How do I completely uninstall an app in OS X without the use of a dedicated app eg AppZapper? I came across this post, however all the answers recommend using Applications eg AppZapper or similar to achieve the uninstallation of the App desired.

What are the steps required where the uninstallation is carried out by "manual means" by the user to achieve complete uninstallation ?

In general most programs place files within the App icon, which is really a special folder for the Applications files. Many also add files within the Application Support folder within your library.

Simply drag the Application icon to the trash, and empty it. Then open your Library folder (you might have to click on the "Go" menu item in Finder, while also holding down he Option key to expose the Library). Look under the Application Support folder, and see if your Application has a folder, which you may also trash. You can also do a general search in this folder for the App name or Software company name.

Of course some apps also put other files in other places, such as LaunchAgents, PreferencePanes and other folders, but that is where such apps as AppZapper and AppCleaner are very nice to have. Also, check the Application website, as often software vendors publish the details of where they install data within OSX, usually in an item called 'manual uninstall'.

Simply delete the application from the list of applications. There is no "uninstall" like Windows.


Can I assign a keyboard shortcut to bring up the Mac OS X Login Window? I’d like to assign an “Every Application” keyboard shortcut to bring up the login window, for when I step away from my computer. Is there a way to do this? (Lion-only methods are fine.)

If you want to assign alt ⌥+cmd ⌘+L to lock screen without installing any programs, in 5 minutes, I suggest you doing these three steps:

Create a Service in Automator and set "Service receives selected" to "no input" instead of "text".
(Still in Automator) add 'Run AppleScript' (search on the left "apple" then double-click).
In the script in place of  (* Your script goes here *) you copy-paste:

do shell script "'/System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession' -suspend"
Save and exit. (You can name your service "Lock Screen".)
Open System Preferences, Keyboard then in Keyboard Shortcuts tab and under Services you will find your service "Lock Screen" towards the bottom of the list.
Now, click on "none" next to "Lock Screen" to assign ⌥⌘ L to
your service. Actually I suggest rather ⌃⌥⌘ L because ⌥⌘ L is assigned in Finder.

Done.

(For step 2 cudos goes to Lauri Ranta!)

There's only one way to do this, if you want to invoke the Login screen from a keyboard hotkey shortcut. It requires using the built-in Automator application in Mac OS. Here's the article on how to do it:

http://www.macyourself.com/2013/01/27/how-to-lock-your-mac-screen-with-a-keyboard-shortcut/comment-page-2/#comment-6991


Virtualizing Mac OS X on Linux - is it legal? While browsing i found an interesting tool in sourceforge.net
it says

Mac-on-Linux is a Linux/PPC program that virtualizes Mac OS or Mac OS X in Linux.

Is it legal In india?

On Apple hardware, yes - as of OSX Lion / Lion Server.  Otherwise, no - it's a violation of the EULA.

It is a violation but it runs so crappy if your using VirtualBox anyway (also no guest additions) that you couldn't do anything worth while in it anyway.

there is alot of graphics problems and it makes the OS pretty much unusable.


How to completely disassociate iMessage from my device? I have an older iPhone that I was thinking about selling soon in order to get a new one. I've set up iMessaging on the device.  Normally I would just erase the phone a couple of times and be done with it.  But recently, there has been exposed a glitch in iMessaging whereby users continue to receive other user's iMessages, even after the sim card is removed, and the phone is erased.

So I'm curious: is there any way to prevent this from happening?

Go into Settings -> Messages and halfway down choose Send and Receive.
Tap your AppleID on the top of the page, sign out, and let the new guy sign his or her self in.

In settings go to messages then select receive at. From there unclick the phone number and this will stop iMessage sharing.. My husband n I share the same apple ID and this fixed the problem with the iOS 6 upgrade     No need to turn iMessage off.   I tested it n it works.  Now remember it only takes a click to start reading each others iMessages again ... This is where trust comes to play...


Deleting files and empty trash does not increase free space I have a MacBook Air running macOS Catalina 10.15, upgraded from an older version.

There's only a few 10s of megabytes free on the disk, but deleting files and emptying the trash doesn't change the amount of free space.

I've tried:

looking for time machine snapshots that can be deleted, but there do not seem to be any (tmutil listlocalsnapshots /System/Volumes/Data does not show any snapshots to remove)
running disk utility first aid after booting in recovery mode on the Macintosh HD - Data partition.  This produces an error...

Checking snapshot 1 of 2 (com.apple.apfs.purgatory.115b2)
error: btn: invalid key order (1) oid 1742762 / oxid 0 / level 2 / flags 0x1
previous key:  [...]
current key [...]
next key [...]
snapshot invalid
the volume /dev/rdisk1s1 could not be verified completely```

disabling SICP using csrutil disable and rebooting
running fsck in single user mode:

fsck -f which yields:
error: container /dev/rdisk1 is mounted with write acess
but trying to umount /dev/rdisk1 tells me that /dev/rdisk1 is not currently mounted.
Running fsck -f /dev/rdisk1s1 produces the same message.
same with running fsck_apfs -f /dev/rdisk1s1

I'm about at my wits end here.  Anyone have suggestions for further things to try?

The disk utility error is the main issue you face.

Make sure your important files are backed up.
Boot to internet recovery or an external drive so you can re-run Disk Utility not from the booted container. If you can't clear the errors or flush all the snapshots and get a clean run - it's time to erase and reinstall.

Also - you'll want to remove snapshots from all of your volumes - not just /System. find all your volumes on the synthesized volume and check them with diskutil instead of tmutil

diskutil list
diskutil apfs listsnapshots disk1s1

As for the end result - you'll get the most space back deleting the apfs snapshots against /System/Volumes/Data as you mentioned in your post:

diskutil apfs listsnapshots /System/Volumes/Data
diskutil apfs deleteSnapshot disk1s1 -name com.apple.TimeMachine.2019-12-27-124916.local

I had similar symptoms, and just posted my fix on this thread:
Why does my mac not have free space even after I delete files?
hope it helps you.


Finder Cover Flow Icon Preview not working I'm not sure what happened but I noticed recently that the Cover Flow icon previews were missing from my files in Finder.  I'm using OSX 10.6.7.  See the screenshot below - I'm expecting a preview of the file to be shown rather than the black document icon.

How can I get the preview back?  The View Options have "Show Icon Preview" ticked.

Quicklook still works on individual files, just not in Finder.

Edit

Error message reported in Console:

/System/Library/Frameworks/QuickLook.framework/Resources/quicklookd.app/Contents/MacOS/quicklookd: /System/Library/Frameworks/QuickLook.framework/Resources/quicklookd.app/Contents/MacOS/quicklookd: cannot execute binary file

(com.apple.quicklook[5107]): Exited with exit code: 126

Edit 2
Output of command suggested by @jm666

lipo -detailed_info /System/Library/Frameworks/QuickLook.framework/Resources/quicklookd.app/Contents/MacOS/quicklookd

lipo: can't figure out the architecture type of: /System/Library/Frameworks/QuickLook.framework/Resources/quicklookd.app/Contents/MacOS/quicklookd

After seeing the error message, I restored the previous version of quicklookd from my Time Machine backup and the problem was resolved.  I'm going to do a clean install of Snow Leopard just to make sure there are no other issues with my system.

hm. Removing my answer, because not helped.

So - you got a message into Console.log. So, come step-by-step. :)

What return this command?

lipo -detailed_info /System/Library/Frameworks/QuickLook.framework/Resources/quicklookd.app/Contents/MacOS/quicklookd

Should this:

Fat header in: /System/Library/Frameworks/QuickLook.framework/Resources/quicklookd.app/Contents/MacOS/quicklookd
fat_magic 0xcafebabe
nfat_arch 2
architecture x86_64
    cputype CPU_TYPE_X86_64
    cpusubtype CPU_SUBTYPE_X86_64_ALL
    offset 4096
    size 504912
    align 2^12 (4096)
architecture i386
    cputype CPU_TYPE_I386
    cpusubtype CPU_SUBTYPE_I386_ALL
    offset 512000
    size 399280
    align 2^12 (4096)

Have you tried running "Repair Disk Permissions" from Disk Utility?

In the past I've found that fixed an issue with icons not displaying correctly.

Alternatively look at a tool like Onyx can run a more comprehensive system maintenance, so that might be worth a shot.


Songs appear once in iTunes; listed twice on iPhone 5s (iOS 7) What do I need to do to prevent the iOS 7 Music app from listing songs twice when the song should only exist once?

I sync a selection of playlists to my iPhone 5s from iTunes 11.1.5 on my iMac running OS X 10.7.5. For at least one artist, album tracks are listed twice on my iPhone despite appearing only once in my iTunes library. I count 16 duplicates out of 53 songs for this artist on my phone. (The artist is Front 242, which I mention mostly for my own reference.)

I checked my iTunes library on the iMac, and I only have one copy of the affected songs there.

I am not using iTunes Match.

Curiously, during playback, songs are not repeated if I move forwards or backwards through a list that includes duplicated songs.

What I tried

In an attempt to solve this, I unchecked "Sync Music" and applied the change with my iPhone connected to my iMac, so all songs were removed. Then I checked "Sync Music" again (and thankfully my previous selection of playlists was preserved), and the music went back on my phone. Same problem.

What I didn't try

I haven't tried marking either individual albums or the artist for inclusion on my phone, just one or more playlists that include these songs.

I haven't tried swiping to delete individual songs, because I'd first want to determine all of the playlists containing that song, and do a time-consuming before-and-after check on my phone to ensure that removing the apparently duplicated song doesn't change my playlists.

What I would try:

Make a current backup your iPhone via either iTunes or iCloud.
Eject the iPhone from iTunes.
iPhone Settings > General > Usage > Storage > Music > Edit > Delete
Reboot your iPhone
Connect your iPhone to iTunes and attempt to manually sync the playlists in question.

Try this to view if you really have duplicate items on your iTunes library:
Click View, and than "Show Duplicate Items"


How to Poll USB mouse through terminal in El Capitan I've been trying to view which devices are connected to my USB ports through terminal in El Capitan, in particular a USB mouse. I've read online that I can ls /dev/tty.* to view all connected devices. But each time I try this before and after connecting a device, the output does not change.

I've also tried ls /dev and do not see a change in the output.

I've also tried ls /dev >> before.txt, then, after plugging in a device (like a mouse), ls /dev >> after.txt', then vimdiff before.txt after.txt. And I still do not see any new devices.

Is this the correct location to be looking in for devices? (namely /dev)

If not, where should I be looking?

Note, there is not a location for /dev/input on my machine. Also, I'm doing this because I would like to practice reading the bits from a serial bus and I need access to the bits incoming from the USB port.

For any regular USB device, use:

diskutil list

This brings up the disk utility command line interface's "list" tool, which provides you with information on internal and connected disks, be it through USB, SATA or PCIe. It's much simpler than looking through /dev (which includes ttys and a lot of other stuff), and gives you much more information like capacity, partition tabling and the S.M.A.R.T. status (if supported) of your drive.

If you'd like to look through /dev though, try

ls /dev | grep disk

This will show only the entries with "disk" in them (disks and connected devices in OS X are mounted as /dev/disk[number]).


Is there any way to know when was my iPad updated to the latest version of iOS? I would like to see the OS update history in my iPad, as in when and at what time did I install a specific iOS update in my device.

Is there any way to see that?

IOS differs from macOS.
macOS updates the OS via App Store. And App Store keeps tracking what we have updated.
Unfortunately, iOS updates via Software Update in Settings. And it doas not keep history of the updates. I think there is no workaround at the moment. And I think iTunes login can't help in this case.


What are all these partitions on my Mac? I know the purpose of "EFI", "Boot OS X", and "Recovery HD" partitions. But why are there three different "Macintosh HD" partitions? And should there be two EFI partitions?

UPDATE

Here is what disktutil list reports

/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *121.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         121.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Boot OS X               134.2 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *3.0 TB     disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:          Apple_CoreStorage                         2.7 TB     disk1s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.1 MB   disk1s3
   4:                  Apple_HFS Data                    326.8 GB   disk1s4
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD           *2.8 TB     disk2
                                 Logical Volume on disk0s2, disk1s2
                                 03BC8817-F05E-4FC3-9A5C-50130CDAB3AB
                                 Unencrypted Fusion Drive

Your internal disk is a Fusion Drive combining an SSD (disk0) and a HDD (disk1).
It uses a Core Storage partition scheme.

The superior "Macintosh HD" is the name of the Logical Volume Group build by the compound of the two Physical Volumes (disk0s2/disk1s2) of your Fusion Drive.
It's used instead of the name of the physical device in a non-Core Storage partition layout.

The first inferior "Macintosh HD" in black is the name of the Logical Volume (disk2) as well as the HFS volume.

The two inferior "Macintosh HD" in grey are the "names" of the single Physical Volumes (disk0s2/disk1s2) contributing to the Logical Volume Group.

To get the all necessary informations about your Core Storage Volume Group(s) just enter diskutil cs list in Terminal.app.

Example:

CoreStorage logical volume groups (1 found)
|
+-- Logical Volume Group 47F9D6B1-F8F2-4E64-8AD4-9F2E2BD78E29
    =========================================================
    Name:         Macintosh HD
    Status:       Online
    Size:         3120722075648 B (3.1 TB)
    Free Space:   114688 B (114.7 KB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume ABF9D6B1-F8F2-4E64-8AD4-9F2E2BD78E29
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    0
    |   Disk:     disk0s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     120988852224 B (121.0 GB)
    |
    +-< Physical Volume DE0BE70D-F8F2-4E64-8AD4-994F887A7BC1
    |   ----------------------------------------------------
    |   Index:    1
    |   Disk:     disk1s2
    |   Status:   Online
    |   Size:     2999733223424 B (3.0 TB)
    |
    +-> Logical Volume Family 63FFE3F6-F9FE-48A6-923A-994F887A7BC1
        ----------------------------------------------------------
        Encryption Status:       Unlocked
        Encryption Type:         None
        Conversion Status:       NoConversion
        Conversion Direction:    -none-
        Has Encrypted Extents:   No
        Fully Secure:            No
        Passphrase Required:     No
        |
        +-> Logical Volume FC7B83AA-E787-4E65-8C7E-2A62CDBB948C
            ---------------------------------------------------
            Disk:                  disk2
            Status:                Online
            Size (Total):          3106191572992 B (3.1 TB)
            Conversion Progress:   -none-
            Revertible:            No
            LV Name:               Macintosh HD
            Volume Name:           Macintosh HD
            Content Hint:          Apple_HFS

The two EFI partitions on your two physical devices are necessary and may contain the boot loader programs for some installed operating systems (e.g. rEFInd). Additionally the EFI partition is used as a staging area for (Apple-) firmware updates.

disk0 EFI is the partition with the EFI specifics of this mac
disk1 is the Recovery Partition
disk3 is your startup disk partition.
So you start from disk3, you can use the RecoveryPartition to "recover" (start up while holding CMD+R)
You can not access the EFI partition.
LexS


Is screen zoom broken in Lion? For years I've zoomed the whole Mac OS X screen with Control ⌃ + two finger scroll on the trackpad.

It was very useful when giving demos and when wanting to zoom in on a YouTube video.

Since I installed Lion it was working, then it stopped working, then worked again, now it's not working.

What am I doing wrong, or is it just broken?

You now have to manually enable it.

Go to Universal Access in System Preferences
Turn on Zoom with the radio button.
Click on Options and tick Use scroll wheel with modifier keys to zoom.

This resolved the problem in my case

Go to System Preferences -> Energy Saver

and check off

"Automatically reduce brightness before display goes to sleep"

If that doesn't work, this other solution temporary fixes the problem (so you don't have to reboot):

System Preferences -> Universal Access and re-check "Zoom in Window"


Is there a way to only enable automatic graphics switching when on battery power? It is rare when I use my MBP on battery power. But is there a way to only enable automatic graphics switching when on battery power?

You can try an application called "gfxCardStatus" :)

"is there a way to only enable automatic graphics switching when on battery power?"

Yes.

Go to System Preferences -> Energy Saver
There are two tabs at the top of the window; one for battery and one for AC power.

Set the graphics switching option by checking or un-checking "Automatic Graphics Switching" in those tabs.


Rescuing a MacBook Pro 13-inch, Mid 2009 Would appreciate help -

I have an old MBP mid-2009 shipped originally with 10.5.7 Leopard, currently running 10.6.8. I restarted recently and found a kernel panic on startup. I have tried  booting in safe mode (unsuccessful), recovery mode (unsuccessful), reset NV-RAM (unsuccessful startup) and from an OSX install disc ("unable to install OSX on this computer"). The last option yielded an actual startup screen ith language options and a box offering the option of restoring from a TM backup (I don't have one as I did not have any important data on this machine). So broadly the machine works but never gets past the grey screen with the apple logo and the time wheel.

I have another 2 newer MBPs at home and considered using target mode to resuscitate the oldest malfunctioning mac. BTW I can't eject the OSX disc from the bad mac.

Any advice on how to revive my old Mac? I'd like to keep using it as it was fine yesterday.

Thanks.

Too late for this question, but why do people not consult Apple about Kernel Panics? Maybe you had other choices, yesterday.

My July 25 answer to similar question:

Read Apple's own support page, About Kernel Panics , and MacWorld's How To Troubleshoot a Kernel Panic. You'll be able to isolate the problem and from there, know what steps to take, many of which are quite simple.

Boot in Target disk mode and see if you can repair the disk... if the disk is fine but the OS is corrupted then do a clean install. If you have good backups I would suggest wiping the drive and doing an install then restore your data.


Temporary files listed by lsof don't exist I like copying flash videos for offline viewing later. I used to do this by loading the video in the browser (Firefox or Google Chrome), then running this command to see where the flash file was being cached:

lsof | grep ^Google | grep folders

This will show all the temporary files Google Chrome has open at the moment, for example:

...
Google    311 mike   21u     REG       14,1    262148 17819373 /private/var/folders/zz/zzTLi2haPMrCYxEbpkwFmS+++TI/-Tmp-/.com.google.chrome.p22bCa
Google    311 mike   22u     REG       14,1      9974 17819369 /private/var/folders/zz/zzTLi2haPMrCYxEbpkwFmS+++TI/-Tmp-/.com.google.chrome.MUo4JT
Google    312 mike  txt      REG       14,1      9974 17819369 /private/var/folders/zz/zzTLi2haPMrCYxEbpkwFmS+++TI/-Tmp-/.com.google.chrome.MUo4JT
Google    312 mike  txt      REG       14,1    262148 17819373 /private/var/folders/zz/zzTLi2haPMrCYxEbpkwFmS+++TI/-Tmp-/.com.google.chrome.p22bCa
... etc

None of the files exist, though:

$ ls /private/var/folders/zz/zzTLi2haPMrCYxEbpkwFmS+++TI/-Tmp-/.com.google.chrome.p22bCa
ls: /private/var/folders/zz/zzTLi2haPMrCYxEbpkwFmS+++TI/-Tmp-/.com.google.chrome.p22bCa: No such file or directory

Listing the directory doesn't show any files or directories like this existing:

$ ls -lA /private/var/folders/zz/zzTLi2haPMrCYxEbpkwFmS+++TI/-Tmp-/
total 0
drwxr-xr-x  3 mike  staff  102 Jul 24 18:14 TemporaryItems
srwxr-xr-x  1 mike  staff    0 Jul 24 12:10 com.apple.notify.206.32
srwxr-xr-x  1 mike  staff    0 Jul 24 12:10 com.apple.notify.206.33
drwxr-xr-x  2 mike  staff   68 Jul 24 18:25 hsperfdata_mike

What's going on here? Why can't I access the temporary files?

Since my goal is to copy the flash file for later viewing, is there anything else I can do?

On some unix variants, lsof shows files that have been deleted but are still open. More precisely, these files have a “link count” of 0, meaning that there is no directory entry (no link, i.e. no name) that leads to them, but the file data still exists. The file data will be deleted when the file is closed.

The ability of lsof to display files with a link count of 0 depends on the platform, and I can't find anything in the documentation regarding the situation on OS X. Try running lsof +L to see the files' link count, or lsof +L1 to list only files with a link count of 0.

I wouldn't be surprised if the flash plugin created the file and immediately deleted in, it's a simple technique for making the data harder to obtain from outside the application. In other words, it's what the plugin author would do precisely to make it hard to do what you're trying to do. If that's what going on, you could counter it with something like libtrash for OSX.

Try this:

cp /proc/$pid$/fd/$fdid$

Where:

$pid$ - Process id
$fdid$ - File descriptor id

Process ids usually are 4 digit numbers.
File descriptors usually have a letter next to them (r, u, w, etc.).

Take this one for example:

Google    311 mike   22u     REG       14,1      9974 17819369 /private/var/folders/z...

Replace $pid$ with 311 and $fdid$ with 22 so that you get:

cp /proc/311/fd/22


How can I ensure only "whitelisted" applications run on OS X There is a security technique called whitelisting (available in Windows 7) that ensures that only specific applications and processes will run.

This is different from email whitelisting and only applies to applications running on an OS.

How can I implement whitelisting (apps) on OS X?

For example, I generally want to constrain apps to those allowed by the setting "Mac App Store and identified developers", but I would also like to run the IM app called Spark.  OS X refuses to run that app with this setting and reports that the app is "damaged".  I can change the setting to "Anywhere" and that will allow Spark to run.  The problem is that will also allow all apps to run, some of which I might regret.

You can do this using the Allowed Apps settings in the Parental Controls System Preferences Control Panel:

Go to System Preferences, then click on Security & Privacy. On the General tab, check Allow Applications Downloaded From: Mac App Store and Identified Developers.


GPU problem - Boot Hangs on Grey Screen I found this according to my problem in this thread:
Boot hangs on grey screen (even when booting from USB drive with fresh OS X install)

My MacBook Pro 15" Early 2011 with AMD Radeon HD 6750M exhibited display corruption and associated system crashes/resets over a period of two weeks before it entirely failed to boot. The boot would progress through the grey screen with the Apple logo and spinner, but just when it seems it should have switched to the login screen the Apple logo and spinner would disappear and hang on a blank grey screen.

Initially I suspected hard-drive corruption and went about trying to remedy that. Unsuccessfully, I tried the following, with each continuing to hang as described above:

Safe boot
Boot into recovery (including Internet Recovery)
Boot from install media on USB drive
Boot from OS X installation on USB drive
Clear NVRAM
Reset SMC

I also ran the Apple Hardware Test many times without it finding any issues.

Verbose safe boot (Cmd+Shift+V) output everything that I'd expect to see but would then hang as described above.

After coming across more posts online at Apple's discussion forums of GPU related problems I revisited this as the cause:

2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card or
2011 MacBook Pro and Discrete Graphics Card

Attempting to boot Ubuntu from a USB flash drive, I could only get as far as GRUB. When trying to boot Ubuntu Desktop or run the graphicstest in GRUB the system would hang.

At this point, running Apple Hardware Test hung right before the end of the standard test, possibly [guessing] when doing a video test.

Based on the advice in the Apple Discussions posts above I did the following:

Boot into Single-User mode
Execute the following commands:

/sbin/fsck -fy /
/sbin/mount -uw /
mkdir /Disabled_System_Library_Extensions
cd /Disabled_System_Library_Extensions
mv /System/Library/Extensions/ATI* .
mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMD* .
touch /System/Library/Extensions
exit

This time the machine booted all the way through. However, graphics are extremely slow, even just transitions when minimizing windows. I will be taking my MBP to Apple to demand a replacement as the large number of reports of others facing similar issues makes it look like a recurrence of a similar GPU-related failure that resulted in them doing a recall.

But when I use the "mv" command the files won't get moved (neither deleted) and it shows me:
Sandbox deny(01) file-write-unlinked…

Any Solution ?

Background and explanations
Please read all of this post at least once from start to finish before taking any action.
All MacBook Pros from 2011 have a serious design defect. The thermal management and the generated heat together with the robustness of the discrete AMD graphics chips do not match up very well. Apple knew this and acted like a typical  Soapy Smith, only reacting to this after an outrage. This scandal took on the name of RadeonGate. Only with a threatened class-action law suit Apple was finally pressured into offering a so called "Repair Extension Program".
The Apple Repair Extension program is not available anymore. The only real way to fix this problem is to replace the AMD chip alone. Not the logic board. Not "re-balling", not "reflowing", not "baking". Apple replaced a failed chip with a failing chip. Time and time again. Only replacing the graphics chip is still a costly hardware procedure for such a vintage laptop.
The only known way – that is: with software alone – to get a 2011 MacBook Pro (8,2) with 'only' a failed AMD graphics chip to almost reliably turn on again and boot into macOS and be quite useable with an accelerated GUI is this guide or a variation of it. Most previous tips just removed all AMD-kexts and this results in a horrible user experience with no GUI acceleration at all.
It is necessary to know your exact OS version. The following guide will be simpler for Yosemite but assumes El Capitan or newer. El Capitan, Sierra and High Sierra need SIP (System Integrity Protection) disabled. On previous systems (10.6–10.10) these steps are unnecessary.
Important: This guide assumes further that all kexts are still in their default location /System/Library/Extensions. Having all AMD-kexts there except one is beneficial for 'proper' operation. Previous hacks in this direction might have instructed you to move, or worse: remove all AMD*/ATI* kernel extensions. If that is the case: either move the kexts back into their default location or reinstall a system of your choice. Having most of the AMD kexts in place and then having the X3000-kext loaded with a delay will enable power management of the GPU which will otherwise burn electricity for nothing (and might hasten the final heat death of the chip on top of that). To reiterate: Only the file AMDRadeonX3000.kext really has be absent on boot to enable a successful startup, but all other (needed) AMD drivers should be in their default location and the X3000-kext loaded afterwards/delayed to get back into a realm of almost sensible power and temperature management.
Bypassing the discrete graphics chip
To get some display acceleration back it will be necessary to force the machine to not boot in discrete graphics (dGPU) but directly into integrated graphics (iGPU) and stay in this mode.
Booting into dGPU mode is the default on Macs with two switchable graphics cards. The procedure below will set an NVRAM variable that disables the dGPU and forces the system to only use the integrated Intel graphics even when booting.
The NVRAM variable is undocumented but appears to be universally applicable to all Macs with two switchable graphics cards. That means it should work on iMacs and MacBook Pros. Whether they have AMD or NVIDIA chips. The specifics about the drivers that might be necessary to move only cover AMD in this guide. But the NVRAM variable will bypass the discrete graphics chip in any case.
This will give you back your machine – but you will lose some features: e.g. the ability to drive an external display from the DisplayPort, a bit of 3D performance. Thunderbolt data connections should work.
In case this guide fails or is not wanted anymore: this procedure is pure software configuration and therefore fully reversible at any time with simple NVRAM reset.
The initial procedure:
Part 1: Disable SIP, disable dGPU, move one kernel extension

To start from a clean slate: reset SMC and NVRAM:
shutdown, unplug everything except power, now hold
leftShift+Ctrl+Opt+Power
and release all at the same time;

Now power on again and
hold
Cmd+Opt+p+r
at the same time until you hear the startup chime two times.

Boot into Single User Recovery by holding
Cmd+r+s

Disable SIP:
enter:
csrutil disable

disable dGPU on boot with setting the following variable:
nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00

enable verbose boot mode:
nvram boot-args="-v"

reboot into Single User-mode by holding
Cmd+s
on boot

mount root partition writeable
/sbin/mount -uw /

make a kext-backup directory
mkdir -p /System/Library/Extensions-off

only move ONE offending kext out of the way:
mv /System/Library/Extensions/AMDRadeonX3000.kext  /System/Library/Extensions-off/

inform the system to update its kextcache:
touch /System/Library/Extensions/

reboot normally:

You should now have an iGPU  accelerated display, but the system doesn't know how to power-management the failed AMD-chip. (In this state the GPU is always idling with relatively high power, consuming quite a bit of battery when unplugged and leading to GPU temperatures from 60°C upwards [on average 60-85°C], despite not being used for anything by system.)
Part 2: improve thermal and power management
For improved power management of the disabled GPU you have to either manually load the one crucial kext after boot by:
sudo kextload /System/Library/Extensions-off/AMDRadeonX3000.kext

If you have a temperature sensor application you might want to have it open before issuing the above command and watch the temps drop…
Automate this with the following LoginHook that will get executed after the next reboot:
sudo mkdir -p /Library/LoginHook
sudo nano /Library/LoginHook/LoadX3000.sh

with the following content:
#!/bin/bash
kextload  /System/Library/Extensions-off/AMDRadeonX3000.kext
pmset -a force gpuswitch 0    # undocumented/experimental
exit 0

then make it*1 executable and active:
sudo chmod a+x /Library/LoginHook/LoadX3000.sh
sudo defaults write com.apple.loginwindow LoginHook /Library/LoginHook/LoadX3000.sh

*1: The undocumented use of this pmset command seems to improve sleep/wake/shutdown behaviour. If it doesn't, experiment with leaving it out.
See Disclaimer below. The following is just speculation: sleep/wake/shutdown may remain troublesome. The theory here is that "something slowly corrupts" what is saved in the SMC. Therefore, resetting the SMC and re-applying the variable hack seems to alleviate the situation for a time.  (Permanent solutions for this welcome!) As short time workarounds you might want to try to avoid "lid-closing sleep", that seems to give more trouble than other methods (Apple-Menu, Keyboard-Shorcut). Apparent hangs on shutdown are usually just very long delays that will shutdown, eventually, cleanly and successfully.
Unscientific sampling suggests that Yosemite is worst for this and El Capitan and Sierra much better behaved in this regard.
Manually or otherwise delayed loading of this crucial kernel extension allows the system to handle power management a bit better. The battery will be less used and the temperatures emanating from the unused GPU will drop to a range significantly below 50°C (on average between 15-50°C).
For proper power management the minimal set of loaded kexts are on boot (versions for 10.12.6, check with kextstat | grep AMD):
com.apple.kext.AMDLegacySupport (1.5.1)
com.apple.kext.AMD6000Controller (1.5.1)
com.apple.kext.AMDSupport (1.5.1)
com.apple.kext.AMDLegacyFramebuffer (1.5.1)

And if the above method of loading succeeded this should appear added to the list:
com.apple.AMDRadeonX3000 (1.5.1)

A final step is to reboot once again into SingleUserRecovery
Do this with Cmd+r+s
after the commandline becomes active, enter:
 nvram boot-args="-v agc=0"

and reboot normally.
This will cool down the dGPU a bit further.
It is imperative to issue this command from SingleUserRecovery since the system with SIP enabled will block your attempts to set this variable when booted from the normal boot volume, whether in normal full boot mode or regular SingleUser.
It is important to note that therefor this step cannot be easily integrated into the force-iGPU.sh script (that you will be creating in a minute) and has to be repeated on its own after a NVRAM reset.
This last step assumes that SystemIntegretyProtection has been reenabled. But if SIP is intentionally and permanently kept off, then this step can be integrated in the force-iGPU.sh script above.
But since somehow I intended to keep SIP off permanently and it was turned back on without me noticing it, reliance on SIP staying "off" might be not the best approach. Clearing NVRAM, where SIP settings are stored, might be one such unforeseen disturbance.
Preventive measures for future use
There are two further caveats to know:
This is reversible when the SMC/NVRAM is reset. If that happens the GPU-power-pref NVRAM-variable can or even has to be set again to force the use of the iGPU from boot-time.
Since this can happen quite easily (and is often erroneously recommended way too many times than it is actually useful), you should probably prepare for such a scenario and create a simple script to greatly speed up the process and also make entering the necessary variable much less error prone:
 sudo nano /force-iGPU-boot.sh

– Enter the following content to this file:
#/bin/sh
sudo nvram boot-args="-v"
sudo nvram fa4ce28d-b62f-4c99-9cc3-6815686e30f9:gpu-power-prefs=%01%00%00%00
exit 0

– Now make that executable:
sudo chmod a+x /force-iGPU-boot.sh

In the future, when the SMC/PRAM/NVRAM gets reset to default values it is now possible to boot into SingleUser with:
Cmd+s
– And after mounting your boot-volume read-write to execute just this single line:
sh /force-iGPU-boot.sh

Remember that the agc variable is now also cleared. (See above)
Also, make sure you set the default boot-volume again in System Preferences> Startup Disk.
Part 3: Handling Updates from Apple
This setup has now one kext in a place Apple's installers do not expect. That is why in this guide SIP has not been reenabled. If an update that contains changes to the AMD drivers is about to take place it is advisable to move back the AMDRadeonX3000.kext to its default location before the update process. Otherwise the updater writes at least another kext of a different version to its default location or at worst you end up with an undefined state of partially non-matching drivers.
After any system update the folder /System/Library/Extensions has to be checked for the offending kext. Its presence there will lead to e.g. a boot hang on Yosemite and Sierra, an overheating boot-loop in High Sierra.
Upgrading to High Sierra 10.13: with this hack in place is almost straightforward: Despite applying a  firmware update  the installation process should not touch the NVRAM variable. The installation process also does not use a fully accelerated AMD chip but basic acceleration that is not problematic regarding this hack. However, as noted in the paragraph above the first boot into a system that is finished installing but just about to start the setup process will produce a heat/crash induced boot loop. The offending kernel extension has to be moved again like described above. (Starting at Step 3) After moving the kext, all shall be well.
Recent updates from Apple: Do not update before you have read the following.
Recent updates break the machine again. It updates the firmware, RecoveryPartition, seems to disable the possibility to boot into SingleUserRecoveryMode
and to top it off it installs – even with the DeltaUpdate – a working AMDRadeonX3000.kext!
Without preparation and with just the machine at hand you will be stuck a bit.
In case SingleUserRecoveryMode is gone for good, use regular RecoveryMode. Results are the same, it is just a little bit slower to boot into: the above procedure is still valid, and faster for all previous versions of Mac OS X/macOS.
But if you update to 10.13.6, or later:
Then you have to replace the instructions for SingleUserRecoveryMode (Command+r+s) with regular RecoveryMode (Command+r) and disable SIP via Terminal (Example for this precise use case).
In case you do belong to those where even regular RecoveryMode doesn't work as expected:
Workarounds for the inability to disable SIP with SingleUserRecovery:

First, boot into single user recovery mode. csrutil edits are not allowed in this mode, but can set the gpu-power-prefs nvram property. This will help to reboot  the machine in recovery mode. Then you have to replace the instructions for SingleUserRecoveryMode (Command+r+s) with regular RecoveryMode (Command+r) and disable SIP via Terminal (Example for this precise use case).

Before you update, prepare a bootable volume. That can be an external disk or a stick. Any version that boots the machine will be fine. Such a drive can be created on another Mac.
Keep in mind that on the external drive the AMDRadeonX3000.kext has to be (re)moved as well. Try booting from that drive. Only if that works as expected and you can mount your internal drive with it: reboot from your internal drive and proceed with the update of your internal drive/system to 10.13.6.
After the update is nearly finished, one reboot will hang. Force a shutdown and reboot from your external drive. Mount the internal drive and move the Radeon.kext. SIP only protects the booted system.

Suggested somewhere online, but really a desperate guess and untested: Instead of SingleUserRecoveryMode with Cmdrs you might try InternetRecoverySingleUserMode CmdOptrs.
Alternatively, it might be worth a try to see whether SafeRecoveryMode works CmdShiftr.

Graphical recovery mode might not work too, as it did for me. However, in the last version of High Sierra, it is still possible to boot to single user recovery mode. It just needs good timing. The trick is to first enable recovery mode by pressing cmd+R and immediately after it is recognized the cmd+S command for the single user mode. The exact moment has to be figured out by the user. If cmd+R+S are pressed at the same time, only single user mode will be activated. If first cmd+R is pressed and cmd+S is pressed too late, graphical recovery mode is loaded. – TAKeanice ↵

Screen brightness keys not working in High Sierra?
Apple changed the way that keyboard events for changing screen brightness are handled in High Sierra. With this hack in place the keys will be functionless. One more reason to stay with Sierra. But with this hack you might also resort to using another software solution. Aside from hacking your own AppleScript solution you might want to try out ready made applications or apps.
For example Brightness Slider on the AppStore offers customizable keyboard shortcuts.

To avoid these crashes/hangs/boot-loops – which are never a good idea for your filesystem – on a fresh install or an upgrade: make sure to babysit the installation process and always boot into  SafeMode (keep Shift pressed during boot-ups until the kext is moved into a safe place –– the installation should proceed just fine in SafeMode.
Closing Remarks and Recommendations
Further: this laptop is overheating, no matter what you do. The cooling system is inadequate and the huge number of failing AMD chips are just proof of that.
To prolong the life of this now hacked machine it is advisable to abstain from really heavy lifting over prolonged stretches of time.
Strictly follow the usual recommendations for laptops: use on hard surfaces, keep the fans and fins inside it clean. Using any fancontrol software with relatively aggressive settings should also help: like smcFanControl, MacsFanControl, or TGPro (both commercial).
Disclaimer: This whole procedure is no magic bullet. The state of failure for these chips not 100% predictable. Very few users have issues even with this hack in place: there might be issues with rebooting, going to sleep or waking up properly, most of them coming from users with Yosemite, the least trouble seems to be on Sierra. In these cases it seems sometimes necessary to not use the AMDRadeonX3000.kext, and therefore also not the LoginHook from Part 3. (But see the additional note under *1 above.) High Sierra users report issues with their displays backlight adjustment. So currently, the sweet spot for choice of operating system is in my view 10.12 Sierra.
In some cases, even with all these measures in place it seems that the still functioning Thunderbolt port will cause some issues if any peripherals are attached and active when the machine goes to sleep. After this happens any subsequent sleep cycle might be affected and an NVRAM reset with subsequent variable setting dance outlined above will be necessary, again. It seems advisable in such cases to either prevent machine sleep or unplug any hardware on the Thunderbolt port before letting the machine sleep.
Within the restrictions outlined at the start of this answer: Most users report complete success.

Hardware mods/hacks
Several ways available now, some bad, some good.
Bad solution: A very cheap hardware modification is available at/from RealMacMods:
While they use a relatively complicated way of setting the necessary EFI variable with linux the following has the advantage of cutting the core voltage to the dGPU completely by removing just one tiny resistor! (Pictures at the link)

On this reboot it is essential that you boot once into safe mode (hold Shift throughout boot), and then choose shutdown(not restart) from the menu.
Do this safe boot with the R8911 resistor in place. Without this SAFE BOOT, the next steps may not work.
Do no more boots until you complete the next steps.
The safe boot clears OS level GPU preferences, that may interfere with the following process.
This will now cause your MacBook Pro to stop switching to the Radeon automatically, but it will still draw power, create heat, and be visible to the OS.
We discovered that simply removing 1 resistor will resolve this.
The resistor can also be replaced with a switch, in case you need to turn your radeon back on for any reason.
The placement of this resistor varies between logic board models.
The resistor in question is R8911 on the 17″ MBP and R8911 on the 15″ MBP
a 1 Ohm resistor that provides a current path to the ISL6263C DC to DC Converter.
This resistor controls power to the Voltage Regulator that provides the Core Voltage to the Radeon GPU. Simply put, no core voltage, no GPU.
You will find the resistor just to the right of a cooling fan (in the above orientation). It will be near the ISL Voltage converter chip. This is the chip we will be disabling.
Just remove it. The preferred method is a professional reflow station, but an iron and a steady hand will get you where you need to be.  If you used flux to remove it (not needed), make sure you clean up with a little Alcohol or other suitable solvent.
That is basically it. Next time you boot up you will notice your GPU defect issue is gone, and you will no longer see the AMD GPU as installed hardware.

I have not tested this but it should eliminate any need to care for the kexts and also solve any issues regarding sleep, wakeup, hibernation, reboot etc.
Caveat for considering this method: since it also seems to rely on having this NVRAM variable set it looks like it is likely absolutely essential to have a fully automated method in place to set this variable without any user intervention. (Like a linux stick that makes the necessary changes) Otherwise an NVRAM reset might practically brick the machine. The vendor suggests to protect from accidental NVRAM esets via password and if a reset was made to call them for a 'procedure'.
(If bitten by this method, ending up with just a black screen: it seems possible to remotely access the machine with VNC or ssh, so if these are setup beforehand, it may indeed a not so bad option after all, as the nvram variable can bet set in this way. Remember: Untested internet story.)
Permanent, reliable and cheap hardware solution!
Dosdude1 has found a solution that looks like the holy grail for this problem: Permanently Disable 2011 15"/17" MacBook Pro Dedicated GPU - gMux IC Bypass

Option A, which will be detailed below, is to hard-wire the LVDS output lines from the integrated graphics LVDS output lines straight to the lines connecting to the display.
Option B would be to re-program the gMux IC (which is simply a Lattice LFXP2 micro-controller), with a custom firmware to disable the GPU switching functionality. I may experiment with this in the future, but doing so requires special hardware that I don't have. This would, of course, be the optimal solution, though.

This is almost easy. All that's needed are various lengths of wire.
To get a glimpse:

Also on youtube!
The 'bad solution' from above is now made into an almost professional and pre-made hardware solution, eliminating the previous 'badness' of that approach:

Tiresias (the GPUkiller):
The Tiresias is a small board that can be soldered onto the motherboard of the MacBook Pro 15-inch or 17-inch 2011 (Early or Late) models.
These are all the models that have the 820-2914-A, 820-2914-B, 820-2915-A or 820-2915-B motherboard.
The 820-2914 and 820-2915 board has two GPUs. The internal (Intel) GPU that is part of the PCH, and an external (discrete) AMD GPU. It is the external GPU that fails  in 'a small percentage of MacBook Pro systems' (Apple-speak for: 'very many'). The Tiresias writes the 'gpu-power-prefs' nvram-variable to the ROM so that the Mac does not use the (dead) external (discrete) AMD GPU anymore. If the user clears the NVRAM (PRAM) there is no problem as the Tiresias will write the record again, and the Mac will work again.
This makes this the ideal solution to bring a 820-2914 or 820-2915 with dead GPU back to life. Installation is easy (no wires to solder). You will need to mount a very small board onto the motherboard. An experienced technician can do this in minutes. Other than that R8911 should be removed to turn off power to the dead GPU. This saves energy, generating less heat and conserving battery life. Removing R8911 also prevents the Mac from getting confused by the dead GPU because even with the GPU turned off it will still try to talk to the dead GPU. Depending on what internal contacts in the GPU are ruptured this might confuse or even crash the Mac.
Mac OS X 10.13 High Sierra is also supported. To solve the issue of the backlight not coming back on after sleep also remove R9704 and connect R9704 pin 2 to C9711 pin 1.
OS X 10.6 - 10.12 (Sierra)
The backlight slider (in System Preferences) and the backlight keys (F1 and F2) work. System sleep works. Video out on the Thunderbolt port does not work, but all other functions of the Thunderbolt port do work.
OS X 10.13 (High Sierra)
As far as we know 10.13 (High Sierra) offers no advantages over 10.12 (Sierra). Apple totally redid the video drivers in High Sierra, and seem to have made a mess of it. The backlight controls will not work. And worse, after the machine wakes up from sleep the backlight is not turned back on at all.
To solve the issue of the backlight not coming back on after sleep remove R9704 and connect R9704 pin 2 to C9711 pin 1. This sets the backlight to full brightness. The down-side is that with this modification the brightness will also be on full brightness with the oldes OS's.
Tiresias for 820-2915 (15-Inch) Quantity one (1) Including shipping (world wide) 60 EURO.

Update for a one-stop software solution
The procedure above seems to have been cast into an application related to the hardware hack!
Well, at least parts of it. But on the other hand this application is more universal than the soution above, as it seems to handle also NVidia cards, that is: it is for disabling all discrete CPUs in all Macs.
Alas, this app made by dosdude1 is not well documented.
The readme screen says that it would set the NVRAM variable, move all graphic acceleration drivers, and then install a launchdaemon to handle updates and ensure that the variable stays set.
Not tested by me and not endorsed by me if you already have followed the procedure outlined above!
But if the procedure didn't work at some point for you or seems just to daunting to begin with, then you might try this:
dosdude1: Other, undocumented software that I've written is stored here: MacBook Pro dGPU Disabler.zip
You might have to look into the procedure above again, as the application seems to miss out on improving the thermal management part (if you modify the hardware by removing the transistor this becomes mood: mix and match).
If someone tests this out, please give feedback here via comments or an edit.

Update 2019: 20$ solution that uses a 64bit Windows computer and a  Lattice HW-USBN-2A ICSP FPGA programmer to apply a custom firmware to the  gMux IC. Dosdude1 claims this to be 'perfect' solution, meaning that even under HighSierra and Mojave battery life, temperature, brightness control and wake/sleep work as expected. Using that solution is permanent and makes everything above obsolete.
But this new solution is not free and requires hardware in the form of a Windows PC and the programmer); as well as currently soldering a few wires temporarily to the logic board.)
[Update June 2020]: This gMUX Bypass with native brightness control is a cheaper (opensource) version of the Dosdude1 hardware hack. GitHub: gMUXBypass

If the problem is that you're unable to move those files it's probably the System Integrity Protection that's stopping you. I'm assuming you're on El Capitan or Sierra.

Shutdown your laptop.
Press Command + R and then the power button to boot into recovery mode.
Click the Utilities menu and select Terminal.
Type csrutil disable and press return.
Close the Terminal app and restart out of recovery mode.
Now try booting back into Single-User mode and try to mv command.

If that worked re-enable SIP:

Shutdown your laptop.
Press Command + R and then the power button to boot into recovery mode.
Click the Utilities menu and select Terminal.
Type csrutil enable and press return.
Close the Terminal app and restart out of recovery mode.


How to make the pcscd daemon load at startup on Lion? I've got an obscure cryptographic USB token that works pretty good with Lion except I need to run...

sudo /usr/sbin/pcscd -adf

...each time I want to use it because it doesn't load automatically.

How to make it load at startup?

The problem happens, because securityd (which is supposed to load pcscd) does not start it when you insert your card. Try editing /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.securityd.plist and add -s aggressive switch.

The section should look like this:

<array>
  <string>/usr/sbin/securityd</string>
  <string>-i</string>
  <string>-s</string>
  <string>aggressive</string>
</array>

and then reboot.

This should set securityd in aggressive card detection mode. If there is a -s off or anything like this, probably just removing it should solve your problem.

Hope this helps.


Add a Google account to macOS 10.14.6 running Safari 13.0? Starting on September 20, 2019, my macOS 10.14.6-equipped iMac began asking me to enter the password for two Google accounts I've long had connected to the machine.

I clicked the notification bubble and it took me to the Internet Accounts area of System Preferences. Upon clicking one of the two Google accounts a dialog was presented by System Preferences that informed me I had to complete password entry for the Google account in Safari. Clicking OK opened Safari but no authorization page is every loaded.

I deleted the accounts and attempted to re-add them to the Internet Accounts settings but the problem remains. I'm stuck in a loop.

Prior to this occuring, I updated Safari on the iMac. No changes were made to either Google account by me prior to this occuring (though Google could have made changes quietly without my knowledge).

You can view the problem occuring in this screen capture video I took: https://youtu.be/wIJaBCyp_5I

Both of these Google accounts have long used 2FA if that is of any help helping me solve this problem. I would use an app-specific password here, but that doesn't appear to be an option when adding a Google account in the Internet Accounts pane of System Preferences.

How can I fix this and get these accounts re-added to macOS?

Safari 13.0.1 fixes this issue.

From the release notes:

Fixes an issue that prevents signing into Google in Internet Accounts in System Preferences

To install Safari 13.0.1:

Go to System Preferences > Software Update to install the 13.0.1 update. You'll need to restart your Mac after the installation for the Google authentication problem to go away.

If pressing the "Open Safari" button in the Internet Accounts pane of System Preferences fails to open Safari, open Safari yourself and the problem shoudl rectify itself. Safari does not need to be made the default browser for the system.

As of the time this was posted, September 20 2019, there was no known solution to the problem. Safari 13.0 broke the authentication workflow from System Preferences with Google account authentication if you use 2FA on your Google account.

The problem has been reported to Google and Apple via their official bug feedback channels.

Partial workaround

A partial workaround to the problem can be had for Mail.app and Notes.app if you add your Google account as a generic "Mail Account". For this to work you'll need to generate an application-specific password in your Google account and use this app-specific password with your Google email address to link the account to Mail.app and macOS.

To generate an application specific password for your Google account (from Google's official documentation):

Go to your Google Account.
On the left navigation panel, choose Security.
On the "Signing in to Google" panel, choose App Passwords. If you don’t see this option:

2-Step Verification is not set up for your account.
2-Step Verification is set up for security keys only.
Your account is through work, school, or other organization.
You’ve turned on Advanced Protection for your account.

At the bottom, choose Select app and choose the app you’re using.
Choose Select device and choose the device you’re using.
Choose Generate.
Follow the instructions to enter the App Password. The App Password is the 16-character code in the yellow bar on your device.
Choose Done.

To use this password with macOS:

Navigate to System Preferences > Internet Accounts and click the Add Other Account... at the bottom of the list
Select Mail account from the list
Fill out the fields:

Name:
Email Address:
Password:

Click the Sign In button to complete the process. You'll be able to connect to Mail and Notes with this approach.

Unfortunately this approach won't work to make a Calendar connection from Calendar.app to your Google calendar.

I just installed Safari 13.0.1 and this issue is fixed. You might want to restart the Calendar app for it to be working


Where are my iBooks stored in macOS? I am looking here for my iBooks in macOS:

/Users/'USERNAME'/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks

But the folder is empty. When I open iBooks (the App) in Sierra, then all my books are there.

So what is happening here? Is Apple just hiding my books now? Where can I display/find them?

If you’ve enabled iCloud, they’re stored in Mobile Documents folder.

Here’s the full path to books you've added:

~/Library/Mobile Documents/iCloud~com~apple~iBooks/Documents/

Here's the full path to books purchased through the iBooks store:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks

The path is only accessible via Terminal. Going through Finder will only redirect you to the iCloud folder. So open up Terminal:

For books you've added type in:

open ~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/iCloud\~com\~apple\~iBooks/Documents

For books you've bought on the iBooks store type in:

open ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.BKAgentService/Data/Documents/iBooks

This will open a Finder window with your iBooks in it.

I switched to iCloud storage for iBooks and then iBooks immediately started acting funky and not responding. I searched "All My Files" for ePub files, then choose all of them (+500) and opened them all at once with iBooks and they all reloaded to iBooks.... and, importantly, before I did that, I turned off iCloud storage for iBooks. I resist using Terminal because I am a novice (at best) but this situation follows typical Apple nonsense: what seems like a good idea (storing all your books on iCloud) turns into a general threat to something pretty important. I choose rather a personal "cloud" via a 3TB hard drive (LaCie) with wi-fi.


How do I do custom key binding in iTunes? How would I assign

⌘1 to Music (Library item)
⌘2 to Movies
⌘3 to Podcasts

Surprisingly enough, these key bindings are not assigned to anything yet, and IMO they would be most convenient ones (see e.g. Mail.app).

I can't see any relevant item in AppleScript dictionary for iTunes…

For each Source/Library item (Music,Movies,Podcasts) you want to open with a shortcut, create a new Applescript as follows

tell application "iTunes"
try
    set view of front browser window to (get some playlist whose special kind is Podcasts)
end try
end tell

replacing "Podcasts" with "Music” or "Movies", and save it with to your ~/Library/iTunes/Scripts folder (if this doesn´t exist, create it!), giving it an unique name (like "show podcasts","show movies").

Next, open "System Preferences">"Keybaord">"Keyboard Shortcuts" and select "Application Shortcuts". Click on the little "plus" button to add a new shortcut with:

Application: iTunes
Menu Title: show podcasts   —this has to be exactly the name you gave your script
Keyboard Shortcut: <press your desired shortcut, eg. "cmd+2">

Now pressing "cmd+2" (or whichever shortcut you defined) while being in iTunes will open the Podcast library item.

Try going into Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts tab → Application Shortcuts in the left panel.

There you can add a custom shortcut to any specific application menu item. Just add itunes to the list and add your shortcut.


Was my AT&T-approved iPhone 4 unlock successful? I called AT&T and asked them to unlock my iPhone 4 for international travel. They agreed. The support agent created a case, gave me the case identifier, and gave me an expected resolution date of April 18, 2012. Today (April 13, 2012), I received an email with a link to the unlock instructions.

The instructions I received are:

Open iTunes on your Mac or PC and verify that you have internet connectivity.
Connect your iPhone using the dock connector to USB cable that came with your iPhone.
Backup and restore your iPhone using iTunes. For information on backup and restore, please visit http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1414.
After restoring, your iPhone will be unlocked. Additional information on unlocking can be found at http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3198.

I completed these steps, however, according to TS3198, I should've seen this message from iTunes: "Unlock Complete. Congratulations, your iPhone has been unlocked. To set up and sync this iPhone, click Continue." I did not get a separate dialog window (as anticipated) with this message. If the message appeared within the iTunes window, I must have missed it.

TS3198 lists these troubleshooting steps:

Reseat the SIM card: Remove the SIM card in your iPhone and then reinsert it.
Restore your iPhone. Note that the computer you are using to restore the iPhone needs to be connected to the Internet. You can verify the connection by loading the first page of the iTunes Store.
Contact your carrier to verify that the unlock was applied in their system.

I've already completed steps 1 and 2, but still have not seen a message from iTunes stating that the phone is unlocked. After I post this question, I will perform step 3.

I do not have an iPhone 4 sim on another network available to test with my phone, but I need to make sure that this unlocking is complete before I travel to another country.

Is there some persistent indication in the iTunes or iPhone user interface that will tell me whether or not this phone is unlocked?

Sequence of events

April 10, 5pm: I called AT&T and requested unlocking.
April 13, 10am: AT&T emailed me instructions for unlocking.
April 13, 2pm: I completed the steps for unlocking but did not see any confirmation message as expected. I completed steps 1 and 2 of the TS3198 troubleshooting steps.
April 13, 4pm: I called AT&T to request confirmation of unlocking (attempting to complete step 3 of the TS3198 troubleshooting steps). Agent stated I did not complete the necessary steps and would need an unlock code. (below, bmike indicates this advice was incorrect.)
April 13, 6pm: AT&T emailed me instructions for unlocking, which match the instructions I received earlier in the day.

No, you do not have to enter any sort of unlock code for any iPhone unlock event.

iTunes contacts the registration database when a phone is restored to determine the lock status and set the appropriate carrier settings file if needed.

So, in your case one of two things has happened.

The database that Apple / iTunes consult hasn't been updated for your IMEI.
You missed the unlock message and your phone is actually ready to be unlocked.

The unlock happens when you restore your device - either as an over the air (OTA) activation or tethered to iTunes.

The carrier should be able to query the live database to see if your IMEI is unlocked or you could try getting another cheap SIM (or borrowing a friend's SIM) and just testing the phone yourself. If you restore the phone twice after it gets unlocks, you will not see this message - but you should get it when it's first unlocked.

I believed using non-AT&T sim card is another way to unlock. This same instruction applied to my Samsung S2.

In fact there are three ways to unlock. Unlock code is another one.


Upgrading from Mojave 10.14.3 to Mojave 10.14.6 (or at most Catalina), but not to Big Sur? I have a MacBook Pro (early 2015) with MacOS Mojave 10.14.3, Safari 12.0.3 and XCode 10.3. The webpage I want to remote debug is opened in Safari on an iPhone SE with iOS 14.2.
The answers I got on StackOverflow suggest that I should upgrade my macOS Safari and/or my XCode version installed on my Macbook.
I see that there is a download for Safari 14.0.1 Beta 4 but it requires at least macOS Mojave 10.14.6.
From https://xcodereleases.com/, I see that my current XCode version 10.3 is the latest I can get given my MacOS Mojave version 10.14.3
So I definitely have to upgrade my MacOS version.
When I go to Preferences -> Software Updates, I see this screen:

Then if I click on "More info..." under "Other updates are available." I get this screen:

So it looks like I could upgrade to MacOS Mojave 10.14.6, which would allow me to install XCode Xcode 11.3.1 at most and also upgrade Safari to version 14
Great, but I fear that clicking on the "install now" button would also install the latest and recently released "Big Sur" because this is what i see on the Software Updates screen.
So this is my (indeed simple, but I wanted to provide more context) question: Can I make sure I upgrade to Mojave 10.14.6 only and not Big Sur from the Software Updates screen I see ?

Yes, clicking on "Install now" in the second screenshot will install only the updates listed and ticked. It will not upgrade to Big Sur.

You can go to https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-mojave/id1398502828?ls=1&mt=12 to download Mojave or https://apps.apple.com/us/app/macos-catalina/id1466841314?ls=1&mt=12 for Catalina.


How to preview what Time Machine would back up? I'd like to preview what Time Machine backup would back up if it did a full backup. The UI shows that the backup will be 300 GB but I'd like to understand better what folders contribute to it.

Details:
I use Time Machine with several ignore rules that come from several "sources":

I ignore some folders manually via Time Machine preferences (the "Options..." button at the bottom of the settings dialog). Those are persisted in /Library/Preferences/com.apple.TimeMachine.plist.
I use tmignore to automatically exclude node_modules and other things I have in my .gitignore files. (Folders excluded this way can be listed via tmignore list.)
Apps can add their own exclude rules, which can be seen by running this command (I'm not 100% sure if it lists everything but that's the command I've used in the past):
sudo mdfind "com_apple_backup_excludeItem = 'com.apple.backupd'"

So I have at least some ways to list ignored files, even though it's not very pleasant that I have to combine several methods.
But even better would be to positively list the files / folder that would be backed up. Those 300 GB most likely contains something that one of the methods above forgot to ignore and I'd like to see what's the biggest contributor to this size. (I used to have a full backup around 100 GB, so there's additional 200 GB hiding somewhere.)
Solution on a terminal is fine, but if there is a GUI app that would visualize that, even better.

Open System Preferences. Tap on the Time Machine option. After having enabled Time Machine and chosen a backup disk, click Options. Click + to define an item that is not to be backed up.


How do you turn off the "Try the new Safari" notification? In OS X Yosemite and OS X El Capitan, when starting Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox, there is an invasive, annoying, and persistent notification, titled "Try the new Safari."

There is only two options in the notification.

Clicking on "Later" will have the same notification come back next time, and "Try now"… well, I dislike being forced to do things on my own computer.

This notification reminds me of the annoying popups coming in another famous operating system, Microsoft Windows, and this is one of the many reasons why I am not using it anymore.

Is there any way to get the notification to not show up anymore without actually trying Apple's Safari?

You can get rid of it without giving in to Apple‘s desire for you to “Try Now”. Even if you click the button, they will ask you to change your default and may still ask again at a later time. I have explained it in much greater details on my blog but the gist of it are these three commands:

defaults write com.apple.coreservices.uiagent CSUIHasSafariBeenLaunched -bool YES
defaults write com.apple.coreservices.uiagent CSUIRecommendSafariNextNotificationDate -date 2050-01-01T00:00:00Z
defaults write com.apple.coreservices.uiagent CSUILastOSVersionWhereSafariRecommendationWasMade -float 10.99

You must log out and in again for the change to apply. You should actually do it immediately to prevent the system from reverting the changes.

I also cover how to stop Safari from prompting you to become the default every few days. (epimorphic touched on this briefly.) Interesting if you need to use Safari on occasions for site-compatibility, testing, or whatever reason. (Oddly enough, I have not heard any automated browsing test suite authors complaining about this yet.)

I may have found a solution. Go to System Preferences, then notifications (first line), scroll down to Safari and disable "Safari alert style".
Since I did that, it's stopped popping up...(then at least so far)
Hope it'll help you.


Japanese system-wide spellchecker I am looking for a relatively easy solution for a Japanese spellchecker (not a Japanese dictionary for the Dictionary app) in High Sierra. I would prefer a link to a downloadable spelling dictionary (Japanese websites are okay).

If there are no ready to use Japanese spelling dictionaries, I would be glad if you could point me to a good step-by-step tutorial for making one.

P.S. I already acquainted myself with everything the official Apple website has to offer on the topic. I checked OpenOffice and LibreOffice for Japanese spelling dictionaries and could not find anything that I could make work. I also tried to look for a solution on Japanese and English websites but so far I did not have any luck.

And of course, I did not forget to make sure that my computer is plugged in, turned on, logged into my account, and connected to the internet. It is :).

If you have .dic and .aff files, just put them Library/Spelling or Home/Library/Spelling, making the folder if necessary.  Apple's instructions are in the setup area of system prefs/keyboard/text/spelling.

I have not seen such files for Japanese, but they may exist somewhere.  MS Word has Japanese Proofing Tools usable with that app.

Some info on how to make spellcheck dictionaries is here.

If you need reference and translation dictionaries, Apple provides those in the Dictionary App:

Before there was a Dictionary.app on Mac OS X I used the WordNet.app from mulle-kybernetik.
It uses the dictionaries from wordnet.
There's a Japanese version of wordnet (and an English translation).

I don't know if these dictionaries can be used in the Dictionary.app but I remember that the WordNet.app was wonderful. It was last updated for Mac OS X 10.3 (Panther) in 2003. It will not work on the current macOS 10.13. Source code is available for the adventurous.

For systemwide spelling, there's a "Check spelling while typing" in the Edit > Spelling and grammar menu. As far as I know this uses the Dictionary.app files.


Notes on MacOS Sierra I just upgraded to MacOS Sierra and I lost a week-long of notes in Notes. It happened, after I restored a backup from a week ago and then installed Sierra. All my notes sync with iCloud, but there simply aren't any notes now from since last week.
Is there any kind of way to recover those notes, because they are reaaaaaally important to me...
Thanks:)

No.  They are gone.  iCloud, for a lack of a better word is a "sync conduit" between your devices; it's not a backup.    This means that a change you make on any of your devices is what gets synced.

When you restored the 1 week old backup from Time Machine, more than likely, Notes did a sync which overwrote what was on iCloud because it "assumed" that was the latest data to be synced.

What you should do in the future....prior to upgrading your OS do a manual Time Machine backup so it saves the latest state. This way you know for a fact that what you restore is your most recent version.

Restore a more recent TM backup, and your notes will be fine again !!


How to disable Xcode's '"ProjectName" is a project downloaded from the Internet. Are you sure you want to open it?' dialog? This is not a question on how to disable the warning when opening files or apps downloaded from the internet but instead it is about Xcode Projects.

New with Xcode 7.3 released yesterday whenever a project is opened for the first time that was downloaded from the internet a warning pops up asking

  “ProjectName” is a project downloaded from the Internet. Are you sure
  you want to open it?

How do I disable this warning from popping up?

xattr -rd com.apple.quarantine /Path/ProjectName


How can I mount Microsoft OneDrive as a network drive in OSX? I have a 50GB OneDrive account which is basically full.

I'd like to store/access stuff directly on/from my OneDrive by mounting as a network share, rather than syncing with my Mac, and therefore using up 50GB of Mac HDD space.

This is possible on Windows, and I can confirm this works on my OneDrive account.

On Mac, I try the equivalent, e.g.:

This correctly asks for credentials:

But then fails:

Any ideas?

You cannot mount a remote "drive" to OneDrive as the synchronization/authentication  protocol is not implemented within the OS X file system.  (It is in Windows, which is why can you do it).

However, I have a client who accomplished this with an App:  CloudMounter.  It worked really well and was priced pretty fairly ($30).

I personally don't have a need for this software so I don't use it (I am also not affiliated with this company in any way).  However, I can tell you that it has worked very well for my client and he has no issues with it.

If you use MSOffice on the Mac, it will allow you to set OneDrive as default file location. When opening or saving files, you can select any folder in your OneDrive account without the need for a local copy as iCloud does. That should Apple do with iCloud too.


Play audiobooks with chapter selection on iOS I have a number of DRM free Audio Books which I listen to while walking the dog, when I put them on my iPod Classic I can scroll through the chapters and pick which one I want to listen to.

On my iPhone the file appears as a single 33 hour audio file. I'm lead to believe that this is something that has arisen since iOS7 was released, as there are a lot of threads complaining about it after upgrading.

Is there a way/third party app that will allow me to scroll through chapters, or at least carry on where I left off if I decide that I'm going to listen to music between dog walking sessions?

Yes, you can use either Audiomark or Bookmobile.


"-bash: ls: command not found" I installed the most recent update to OS X Lion (10.7). After I did that, my terminal won't recognize normal commands. I typed ls and got:

-bash: ls: command not found

I figured I'd try to add usr/bin to my path, but I can't find .bash_profile to edit it since typing edit .bash_profile won't work. I can't set the Finder to show all files since my terminal won't recognize the commands necessary to do that.

what do I need to do?

Since two commands are missing something “stomped” your path.
Before doing anything big, kicking off a backup might be prudent.
The default path on Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion) is something like this:
PATH=/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/X11/bin

If you reset the path by typing the above into a shell window, and then typing export PATH it should manually let you test s local fix that window only.
This breakage is almost always something you need to fix in your dot files. For bash, edit and fix .bash_profile and/or .bashrc by undoing a recent change it just setting the $PATH you need again. The usual error is assigning a new path and not referring to the previous value of the variable on the right hand side of the =

you can export the path as follows:

export PATH=$PATH:/bin:/usr/local/bin


How can I configure custom repeat intervals for Reminders? I would like to configure an alert for a recurring reminder in Reminders.app on Mountain Lion. Currently the only options I have for repeating the alert are "Every Day", "Every Week", "Every 2 Weeks", "Every Month" and "Every Year".

Is there a way to get more fine-grained control on the repeat schedule? For example I'd like to be reminded for something on Mon-Tue-Thu-Fri? The only way I found to accomplish that is creating 4 seperate reminders with a weekly interval, which I want to avoid.

This bugs me too. It isn't possible to do in Reminders, but you can achieve the same thing by creating a repeating event in Calendar, which has a "custom..." item in the Repeat menu:

Then you can specify exactly when to repeat the event:

It seems like an oversight that Reminders doesn't have the same feature (it would be just as useful), especially since the event/reminder detail UI is the same...

There's a great iPhone app from Readdle called Calendars 5 (£4.99) which has a tasks manager (as well as an intuitive calendar function) which will sync tasks back to Reminders and then via iCloud to your mac. Recurrences/repeats can be customised to an infinite degree.


High Sierra 10.13.4 Mission Control Hot Corners Broken I have a 27" iMac Retina (Late 2015, 3.2GHz i5, 24GB, Radeon R9) with HDMI secondary screen on a Thunderbolt/HDMI adapter.  I use Mission Control to put 4 workspaces on the main monitor, and switch back and forth using control-arrow keystrokes.  This still works, but screen hot corners to view Mission Control, Desktop, etc. do not work any more.  Also, I use auto-hide for the task bar, and moving the mouse to the bottom of the screen no longer pulls up the task bar -- as of today, I have to click at the bottom.

Everything had been working fine until a recent High Sierra update (maybe 1-2 updates ago?).  When problems first started, I deleted ~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist and restarted Dock a few times, and eventually got things working again.

Today, none of that has helped: hot corners doesn't work, auto-hide taskbar only works with a mouse click, and I can't click and move windows after I use a keyboard shortcut to show the Mission Control overview.  (I can select a window in the overview and it gets popped to the top of the stack, but I can't click-and-drag windows any more.)

It looks like there's something wrong with the mouse (a Razer connected by USB), but an old generic USB mouse doesn't work any differently.  So perhaps the problem is in mouse / UI handling?

I also have a couple of MacBook Pros which have all the same updates (I think) but the magic trackpad shortcuts to show Mission Control haven't had any problems, and I think Bluetooth mice attached to them are working OK (have to check to be 100% sure).

I have had some other trouble with some user input on the iMac: I use VMWare virtual machines, and both Win10 and Linux guests sometimes miss key-up events, so I either get control/alt/shift stuck down, or I get keys repeating (or both).  Clicking the affected key a couple of times usually fixes this.  I also use VMWare and Parallels on the MBPs with no problems.

Are there any known problems with UI on iMac on recent High Sierra?  Any workarounds?

Apple Support was willing to help me troubleshoot, even though I don't have a current support contract.  We tried several things, and eventually determined that a desktop/window manager add-on called Magnet was messing up the UI events.  (I had tried just turning off the add-on, but that didn't work.)  It was some other troubleshooting step, including:

Reset NVRAM (shutdown, power up with Opt+Cmd+P+R)
Safe-mode Boot (Restart, hold Shift during boot)
Create new admin user, log in (this helps distinguish a system problem from a particular user's preferences problem)
Disable startup items

Resetting NVRAM didn't help, but safe mode worked.  (However, safe mode turns off all graphics acceleration, so it's really slow on a Retina machine.)

The new user didn't show the problem, so it was clearly something in my preferences / profile.

Finally, turning off Magnet auto-start and rebooting cleared up the problem in my user account.  I was subsequently able to turn Magnet on again, and it's working OK now.  So I suspect it was a stray preference that conflicted with an OSX upgrade, which got cleared out by the rebooting and other troubleshooting steps.

I'm extremely grateful to Apple Support for the help!

Turn off WindowTidy or Magnet, restart and reset NVRAM, then everything is fine.


How to use the balance on your apple account in app store? Recently I won a $10.00 gift card which I redeemed on Apple iTunes. So now when I open iTunes, to the left of my apple id, I see a $10.00 balance. My problem is that if I try to purchase an app, it asks me to enter my credit card information.

On the form where I am supposed to fill my credit card information, there's a link which says to redeem your gift card click here. Unfortunately, if I try to enter the code of the gift (mentioned at the beginning of this post) it says that the gift card has been already redeemed.

I guess that means that the amount of the gift card has already been credited to my account (as it shows to the left of my apple id on the iTunes program). The question is: how do I spend this balance?

Just buy the app or the song or whatever and it will take from your balance first. I would check your settings to verify this, however.

One way to check your App Store account balance is to open iTunes, select the link to 'iTunes Store' on the pane on the left under 'Store'.

Click your email address in the top right (or click 'sign in' if required), login in and the value account balance, should be shown next to your email address.

Further details are available including a purchase history in the drop down, you should see the credit on the ''Account information' page under 'Apple ID balance'.

Once the balance is in place, you may still see a credit card prompt.  Some advice on the Apple support site suggests that you may need to complete a "purchase" of free app, and select "none" for payment type.

To try this - pick an app which is free, click to purchase. You should be prompted for payment details and an extra option should be available to select payment type: 'none'.

If you have balance from the redeemed gift card in place, then I think further app purchases may be possible without being prompted for card details.


Can I transfer and view xvid (avi) videos on an iPad? What type of video files can I watch on my iPad?

I usually only have .avi files; is there an app that will allow me to play them?

You could also try AirVideo, which will convert and stream xvid (and other formats) from a local PC.  You can connect to it via local network or remotely as well.http://www.inmethod.com/air-video/index.html

Use VLC for the iPad (link is directly to the apple store for VLC)

Quicky guide through here


Install macOS High Sierra using Terminal I've been trying to find a way to install macOS High Sierra using terminal to install it on various computers quickly. It can be done with macOS Sierra and OS X El Capitan after mounting the InstallESD.dmg file in the directory Install macOS Sierra.app/Contents/SharedSupport using the following code in terminal:

installer -allowUntrusted -pkg Volumes/OS\ X\ Install\ ESD/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg -target Volumes/Macintosh\ HD

I've tried using the same methods to install High Sierra, but it always gives the following error:

The OS Install failed with error: Error Domain=NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code=0 "Undefined error:0

There aren't many articles online for finding a solution to this issue, but there are many about creating a bootable drive. Thank you in advance for the answers.

You can run:

sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall –applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app

Info from OWC Article: Click Here To See

Unlike previous versions, the High Sierra installer requires a "POSIX-ly correctly formed" path to the locations of both the installation source and the installation target. Adding a leading "/" to each occurrence of "Volumes" should eliminate the error.


How to update apps outside the US? I bought my macbook pro in HK and I live in China.
As a new user, I don't understand why I can't update my apps and I see this message:
"Your Apple ID is not valid for use in the Chinese Store. To create a new Apple ID, you must switch to the U.S. Store."

What am I supposed to do? Apple is really weird with these "border limits" in a global world. Please help!

Thanks

I don't have any particular experience with overseas connectivity but I wonder if getting a VPN service specifically from Hong Kong with an exit there would fix the issue. This might allow the HK Apple store to see your MacBook as local to HK rather than where you actually are and connect you to the HK Apple store. I know people do this all the time to connect to TV streams overseas from their home country, might this work the same?

Try going to Settings > iTunes & App Stores > Apple ID > View Apple ID > Country/Region.


Will superdrive work on Macbook Air with Ubuntu? I have a Macbook Air on which I am considering installing Ubuntu 14.  I bought the Mac mainly because of the great hardware.  I got a live copy of Ubuntu working from a USB stick and I am now just testing to see if everything works.  My Soulmate bluetooth device works fine.  My external Western Digital USB harddrive works fine.  My Apple Superdrive does not seem to work.  I figured this might be because I have not actually installed and added the third party support.

Anyone get their Superdrive working under Ubuntu on a Macbook Air?

This issue has been addressed on https://askubuntu.com/q/413882/48105. The OP doesn't report having successfully put his SuperDrive to work on Ubuntu. Here's my experience so far:

The MacBook Air SuperDrive does not work out of the box on Ubuntu 14.04
Installing sg3-utils through the Linux terminal and then running sg_raw /dev/sr0 ea 00 00 00 00 00 01 "wakes up" the drive. Now I'm able to insert media, view its contents in a file browser and eject the media.
DVD playback is not working. Not even the mighty VLC was able to reproduce it. However, I'm still able to rip the DVD.

You can learn more about the issue and how to automate this
wake up process here: http://techtalk.christian-moser.ch/wordpress/?p=517

I hope I can edit this soon and tell you can safely install Ubuntu on you MacBook Air and have SuperDrive work 100%. For now, it only seems to be able to open and browse the media files.

Some tweaks needed.

Refer this page. http://techtalk.christian-moser.ch/wordpress/?p=517


What files do I need to remove to wipe every trace of iTunes from my Mac filesystem? I would like to delete every possible file read, created or cached by iTunes on a Mac and reinstall the whole thing from scratch.

What do I need to delete? Obviously everything in /Applications/iTunes.app, what else? Here are some:

~/Library/iTunes
~/Library/Caches/com.apple.iTunes

Also files that iTunes uses, like (I am assuming) the various sync folders and services. What other folders/files am I missing?

The ones I know of are:

~/Library/iTunes/

/Library/iTunes/

~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync

~/Library/Preferences/com.apple.iTunes.plist + more similar .plist files

However there are probably a LOT more hidden throughout the OS. As soulshined pointed out there are parts of the OS that depend on having iTunes, and removing it would break them. I am curious as to why you need to?


Should I use a Thunderbolt adapter or a USB 3.0 adapter for ethernet? I've just been Googling about this, but I can't find definitive information (some sites claim things that I'm unsure of).  Which is faster for connecting an ethernet cable to a MacBook Pro - a Thunderbolt adapter or a USB 3.0 adapter?  I've seen some claims that Thunderbolt can do a full gigabit while USB 3.0 can only do 100mb - but then again I've seen many USB 3.0 adapters advertised on Amazon as being capable of "10/100/1000 gigabit."  So, what's the verdict?  Which is faster?

(EDIT: I've also just noticed that some USB 2.0 adapters are listed as "10/100/1000 gigabit" capable.  Are they really as fast as the USB 3.0 and potentially Thunderbolt adapters?)

SHORT ANSWER

The answer to your question as asked in the title is it really depends on what ports you have available, personal preference, cost, etc.

I say this because both USB 3.0 and Thunderbolt are faster than ethernet, so it doesn't matter which way you go from a speed point of view.

More specifically (and at the risk of oversimplifying it):

Ethernet supports up to 1Gbps*
USB 3.0 supports up to 5Gbps
USB 3.1 supports up to 10Gbps
Thunderbolt 1 up to 10Gbps
Thunderbolt 2 up to 20Gbps
Thunderbolt 3 up to 40Gbps

*In the overwhelming majority of cases, although 10Gbps ethernet networks do exist.

So, as you can see, it doesn't matter because they're all faster than the ethernet you're converting to.

LONG ANSWER

I'm adding this longer answer due to the various comments below my original answer.

For starters, ethernet can actually support up to 10Gbps. However, in 99.9% of cases (okay, I can't cite a source for that figure - I'm just making a point) this will not be a practical consideration for users unless they intend to connect to an existing 10Gbps ethernet network. While 10Gbps ethernet is starting to gain some traction in terms of network infrastructure, this is only happening in some of the largest organisations or those that have a particular need for this type of setup (such as ISPs, Cloud providers, data centres, etc). It is also worth noting that Apple has never launched a computer (not even Mac Pros or Servers) that natively support 10Gbps ethernet.

One of the reasons for a slow take up rate of 10Gbps ethernet is that it requires full duplex point-to-point links (typically via network switches) and as a result half duplex operation and repeater hubs do not work in 10Gbps ethernet networks. So converting existing ethernet networks to a 10Gbps ethernet network is no trivial matter and is quite expensive. All that said, I expect the deployment of 10Gbps ethernet networks to really start taking off more broadly due to the demands of HD video editing and the requirement of more organisations to have high-performance shared storage systems.

But in terms of typical consumers, this is not something worth considering when wanting to add an ethernet port to a computer and making a decision on the type of adapter they need.

A word about latency

A lot has been made about latency in the comments. While latency is a factor - especially when large networks with many network devices are involved - it's less of an issue for typical consumers.

Does latency matter to typical consumers?

Yes and no. A user on a home network who needs to transfer some photos and documents from a MacBook to an iMac is not going to be too concerned if it takes a couple of seconds for the transfer to commence. On the other hand, if the same user is browsing the web and it takes a couple of seconds for a page to start loading, that can be enough for them to move on to something else. So, latency can be very important to the overall user experience, but how important it is also depends on the application. If we spend hours on the internet we want our pages to load quickly, and latency can definitely affect this (just talk to any Satellite internet user). On the other hand, if we only transfer files across a home network occasionally, it's less important.

So, what is latency?

At the risk of oversimplifying things, latency refers to the delay in transmission time that occurs while data remains in a device's buffered memory (e.g. bridge, router, etc) before it can be sent along its path. While it seems to only be hardware related, latency is in fact affected by both hardware and software factors. Some are listed below:

Hardware factors

Traversing the network medium
Traversing network switches and devices
Transmission through the PCIe bus
Memory access times
Length of network cables
Etc etc

Software factors

Firmware running on the adapter
The device driver controlling the adapter
Operating system execution
The portion of the network stack that data has to transmit over
Etc etc

Regardless of the factor involved, the impact of latency on network bandwidth can be temporary or persistent.

How is latency measured?

In terms of ethernet networks, latency can be measured with different tools and methods, such as specified by IEEE RFC2544, netperf, or Ping-Pong (no, not the table tennis game). Put very simply, the main difference in these various methods is the point at which latency is measured. Regardless though, while excessive latency can limit the performance of network applications by delaying data arrival, this delay in a typical consumer network is less likely to be noticeable because there aren't usually too many network devices in consumer networks. That is, because there are less adapters, bridges, routers, etc involved between the source and destination, the total latency should be less. While users can do pings and traceroutes to measure this delay, in real world home applications (e.g. transferring files) it's not going to be noticeable unless there is a problem somewhere.

So, is latency a factor in determining the type of ethernet adapter one purchases?

Yes and no. In a sense this is irrelevant in a small/home network because there just aren't going to be many network devices. But if you have to make a decision on which type of adapter to purchase for 6 computers per room in a building of 10 rooms where all the computers are on the same ethernet network connected by multiple bridges etc, then it is much more relevant.

Thunderbolt v USB 3 re latency

So, which type of adapter is better in terms of latency? Generally, a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter is likely to have a lower latency then a USB 3 to Ethernet adapter. But, as manufacturers focus on bandwidth or throughput when they publish specs, you're not going to find it easy to try and quantify this or compare adapters.

So, why would I prefer a Thunderbolt to Ethernet adapter? To be honest, in a small/home network I probably wouldn't as I think the difference would be negligible and unnoticeable to the naked eye (so to speak). For me, the choice would come down to what ports I have available (or am willing to sacrifice) and the cost. But if it was a large network my preference for Thunderbolt is based on the real world experiences of users in particular fields.

For example, in the music production industry users have found that with audio devices capable of being connected either through Thunderbolt or USB3, that the overall audio latency of the connection is about 1ms for Thunderbolt and 4.5ms for USB 3. Now, these speeds can be impacted by other factors, but since these setups involve the exact same equipment, it appears that for whatever reason the Thunderbolt connection is faster (probably because Thunderbolt is allowed almost straight access to the CPU).

Whether this difference would be replicated in terms of a typical ethernet network is unclear. By that I mean connecting a PC to specialised audio equipment directly via Thunderbolt is different to connecting a PC to an ethernet network via a Thunderbolt or USB 3 adapter. Even if it was replicated, while audio latency may be noticeable to music professionals, the transfer of files and documents is different again.

For the new MacBook pro with thunderbolt 3 over usb type-c port. The "Delock Adapter SuperSpeed USB (USB 3.1 Gen 1) with USB Type-C™ male > Gigabit LAN 10/100/1000 Mbps compact" is your answer. It supports usb down to usb 2.0 but will also do gigabit ethernet over thunderbolt.


How can I "link" different files to my folder without using soft link? I have some some folders look like this structure:

Buy folder -> state_diagram_for_buy, activity_diagram_for_buy
Sell folder -> state_diagram_for_sell, activity_diagram_for_sell
Search folder -> state_diagram_for_search, activity_diagram_for_search

I want to group all the state_diagrams and activity diagrams in two folder.
So one folder is used to store state_diagram and another one is used to store the activity diagrams.

However, I don't want to copy those file, since any changes in the original files cannot reflect on the copy one. I know there is a Unix command: ln can be used to create the linking. But are there other ways to create the linkings in finder because I don't know to type the commands many time...

You can create a smart search for each type of file. Make a search in Finder by file name (you can also enter other criteria) and when you're satisfied with the results, save it.

hipSpace.app is a temporal workspace. It records our informations using references on them, it lets dedicated applications to manage the location of their own stuff. By defaults, adding, drag&dropping or copy&pasting into hipSpace, will not move neither change our original informations.
Hope it can help you.
http://hipSpace.net