have to reissue the certificate with a shorter validity period.

The reason for the new validity period requirement is that the global CA/B forum (regulates the industry for digital certificates) set new guidelines where CAs must not issue server certificates with a validity period of more than 825 days after the 1st of March 2018. For more information on who was behind the new rule, you can find the voting information here.

In iOS 13, which had been released on September 19, 2019, Apple has chosen to retroactively invalidate certain certificates that have been issued after July 1, 2019.

In particular, a certificate is affected if it has a validity period of more than 825 days.

If you have such a certificate, it will no longer work after the update to iOS 13.

In this case I would call it a bug in iOS 13.


mirror iPhone 5 display to TV without AirPlay Is there any way I can make anything that is currently shown on the screen of an iPhone 5 to be displayed on a regular TV or projector that has the usual HDMI, composite video, DVI, DSub inputs via a simple cable or adapter and without Airplay/Apple TV?

At the moment, this is currently not possible as existing adapters are not compatible with the Lightning connector (even with current converters). See this link for more information.

At the Apple event on the 23rd October, two new adapters were announced VGA to Lightning and Lightning Digital AV (HDMI). If you read the details on the store page carefully, they both say they support mirroring (in the overview section).


How to get Quick Look to print PDF files double-sided? My default printer's default settings are to print double-sided. It works well in all apps, due to system-wide preferences… with the exception of Quick Look: when I open a file with Quick Look (pressing space bar in Finder), then ask it to print (Command-P), it does not open a dialog and send it directly to the printer, one-sided.

How can I configure this behavior? Or is there another shortcut to get the behavior I want?

If you are on Mountain Lion when u use quick-look and press Command-P to print the document. The "Quick-look App" actually opens the document in "Preview App" and make a simple print.
I advise you to open the document in preview directly to print it double-sided.


Create a shortcut/widget to an Accessibility feature I would like to build a shortcut to General -> Accessibility -> MFI Hearing Devices -> Adam Hearing Devices -> Stream to left hearing device, and toggle that off/on. I've been searching the Shortcuts documentation but can't find a way to do this. Is it possible, maybe with another app?

If you go into General -> Accessibility -> Accessibility Shortcut, is there an option to add 'Stream to left hearing device'?

If so, you can then triple click on the home button and that should (providing you haven't enabled any other accessibility features) toggle the stream.

Unfortunately I do not have a MFI device to test this with, however I do use the accessibility shortcuts frequently.


How to use tmutil delete on Big Sur, APFS I'm using macOS 11 Big Sur and APFS. I sometimes want to remove old backups to save space. I don't want Time Machine taking up the entire external drive.
% tmutil listbackups
2020-10-18-001052.backup
2020-11-06-124150.backup
2020-11-15-173211.backup

% sudo tmutil delete 2020-10-18-001052.backup
Total deleted: Zero KB

I think I have to pass a "path" to tmutil delete. How do I get the path? Or how do I otherwise delete one of the backups listed by tmutil listbackups?

The Big Sur syntax changed, but you need to specify the volume and the timestamp with -d and -t:
sudo tmutil delete -d /Volumes/Time\ Machine -t 2020-11-18-100936

You don't need to specify the Backups.backupdb folder or the backup machine.  I had done tmutil setdestination /Volumes/Time\ Machine previously (where Time Machine is the name of your drive.)

If the goal is to limit the disk space usable by the Time Machine volume created in the single container of an external disk, the easiest way is to limit the size of the APFS Time Machine Volume by imposing a maximum size on it that should not be exceeded (quota option). I have detailed the method here: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/419848/415185
This of course involves recreating the Time Machine volume.


Any way to get the last times the screen was unlocked in macOS? I'd be immensely grateful if someone helped me get the last screen unlocks (such as by going to the Apple menu > lock screen).  With unlock I mean when you lock the screen then you have to unlock it by entering the password.  I guess this is registered in some log file or there's some Terminal command to get this.

I guess this must be possible because, when you use parental controls and you set up a time limit for a user, if the user locks the screen, the time on lock screen doesn't seem to count against the allowed time, which seems to imply that lock screens are registered in some log file??

The following is in a screenshot of an excerpt from the terminal output after running the High Sierra code listed in @JBis's answer:

It appears different versions of macOS use different logs to repersent this. None of which, I have found, show a different log for a "login" or an "unlock". I have answered the next best thing: How to find all logins/unlocks. The following terminal commands will show you the date in time in which a login or unlock occurred.

With the help of this answer, and spending an hour looking through logs I figured this out:

P.S. You can additionally use the helpful --last tag to limit to a specific time relative to now. For example --last 5m would only be the last 5 minutes, --last 5h would be the last 5 hours, and --last 5d would be last 5 days.

macOS Mojave

Check for blocked unlock attempts (Invalid password or Touch ID):

log show --style syslog --predicate 'process == "loginwindow"' --debug --info | grep "LUIAuthenticationServiceProvider activate]_block_invoke"

Explanation: The command will look through the logs and find ones that are from the process "loginwindow" and contain LUIAuthenticationServiceProvider activate]_block_invoke.

Check for valid unlock attempts (Valid password or Touch ID):

 log show --style syslog --predicate 'process == "loginwindow"' --debug --info | grep "LUIAuthenticationServiceProvider deactivateWithContext:]_block_invoke"

Explanation: The command will look through the logs and find ones that are from the process "loginwindow" and contain LUIAuthenticationServiceProvider deactivateWithContext:]_block_invoke.

macOS High Sierra

WIP

Check for blocked unlock attempts (Invalid password or Touch ID):

...

Check for valid unlock attempts (Valid password or Touch ID):

log show --style syslog --predicate 'process == "loginwindow"' --debug --info | grep "LAClient evaluatePolicy:options:uiDelegate:reply:]_block_invoke"

macOS Sierra

Check for blocked unlock attempts (Invalid password or Touch ID):

log show --style syslog --predicate 'process == "loginwindow"' --debug --info | grep "Verify password called with PAM auth set to YES, but pam handle == nil"

Check for valid unlock attempts (Valid password or Touch ID):

log show --style syslog --predicate 'process == "loginwindow"' --debug --info | grep "SecKeychainLogin result: 0, password was supplied"

Open terminal and type

last

this should provide log info

here's the manual page of this command :

last manual


How are Notes Preferences Stored in MacOS? Does the Mac Notes app store its preferences in a plist somewhere, or does it have a different method of storage? It doesn't seem to use ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.notes as most system apps do.
I'm hoping to find a method to script its settings programmatically (i.e. defaults write or similar).
Update
As Alexander noted, Notes is sandboxed, and stores some data accessible via defaults [read|write] com.apple.Notes (case sensitive). However the preference pane settings I'm looking for (specifically the New notes start with setting) don't seem to be saved there. I'm hoping someone else can find where that might be kept.

Notes.app is sandboxed.

Its sandbox is ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/

Its preference list can be found at ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Notes/Data/Library/Preferences/com.apple.Notes.plist

I found an easy workaround. Select the yellow link text and cut. Then position your cursor next to black text, press space then select "paste and match text"
The link or links will paste in as black.


usbmuxd takes all sockets : no other network connection possible Our build bot Mac mini has a big problem since a few weeks:
It seems that usbmuxd will open plenty of sockets and let them linger around.

At some point, there are more than 50000 sockets opened in netstat and lsof, and no other connection is possible on the computer.

In the console, I see a lot of messages like these:

30/10/2014 11:22:25,975 com.apple.usbmuxd[81562]: _SendAttachNotification Device xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx@fe80::xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx._apple-mobdev2._tcp.local. has already appeared on interface 4. Suppressing duplicate attach notification.

Everytime this message appears, 2 sockets are created and linger in "CLOSE_WAIT" state:

$ sudo lsof -i -n -P
usbmuxd   81562       _usbmuxd 1270u  IPv4 0x880c67ed43a38017      0t0  TCP 192.168.0.29:55159->192.168.0.247:62078 (CLOSE_WAIT)
usbmuxd   81562       _usbmuxd 1271u  IPv6 0x880c67ed3a50a4f7      0t0  TCP [fe80:4::xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:xxxx]:55184->[xxxx:xxxx::xxxx:xxxx:xxxx:4529]:62078 (CLOSE_WAIT)
[... 1000's of lines like this]

Note also that this appears to be the case only when my iPhone 4S is not connected through wire to the Mac.
As soon as I plug the device, the count of lingering sockets stops increasing.

Restarting the usbmuxd service seems to drop all open connections, so this is a temporary solution (but we have to do it every hour (!)).

Anybody have a hint on what is happening?

I had the same problem: As soon as iTunes was started, the count of sockets in CLOSE_WAIT grew until the machine was out of sockets.

This must have been a bug in usbmuxd and seems to be fixed in iTunes 12.1: zero dangling sockets for half an hour on my machine.

the issue appears to have been fixed in iTunes 12.1 - at least on my system.


How to add another integrated dictionary to iOS9 I am learning Russian language and I was wondering if I could add a Russian-English dictionary to built-in dictionaries of iOS. I want to be able to look up Russian words in iBooks app without leaving the app.

I use Yandex.Translate by Yandex LLC
https://appsto.re/us/Vr50I.i

Get it from App Store
Set in the settings Russian
In Safari, Chrome, iBooks or somewhere else select word or phrase
Press Share, and choose Translate

Sorry, but I can't add more images because I'm beginner

Tap on the word you want to define to select it and activate the popup.
Tap on Define to call up the dictionary.
Tap on Manage in the lower-left corner.
If you find yourself in the word details screen, check for the < Dictionary selection on the upper-left to back to that screen.
Tap the iCloud button beside any extra dictionaries you want to download.
To delete a dictionary, swipe left and select Delete.

I've found this to be hit-and-miss.  Some dictionaries will show-up and some will not.  I don't know why but hopefully the dictionaries you want will be displayed.


Why would my iPhone 6 be stuck in a dead battery boot loop? Okay, so I have a problem. My iPhone 6 died (it runs a non-jailbroken version of iOS, I used it as a test device for development applications, but I didn't do anything crazy with the firmware of the phone). I plugged the phone in and got an Apple logo, and then it died again. It's on a loop.

What it looks like is happening is, when the phone is charging, it's above 5% battery, so it turns on. However, for some odd reason, the phone doesn't turn on all the way when it boots up; instead, it just shuts off again.

Then the phone goes back to "charging from dead" again. It's in an infinite loop.

Why would this suddenly happen? It's an unjailbroken iPhone 6 running the latest iOS (non-beta, iOS 8.4). How would I fix this?

In such cases I, myself, do a boot into DFU mode which actually uses way less energy mainly because the display stays off.
Then I wait for about a half an hour and then I reboot the iDevice in order to have it properly booted.

P.S. Follow this procedure in order to enter an iDevice into DFU mode:

Make sure your iDevice is plugged into a power source via it's USB cable;
Hold down both Home and Power buttons on the iDevice for about 10 seconds until the screen goes off;
Keep holding the Home button and release the Power button;
Open  iTunes to check if the iDevice is connected. A message saying that an iDevice in a Recovery mode is connected should show up.

I fixed it. Turns out, the phone was on 4.999% when it was starting. When it hit 5.000%, it started up. Because starting up used so much energy, it used more than the cord could provide, causing it to fall back below 5.000%.


What do I need to provide a wired guest isolated access to my home network? I have an AirPort Extreme (APE) with the Wi-Fi setup for guest account and this works just fine.

I was wondering if I could also provide a wired ethernet guest access without letting this user see my computers AND without me having access to his computer while plugged into this network as well.

I do have a "switch".  Could I plug this into my broadband modem (first) then the APE? Would a switch give the isolation I need?

No - you need a specific switch that would create a wired VLAN (virtual LAN) to segment the guest network from the rest of the house's network. VLAN are how the wireless system works as well but the software doesn't have a way to identify or switch one or more than one of the wired ethernet ports to anything but the main VLAN.

If you add a switch (or router) to handle the VLAN - it will need to either have physical ports to differ from the AirPort so you might be better just letting it run your entire network. Cisco makes many of these - mostly for the enterprise / medium business - but there are other options if you don't like the Cisco brand.

Heading onto 2020 there are lots of options and for someone that likes Apple ecosystem and somewhat wants privacy controls, start with Plume and check out other packaged router / management / isolation tools.

https://www.plume.com/

If you want to be a network engineer, The ubiquity line is amazing and their new DreamMachine is the gateway  drug of choice for prosumer networks.

https://www.ui.com/

If the switch is capable of creating VPNs then the switch will do. You will have to configure a VPN in the switch and assign a network block, and assign it to either a port on the switch or if you know the guest user's NIC MAC address, that might be an option as well.

EDIT:

After reading your question again. What you describe will work, if you use a modem with a build-in router. You need DHCP, because your guest will need an IP assigned to their computer. The router will assign an IP to your guest and to the APE. The guest will be on the same IP block as your APE, but outside the APE IP block.


Allow button not working in system preferences I am trying to install some software, (at this particular moment I want to install VirtualBox, although this issue has happened with other software), and I have to click "Allow" in System Preferences, in the Security & Privacy -> General window. When I click on it, nothing happens, and the button and message stays there.

I looked online, and all of the solutions say that there is some kind of program running that captures/forwards mouse clicks and such, and thus I am not "directly" clicking on the Allow button.

The problem is that I don't know of any programs that I'm running that do this.

I am on a Macbook Pro 13 inch 2016 with touchbar, running macOS High Sierra

I am not connected remotely
I have tried restarting my computer
I have tried running the installer through terminal, with and without the sudo command
I have tried right-clicking and clicking on "open" on the .pkg file
I have tried unlocking the system preferences page before clicking "Allow"
I tried re-downloading the .pkg file

This worked for me on High Sierra 10.13.4:

System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Select 'All Controls'

Then:

System Preferences > Privacy & Security > Press 'Tab' until 'Allow' is selected > Press 'Spacebar'

*Note: the Privacy & Security page may need to be unlocked before 'Tab' will work.

*Note: After open Security & Privacy and selecting General tab you should push tab key to select allow button after that push space bar key!

Hope this helps!

Credit to @dansanduleac's answer on GitHub

Using Micah Roth's solution I figured out that it was the fact that I was using a Wacom pad. I looked up the process and it was WacomTabletDriver. To fix this I went into System Preferences > Accessibility > Mouse & Trackpad and checked Enable Mouse Keys. You can then use the following keys to move and the center one (5/I) to click. (Image is from https://support.apple.com/kb/PH18381)


Identify correct guid for diskutil command I lost disk space resulting from a failed Boot Camp run.  I was trying to create a partition to run Windows 10.  Bootcamp failed to make the partition, but the allocated drive space disappeared.  This has been covered in another Ask Different thread where I got apartial solution. The command:
 "sudo diskutil cs revert [Logical Volume guid]"
will recover the space, but I need more details.  See:
Missing Space on Drive using Core Storage after Boot Camp Assistant Failure

MY QUESTION: I need clarification on the command – What is the right value for [Logical Volume guid]? This could be a dangerous command. Here is my diskutil list:

I have a MacBook Pro Retina mid-2012, 8gb memory, running High Sierra.

Any help appreciated,
Rolf

Answer:  Yes, disk space was in fact missing.  "Get Info" on Macintosh HD came up 30gb short.
Solution:  I backed up the whole disk to Time Machine, wiped it, and restored.  Needed some follow-up fixes to things like Google Drive, but all-in-all, it went well.
-Rolf


Using iMac 27" for displaying HDMI output I have an HD satellite box which I previously connected to my old PC.
I am interested in using my new iMac 27" 5K as a monitor for its output.

I did go through the various answers available, but some contradicted others, and many were outdated. Currently, I connected the box's HDMI cable to a Kanex Mini DisplayPort to HDMI adapter and then to the iMac, and as you can guess, it failed to recognize a second display.

Is there any way around it? Either by some software or a different adapter?

Thank you.

It can't be done. The 5K iMacs only have MiniDisplayPort/Thunderbolt output, not input, because DisplayPort 1.2 can't handle video at 5K resolution and so it couldn't be used to drive the iMac as a display in Target Display Mode in the same way as some other iMac models. The 5K display on the iMac can only be used with the iMac, because it doesn't have any inputs capable of accepting a 5K input from another source.

Use an external HD video grabber via USB port.


How to save a .css file from TextEdit or Word? I once read you could force the color of visited links in Safari by adding a:visited { color: #6611cc !important; } in the .css file under Preferences < Advanced. In this way, it will turn every link you've clicked on purple and by so override the actual web design.

I like the idea but I tried to do so, but TextEdit or Word won't allow me to save the file. It wants to add .rtf, .webdesign or other extensions behind the .css.
How can I force to add this to the .css file?

First, use TextEdit, don't use Word.

Before you save your document, select Make Plain Text from the Format menu. (If the menu says Make Rich Text then you are already in plain text mode.)

If you save the document now, you should be able to give it whatever extension you want. Since the file is plain text, you can be sure that TextEdit won't add any additional formatting instructions that will turn it into an incorrectly-formatted CSS file.

Just found this while searching for an answer myself - not sure if it's any help now - 4 yrs later
But you need to go to 'get info' on the text file
And then remove ".txt" from the name & extention
Done!


Connection timeout when sharing internet with password I have a MacBook Pro with Mountain Lion 10.8. I am connecting to the Internet via a USB Internet Key. I enabled internet sharing via WiFi.

My friend has a MacBook Pro with Lion 10.7.

When I enable WPA2 Personal with a password, he gets "connection timeout" when clicking on my network name (even before entering the passcode). When I select "none" for security (no passcode), he has no issues connecting.

By request, I've added a screenshot showing that my only options are WPA2 or 'None':

To try to make things clear let's say you have 2 Mac named:

Alex
Bob

Here is the scheme of your small home network :

Internet --- USB --- Alex --- WLAN --- Bob

If when Bob try to join the wireless network (AirPort or WI-Fi or better WLAN) initiated from Alex,
it gets an immediate rejection, this may be due to a network access
with the wrong security setting.

To check this hypothesis, on Bob, simply go within:

System Preferences… > Network > WiFi > Advanced…

and look at the column Security.

If it is anything else than WPA2 Personal, double click on this network setting to fix it.

If it is already WPA2 Personal, double click on this network
setting to check if the registered password is OK.


How to fix iMac losing Wi-Fi connection again and again? My iMac loses its Wifi connection from minute to minute. To make it active again, I have to run "Assist Me..."  from the Network preferences panel.

This is really, really annoying.

Does anyone know what's going on?

I'm running Mac Os 10.7.4.

You may find that another device is causing interference such as a cordless phone or microwave, or even a neighbour's wifi device. Try changing the channel on your wifi router.

It may be worth using the "alt-trick" to check what's going on with your wifi - when your wifi is connected, mouse over the wifi icon in your system tray, hold down the alt key then click on it. You should see some additional info, like the following:

Keep an eye on the Transmit Rate and RSSI; if they're poor it could be a sign that you need to change the wifi channel.

You can also use Lion's hidden diagnostic app to see what could be causing problems for your wifi.

Change your OS to either 10.6.8 or to 10.8.4

It will help


Can I install any iOS version I wish by picking and choosing which firmware to restore? I'm trying to downgrade my iPhone from the current iOS to an older one, as per this question.

But every time I try, I always receive this error:

  The iPhone could not be restored. This device isn't eligible for the requested build.

I have tried many times with and without DFU mode. Any ideas regarding this?

Downgrading or upgrading to a no longer current version of iOS is generally not possible once Apple stops signing the old software, as is needed when iTunes is preparing to install or restore an iOS. This signing window typically is closed within days of a new version shipping.

Putting a newer iOS on older hardware that never even supported that OS is near impossible.

As part of the iOS restore process, iTunes has to check with Apple's servers to 'sign' each install of iOS just like App Store apps must be signed to run. Once a new version comes out, Apple stops signing previous releases to keep everyone running the same iOS version and to prevent you from jailbraking your device again after restoring by forcing you to do an update.

If you had previously Jailbroken your device on iOS 6, it may be possible, providing you have saved your 'SHSH blobs' which can 'sign' the install instead of Apple. See this article for some general information around this topic.

This wikipedia page contains a list of iOS devices & the latest iOS they can support - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_iOS_devices

You have to download the wanted IPSW file.
Open iTunes and shift+click on "restore"
Go to your file you downloaded and click on it.
iTunes will do the rest.
If you had the beta of iOS 7 you may be able to go back to iOS 6.1.3/4.
If you have iOS 6 SHSH blobs you may also be able to get back iOS 6. But if
you don't, you have to download iOS 7.0.


How can I enable syntax colouring in vim using Terminal? I am new to mac

I want to change the look of my Terminal.app window so that it look like Ubuntu's terminal

How can I configure my Mac terminal so that code in vim look colourful?
I.e. such that data type, special functions, header files have a different colour.

Run :syntax on inside vim or add syntax on to your .vimrc.

You might want to consider iTerm 2 as well - it's a great terminal emulator and it will let you go full screen and will let you have a greater number of colors.


Can I use an iPhone 6s in Sri Lanka if I purchase it in Dubai? I am going to purchase an Apple iPhone 6s 16GB from Dubai. And I'll use it in Sri Lanka. The carrier I'm going to use is 'Dialog' in Sri Lanka. They has 4G LTE(band 3-1800MHz). There are variations in iPhone models. And also I've heard that there are locked and unlocked iPhones. This is really confusing for me. These are my questions:

What variation should I buy(which works in Sri Lanka)?

Unlocked or Locked one?

If you buy a LOCKED phone, you can only use it with the carrier to which it is locked. An UNLOCKED phone is usable on any carrier in any country, assuming it uses the same frequency bands. You would need to purchase a local SIM card for every network on which you need to use the phone.

Fortunately the iPhone 6s supports more bands than almost any other phone, so it should work in almost every country.

For this flexibility, there is a price - an unlocked phone is usually much more expensive than a locked phone. But for the ability to use it anywhere in the world, that additional price might be worth it.

unlocked one should be used as a locked one is carrier specific


Can the iOS Dropbox app download all contents of all folders to my iPad? Is it possible to force Dropbox on iPad to sync all files?

(That is, to make it working it the same way as it does on a laptop/computer.)

As far as I see, it saves only files marked as "Favorite". Adding everything manually does not seem convenient...

Not really. It isn't designed to store everything, but does try to cache files you have downloaded and save them as long as the iOS device doesn't run low on space and tell apps to throw away files that can be re-downloaded.

Keeping more than a Gigabyte of free space on the filesystem will keep iOS from purging the files dropbox has downloaded.

I stumbled upon this thread while looking for a real sync with DropBox.
Currently there's a free Documents app to do this:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/documents-5-fast-pdf-reader/id364901807?mt=8


Is there a Google Calendar Mac Desktop App? Is there a native OS X app that allows me to see my Google calendar?

Yes, the built-in Calendar app lets you add them.

For your Mac:

On your computer, open Calendar
In the top left corner of your screen, click Calendar > Preferences.
Click the Accounts tab. On the left side of the Accounts tab, click +.
Select Google > Continue.
Enter your Gmail address, password, and verification code (if you have one).
Click Accept.
On the Accounts tab, choose how often you want Apple Calendar and Google Calendar to sync.

For more information, see https://support.google.com/calendar/answer/99358

There are a few new GCal apps on the App Store (all paid though).


Can Touch ID for the Mac Touch Bar authenticate sudo users and admin privileges? Does Touch ID for the MacBook Pro Touch Bar support elevating admin privileges in macOS?
Somewhat differently, can the Touch ID give sudo access in Terminal?

I wonder this because I'm considering getting a YubiKey which can do string input to password fields, but Touch ID for Macs may render it unnecessary.

To allow TouchID on your Mac to authenticate you for sudo access instead of a password you need to do the following.

Open Terminal

Switch to the root user with sudo su -

Edit the /etc/pam.d/sudo file with a command-line editor such as vim or nano

The contents of this file should look like one of the following examples:

# sudo: auth account password session
auth       required       pam_opendirectory.so
account    required       pam_permit.so
password   required       pam_deny.so
session    required       pam_permit.so

# sudo: auth account password session
auth       sufficient     pam_smartcard.so
auth       required       pam_opendirectory.so
account    required       pam_permit.so
password   required       pam_deny.so
session    required       pam_permit.so

You need to add an additional auth line to the top so it now looks like this:
# sudo: auth account password session
auth       sufficient     pam_tid.so
auth       sufficient     pam_smartcard.so
auth       required       pam_opendirectory.so
account    required       pam_permit.so
password   required       pam_deny.so
session    required       pam_permit.so

Save the file. (Note: this file is normally read-only so saving your changes may require you to force the save, e.g. vim will require you to use wq! when saving)

Also note that pam_smartcard.so may not be present on older MacOS versions.

Exit from the root user or start a new terminal session.

Try to use sudo, and you should be prompted to authenticate with TouchID as shown below.

If you click 'Cancel,' you can just enter your password at the terminal prompt. If you click 'Use Password' you can enter your password in the dialog box.

If you SSH into your machine it will fall back to just use your password, since you can't send your TouchID fingerprints over SSH.

Note:
See answer by user Pierz below if you're using iTerm, as there's a setting you need to explicitly change to enable this feature.
Note:
Recent MacOS updates may remove the entry. If TouchID stops working for sudo then check if the entry was removed and add it back in, following these instructions again.

One thing to mention is that you should first change the file permission then try to make changes:
sudo su -
chmod u+w /etc/pam.d/sudo

Adding this line at first line:
# sudo: auth account password session
auth       sufficient     pam_tid.so # << Add this here ;)
auth       sufficient     pam_smartcard.so
auth       required       pam_opendirectory.so
account    required       pam_permit.so
password   required       pam_deny.so
session    required       pam_permit.so

Then revert it back file permissions when you are done with:
chmod u-w /etc/pam.d/sudo


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

I have downloaded the program and can confirm that the exe file is indeed an ordinary exe file - and definitely not a script file for Linux or anything of the sorts.
I would assume that when the author mentions that the project is cross-platform, and allows running on Linux and macOS - he means that you could install the Mono Project and run the program that way.
However executing the exe file via mono like this:
mono dxDD2RenPy.exe

doesn't actually work. It does work with other .NET cross-platform exe files though.

The file is probably just a script file for Linux and may run fine using the command line. From the command line type chmod +x filename and the just type the filename or ./filename.


Macbook Pro GPUs: overheating and noisy fans I'm sure everyone with a Macbook Pro has experienced the heavy heating and the fans sounding like they are about to take off. It's totally understandable when I run a GPU-heavy process such as video editing or gaming. My problem is that this is happening even with simple tasks such as web browsing or watching a video...

My understanding is that it is due to the Intel CPU doing all the work to save energy. Am I wrong? Then why even have a dedicated GPU! It's a shame that the algorithm to switch from CPU to GPU is not smart enough to avoid the overheating issues.

So I have two questions:

I've read that the Automatic Graphics Switching box in Parameters>Energy Savers lets you control if you want CPU/GPU or only GPU for all graphical computations. In the CPU/GPU mode, some algorithm (whitelist?) decides whether an application should run on the Intel or Dedicated GPU. Apparently it can't tell that Chrome should run on GPU rather than burning my laps... Is there a way to edit that list?
What is your software of choice to monitor/control this behavior?
Do you manually check/uncheck the box throughout your day? I'm trying out iStats Menus which seems great for monitoring usage. I've heard about gfxCardStatus, is it usefull? And finally i've read about various fan control apps but is it really a good idea to prevent the CPU from cooling down?

This seems to be a case of Apple trying to hard to simplify something that really wasn't complicated: nowadays if you're buying a laptop with a dedicated GPU you probably understand well enough the difference between the Intel on-chip GPU  and a dedicated GPU performances to make this kind of decisions.

Thanks for your help!

I'm sure everyone with a Macbook Pro has experienced the heavy heating and the fans sounding like they are about to take off.

Sure, but depending on what the Macbook is doing it could be normal behaviour.
Also some Macbooks heats more than others. What's yours?

Anyway, there are two possible situations:

1) you always experienced heating and loud fans:

I would say it's normal behavior (but you can always try what suggested at (2) if you feel it's really too much heat/fans)

2) heating and lound fans started at some point during the life of your macbook:

Try to fix the problem

make sure the macbook can cool down normally (fans exhaust grid are not obstructed)
reset the SMC (see other answer)
use Activity Monitor to check if there is a connection between overheating and specific application/processes
bring the macbook to apple service center

  My problem is that this is happening even with simple tasks such as web browsing or watching a video...

Web browsing pages that use Flash or intensive JavaScript and/or watching videos can be CPU/GPU intensive tasks.

  My understanding is that it is due to the Intel CPU doing all the work to save energy. Am I wrong?

Yes, you're wrong.

Macbooks Pro have an integrated GPU (integrated into the CPU) and a discrete GPU.

The difference between the two is that the integrated GPU heats less, drain less power but has limited features and computational power than the discrete.

When possible the OS uses the integrated GPU to save energy. When not possible (ex. you're using photoshop, you attach an external display,... ) the discrete is used and the MBP heats more.

You can see what GPU is used with gfxCardStatus

The Energy Saving GPU option tells the OS that you want to use the integrated GPU whenever possible.

I first quit the dropbox app, because according to the activity monitor, that app used a lot of CPU. It helped, the noisy fans were a bit less erratic, but still they went on making noise and my mbp got hot. After I deleted all obscure apps (that sometimes come with visiting a website), it is all back to normal.


"Couldn’t create temporary file." error when erasing free space on external disk I was trying to wipe the free space of an external USB 3.0 disk in OS X (Yosemite) disk utility. However, I receive the following error:

EDIT: The disk is formatted as GUID / Mac OS Extended (Journaled) and 1.1 of 2.0 TB are occupied.

Do you know what the cause / solution could be? Disk Repair returns no errors.
Do you know of a terminal command to wipe free space?

Thanks!

My first thought would be that it is a permissions error of some kind…

Either

the Drive is formatted as NTFS or ExtFS etc
The System doesn't have write permissions to the device itself

For the first, the simplest, if not cheapest solution would be something like Paragon NTFS or ExtFS or Tuxera NTFS

If it is a pure permissions/ownership issue, then for a removable drive the simplest fix would be to set it to 'Ignore Ownership' from the Get Info window. This should be sufficient to allow the system to write to the drive in order to securely erase.

I had this problem / error message, but it turned out that Disk Utility HAD actually erased free space on the drive anyway.


Reset the PMU on macbook when the left shift key is dead I have a fairly new white Macbook, the kind with a built-in, non-user replaceable battery, model MacBook6,1.

The thing's Power Management Unit is clearly on the fritz-- the battery indicator says "no batteries available" (while clearly running off battery power), the magsafe adapter won't light up, and the fan is constantly running at full bore.  According to Apple, this calls for resetting the PMU as follows: "On the built-in keyboard, press the (left side) Shift-Control-Option keys and the power button at the same time."

Here's the catch: The left side shift key, the control key, and the left side option key are all dead, due to an unfortunate beer spill some months ago.  The other shift key works, but the directions clearly call for holding down the LEFT HAND Shift-Control-Option keys, all of which are dead.

Are there any other ways to reset the PMU, or am I SOL?

If you feel confident enough the only other way I know is to take the MacBook apart, remove the battery, hold down the power button for 5+ seconds and then put it all back together again. Sounds simple but it could get messy if you haven't taken one apart before.

If you do take it apart you could use this time to try and fix the the keyboard and give the poor thing a clean inside...

you click Input language on the right top area and then click show keyboard viewer. Then you can press the keyboard by using your mouse.


How to Change Hyperlink Color in macOS Notes The hyperlinks in Notes on macOS are essentially yellow on white, as shown in the screenshot below.

I would like to change the color to any darker color to improve the contrast, but how? I have tried to highlight hyperlinks to change their color, but the color remains the same even after selecting a color for them.

As someone who's done a lot of UX (user experience) work over the years, I have to admit I was very surprised when I first saw the hyperlink colour in Apple's Notes app. Not so surprised that someone would actually propose it, but very surprised it passed through all the review processes at Apple.

Anyway, I do have a couple of workaround options that may help you until Apple addresses this, as I fully expect they will at some point. These options are far from perfect, but if the default hyperlink colour is enough of an issue, they are worth considering.

Hyperlinks displaying the actual URL

If your hyperlink text displays the actual URL (e.g. "apple.stackexchange.com" instead of "Ask Different") you can do this:

Right-click on the yellow link
From the context menu, select Remove Link

You will notice that the link text now changes to black* and the actual link no longer activates by just clicking on it. However, you can still use it as a hyperlink by selecting it (just double-click) and then right-clicking to select the Open URL option from the context menu. If you prefer, you can also change the text colour to something you prefer.

*If the URL is a full URL (i.e. it starts with http: etc), then you will need to manually change the text colour from the default yellow after removing the link.

Hyperlinks displaying words

If your hyperlink text displays words instead of an actual URL (e.g. "Ask Different" instead of "apple.stackexchange.com") you can do this:

Right-click on the yellow link
From the context menu, select Edit Link...
This will open up the Link Destination window with the full URL already selected. Copy (commandC) or cut (commandX) the link and click on the OK button.
In your note, Paste (commandV) the URL over the original hyperlink text
Right-click on what is still a yellow link
From the context menu, select Remove Link

Once again you will notice that the link text now changes to black* and the actual link no longer activates by just clicking on it. However, you can still use it as a hyperlink by selecting it (just double-click) and then right-clicking to select the Open URL option from the context menu. If you prefer, you can also change the text colour to something you prefer.

*If the URL is a full URL (i.e. it starts with http: etc), then you will need to manually change the text colour from the default yellow after removing the link.

I am trying to manage hashtags using notes, cutting and pasting. The link color and function is a pain for this job. One workaround is to paste the text in using Paste Matching Format, this will strip out the links automatically.


In Mavericks, is it possible to use Enhanced Dictation from the command line? A use case is: I have a recording in AIFF or MP3 format, and I'd like a text version of it as Enhanced Dictation would have recognized it if I had spoken it myself.

Copy the MP3 file to an iPod & play it into Dictation via line in source (or the mic?)... Not the answer to your question, but it might work for your task :)


How to permanently put TextEdit in the Open with... menu list? I'm a developer and often dealing with unusual file types. If I want to open one of these files in TextEdit, I have to start it first and then open the file with it, or drag the file to the TextEdit icon.

Is there a way to permanently put the TextEdit.app into the Open with... menu list no matter what file type I'm looking at?

Of course this procedure will be useful for whatever text editor you choose if TextEdit isn't your cup of tea.

The only way to do this with all file types is to create a service in automator, which actually should make things easier for you.

Open Automator and select "Service".
In the "Service receives selected..." dropdown, change it to read "receives selected files and folders in any application"
Select Utilities from the library menu in the left pane and double-click "Run Shell Script"
Change the "Pass Input" dropdown to "as arguments"
Delete the default script and replace with the following:

if [ -f "$1" ] ; then
    open -a "TextEdit" "$1" ;
fi

Save this file as whatever you want it to show up as in your contextual menu, something like "Open With TextEdit" and you're done, you'll now have the option to open any file with text edit.

It won't be in the open with menu, it will be a separate item in the contextual menu grouped with any other services you have running.

On a side note, if you're developing on a mac you should really think about using a better text editor like TextMate or TextWrangler or Sublime Text, some of these even add the service for you to save you doing all of the above.

Just use the option "-e" to open with TextEdit: open -e yourfile.whatever and it'll open it in TextEdit.


All calls from Viber and Skype are appearing as normal calls after updating to iOS 10. How do I disable this? After updating my iPhone 6 to iOS 10, all calls coming from Viber and Skype are appearing in the calls list as normal phone calls. Also, when I'm on a Viber call and a real phone call comes, I don't get notified. Before iOS 10 it used to mute Viber and give me a notification than someone is calling.  How do I return back to these settings?

I don't think it is possible to revert back to old settings now. I have opened a ticket with apple to get the users freedom to either use or not use. The setting like Setting -> Phone -> Service provider makes perfect sense. Lets see if apple provides this capabilities or not.

In IOS 8.0.1, call logs can be deleted for everyone in viber, after that you wont be able to see calls or messages that has been made :)


Any iOS apps for me to talk to people just nearby? I want app for iPhone or iPad, which can search for people within 100 meters (probably need to use Bluetooth), and is able to exchange information with them or talk to them directly.

Does anyone know of such an app?

Have you tried Bluetooth Chat?

  With this little app you can chat via Bluetooth with other iPhone and iPod Touch (2nd Gen) users nearby.

Customer reviews are good, so it seems to be the solution you seek.

Yes, there is a web app that does just that, it is called DistaLab and is accessible from www.distalab.com.

It is only a web app, but I think they are going to release the app soon as it's getting quite a bit of attention.


How to move a window to another space without using the mouse? I use spaces for having multiple desktops, but often need to move a program from one space to another.

I am aware of the various ways to do that with a mouse:

Click-and-hold on the title bar of window and drag to edge
F8 to show all Spaces and drag to desired location
Click-and-hold on the title bar, and use Ctrl+# or Ctrl+Scroll Arrow

But have not been able to find a keyboard-only method. I use Linux for one of my primary workstations which has this ability and I would LOVE to use it with OSX as well.

While dragging a window, press key combo to move window to numbered space:

Control + 1
Control + 2
Control + 3
etc ...

EDIT: For Lion, I had to go to System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Mission Control and enable these hotkeys.

Shiftit is awesome...

I use shiftit which is an open-source tool for resizing/moving windows.

To move a window you can click_hold_window + CTRL + space_number


What is the best surface to use the Magic Mouse on? I got the Magic Mouse along with my MacBook, tried using it for awhile, but I got disenchanted with it quickly. Instead of having sliding pads, it has two hard plastic bars, which make it unpleasant to use on most surfaces. I`ve tried it on my wooden table (little bit of dirt scratched it up), paper (too much friction), cloth-covered mousepad (has some issue with correctly tracking), even on the surface of my MacBook (awkward), but none of them seem to be working too good. What surface was the Magic Mouse designed to work on, and which surfaces are really good for using it?

Basically you need a gaming surface, some of them was made specially for use with Apple mouses:

Cupertino Mouse Pad — $15
They say it's made by company located at Cupertino, California. Also it works (as a surface).

MacPadd — $25
It's basically just a piece of finished aluminum and I guess it will feel the same as a top surface MacBook.
Tom'sHardware says that something's weird with their delivery, but maybe it's b.s. It's also reviewed on Youtube.

Just Mobile AluPad — $45

They clim it's made exclusively for Apple products and there are a couple of positive reviews on Youtube for this one here and there. They say that the surface is pleasant on touch.

a Better Table

Consider finding a better table than one that you use now. Just grab your MacBook and mouse and go furniture shop that you like and find a table which fits you the best. You will get biggest possible working surface and as a bonus you can improve  ergonomics of your workplace. And of course keep your table clean (I know it's hard. I have a cat:).

The perfect surface is simly a sheet of printer white paper laid on top of your
regular mouse pad 1/8" thick rubber pad . FAST and ZERO effort !


I'm suffering from the excessive CPU use from kernel_task My mac recently has gone wild with kernel_task. It slows down the computer, the fans blow wildly for around ten minutes after startup (shut down, restart or sleep). I did an EtreCheck scan and got these results and don't know what to think of them. Any help?

 Hardware Information:
MacBook Pro - model: MacBookPro9,2
1 2.5 GHz Intel Core i5 CPU: 2 cores
4 GB RAM

 Video Information:
Intel HD Graphics 4000 - VRAM: 1024 MB

Audio Plug-ins:
BluetoothAudioPlugIn: Version: 1.0
AirPlay: Version: 1.9
AppleAVBAudio: Version: 2.0.0
iSightAudio: Version: 7.7.3

 Startup Items:
FanControlDaemon - Path: /Library/StartupItems/FanControlDaemon

 System Software:
OS X 10.9 (13A603) - Uptime: 4 days 15:12:46

Disk Information:
APPLE HDD HTS547550A9E384 disk0 : (500.11 GB)
    EFI (disk0s1) <not mounted>: 209.7 MB
    Macintosh HD (disk0s2) /: 499.25 GB (398.85 GB free)
    Recovery HD (disk0s3) <not mounted>: 650 MB

MATSHITADVD-R   UJ-8A8

   USB Information:

Apple Inc. BRCM20702 Hub
    Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller

Apple Computer, Inc. IR Receiver

Apple Inc. Apple Internal Keyboard / Trackpad

  FireWire Information:

  Thunderbolt Information:
Apple Inc. thunderbolt_bus

 Kernel Extensions:

 Problem System Launch Daemons:

 Problem System Launch Agents:

 Launch Daemons:
[loaded]    com.adobe.fpsaud.plist
[loaded]    com.adobe.SwitchBoard.plist

 Launch Agents:
[not loaded]    com.adobe.AAM.Updater-1.0.plist
[loaded]    com.amazon.sendtokindle.launcher.plist

 User Launch Agents:
[loaded]    com.google.keystone.agent.plist

 User Login Items:
iTunesHelper
gfxCardStatus
uTorrent
Google Drive
CrossOver CD Helper
Plex Media Server

 3rd Party Preference Panes:
Fan Control
Flash Player

 Internet Plug-ins:
AdobePDFViewer.plugin
Default Browser.plugin
Flash Player.plugin
FlashPlayer-10.6.plugin
QuickTime Plugin.plugin

 User Internet Plug-ins:

 Bad Fonts:
None

 Time Machine:
Time Machine not configured!

  Top Processes by CPU:
     2% hidd
     2% Safari
     2% WindowServer
     2% com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
     1% EtreCheck
     1% fontd
     1% Activity Monitor
     0% sysmond
     0% ps
     0% com.apple.WebKit.Networking

   Top Processes by Memory:
152 MB      com.apple.WebKit.WebContent
143 MB      Safari
106 MB      com.apple.IconServicesAgent
66 MB       WindowServer
61 MB       CalendarAgent
57 MB       SystemUIServer
57 MB       com.apple.internetaccounts
57 MB       Dock
53 MB       mds_stores
49 MB       com.apple.dock.extra

  Virtual Memory Statistics:
1.03 GB     Free RAM
2.01 GB     Active RAM
409 MB      Inactive RAM
576 MB      Wired RAM
327 MB      Page-ins
0 B         Page-outs

If you can I would recommend setting up Time Machine on your system. If/once you have a backup of your files then my suggestion would be to use Onyx http://www.titanium.free.fr/ for your OS to clear out some caches, logs, and day to day junk that piles up.

Getting rid of logs, caches, and Spotlight indexes can help your system repair itself.

Once Onyx has run its course and the system has rebooted wait for spotlight to rebuild and see if kernel task still is eating up your CPU. If it does then I would recommend reinstalling the OS. (That's why I like making sure you have a backup of your files before hand)

Fixing Excessive FONTD CPU usage in Mavericks

Open application “Font Book” in /application/utilities.
Under File Menu choose “Restore Standard Fonts…” this will remove
all not apple fonts.  Reboot
Open Apple’s “App Store”
Search for “Mavericks”
Select Download and reinstall.


Why is Facebook app for iPhone so slow to load the content? Why is Facebook app for iPhone so slow to load the content (in particular posts comments) and it sometimes doesnt retrieve the posts at all?

The website works quite well and fast but the app is significantly slower, using the same wireless network.

Is something wrong in my phone or does anyone have hints how to debug something like this?

The predominant theory as to why the current Facebook app for iOS is so sluggish is that the app:

suffers from its heavy use of JavaScript in a UIWebView component which does not currently benefit from the "Nitro" Javascript engine which is available to Mobile Safari
is poorly designed

The app uses very little native code, and thus most of your interaction takes place within a UIWebView displaying HTML and executing Javascript.

Essentially, anywhere where an app is displaying something that looks and acts like it's "embedding a web browser", that's a UIWebView.

In very simple terms, the Nitro Javascript engine makes Javascript "faster".

iOS 4.3 brought the Nitro engine to Mobile Safari, and IOS 5 brought the Nitro engine to web shortcuts launched from the home screen. This is one potential reason why your use of Facebook within Mobile Safari seems so much more responsive.

As of iOS 5.1, UIWebView does not benefit from the Nitro Javascript engine.

This issue has been recently discussed on the Mobtest blog, "Here’s why the Facebook iOS app is so bad (UIWebViews and no Nitro)" with a number of comments in the related Hacker News thread.

Within the current app, Facebook has recently increased their promotion of additional iOS apps:

Facebook Messenger
Facebook Pages Manager
Facebook Camera

These apps -- ranging from "old news" to "brand new" -- seem to do a good job of focusing on doing a single Facebook-related task well, in some cases adding support for something which the general Facebook iOS app does not even support.

If you want to click FB links use the web version (at least until FB improves its design.)


How do I know which message is from which person when their initials are the same? This is a really dumb question, but unless I add a picture to a person's contact card, how am I supposed to know which person a message came from in a group thread when their initials are the same?  My mom and my sister have the same initials and I don't have pictures of them in my contact cards.  I have them each of them in a group chat in Messages.app on my iMac.  Their nicknames are shown in the "To:" at the top and in the selected conversation in the panel on the left, but when they each send messages, the message bubbles all come from a gray circle with first & last initial.  How am I supposed to know which one of them sent a message in the group chat?

Hovering only shows the time a message was sent.  I've search the menus, the preferences, and google and nothing shows me how to differentiate the two without adding a photo to their contact cards.  I've tried resizing, double-clicking the thread to open in a new window...  Is there a way to show their full or even just their first name instead of their initials where the message bubbles are?

The easiest option would be to simply add their photo to their contact card. If you don't want to add their photo for some reason, you can add any other photo to represent them.

Open the Contacts.app in Applications.

Find Mom in your contacts ,

and click Edit.

Change the highlighted text to something like MOM.


What are possible reasons for external keyboard input lag? I have a "Microsoft Sculpt Ergonomic" keyboard, connected with USB to my Mac 13" (from 2018). The keyboard input starts to lag at some random times. I have been using the keyboard on my older Mac 15" (from 2015) for more than a year and never had a problem. Both Macs are with the same OSX version (Mojave 10.14.4).

I thought the problem is in the batteries (it uses 2xAAA batteries). Changed them with brand new ones. Issue persists.

I tried connecting a Magic Apple keyboard and at moments when the Microsoft keyboard lags, the Apple one does not.

Most often the problem happens within the browser, but continues persisting in Slack, IDEs and other apps. It is strange, thought, that the lag occurrences are not connected to higher load on the CPU or memory.

The lagging sounds like wireless interference to me.

Many devices can be the culprit; wireless routers, displays, other Bluetooth and WiFi enabled devices, and even devices attached via USB 3.0 cables with poor shielding.

The closer you can get your USB dongle to the keyboard, and the further it can be from sources of interference, the better. A good USB extension cable might be what you need to take care of this issue.

I started having issue this morning, mine was resolved by setting Key Repeat to off in keyboard setting.


How do I save multiple images from my Dropbox app to my Camera Roll I need to save multiple photos from my Dropbox to my camera roll. From what I can see you can only do one at a time. Is there a way to this by folder? I have 60+ images and and doing one at a time will be tedious and time consuming.

Maybe try the Carousel app? They're about to discontinue it in March, but it should still be available. From what I recall, you should be able to select multiple images in that app, and you might be able to save them to your Camera Roll from there.

For iPad or iPhone users, get free app called Documents.
Takes a little bit to work out but will do what you want.

Please note, this will take photos from your Dropbox and place them back on your camera roll. They will no longer appear in Dropbox.

Download “Documents” from App Store (free).
Open app, look to L/H side for “+Add”, make sure you can see YOUR Dropbox.
Click on Dropbox and sign in.
Once signed in find the file you want to go to your camera roll.
HINT: Do not delete any photos or files in here because to do so will also delete them from Dropbox.
Top R/H corner click on “sync”.
Click on folder to open.
Click on “Select” then select photos you want to go to camera roll or click on “Select All”.
L/H column click on “Move”.
Pop up press “Photos” then “above Photos”.
Photos will go to your camera roll.
This is not hard to use once you get used to it and is the only app I could find to bulk move photos from Dropbox.
Otherwise you do it one by one.


Strange Keychain Popups in Safari I just upgraded my Mac from El Capitan to Sierra, and now I'm getting some weird keychain popups in Safari.

When I browse Safari, if I visit a site for which I have credentials stored, a dialog pops up asking me whether or not to allow Safari to use the keychain info for an entirely different URL than the one I'm currently visiting (the url is a development server of mine). Here's a screenshot of it happening on Stack Overflow:

Translation by @owlswipe: Safari wants to access confidential information stored in [website] in your keychain with buttons for Always Allow, Allow, and Deny.

Then it gets weirder: when I click "allow", a second prompt appears, requesting an administrator's password and mentioning SteerMouse, a system settings extension for advanced mouse settings that I've installed.

Translation by @owlswipe: For security reasons, please enter an administrator's password to confirm the action. You can add "SteerMouse Manager" to the list of input helpers in System Preferences to stop displaying this password dialog. with a username and password field and buttons for Cancel and OK.

I don't have any reason to think that SteerMouse is trying to do anything nefarious here, as it's a widely recommended, popular product. But all this seems a little weird.

I know I can probably make it shut up by doing what the dialog says, but before I do so, can anyone explain what is going on here?

Open Keychain Access.app in your Applications > Utilities folder.
Highlight the login keychain on the left sidebar.
Select one of the sites you see the popup from the list of credentials and double-click to get the info panel.
On that panel select "Access Control".
Below "Always allow access by these applications" click on +, and navigate to Safari in your Applications folder. Save changes.
Close Keychain Access and restart Safari.

(adapted from this answer. You may need to do steps 3-5 for each site for which that problem is occurring; I'm not certain.)

Solution A

In Finder, press the key 'option' and click on 'Library' under 'Go'.
In library folder, scroll down to 'keychain'.
Click on the arrow to the left of keychain to reveal what's under it.
Delete everything under keychain, but not the keychain folder itself.
(In my case, I had to delete 3-4 files and a folder).
Restart the mac.

Solution B

Drag the window to the side of your screen and ignore it just like everybody else did to me


Command line tools available by default In a unix based system a number of commands are available by default (either in /bin or /usr/bin). Suppose in some time I installed more tools like git, svn …

In OS X if I install XCode and then the command line tools package, a bundle of development tools will be getting installed into the system. So how can I know which commands are available at the time of the installation of the OS?

Is netcat, nc available by default on Mac OSX or is that installed along with command line tools ?

So how can I know which commands are available at the time of installation?

Commands available after a fresh install of Mavericks (OS X 10.9) belong to one of these four packages:

com.apple.pkg.BSD
com.apple.pkg.BaseSystemBinaries
com.apple.pkg.BaseSystemResources
com.apple.pkg.Essentials

(Note that, as of High Sierra (macOS 10.13), commands have moved to this package com.apple.pkg.Core.)

You can list the commands included in every package with this command:

pkgutil --files <package name> | egrep '^usr/s*bin|^s*bin/'

Are netcat, nc available by default on Mac OS X or is that installed along with command line tools?

I found nc with:

pkgutil --files com.apple.pkg.BaseSystemBinaries | egrep '^usr/bin/nc'

(On High Sierra, run pkgutil --files com.apple.pkg.Core | egrep '^usr/bin/nc' instead.)

so yes, nc belongs to the base OS installation.

I couldn't find netcat, so if you have it on your system it was installed later.

To list all commands provided by all packages, run in Terminal:

for p in $(pkgutil --packages); do
  list_of_cmds=$(pkgutil --files $p | egrep '^usr/s*bin|^s*bin/')
  if [ ! -z "$list_of_cmds" ]; then
    echo ">>>> $p <<<<"
    echo "$list_of_cmds"
  fi
done

You can also pipe the command to a file on your Desktop for later reference:

for p in $(pkgutil --packages); do
  list_of_cmds=$(pkgutil --files $p | egrep '^usr/s*bin|^s*bin/')
  if [ ! -z "$list_of_cmds" ]; then
    echo ">>>> $p <<<<"
    echo "$list_of_cmds"
  fi
done > ~/Desktop/cmds_from_pkgs.txt

You can't actually tell which executables were part of the original OS and which were installed later.

Looking at the man page will generally give you a good idea however. If the man page starts something like "BSD General Commands Manual" it is almost certainly part of the original OS. You will notice that these will also end with a line that contains either 'BSD' or 'Mac OS X' at each end.


locale: LC_ALL is empty In my ~/.profile

export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

But $ locale prints empty LC_ALL:

LANG="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_CTYPE="UTF-8"
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_TIME="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_ALL=

How can I set LC_ALL to "en_US.UTF-8" ?

FYI, LC_ALL is an env var you DO NOT want to set from what I have been reading.  It is there for developers for debugging purposes when they need to quickly change all the locale settings ie. env vars you listed above for a particular environment as it overwrites / supersedes all the other locale env vars, thus that is why it is left unset.

cheers
Chris

ZSH seems not to source ~/.profile

I added the two export statements into ~/.zshrc and the issue is solved.


Erasing partition doesn't give me free diskspace I'm using a Macbook Air and until today I had two partitions on it (not counting the restore partition). I had my OSX partition and an Ubuntu partition.

As I don't use Ubuntu anymore, I decided to remove the partition and resize my OS X partition to use the whole SSD again. However, this didn't go as planned.

After backing up my Ubuntu files to an external HDD I restarted my mac with Cmnd + R to go into restoration mode. There I erased the Ubuntu partition in the hope that would allow me to resize my OS X partition. Unfortunately, I don't see any extra space showing up inside the partition manager so I can't enlarge the OS X partition...

While searching Google I came across someone with the same problem. It was suggested to empty the trash and also searching your harddisk for .sparseimage files and removing them, however I found none.

Does anyone have any other suggestions I can try? I desperately want my space reclaimed :(

Edit: Some screenshots to clarify my situation:

Disk Utility with SSD selected

Disk Utility with OS X partition selected:

As you can see, the SSD has a total size of 120 GB. However, the sizes of the two partitions on it don't add up to this number (by far). So I must have some free space somewhere, but I have no idea how to get to it...

You will not be able to reclaim this space to your OS X partition unfortunately. That is because the Recovery HD partition is in between your OS X and (formerly) Ubuntu partitions. You have two options:

In the partitions tab, click the "+" and add a new partition. OS X will see this new partition as a separate drive, but it should be fully useable. However, it certainly complicates things vs. having a nice big single drive to work with.
Backup your Macintosh HD and wipe the entire hard drive (booting from another volume, such as Internet Recovery or Gparted on a disc). Then reinstall OS X, allowing it to properly recreate your partitions. This is more cumbersome but recommended.

When I partitioned my Mac for Ubuntu (using rEFIt) a while back, I ended up doing the second option to make my Mac "normal" again.

The easiest way is to create a new partition from your startup partition.
You will notice that the new partition also gets the space of the free partition you want to get hold of. Then delete the new partition. And viola! you get the space of the whole physical drive again. all in one partition!


Macbook Air Running version 10.7.5 won't connect to wifi but connects via Ethernet I have a MBA and I have connected to my home network before. I went on holiday and on return, I cannot connect to Wifi anymore.

It tells me "connection time-out occurred". But my Ipod Touch (4th Gen) and Samsung Galaxy S2 can connect to the home wifi network and everyone else (I live with friends) has no issues with the wi-fi.

I already tried removing all the "Preferred networks" and tried to do an SMC reset on my Macbook Air. Nothing worked. I also went into Keychain and removed home network from there. Still not resolved

I then tried tethering my MBA to my Samsung Galaxy S2's wifi and I could connect and surf normally. (so I concluded nothing is wrong with my laptop's Airport/wifi utility)

Finally I decided to try and connect my MBA to the router via Ethernet cable, and I am able to surf and go online as normal

I updated all my software on the laptop and it is still not working. I can find my home network and click on it but when I input the password, it says "Connection Failed". I also tried setting up the network manually and inputting the password but again "Connection Failed"

I am unable to get into the router as I don't have the IP address for it. Does anyone else have a similar problem?

I have yet to try to connect to a neighbour's Wi-Fi but I will try that tonight.

Try resetting any proxy settings you may have enabled (go to System Preferences > Network > Advanced > Proxy)
Reset your router
Attempt to connect via WPS if your router supports it
Find the IP address of your router and enter it into the URL bar of your browser

I had the same error on my MAC-Book PRO and it turned out to be a MAC address issue. these are the steps I took:

Reset router to default settings
Remove network from saved network.
Search for network.

If this doesn't work, you might have to add the network manually.

Hope this helps.


View and edit/delete photos with Mac Photos App without importing I would like to view my photos and edit or delete the ones that I don't like. I would also like to do this while keeping the photos in their original location (e.g. an external SD card).

Is it possible to use Mac Photos App to do the edit/delete without importing the photos?

As long as the SD card can support the size, create the Photos Library in the location of the SD card (formatted as Mac OS extended (Journaled). You may also have to drag the photos from the SD card into the newly created library from the Finder rather than use the normal import interface sidebar from within the Photos application.


iPhone 4S recovery error 29 My iPhone 4S keeps getting stuck on the boot logo. It has never been jailbroken. When I try to restore it in the latest version of iTunes I keep getting this:

How can I resolve this?

I just fixed the error by changing the battery. Before a week I replaced my battery, but it was a Chinese battery from ebay. This was the reason for the error. Today I just changed the battery - inserted the original battery and BOOM. The iOS 9.1 was installed on my iPhone. You should try this will work 100%.

Source: http://www.unlockboot.com/2015/10/how-to-fix-itunes-error-29-iphone-4s-5.html

Replacing the battery method worked for me.


What iOS apps allow free calling to the UK? I travel a lot, so often rely on WiFi for calling. On the iPhone, I use MagicJack to get completely free calls over WiFi/VoIP to US numbers. I'm looking for a similar app to enable me to call UK numbers for free on the iPhone. Does anyone know of one?

Note:

I'm talking only about apps that allow completely free calling to regular chargeable numbers - primarily landlines but ideally also mobiles - the Apple app stores are full of apps that allow "cheap" calling.
Suspicious apps that require credit card numbers upfront, etc., aren't as interesting.

Skype provides a free iPhone app and allows free calls to UK freephone numbers 0800 etc. As for a service that allows totally free calls to chargeable UK numbers (either on iPhone or otherwise) for an indefinite period I can't say I have ever heard of one.

Get yourself the Yuilop app. It's free and exactly the app you are looking for.


Trying to set a F8 pause/play dictation command So I'm what one would describe as ridiculously disabled. I've recently taken a liking to using the dictation functionality due to only having the use of one hand and often having to lie on my back.

I'd like to add the F8 play/pause key to the list of dictation commands, but unfortunately the dictation custom commands don't take single keypresses. It seems the solution is to create a workflow. However, upon trying automator to record the keypress I seem to have discovered that it doesn't recognise that key for some reason.

Just as a note, I use this play/pause functionality for iTunes AND Chrome Youtube videos at the same time. For example, I'll start iTunes playing, then start the Youtube video. Since the Youtube video was the last to be interacted with the play/pause affects Youtube, and not iTunes. That functionality I would like to keep if possible. So I guess if you can't just do a simple keypress it'd need to check if Youtube or iTunes is the current/last interacted with active app and act accordingly.

Does anyone have a possible solution or workaround they can think of?

Thank-you

Separated the two applications into two separate dictation commands using applescript in automator. The latter controls the Youtube video on the tab Chrome last interacted with, which is essentially perfect.

on is_running(appName)
    tell application "System Events" to (name of processes) contains appName
end is_running

if is_running("iTunes") then
    tell application "iTunes"
        playpause
    end tell
else if is_running("Spotify") then
    tell application "Spotify"
        playpause
    end tell
end if

to clickClassName(theClassName, elementnum)
    tell application "Google Chrome" to (tabs of window 1 whose URL contains "youtube")
    set youtubeTabs to item 1 of the result
    tell application "Google Chrome"
        execute youtubeTabs javascript "document.getElementsByClassName('" & theClassName & "')[" & elementnum & "].click();"
    end tell
end clickClassName

clickClassName("ytp-play-button ytp-button", 0)

--clickClassName("ytp-prev-button ytp-button", 0)
--clickClassName("ytp-next-button ytp-button", 0)


How do I change the generic folder icon in Yosemite 10.10.4? I'm running 10.10.4, and can't seem to be able to change the generic folder icon. I've tried going into
/System/Library/CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle/Contents/Resources/ replacing the icon there but it made no change. Then I tried the app Liteicon and it just made the generic folder icon disappear. Does anyone know how to change it?

I'm using Mac OSX Yosemite latest 10.10.5 and I've definitely sticked to the CandyBar app version 3.3.4 which is totally free from Panic inc.

I've been using CandyBar app since the Leopard days, the app works great until OS X 10.8 and "beyond", but now it is free and unsupported, so for OS X Mavericks / Yosemite etc. it might work with some hiccups. Nevertheless one can change icons for almost everything from system files to folders.

system integration protection (sip):

Good to stop viruses and malware, but bad for people who like to tinker. Remember to turn it back on and understand the risks of turning it off. They are important to know;

To turn off sip:

Restart mac
When restarting hold cmd+r
Select terminal
Type in "csrutil disable"
Click return
From the  menu select restart
To enable sip again repeat, but type in "csrutil enable" instead


How to control UI/Apps from shell? I have a jailbroken ipad (ios v. 7.1.1) and installed ssh, terminal and many admin tools. So far I am able to open/close an app from terminal and so much more... . Now I want to trigger UI events and control Apps(in effect touching a button, swiping, type a keyboard...) from terminal. Is there any (command line) tool that can help me accomplish that? I saw similar question here but it is more than a year old (some tools might have emerged lately).

There's not really an easy method for this. There's no AppleScript implementation for interactions on iOS, unlike OS X, so if you really want this you're probably going to have to make it happen yourself with your own custom app.

Even with your own app, there's no easy way of doing interaction.

  On Cocoa Senior (also known as "the Mac") we have methods like the gargantuan:

mouseEventWithType:location:modifierFlags:timestamp:
  windowNumber:context:eventNumber:clickCount:pressure:

  to generate events.

  Cocoa Junior on the iPhone doesn't have any methods like this, so we must work out how to achieve it ourselves.

This is outside the scope of this site, but see the following site for more information:

http://www.cocoawithlove.com/2008/10/synthesizing-touch-event-on-iphone.html

I think what you are looking for is the "Open" tweak for jailbroken devices. Apps can be launched like this:

open com.identifier.here
An example would be open com.invoxia.triby for an app that I use.

Thanks so much!


Time Machine backup is too large (but shouldn't be) I get:

This backup is too large for the backup disk. The backup requires 35.72 GB but only 24.79 GB are available.

Facts:

Estimated size of full backup: 149 GB

Size of Backups.backupdb on the Time Machine drive is 166 GB and there is 18GB of free space on the drive.

So why doesn't the backup go through? It should be able to delete old files... especially since the current backup size on the drive is less than it is required for the new one.

I know what is the problem... I only have one backup on time machine and it won't delete it because it's the only one. So I can either clean up some space on the drive (I have other things there) or just delete the backup and let it run again.

How to delete a backup - from here:

The easiest way is to:

Enter time machine (on the Mac whose backup you want to delete)
Go to the point in time you want to delete
Select the icon that looks like a cog in the finder and choose 'Delete Backup'
This ensures the backup catalog remains accurate and the integrity of your data stays intact.

When TM needs rom it does not delete the entire backup, it looks for files you deleted and no longer needs, and removes those from the backup to make room.

You really should be using a drive that is at least twice the size of your current drive, but that's besides the point.

Are you using Parallels, VMware or Virtualbox? Those tend to have large virtual machine disk images, and need to backup the entire image every time you do a backup. I've seen reference to ways to change the disk image into "slices" to work around that.

If you have anything you can exclude form the backups, like podcasts or your download folder, do that, and then clear out all the "extra" files you have stored on the drive, and see where you end up.


Editing system keyboard layout I wonder how to edit the following two files, so that I can change the system keyboard layout. It seems they are binary resource files, but I'm not sure.

/System/Library/Keyboard\ Layouts/AppleKeyboardLayouts.bundle/Contents/Resources/AppleKeyboardLayouts-B.dat

/System/Library/Keyboard\ Layouts/AppleKeyboardLayouts.bundle/Contents/Resources/AppleKeyboardLayouts-L.dat

I could use Ukelele to create a custom layout, but I would like to know how Ukelele reads the current layouts, and more over whether it is posible to edit the system layout directly.

As far as I know, nobody has found a way to edit the system layouts directly. Making a custom layout via Ukelele is the way to go.

Although I prefer to just make my own maps, it seems that a lot of the files for the default keyboards are stored in /opt/X11/share/X11/xkb/keymap


Notepad++ alternative with the ability to search in folder I am looking for an alternative program on macOS, like Notepad++ with two abilities:

To write and edit program code,

and

Search specific string in a folder full of text files.

Atom is another great editor that has the features you are looking for, with the added benefit of being free and open source.

A good comparison of Atom and Sublime Text 3 can be found here

Sublime Text 3 is the editor you are looking for. It is available to download for free.

This text editor is pretty popular with software developers and users of macOS.

Sublime text includes powerful text editing features along with support for popular programming languages. It also lets you easily search within files in a folder.

P.S.: Sublime Text 3 may be downloaded and evaluated for free, however a license must be purchased for continued use. Acquiring a license by paying one time fee removes the non-intrusive prompt to register the product and it is meant to support the developer behind the wonderful product.

A couple points of note from the Sales FAQ page:

  A license is valid for Sublime Text 3, and includes all point updates, as well as access to prior versions (e.g., Sublime Text 2). Future major versions, such as Sublime Text 4, will be a paid upgrade.
  Licenses purchased for Sublime Text 3 do not expire, however an upgrade fee will be required for Sublime Text 4.

P.P.S.: I have no-affiliation whatsoever with the developer. This is a wonderful app which is widely popular among both casual users and software developers.


5GHz WiFI speed much slower than on 2.4GHz on my Macbook air 2017 I just setup my new Xiaomi WiFi MiRouter 4A gigabit edition router but my Macbook has only 3MBs speed of uploading while on 2.4GHz speed is 60MBs. Also on iphone and other devices is almost 200Mbs speed. I deleted my antivirus app and vpn but still didn't help. I don't know what to do.

Found solution. Issue was in the settings of bandwidth, changed from 20Mhz to 80 Mhz.


Notes has Google Notes. But Google has no such service. Where are they stored? If you go to System Preferences -> Internet Accounts and add a Google account, you can see Google has Notes. If you open Notes (OS X app), it somehow retrieves the notes I had put long long time ago on a different Mac. So, I am sure those notes are not locally stored. Not only can I see old notes, but I can also add new notes to Google Notes.

Google had Notebook service, but it was discontinued long time ago and existing notes were imported into Google Docs. But I cannot find the notes I see in Notes in Google Docs.

So where are the Google Notes stored and Notes is getting the notes from? Is it that Google discontinued the web interface of the Notebook service but somehow still provides an interface to Apple especially? Can I access the notes I saved to Google Notes in Notes outside the Notes application, in a web browser for example?

The notes created in OS X can be found in GMail under the label "Notes". If you create a folder with [name] in OS X Notes app, the notes will be synced to Google Inbox unbundled label "Notes/name".

In you enable the sync, the notes are saved as "Sent mails" in Gmail. Sometimes this can be very annoying, since a new sent email is created every time you just modify a previous note. I had enabled once, but now I get rid of this sync option.


Outlook 2011 won't open, fails with exit code 255 Outlook 2011 keeps closing about 2 seconds after launch. There is brief flashing in the toolbar at the bottom of the screen but then nothing. I have checked the console and I am seeing error 255. I have pasted the error below.

Does anybody know how I can correct this error or at least get Outlook working again?

15/08/2011 14:46:48 com.apple.launchd.peruser.501[105]
([0x0-0x2a02a].com.microsoft.Outlook[303])
Exited with exit code: 255

Hold down the option key (aka alt) when you start outlook.  it will prompt you to restore your main identity.

http://www.mosandl.eu/blog/2013/10/com-microsoft-outlook606-exited-with-code-255/
solved on so many mac's my problem

cheers


how to config color when i use iterm2 ssh linux server I use Mac
and use iterm2 ssh login linux Server
.
but when exec ls
the terminal is Black and White
how to config then like  mac colors

The default TERM type iTerm reports is xterm and that should be sufficient from your Mac's end of things to see colours. The problem is there are two things in play here: your local iTerm terminal and the remote machine and it's shell configuration. If you haven't setup your shell to show colour, it doesn't matter what your iTerm is reporting for TERM.

It sounds like the problem is on the remote end and that you haven't configured ls on your Linux system to output colours.

Try setting LS_COLORS in your environment after you ssh in to your Linux machine. Here is one way to do it:

export LS_COLORS='rs=0:di=01;34:ln=01;36:mh=00:pi=40;33:so=01;35:do=01;35:bd=40;33;01:cd=40;33;01:or=40;31;01:mi=01;05;37;41:su=37;41:sg=30;43:ca=30;41:tw=30;42:ow=34;42:st=37;44:ex=01;32'

That should give you a fairly good chance of ensuring you see colours when you run ls on any directory. If you like the settings, make them permanent by adding that line to your ~/.bash_profile file on the Linux machine.

You can also use the newer, more generic, COLORS environment variable and point it to the /etc/DIR_COLORS file that should exist on most modern Linux installations. More tools will key off this than just ls so you'll see colour in tools like grep too. Add the following to your ~/.bash_profile:

export COLORS=/etc/DIR_COLORS

to add colours to more tools.

Set the Report Terminal Type value to

xterm-color


iPad DropBox client side encryption I have just gotten the New IPad - my first foray into the world of Apple.  I'm eager to make the most of it that I can, for both personally and for work.

In order for me to be able to use it for work, I really need to find a solution that works seamlessly with DropBox to provide client-side encryption for my files.

Despite searching for hours (days) and downloading and trying all manner of offerings, I just can't find anything that works.  The closest I've seen so far is BoxCryptor, but that only works if I manually upload the file via the BoxCryptor client.  I want something that will work seamlessly so that Notebooks (or EverNote, etc) think they're using DropBox directly, but the files are being encrypted / decrypted just before they enter or leave DropBox.

Any clues?

Michael

I use a program called 1Password for secure encryption of files (and other data) and it almost does what you ask.

On my Mac client - it can attach arbitrary files to any entry and securely encrypt them before they get stored into Dropbox, but that isn't the primary purpose of the tool. It has an iOS client that can see files attached in this manner, but not really open them, send them to other programs and it also doesn't let you file things.

So - what you ask is clearly something that could be programmed, but isn't something where there are several well-known solutions and people will just propose several. In fact, there may not be a single solution that uses Dropbox despite how popular and prevalent it has become.

I would suggest you consider Box.net which seeks to be a more enterprise secure version of Dropbox - especially if no-one else has a better suggestion than mine for securing your files before they hit Dropbox.

For MAC OSX machines you can use GPGTools:https://gpgtools.org to encrypt any files using PGP on the client before uploading to DropBox.  PGP uses a public key and private key that can be stored in the keychain or entered manually. GPG tools can encyrpt and sign emails, as well as encrypt individual files or folder with up to 4096 bit RSA encryption.  You either upload your public key to different public key servers for friends to retrieve your public key.  You can also select 2048 bit RSA encryption.

At the current rate of computing power growth or using the worlds fastest supercomputer it will take about 100 years to break 4096 bit PGP encryption.   GPGtools has two versions; one for just the Mac OSX email client and a Suite which includes email, file, and folder encryption. I recommend downloading the suite.

iCloud uses 1024 bit RSA encryption so GPGtools 4096 bit encryption is much much stronger and cannot be broken without you revealing your secret key.  Choose a long Mnemonic phrase that you CAN EASILY REMEMBER to create the the Public and Private pair of encryption keys i.e "TheReasonILoveNewYorKCityisthegreatnightlifeandbars"  If you don't save the phrase to
the keychain or forget it you WILL NOT be able to recover or open any of your encrypted files, folders or emails.

GPGTools is open source shareware, it's very simple to use, it has a nice GUI,  or you use the built in command line window.  Stay safe and use strong encryption for your important documents stored on cloud based services like DropBox.


iOS 7 weather app shows wrong sunrise/sunset time The new update for the weather app in iOS 7 is confused as to day/night, the time for sunrise/sunset. To find sunset or sunrise, swipe left or right on the hourly overview that's in the middle under the temperature / detail tap target.

For example, Selah WA says sunrise is at 10:46 pm today (4 October) and that it's dark at 3 pm.  Is there any way to fix this problem?

The clear error would be a city in another state or country.

The sunrise and sunset data for Minneapolis, KS is going to be different than Minneapolis, MN.

Once you have ruled that out, you might need to file a bug with Apple in the case that their app is either requesting the wrong data from the weather service provider or the data source needs to be corrected. In both cases, you can't really change what happens in code or upstream and could only try to find a location that's close enough for weather purposes that has correct (or close enough) sunrise and sunset data.

http://apple.com/feedback might also be workable rather than filing a bug if enough people have issues where the current data set is lacking or off by hours.

If foregoing does not solve it: in Settings->General-Date&Time disable "set automatic time zone".


iOS 8.4 Apple Music App: How to shuffle all songs by an artist? With the complete redesign featuring the new streaming mixin (which I don't use), it seems that when listening to music from my library (stored on my device) I can only shuffle songs within a single album for an artist.

This is not a dupe of this question, in that I'm not asking how to shuffle all songs in the library.

Instead of selecting the artist to display the albums and songs of the artist, tap the image of the artist and the artists songs will play shuffled.


iPad 2 wifi only FaceTime with iPhone 4s I recently got an iPad 2 wifi only and my boyfriend just got the new iPhone 4s but if I try and FaceTime him it just rings out. I know that he only has 3G at home, is this why? And how can he FaceTime me when I have no number on my iPad? Really confused please help!

Facetime only works over WiFi and can find people using either an e-mail address or phone number.

I think FaceTime work only on WiFi between iOS/OS X devices. It is totally free which why the Mobile GSM operator don't want you to use it over 3G.


OS X Yosemite multiple desktops with different files Is there a way to have a second desktop which you can put individual folders and files on it, so that the first desktop is clear without any files?

Yes you can. Mac refers to the extra desktops as spaces. You can create up to 8 extra spaces I think and you can control them from Mission Control. The control key plus a digit will make that particular space active.

if you go to Mission Control (probably in your doc) a window opens showing all the spaces across the top. There is also a plus sign. Clicking the plus sign creates a new space. I find spaces very convenient. I have a space set up for one app and another space for a different app.


What tool exists to identify the RGB value of a pixel? I need to get the RGB for a pixel that is in an image. Under Windows this is easy but is there a way to do this on Mac OS X?

I usually use DigitalColor Meter (in Utilities). As long as it's open, it gives you the RGB values of the pixel below your mouse cursor.

ColorSnapper is the best. $4.99 on the Mac App Store.

Just take a look at the demo video and you'll see what I mean.


Can an app window be minimized by clicking its Dock Icon? Something that bothers me as Windows user on OS X is that I can't minimize an app window by clicking the dock icon of the application. Is there a hidden setting for enabling this behavior or a utility that someone could recommend?

You can hide an active application by option-clicking (alt-clicking) its icon in the dock. You can also hide the active window and open another window by alt-clicking whatever application you want to open in the dock.

But I agree with you that it would be more symmetrical to be able to click to minimize all the open windows in an application. I am a long-time PC user and this is one area where PCs got it right. That and combining closing and quitting (and the related window management issue).

In MacOS if you use HyperDock you can press Shift+Click on Dock icon, and it will Hide the application. It's equivalent to pressing keyboard shortcut Cmd+H - Hide.
But realy it hides ALL the app windows.

HyperDock currently does not have option to Click to minimize/hide..


Add images to existing PDF with Preview Preview allows to add text and shapes to PDFs. But is it possible to add existing images (PNG / JPEG) to a PDF file as well?

I do know that Preview already has some of image embedding by allowing the user to add signatures drawn on the screen of an i-Device. But I couldn't figure out if this would also work with arbitrary files.

Do as follows:

Open the image you want to paste in Preview.app
Select All (Command-A)
Copy (Command-C)
Paste (Command-V)

Now you have a copy of your image pasted above your old image. This is apparently meaningless, but the new copy is not just an image, but an object.

Click on the new image (round blue corners appear, no marching ants)
Copy (Command-C)
Paste on your PDF document. The image is an object, moveable and resizable. The original PDF is still a PDF, editable and all.

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"this computer has been scheduled to go to sleep" when none is set Simple question- My mac regularly & seemingly randomly tells me it has been scheduled to go to sleep automatically- usually (I think) right after I wake it up. I have no schedule for automatic sleep set up in preferences.

When this happens I just shrug and cancel the countdown box but it is annoying. Is there any way to see what is triggering this message and fix it?

I had this issue as well. I found two potential answers:

This one suggests resetting PRAM and the SMC:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7702633

However, the second one mentions iDrive (as did a previous answer here). I did, in fact, switch to iDrive about a month ago, and believe the dialog box began appearing after installing it:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8304128?page=2

The above thread refers to a response from iDrive support which suggests un-checking the "wake from sleep" setting (it is apparently checked by default; mine was). For me, the issue was completely resolved by making this change; it has been 4 months since I changed the setting with zero recurrence. Make sure you don't miss the "do you want to save changes" dialog after changing it; iDrive has a way of making macOS feel like Windows.

I have had this problem since moving to High Sierra. The dialog box appears after I supposedly wake up the computer in the morning. I say supposedly, because the power light on the macmini is usually steady, indicating only the display, not the computer, is asleep. THe dialog always gives the same interval before sleep, something like 9 minutes and 28 seconds, which bears no meaningful relationship to the scheduled times in Energy Saver. It does not appear every day. I sleep the computer every night before I sleep. I have Schedule in Energy Saver set to wake the computer at 2:59 AM daily and put the computer to sleep again at 3:30 AM so it should definitely be asleep later in the morning when I get up. This Schedule is so a Launch Agent can run and download a TV schedule into EyeTV and there should be plenty of time for this to happen and the computer to go back to sleep, but it is clearly remaining awake. I have tried resetting PRAM and trashing Finder .plist with no result.