Run script for delete HD Is there a way to run a script on a Mac that literally will do
( sudo rm -rf / )?

I need to schedule a complete wipe of my hard drive on next Friday at 6PM.  I'm not very familiar with scripts so there's no clear answer for me.  Can I run a script that doesn't involve me to grant the sudo password?  I do have my root user password.

Just create a launch daemon with

sudo touch /Library/LaunchDaemons/user.local.rm.plist
sudo chown root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/user.local.rm.plist
sudo chmod 644 /Library/LaunchDaemons/user.local.rm.plist

Open an editor:

sudo nano /Library/LaunchDaemons/user.local.rm.plist

and edit in the following content :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>user.local.rm</string>
    <key>ProgramArguments</key>
    <array>
        <string>/bin/rm</string>
        <string>-rf</string>
        <string>/</string>
    </array>
    <key>StartCalendarInterval</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Hour</key>
        <integer>18</integer>
        <key>Minute</key>
        <integer>00</integer>
        <key>Weekday</key>
        <integer>5</integer>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

Load the launch daemon with:

sudo launchctl load /Library/LaunchDaemons/user.local.rm.plist

This will remove almost any file and folder of your internal disk next friday. My virtual machine stopped working with an empty root folder and (according to the status bar) ~6 GB of disk space occupied. Finally it may be less though and the "6 GB" was just the last reportable value.

This will not erase (=overwrite with random data) your files and folders completely: any decent data recovery tool will probably restore almost all previous content.

In El Capitan this only works if SIP is disabled!

You can probably do this in a script- if you can do it on the command line then you can do it in a script, too. But it seems messy- not sure how much will actually get erased before the system just hangs. Wonder what will be left behind.

I'm curious what problem you're trying to solve here (other than erasing a disk at a specified time)... Are you reinstalling an OS when you're done? If you can setup a NetBoot server then you can create a NetInstall or NetRestore image that will auto-erase a specific volume name.

Another idea is to just delete the user account, assuming the data you're concerned about is contained within the user's home directory.


How can I disconnect from all WiFi networks, yet leave WiFi antenna on so Internet Sharing will work properly? I would like to have my MacBook's Wi-Fi antenna on, but not be connected to any wireless network. Instead I would like for my MacBook to share its Thunderbolt-to-Ethernet connection so my iPhone can get a taste. (My office was built on an ancient Bermudian triangle sanctuary.)

I am using the same settings, toggling things hasn't worked yet:

[x] Internet Sharing
Share from: [_Thunderbolt_Ethernet___]
To computers using: [x] Wi-Fi

(green light) Internet Sharing: On

However the Wi-Fi icon in the notifications area usually shows a vertical arrow when it is working properly. Right now it just connects to the nearby networks (public and login walled) and refuses to broadcast, even though the green light still says 'On'.

Anyway I suspect that my computer's trying to connect to Wi-Fi networks, it indefinitely forgoes its opportunity to broadcast its own SSID. How can I make this work again?

Change your network profile so that the preferred order has your thunderbolt connection at the top. This will make OSX use it over wifi even if a known wifi access point is available.

With a working internet connection just configure internet sharing and it should just work.

I know from experience that this works, I have done it many times on snow leopard, should work the same way on later releases of osx.

I found that the easy way to circumvent the auto-connection to other networks is to choose the Create Network... option that appears at the bottom of the WiFi drop-down.

Who knew.


Siri can't text someone even though it can call them, email them, and show me their contact information I ask Siri to "Send a text message to John Smith". I get a response, "You have two contacts named John Smith, and neither has a phone number or email address". However, if I bring up John Smith's contact information in Contacts, I see only a single card and that card has his emails and phone number.

If I ask Siri "Show me John Smith's contact information", I see John Smith's contact information. If I ask Siri "Where is John Smith?" Siri will show me where John Smith is in the Find my Friends App. If I ask Siri "Email John Smith", Siri replies "Which email address for John Smith" and shows me all of his email addresses. If I say "Call John Smith", Siri calls John Smith.

And, if I bring up the contact, and press the little speech bubble, I can text John Smith that way. And, I can also ask Siri to display John Smith's contact information and send him text that way too.

The issue only seems to be with text messages. John Smith also has an iPhone and uses iMessage.

Any idea how I can get Siri to find John Smith's email address or phone number when I text him? I have no problems with email or phoning John Smith through Siri -- just texting through Siri.

Okay. I fixed the problem — at least so far.
Deleting the entry did nothing. I recreated the entry, it initially worked, and then failed five minutes later with the same problem.
On my iPhone, entries are "unified". For example, my wife has an entry for someone, and I have an entry for someone, it shows up on my iPhone as a single entry. On my iPad, these show up as multiple entries. If Facebook creates an entry, a third one shows up.
I want to my iPad, and there were three entries for this name — two had email and phone numbers and one did not.
Deleting that mysterious third entry worked for about two minutes, but it reappeared a minute later, and I had the same issue again. I ended up editing that third entry and added a phone number and email addresses. That allowed me to text John Smith through Siri. It so far has held for two days. I can once again text John Smith through Siri. However, other people who have Facebook profiles and are in my phone book aren't an issue. It was just this one.

Addendum
The problem was tracked down to Facebook being allowed to munge my address book. This user didn't have phone or email information in Facebook, so Siri must have seen the Facebook info, and tried to use that. On my iPhone, the contact entries are unified, so I see both what Facebook puts in and my entry.
Turning off Settings->Facebook->Contacts solved the issue.
There maybe similar issues with other contact applications like Twitter and Outlook which might cause Siri not to see the information you have for a contact. Turning off these app's ability to update your contacts may solve the issue.

Tried unlinking ... didn't work.

Deleted old contact and created new one.  Seems to have worked thus far


Are locked notes in the Notes.app are encrypted on the local host? Anyone has a clue? I know they are encrypted on the servers, but I would like to know if they are also particularly encrypted on my machine. Thanks!

All user data on iOS devices is automatically encrypted. This includes any data stored in the Notes app.

Data on Mac computers is not encrypted by default, unless the individual app encrypts its data storage. It appears that data is stored in an unencrypted SQLite database, based on the fact there's a third-party export tool available.

It is unnecessary as encryption is to protect data from "interception" while be moved between device and server or while on server.

Your protection of notes on your device is your passcode / fingerprint.

Learn more at:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202303


How do I free up space on iCloud when I have already deleted many photos and turned off iCloud photos but not "my photo stream"? How do I free up space on iCloud when I have already deleted many photos and turned off iCloud photos but not "my photo stream"?

I want to be able to back up my iPhone with the iCloud but there are so many pictures taking up space in iCloud it won't back up now.

I have already downloaded all my cell phone pics to my computer; So I don't need the iCloud to back up pictures.

Please help.

To remove Photos (Photo Library) from iCloud backup:

Please open Settings/ your name iCloud
Open Storage/Manage Storage
Open Backups (iOS12) / select the backup for your iPhone
Switch off the Photo Library - this will exclude the Photo Library from the backup (you can do it while backup in progress)
Tap Turn Off & Delete (if already exists)

Pay for a larger iCloud storage tier.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201238

$2.99 per month gets you 200GB of free space in iCloud. This should be more than enough space to back up your photos and other items.

It's worth it to pay a small amount of money for another form of off-site backup.


Keynote won't update I'm trying to update my version of Keynote to 6.6.1 (it's now 6.2.2) so I can open presentations created in newer versions, but every time I click the "update" button on the App Store, all I get is the spinning wheel thing in the top left corner, which says "checking for updates" by it.  Nothing downloads, nothing happens.  Any suggestions?

I've just updated to El Capitan 10.11.3

Most likely this is down to the fact that your OS is not updated.  The current version of Keynote requires macOS 10.12.  You can confirm this by deleting Keynote from your applications folder, starting AppStore and installing Keynote.  You will get an error message that a later version of your operating system is required.

Sometimes your Mac may accidentally redownload Keynote without deleting the old one. Check in Applications and make sure you don't have two versions of Keynote hiding.


Can I add or change the author of a PDF file in iBooks? I had several PDF files in iTunes that I had added authors to. Then I upgraded to Mavericks and launched iBooks. It moved my books and PDFs from iTunes, but many of my PDFs now show the author as "Unknown Author".

Is there a way to add an author to these files? I cannot "Get Info" on the file in iBooks like I used to be able to do in iTunes.

Note: This question was originally asked about OS X 10.9 Mavericks. Now that 10.10 Yosemite is available, there is a way to do this easily in iBooks.

To be clear, Bryan Luby's and ReF's answers are both correct. I wanted to elaborate on ReF's answer for those who may have never used Automator before. This will allow you to change the the data for items in bulk.

Changing the Author

Open Automator and in the left-most dialog box select "Finder &
Folders."
In the subtree dialog box just to the right, select "Get    Specified Finder Items" and drag this box to the top of the workflow    zone.
Inside the "Get Specified Finder Items" box select "Add..."    and choose the files you wish to modify.
In the left-most dialog    box select "PDFs"
In the subtle dialog box, select and drag "Set    PDF Metadata" into the workflow after "Get Specified Finder Items."
Inside the "Set PDF Metadata" box, check the Author and type in    the Desired name.
Click Run, the play button, in the top right    corner.
After this workflow completes you can add these files to    iBooks and the Author field will be correct.

If you have previously added them you will have to delete the ones where the Author didn't show up.

Changing the Title

Unfortunately, iBooks reads the title from the name of the file; rather than, the title contained in the metadata of the pdf itself. If you want to change this is Automator it is possible. The most comprehensive way is as follows:

As above, use the "Set PDF Metadata" option to update the
metadata title to the title of the book.
From the PDFs subtree select the "Rename PDF Documents" widget to the end of the workflow.

This method will only work one file at a time and rename the file for you while updating the metadata. This is a particularly slow way to accomplish this task. It would be faster just to edit the file name directly in finder, or, preferably, use command line arguments and regular expressions to rename the file removing the unwanted parts.

In other words: It's not just to choose your files and change it the way you do it in iTunes with artists.
Much easier-even if I don't have anything to add to that problem..

(In Google Play/Books you can change name easy-and in a jiffi!)


In OS X Yosemite, how to keep the app switcher (or dock) on my main display? I believe the app switcher (command + tab) is tied to where the dock "is". The dock is available on both displays, but I believe the last display in which you clicked on the dock is where it actually is.

So when the dock is on my secondary display, the app switcher shows on that display. Which throws me off and I would rather have the app switcher stay on my main display.

How can this be done?

App Switcher is controlled by Dock. Whichever display the dock bar is on, so is App Switcher. This applescript is how I reset Dock bar to main display:

tell application "System Events"
    set screen edge of dock preferences to right
    set screen edge of dock preferences to bottom
end tell

If you run Dock unhidden/visible, most likely the Dock will make a flash appearance on the rightmost edge. To get rid of the flash:

tell application "System Events"

    set autohide of dock preferences to true
    delay 0.2
    set screen edge of dock preferences to right
    set screen edge of dock preferences to bottom
    set autohide of dock preferences to false

end tell

You can bind the script to a keyboard shortcut so it can be invoked quickly when necessary.

If you always have Dock hidden, you can put the script in a loop with a preferred amount of delay, and run it as a daemon. This way the daemon will periodically make sure the dock is in main display.

As sudo-workaround. I recommend hiding the dock. It feels a little more natural to me. At least until they allow the option to keep in on one display.


Get Dragon Dictate to move cursor to The end of the current line? How do I get Dragon Dictate to move to the end of the line after correcting something on the Mac?


What's the better way to expand my small SSD? I have a retina MBP (MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)) with an SSD of 256GB.
Using it for a month or 2 now, I'm noticing that I'd like some more space (for using a Virtual Machine).
There isn't yet a way to upgrade the interal drive, and I've been wondering what the more efficient upgrade is:

Transcend Jetdrive Lite
(Claims Read speed of 95MB/s, Write 60MB/s)
USB3 memory stick (Bigger in physical size, smaller in disk space)
External USB3 SSD / HDD (Which is what I'd least like in physical size)

The ideal "upgrade" would be small size, so I can leave it in and forget about it, but fast enough to use for my Virtual Machines (and big enough).

Being a Windows developer I need to run full blown VMs. Currently I have 2 VMs on my SSD, both of which use the storage quite a lot (a server and a compile machine). I'd now like to use another VM, mostly to use as a thin-client to connect to customers' servers. This means that the third VM (the one on the extra storage) doesn't need to be as fast as an SSD, nor does it need to be as big. I think it currently sits at around 30-40GB.

Currently I do not know what kind of read / write speeds are enough for my thin-client VM, because it's more of a 'i'll know it when i see it' problem.

Does anyone have benchmarks or advice on how to proceed?

A traditional USB flash stick will not cut it for your purposes. This is not a question of R/W speed. Regardless of the R/W speeds (I own an excellent 128GB PNY Turbo stick), the on-board controller (the microchip that serves as the brains behind the drive’s operation) is built for low-cycle I/O operations. If you plan to run virtualization software from an external drive, with portability/size being the caveat, your best bet is purchasing an mSATA-based SSD with an exclosure.

Here’s a good image to put the size into perspective:

Bottom line: you won’t be able to reliably run a VM from a USB based flash drive. You need a dedicated external drive with a controller engineered to handle the operations you plan to execute.

I'll go for the MBP SSD replacement because it'll not void any Apple warranty (as written in this thread and the last link to Apple warranty).

In my case I'm working with a Samsung SSD 850 Pro 256GB and an external WD HD 500GB 5200rpm for Windows VMs.
I'm using VMware Fusion and I'm not experiencing any kind of slow down or lag spike.


Iphone app that will count up or down with voice I am in need of an iPhone app that will count down or up from a particular number for a visually impaired individual.

For example if 60 is entered a voice would say 60,59,58,57 and etc.

Does something like this exist for an iPhone 6?

I found this app "Voice Over Timer" which looks to be configurable to do close to what you want.

AppStore Link:
https://appsto.re/us/TeCFM.i

edit upon further review, it looks like the countdown can only be announced for the last ten seconds. The AppStore page mentioned a customization but it is a customization from among pre-determined options.

"Stopwatch - simple with voice speaking time" - that's the full name.


Default to Pages '09 when Pages '13 is also installed? Both Pages '09 and Pages '13 use "com.apple.iWork.Pages" as a bundle ID.

I can set individual .pages files to open with Pages '09, but when I try to set all .pages files to open with Pages '09, Pages '13 keeps taking over.†

† Selecting a .pages file, changing to "Pages '09", and then clicking "Change All…" always selects Pages '13. You can see it here https://vimeo.com/78545014.

Anyone know how to force OS X to accept Pages '09 as the default for all .pages files?

If Pages '09 is already open, any Pages documents you double-click will open in that app, rather than in Pages '13.

To make sure Pages'09 is always open, I added it to the list of Login items (System Preferences —> Accounts —> Login Items).

Take a backup before you attempt the following.

Since the bundle identifier is currently the same, you would have to manually make them different. It's likely that iWork '09 won't get any updates, so you could change its bundle identifier like so (suffix '09' in the ID in Contents/Info.plist of Pages '09 under /Applications):

    <key>CFBundleIdentifier</key>
    <string>com.apple.iWork.Pages09</string>

You would also have to rename the few preferences files under ~/Library/Preferences/ (com.apple.iWork.Pages*.plist), substituting Pages with Pages09 in the name.

Change the application association like you have already attempted (or use duti to change/verify it).


Change the mouse wheel scrolling acceleration I am new Mac user and I don't really like the Magic Mouse so I reverted to a good old 3 button mouse with a scroll wheel.

When I turn the wheel slowly, it only scrolls pixel per pixel (or per two pixels)
If I turn the wheel more quickly, it scrolls nearly line by line. There is a kind of scroll wheel acceleration where the amount scrolled for each wheel step depends on the rotation speed of the wheel.

This behavior is not present in Windows where you always scroll a few lines per wheel step.

Is there a way to disable this behaviour or to tweak it in Mac OS X Lion?

Hope you're still reading - I highly recommend one of the third party mouse managers like SteerMouse or USB Overdrive or ControllerMate.

I found the arch of the Magic Mouse just too low and went back to the old reliable Logitech MX Revolution, but I will never install Logitech software again without an excellent reason. These packages will let you configure all of the buttons and SteerMouse (haven't verified for the other two) will definitely let you specify linear or accelerated wheel scrolling with variable degree of acceleration.

System Preferences---Mouse

There you can speed up the scrolling speed.

Tracking Speed relates to how fast the mouse moves across the screen.

Good Luck!


OS X Lion, Moutain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite: deep sleep on low battery leads to crash I'm having an issue on my Mac since I installed Lion and now Mountain Lion (I thought that the Lion problem could be because I've put an SSD in my Mac and did not make a fresh install but a carbon copy to the new disk, but it still happens with Mountain Lion with a format/fresh install).

What is happening to me is that, when I put my Mac to sleep and the battery dies, it does not restore the state like a normal sleep that it did when I was on Snow Leopard. Now when the battery dies, the computer restarts: I need to put my password and the programs open again but some of them lose the previous state (like VLC, Chrome has the "restore" option, etc.) it is exactly like a restart with the option "Reopen windows when logging back in" selected.

Is this normal or should it happen like in Snow Leopard?

If this is the normal behavior, I will turn off Deep Sleep since the Mac takes less time to sleep with it off. (I think that the more time is because it is storing the state of the RAM on the disk so it could recover when the battery goes off which it doesn't do properly!)

$ pmset -g | grep hibernatemode
 hibernatemode        3

Does you SSD use a SandForce controller?  SandForce controllers seem to have some serious issues related to battery and sleep/hibernate activities, and you might (I repeat might) be seeing some of these problems coming up:

SandForce controller problems

If you have a SandForce controller you might want to change SSD altogether, based on the info provided by the link above.

It is completely normal. When battery level reaches reserve (less than 10%), it hibernates which saves RAM state onto HDD as you've mentioned in the question.

If you still want to disable that behaviour run this in the Terminal:

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 0

and it will be disabled. You can change it back by replacing 0 with 3 (the default).


Simcard not recognized iPhone 3GS iOS 6.1.6 I've updated my jailbroken iPhone 3GS via iTunes restore to iOS 6.1.6, but after the update I am not able to activate my iPhone and its showing no service.

It says no sim card is installed in the device which you are activating, although it is inserted.

My iPhone is stuck on the activation page and I cannot use the iPhone because activation is required.

Remove the Simcard and place it back, get a paperclip to do this for an iPhone 3GS.

Try it (several times if it does not recognize it after one try) and it should recognize the simcard.


Mail signature changes font size when sent to Gmail I have created a signature in Mac mail. However, every time I send an email to a gmail account it enlarges the font size. Has anybody else come across this? Is there a workaround?

Here are the steps to make this work, even tried them on Mac OS X 10.7 Lion GM / Mail.app 5.0

Open Mail.app
Create a signature
Close Mail.app
Open Terminal and in Leopard/Snow Leopard go to ~/Library/Mail.app/Signatures, in Lion it's in ~/Library/Mail.app/V2/MailData/Signatures/
You'll find there a file with random digits such as: 4E725456-58C1-4FD7-8490-3048F994CC33.webarchive
Open that file in Safari, use View Source or Inspect to get the HTML content
Create a new file using your preferred editor, I used nano, and paste the html
Look for 'font-size = medium' and change it to the size you want, i changed it to 12px to match my Tahoma 12px mail font
(Optional) if you want to embed an image, call it using <img> to a remote, public location and remove all <object> </object>
Save the file as .html
Open that .html file in safari and save as .webarchive
cp the .webarchive you created to the location of the original .webarchive file while keeping the correct name (replace it)
Open Mail.app and check that the signature is the way you want it...

I followed the instructions by emmby, 23 Sept.

Brilliant! The first instructions I found anywhere that actually work. I have been struggling with the Apple Mail complete lack of control of signature formatting.

I have sent my own Gmail address hundreds of mails, all of them arriving in a variety of abused formatting.

I replaced in a signature file all "font-size = medium" by "font-size = 13px", which is my default font-size. As a result, the mail as it appeared in Gmail is no longer in "Arial", but in "Lucida Sans", which is my actual chosen font. Also the line-spacing of the following part of the signature, which is in Times New Roman 11 pt, is now normal, instead of the line-spacing that it previously took over from the 13-pt or "medium" size.

I still have some experimenting to do, but at least this defies all comments in other threads that formatting of rich text emails is something that cannot be controlled, because it is (partly) managed by the receiving mail client.

I stick to my conclusion that Apple ignores this highly annoying lack of control of its mail programme.


How do I remove Cisco Anyconnect from the Dock? I am unable to remove Anyconnect from dock. It persists like Finder. On checking ~/Preferences/com.apple.dock.plist I don't find Anyconnect listed in it. Is this setting stored somewhere else from where I can remove?

I am using Mavericks.

Typically you quit a program and then drag the dock icon out of the dock if it remains. The dragging needs to be a few inches outside the dock and pause until you see the cloud animation arrive around the icon before releasing the mouse.

Usual method of dragging and dropping app out of Dock works. I didn't realize that, the app was already running.


Partition for iTunes I have a Mac with bootcamp and unfortunately i see myself using bootcamp far too often because I'm a developer and VS2013+SqlServer is way too demanding for my 8gb ram... but i use iTunes a lot... so i was thinking, if i create a Fat32 partition and put my iTunes folder there so i can point both my OSX iTunes and my windows iTunes and be able to not only read but write (app updates, new songs, etc...) will it work?!? or maybe the folder structure is different or something like that?!?

You can use the same folder for Mac and Windows versions of iTunes. I would recommend use the exactly same version though. Here is more info on how use it through the network: http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20070424081346722. It's the same logic, but you will be using the same local folder instead a network shared one.

No you cannot. I resorted to every resource and i don't know why but it seems that win8.1 messes up the partition (ExFAT) rendering it unusable beyond repair... either that or Mavericks messes it up when copying itunes backup to it...


Copying Xcode installation from one Mac to another I have installed 3 different versions of Xcode on my Mac.

Can I just copy the /Applications/Xcode*.app app bundles from my Mac and put it on other 10 Macs I have? I don't want to go through the hassle of downloading and installing it again.

Has anyone done this successfully?

NOTE: I saw another question on copying to an external drive. I am NOT doing that. Just copying from one machine to another and keeping the installations in /Applications folder.

I Wanted to close the loop on this. Yes, it works just fine. We create a .xip file of the installation and slap it on other boxes.

You can copy the Xcode application from /Applications folder of one machine  to another machine. No problem , it will work. But i recommend you to copy the xcode to desktop(or some other folder otherthan /Applications ) of the second machine initially and then move to /Applications folder.


I have several iPhones / iPads, and when I say "Hey Siri what's the weather tomorrow", only my main phone will respond, how is it designed? That's is, if I have several iPhones and iPads on the desk for lying there for an hour, and I just said, "Hey Siri..." without touching any of the devices, only the phone that I use most often will respond. Does Siri know which one is my main phone and only use it to respond?

When you say "Hey Siri", the devices that could possibly react to it will communicate with each other using Bluetooth to determine which device will respond: The device that heard you best, or the device that was most recently raised or used will respond to the "Hey Siri" request.

Apple has detailed the method here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208472

"Hey Siri" only really works on select newer iPhones. I had an iPhone 6 for a while and had the option for "Hey Siri" but it never worked. Upon getting an iPhone 7 plus... The "Hey Siri" feature works great!
Your main phone must be newer than the others if "Hey Siri" only works on that one.
That or "Hey Siri" is disabled on the other phones and/or iPads.


How to clean install Windows 8 Pro *Upgrade* on BootCamp already running Windows 7? Now that Windows 8 is officially supported in the latest BootCamp, I am considering this for my Mac.

There is plenty of general advice about installing Windows 8 / Windows 8 Pro in BootCamp on a Mac.

However, what I do not see is how to clean install a Windows 8 Pro upgrade on a mac with an existing BootCamp Windows 7 install. Clean install is an option offered in the upgrade install process for general PCs - but can this work on BootCamp?

Why do I want to install Windows 8 Pro upgrade ?

Because it's much cheaper than the regular version (though it is still a full OS install) and I am eligible in that I already have a legal licensed copy of one of the pre-requisite operating systems to qualify - I have Windows 7 64bit installed in bootcamp on my mac. In other words Microsoft offer Windows 8 cheaper if you have a legal copy of an earlier qualifying OS.

What do I mean by Windows 8 Pro clean install?

I also have a desktop PC which used to run Windows 7. I clean installed the Windows 8 Pro upgrade on this successfully. Although Windows 8 Pro upgrade is a full OS installation, during the install process, it will check the hard disk for the presence of a valid, licensed eligible OS already installed - in my case Windows 7. BUT, once its done that, it offers the option to format the disk on which it is to be installed. Obviously I would have backed up any valuable files, deactivated any applications and uninstalled them -ready to reinstall and reactivate them on the new OS later.  A fresh start. I prefer the clean install approach as to me this is the optimal deployment; no baggage/kruft/residue/ditritus/call it what you will from a prior OS. I also hear anecdotally from friends that an "in-place" upgrade whereby Windows 8 retains personal files and apps during install has proved unreliable for them.

So can anyone advise me about clean installing Windows 8 Pro upgrade on Bootcamp that already had Windows 7 installed?

(By the way, I would not want comments or discussion about why I should have Windows/Windows 8 on my Mac. Not useful to me. I work in computing and prefer to keep a balanced informed opinion of what is out there to help me and others. Thanks!)

It should be possible to do the clean install of a Windows 8 Pro upgrade on an existing installation of an earlier qualifying OS as these steps for Windows 7 suggest:

http://www.tuaw.com/2009/11/02/an-illustrated-guide-to-boot-camp-and-windows-7/

In this guide above, search for string: "Theoretically, you're doing a fresh installation of Windows 7. In that case, select the "Custom (advanced)" installation"

(remove just the outermost quotes when searching for the string in the guide.)

In summary, after the Mac BootCamp app has done its original setup (including the partitioning), the rest of the setup is as per usual Windows installation - all the Windows steps are shown. In the event of the usual ReBoots, be sure to select the Windows drive to continue the installation.

During the install, once the Windows 8 upgrade installer has found the previous qualifying OS on the disc, it can then offer the format disc as the clean installation option.

There is a big difference between a "clean install" and an "upgrade install".  A clean install of windows 8 on your mac wipes your exiting (window 7 PARTITION completely clean,  aka empty) PRIOR to installing windows 8, whereas an upgrade install over-writes the windows 7 partition, and "may" leave a ton of windows 7 unused files on the partition that "may or may not" cause a problem later with the new OS, so a clean install is always recommended, - but "no good deed goes unpunished".  IF you do a "CLEAN install" with a legal windows 8 UPGRADE OS, as it loads, it asks for your new windows 8 "key/license" and proceed with installing windows 8. After about 90 minutes of installation comes the problem.  The installer looks to your partition for the previous windows 7 "key/license". It ain't there - you cleaned out the partition of all data.  To use the technical term - your screwed !!!!!!!  No windows 8 - no windows 7.   To do a clean install windows 8 with the new bootcamp "8 drivers" you must have a new "FULL - retail or full - OEM" windows 8 with new key/license.  If not you can only do an upgrade install.  You can use the newest bootcamp app to do either install.


Does force closing apps have any benefit on iOS devices? I've gotten mixed answers from various websites and people concerning this question, and I wanted to put it out there for all of you to answer once and for all.

The question is, does force closing apps, (that is, double-clicking the home button, then swiping up on them), have any benefit to the battery or overall performance of an iPhone or any other iOS device?

There's been much debate and discussion around this topic.  I believe it was beneficial for iOS back in the v3 and v4 days but now it's not.

Craig Federighi even came out recently saying it's not necessary and it doesn't increase the battery life.  Apple has built-in their memory management the proper time to suspend and/or kill an app when necesssary.  The only time you should force-close an app is if it has become unresponsive.

I have found that ending the Facebook app in particular can save battery life. After checking its usage in the battery section (Settings > Battery > Time), I can't help but be convinced that it's not playing nice.


Test a launcher app icon on an iPhone I need to test a launcher app icon on an iPhone. Is there any way to do that without having to install an entire app?

You could create an HTML page for this which refers to the icon.

<link rel="apple-touch-icon" href="/custom_icon.png"/>

If you then open the web page and add the site to your home screen it will take custom_icon.png as your app icon.

For more detailed information have a look at Apple's developer page.

You can also use http://testico.net. Nothing to download on your desktop, no app to install on your phone, free.


Unable to remove item from dock in Yosemite Apple says to remove an item from the dock in Yosemite, drag it from the dock until you see a puff of smoke.  I drag it from the dock, it has a tag called "remove" but it never goes up in smoke.It just returns to the dock.

Even though the items appeared not to be open, they were open.  By holding down the right click on the icon, a drop down menu appeared with the option to "quit." Select that item, and the icon is removed.

I thought this may be late but it can help you to sort it out. Open Terminal in Utilities and use this command line:

defaults delete com.apple.dock; killall Dock


Retrieve lost iPhoto after replaced hard drive I replaced the hard drive on my MacBook Pro through Apple. I backed up files on my computer but not my Applications.

Is my iPhoto lost forever? I have thousands of pictures on there! I've signed in to iCloud and the iPhoto icon is not ticked. Is everything lost? Can I call Apple and retrieve my old hard drive somehow?

If you backed up all your files, then your library has been backed up and all you are missing is the iPhoto app. The iPhoto app has been replaced by Photos.app in Yosemite, so you can re-download iPhoto or Photos from the Mac App Store and your library will be automatically detected.

If you didn't back up all your files, then you need to rely on the last one thousand photos accessible in Photo Stream or Shared Photo Streams.

Lilly, go to Apps purchases and if you purchase iPhoto in the past then you can download it again.


Why is Spotlight trying to index my iPod? Since I upgraded to Mavericks, whenever I plug in my iPod, Spotlight tries to index my iPod. I don't want this to happen, since it puts a lot of stress on the iPod's drive (iPod 4th Generation, 40GB), and I don't really need it to be indexed. This has not happened with previous versions of OS X.

I've tried excluding the iPod from the Spotlight settings, but it still is preparing to index the iPod when I open Spotlight.

Is there a way to exclude the iPod from the Spotlight indexing?

Update

It looks like there was an error when I first tried to add my iPod to the list of excluded items in Spotlight's Privacy settings. When I opened the settings again, it wasn't listed there anymore. I added it again, and this time it worked - the indexing stopped.

For some reason it ignored it on my first try.

According to Apple in Mountain Lion You can disable it in privacy settings.
This same setting is visible in Mavericks, so you should be able to remove your iPod being indexed this way.

As to test this setting for you, I've added a 2 partitioned USB HDD on my MBP, and removed the index. It stopped to index immediately.


2560x1600 on Dell U3011 with new MacBook Pro I have a brand new MacBook Pro (Mid 2014) and a Dell U3011 30" display.

Is there any way to get the full 2560x1600 resolution on the Dell without the $100 Dual-Link DVI adapter?

I've tried HDMI to HDMI and Thunderbolt (Mini DP?) to HDMI, but I can't get more than 1920x1200. I've also tried resetting NVRAM/PRAM.

Try using the mini Display Port to the Dell's Display Port.
That's how I connect to 2 2560*1440 Dell screens.

I've found, in order of reliability

Display Port - works every time
DVI - works most of the time, can be fussy on some screens
HDMI - haven't used
anything  > VGA [barely works at all on anything over 1920*1200]

For additional and helpful information see this
http://www.michaellabbe.com/DellU3011MacbookPro.html
(bottom line!)


Is there anything like OneTab available for Safari? I am looking for a "tabs decluttering" app for Safari like OneTab Chrome Extension

How OneTab Works
Whenever you find yourself with too many tabs, click the OneTab icon
to convert all of your tabs into a list. When you need to access the
tabs again, you can either restore them individually or all at once.
When your tabs are in the OneTab list, you will save up to 95% of
memory because you will have reduced the number of tabs open in Google
Chrome.

Here is a native way of doing it without the use of any extensions.

In Safari, under the "Bookmarks" menu, there is an option for you to "Add Bookmarks for These X Tabs...". If you click on it, you will be prompted to save these tabs in the current windows as bookmarks. You can assign them to a Folder and give it a Session Name.

When you do want to resume the session, you simply go to the bookmark folder, right click on it and select "Open in New Tabs".

The beauty of this methods is that, if you have iCloud sync enabled, you will be able to resume your saved sessions across all your Apple devices.

In Safari, you have to use the menu View or the Shift+Cmd+\  keys.


Is there a dashboard widget for Microsoft Outlook/Exchange calendar? Does there exist a dashboard widget which displays my Outlook/Entourage and Exchange calendar?

There are no widgets for OSX for use with Outlook, there are calendar widgets for iCal or Google Calendars, that can be downloaded here but you will need to route all your calendars through iCal or Google calendars instead of Outlook and you probably won't want to do that.

Fantastical works with Outlook.
http://flexibits.com/fantastical


Assign the launchPad hotkey to another Application I'd like to set the launchPad key :

to the Application windows (See all) function but I can't manage to do it. Any clue ?

This isn't an ideal answer, but might be good enough:

Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard
Check "Use all F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys"
Go to System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts
Set F3 to "display application windows"
Set the other functions on the f-keys to their default (e.g. whichever f-key your keyboard has for play/pause, mine is F8 will be set to iTunes Play/Pause)

This will let you set the F keys to the functions you want and you won't have to press fn to access them.


iPhone 5 and MacBook Air take quite a few attempts to tether I used to have an iPhone 4 which, when WiFi hotspot was turned on, would connect to my Air (Lion) almost instantaneously.

I have now upgraded to an iPhone 5 (iOS 7) and the process seems to rarely work. I must turn Wifi and Hotspot off and on maybe 10 times in a row before they connect. Sometimes it wont work and at all. Other times it will randomly disconnect.

Would anyone know why this is occurring?

Thanks!

I fixed it by going to System Preferences → Sharing and checking the box for Internet Sharing.


Not getting all iOS Gmail notifications when "Important only" is selected In the latest version of the iOS Gmail app released on June 4, they added a feature that allows users to choose to only receive notifications for "Important"/"Priority" emails. This option is only available to users that are using the "Important first" inbox or "Priority Inbox" in the web version of Gmail.

I'm using the "Important first" inbox. I chose to only send me iOS notifications for "Important only". However, I'm not getting notifications for all important emails. I know this because the badge for the Gmail app is updated correctly, but I don't get any lock screen notifications for all these emails. I get notifications for about 25% of all Important emails, and the rest I don't get notified.

I already tried deleting the app and reinstalling it, but that didn't work. Anyone know if this is a known bug of the app? I recall another bug where the app would continuously notify the user by sending notifications for the same email over and over again, until they deleted and reinstalled the app.

the new upgraded altamail app has come out today, it might be worth checking this out instead of using the gmail app, i think it might offer more flexibility than the latter as well
been using it with my gmail email and other accounts over the last few months and it seems to offer much more in terms of notifications


How to keep mute button available during call I use my iPhone for conference calls regularly, with a Bluetooth headset/microphone. Often I keep my mic muted except for when I speak.

It is awkward that when I want to speak, I need to wake-up and unlock my phone, before pressing the mute button.

Is there a way to make my phone stay awake during calls, without changing the sleep/lock settings generally?

In iOS10 you can just tap the number + call duration in the lock screen and it'll bring up the phone controls.

Swipe right on lock screen works as mentioned in above post. If you unlock the screen with your fingerprint already you will see a green bar of the phone talk on top - swipe right on the top green bar also bring up the button to mute / unmute.


Block calls from unknown and withheld How can I block calls from the "Unknown" caller? I have iOS 7 on an iPhone 4S. Does any other version of the iPhone offer this ability?

I've checked the question Call blocking for iPhone?, but it doesn't seem to work for "Unknown" callers.

I found the following question: Cannot answer unknown calls on my new iPhone 4S.

I want to do the opposite. I want to stop unknown callers from coming up on the phone, and I would rather not know that they are calling.

Sorry, but true call blocking can be only done by a carrier. However, if you wish to allow calls only from your contact list, and exclude everyone else, you can use Do Not Disturb feature on your iPhone 4s.

For saved contacts, its easy task to block any contacts from Settings > phone > blocked option.

But for Unknown number call block follow the below steps,

Phone app > Recent > (i) symbol > Recent option (Blue watch icon) > Block this caller.


How can I highlight text on a screenshot using Markup in macOS? When I take a screenshot in macOS Mojave, I get a handy screen with Markup tools to edit the screenshot. But I’ve never been able to get the “highlight” feature to work.

I want to highlight text on a page in yellow, similar to a highlighter pen. It looks like it should do it, but the highlighter tool is always disabled. Nothing I do seems to enable it.

Does this tool work? How can I use it?

You can open the image with Preview and build your own sticky. Under the Tools menu go to Annotate and select a rectangle. Adjust size of rectangle and then set fill color to yellow and the line color to none. This results in a yellow rectangle. Now under Annotate select text. This puts a small text box on your image. Move this to inside yellow box and type in your own text. Now save the file as a  jpeg or whatever you like and your image will have a yellow sticky on it.  This maybe be to long a process for you but it works. See image below for an example.

If you enable Handoff between your MacBook and iPhone or iPad, you can take a screenshot on your Mac and choose to markup the screenshot on a Handoff device. The screenshot will open in Markup on your iPhone/iPad.

You can then edit or highlight it on the phone (iPhone edit provides the highlighting feature). The edits will show up on the screenshot on your Mac.


iTunes Home Sharing never updates Play Counts or Ratings from iPhone Ever since iTunes introduced Home Sharing, the Preferences dialog has had a checkbox titled "Home Sharing computers and devices update play counts".  But this option has never had any effect whatsoever that I can discern.

You can rate the songs on your iPhone and the rating will appear to stick on the iPhone, but when you disconnect from the Home Sharing, the ratings you've just made are discarded.  And the Play Counts in your iTunes library will never update.

Can this be fixed or is this just a huge bug since the beginning of Home Sharing?

This has always worked for me and here is a test I just performed on iOS 5.0.1 (9A405) and iTunes 10.5 (141).

make a smart playlist of songs rated higher than three stars and browse it on your iOS device
the only bug I see is sometimes when you go to settings, the current stars don't show, but when I change the rating it is reflected in the iTunes listing almost instantly (the change pushes over WiFi back to the iTunes and causes the display to refresh after each change).
play counts get updated at the end of the song, last played is updated correctly.

If this doesn't work for you, you may have to isolate the error in your setup. I would start with a new user account and moving 5 songs to a clean iTunes library. Be sure you quit iTunes on the "main" account if you use fast user switching - home sharing might not handle two copies of iTunes running on the same computer well. Another quick check might be to disable any firewall software on your mac. Something is off on your setup and without more testing, it's hard to guess exactly what.

After home sharing has been enabled on the desired devices and the main iTunes library, open up music on your device (iPhone/iPad) Down the bottom click on 'More' and then 'Shared' and select your main library. This library then loads to your device which can be shared over your local network.


Is there any Cloud Storage GUI for Mac? On my iPad, I have GoodReader, as well as ReaddleDocs, and both allow me to connect to a large assortment of Cloud Storage providers. On my Windows machine, there are the Cloudberry Lab assortment of products. On my Mac, there are less options.

I have a license for Syncovery, and have been using it since it was called "Super Flexible File Syncronizer". It works great for large pushs and pulls, but doesn't have a great GUI. It also doesn't support as large of an assortment a I would like.

I found Interarchy 10 and DragonDisk. However, the best front-runner right now is CyberDuck, though the GUI is not super shinny.

Am I missing any options? Paid or free is fine, as I don't mind supporting any developers for work they do. If it can have the Mac skin to it, it would be awesome!

I haven't tried it yet, but the folks behind CyberDuck have released Mountain Duck, it allows you to view remote resources as volumes on the desktop (i.e. integrates Azure, SFTP, S3, etc. with the Finder).

https://mountainduck.io/

Cyberduck works just fine with many providers


SMB "There was a problem connecting to the server" As of today, I'm suddenly unable to view any SMB shares on my macbook pro (mid 2011 13" model, El Capitain 10.11.4).

Everything worked fine yesterday, but today I can't connect to ANY windows file share systems. I have to load Windows XP in Virtualbox and copy stuff across that way.

I've looked at all the other answers, and this isn't because of some program (I have none running atm), nor is it due to cloud sync (I have it disabled) or time machine (I never use it).

Everything worked (well, as good as can be expected with file sharing on a mac), and now suddenly nothing works. Using the IP address directly doesn't help. Rebooting didn't help. Restarting the other machines didn't help. Disconnecting and reconnecting WIFI didn't help. And of course, the computer doesn't give any kind of error code to help track down the problem. Just "There was a problem connecting to the server".

The servers still do show up in Finder (even after rebooting). I just can't connect to them. Actually, it does connect to them long enough to ask how I want to log in, but then it pukes and shows that error.

work around ... add authentication to your smb.


Are files saved to iCloud via 3rd party applications accessible from icloud.com web interface through browser? I've recently seen third-party apps like Smultron and iA Writer mentioning in their Mac App Store descriptions that they support iCloud syncing.

Are the files saved to iCloud via these apps accessible from icloud.com? How do they appear? Are they downloadable to e.g. a PC for which the app that saved the file is unavailable?

I'm asking whether or not I am able to access the files with my credentials from (any) web-terminal, all foil hats aside.

You cannot access individual files on iCloud other than the ones made with the iWork suite and that are available on the iWork section of the icloud.com website.

When introducing iCloud, Steve Jobs mentioned that Apple did not think of this service as a big folder in the cloud--a direct contrast with Dropbox. I wrote about this before the launch of iCloud on this Ask Different answer. In short, iCloud is meant to be app-centric.

I would not be surprised if the iWork section of the icloud.com website went away once native iCloud support is added to Keynote, Numbers and Pages. Like it or not, this makes business sense, as it encourages app purchasing.

Hope this helps.

Yes theoretically, apparently iCloud is based on a JavaScript web framework called SproutCore, meaning you could access them directly by using a greasemonkey script that modified iCloud's web interface.

iCloud users should be aware that their data is not end-to-end encrypted, meaning Apple employees, data centers with whom they contract, law enforcement, and hackers could all potentially obtain plaintext copies of any data stored in iCloud.

There are other cloud storage providers like Wuala and SpiderOak who encrypt everything from your own machine.  DropBox does not encrypt your data.


Unable to open Google Mail via any browser on Macbook Air I just got a help request from a frustrated friend.  She has a new Macbook Air and is unable to access Google Mail via any browser.  Specifically, here is what she reports to me:

She can access other Google Suites pages (Drive, Calendar) with no trouble.

When she goes to mail.google.com she gets the following error messages:

In Safari:  "Safari can't open this page."
In Chrome:  "This site can't be reached, server took too long to respond (err connection times out)."

She said it doesn't work in Firefox either, but I'm not sure what the error message is.

She also reports that she  doesn't have this issue on any other Apple device or on her PC.

Other interesting details:  She had the exact same problem on her old MB Pro.

If it were just one browser, I would think it's a corrupted cookie file or something.  But I don't see how that could affect multiple browsers.

Any thoughts?

I suggest to check the /etc/hosts file for any entries containing mail.google.com. This can be done by opening the Terminal and running:

cat /etc/hosts

Ignore all the lines starting with a # and look for any line containing mail.google.com. If there is one, you can follow this guide to remove the entry.


Why doesn't pbpaste return cursor at new line in bash? I run the command pbpaste in Terminal (bash) to get the result of my clipboard, but unlike other commands which leave the cursor at a new line below the previous stdout, pbpaste leaves it to the right of it, as in the example, showing the command sandwiched between two echo hellos:

hostname:~ jesse$ echo hello
hello
hostname:~ jesse$ pbpaste
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/noizio/id928871589?mt=12hostname:~ jesse$ echo hello
hello
hostname:~ jesse$

Why is it like this? It seems very odd and makes it difficult to read.

pbpaste pastes exactly what you copy.

In your case you have copied the line not including the CR/LF at the end.
To get the return you need to copy from the start of the line to the beginning of the next line

From @patrix comment

Most commands do end with a CR/LF. e.g. echo "Hello" will put out a newline, however for echo this can be changed echo -n "Hello".

If you want you can add a newline after a pbpaste by using echo "$(pbpaste)" instead.

This doesn't directly answer your question about pbpaste specifically, but I'm a user of zsh (with oh-my-zsh) and it handles the scenario you describe with the outcome you want for any terminal output.

➜  ~ echo -n hello
hello%
➜  ~
➜  ~
➜  ~ /bin/bash
bash-3.2$ echo -n hello
hellobash-3.2$

I realize it's bringing out the bazooka to kill a mosquito, but it solves your real problem where lack of a new line on what you pasted isn't handled gracefully.


AppleScript: How to create a new Finder window for a folder that is already open? The problem, outside of AppleScript:

To witness the problem1, do the following:

Double-click on a folder that exists on the Desktop. Doing so will open this folder in Finder.app.
Return to the Desktop and double-click on that same folder again.
Instead of a second window being created, the previously created window will be brought to the foreground.

A workaround, outside of AppleScript:

So, what do you do if you want two Finder windows of the same folder?

A kluge exists:

Create a new Finder window by opening any other folder. From within this new window, now if you navigate to the desired folder, then you will successfully change this window to the desired folder, and have two windows of this folder.

To navigate to the desired folder within a new Finder window, any method will work:

Click on the folder, if it is bookmarked in the sidebar (if enabled, located at the left of the window).
Click on the folder, if it happens to exist in the path bar (if enabled, located at the bottom of the window).
Use the window's built-in search bar.
Or, simply navigate to the folder manually.

The problem, in AppleScript:

The following AppleScript code will open a folder in a new Finder window:

set targetFolder to POSIX file "/Users/Me/Desktop/MyFolder"

tell application "Finder"
    open targetFolder
    activate
end tell

In the exact same way that Finder behaves non-programatically (as defined above), if you run this code for a second time (without closing the previously created Finder window), then the previously created window will be brought to the foreground.

The desired AppleScript solution:

Here is the desired behavior:

If targetFolder already exists in any open Finder window (including any minimized Finder window), I would like the AppleScript to create a new window for the same targetFolder (i.e., a duplicate window).

Ideally, I would like the duplicate window to be created, without having to resort to the "trick" that I delineated above (i.e., opening an arbitrary other folder first, before opening the desired folder). However, I will understand if this is not possible (i.e., if the programmatic method must replicate the manual method).

1. I understand that this behavior is in no way a bug or a "real" problem. Apple clearly programmed this action deliberately; they probably determined that most people do not need or want redundant Finder windows.

OS X El Capitan, version 10.11.6.

Simple way to make a New Finder Window to the Desktop.

set myTarget to ((path to desktop) as text)

tell application "Finder" to make new Finder window to folder myTarget

From https://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=36300

Use the reveal command to avoid the behavior of the open command:

set targetFolder to POSIX file "/Users/Me/Desktop/MyFolder"
tell application "Finder"
    reveal targetFolder
    activate
end tell

Caveat: it always open the window in column view


New MacBook Pro Retina Hard Drive Type I'm looking to buy a 15" Retina MacBook Pro, I'm looking at the website Models and they seem to be pretty inflexible (for instance the 2.3 GHz model you are locked into a 256 GB HD).

So I know this is a little preemptive, but I want to know how the hard drive is configured. For instance, on my current MacBook Pro I swapped out the standard hard drive for a 480 GB SSD. If the new thinner model has a standard SSD I will buy the 2.3 GHz model and add larger hard drive. My worry is it will use a proprietary hard drive like those found in the Air in which case I would be forced to buy the 2.6 GHz model just to get the larger storage I suppose.

Does anyone have any info on this?

The flash modules and controller of the SSD are blades (think naked SSD). They are not up to 3rd party configuration (at this time), but according to bmike, they are not soldered onto the main board and are actually discrete components.

However, there is no information as to what kind of proprietary (if any) configuration the blades come in, or whether they require an additional proprietary onboard controller (this may be likely given Apple's tendency to create speciality hardware for their line-up). So it most likely isn't the case that one could just crack open an existing SSD and use the blades within. A manufacturer would have to specifically design a unit for the new notebook. This isn't unlikely, but price will be the determining factor as it will be a speciality component.

It is also not clear at this time if Apple will make the components upgradeable, which is also a distinct possibility given how quickly SSDs are saturating the market place.

At best, it's a tentative "maybe."

You can read more about the new machine here: http://www.apple.com/macbook-pro/design/

The new MacBookPro from Apple uses flash memory directly embedded on to circuit board and currently not replaceable.

P.S. This is part of the reason that the new model is so thin.


Retrieve the Apple ID used to download a given app (in iTunes) I have multiple devices, all handled with iTunes in the same PC.
Each device is associated with a different Apple ID.

I may want to install some apps in more than one device. As far as I know, an app downloaded in iTunes leaves a .ipa file that has embedded the information about the associated Apple ID (in directory C:\userdir\Music\iTunes\iTunes Media\Mobile Applications in my Win7).

Is that correct?

If so, is there any way to know the associated Apple ID, for each .ipa file?
Will I have more than one copy of an .ipa file in my PC, if the app is purchased with more than one ID?
Where will each one be stored?

And if not, where is the information about which Apple IDs were used to download each app stored? Can it be retrieved?

PS: This question has a title that describes well the present one. But the question itself asks something a little bit different, and the accepted answer is OK for that question, but it by no means answers this one.

PS2: This is a related question.

EDIT: There is a sign on top stating

This question may already have an answer here:
Retrieve the Apple ID used to download a given app (in iphone)

That is precisely the question referred to in PS2. I have posted that one too, and it is a different question (with no answers so far).

If you can copy something.ipa file to a temporary location and rename it to something.zip, then a standard unzip program will be able to show you the contents of the archive.  In the top folder is iTunesMetatdata.plist, which you should be able to open in a text editor.  Near the top would be a line for appleId, followed by the appleId which was used to download this version of this application.

If multiple IDs have purchased the same application, you would still only have one version on the computer.

I believe apps can be transferred to another device with different ID


How to make the maximize button behave consistently across applications? So I'm a semi-new Mac user (loving it btw), but one thing I'm finding super annoying is that when I hit the "+" to maximize/minimize windows it doesn't behave like I think it should.

I see many threads on here about windows but what I am looking for is some level of consistency about how to minimize/maximize them.

For example, if my monitor is 1920x1080, and I manually sized the window to 800x600 and then I want to maximize the window so I can see more, I'll hit the "+" button to maximize and one of the following happens:

Instead of the window maximizing to full screen (e.g., 1920x1080) it will ONLY maximize vertically, so if the window was 800x600 when I press the "+" button, it'll maximize to 800x1080 (it maximized from top to bottom but not left to right).
Sometimes, if the window is already maximized, when I hit the "+" to un-maximize it, it doesnt do anything; it just stays maximized.
And, sometimes, it behaves like Windows does and takes full width/height after pressing the "+" button.

It becomes annoying because I'm working on a 13" MacBook Pro and an external 23" monitor at 1920x1080 that I use at work. When I want to bring a window over from the 23" monitor to the 13", I have to always manually re-size things.

How can I make the maximize button behave in a predictable way no matter what Application I'm using? Even better if that predictable way matches the way Windows does it.

If you want it to behave like Windows, the only real answer is to simply use Windows.  I know that sounds flippant, but you cannot use one operating system and expect to be able to pick and choose it's behaviour based on your personal preferences of other systems.

The maximise paradigm simply doesn't work on Macs, where the ideal is that the function is to set the window size to best fit the content rather than the screen.  The point being that the content is what is important, and that stays the same regardless of if you are on a 11" laptop screen or a 27" desktop behemoth.  Now we all know that this isn't always properly implemented, but we also know that it is the developers prerogative to do the implementation, it's not a failing in the OS, and given a choice of "one size fits all full screen" that always does the same thing, or intelligent (when the developer adds it) maximising to meet the needs of the content, then I prefer the existing system.

If maximise as per the Windows system makes sense for a given app (bearing in mind that for many, I would say most, it simply does not), then you really want to be looking into the Full Screen options that are provided from Lion onwards, which are further improved upon in Mountain Lion for external displays etc, as this will provide you with exactly what you need, you just have to use another icon.  If your app does not support this yet, then there are a number of workarounds like this one for the time being.

Press Opt while clicking on the green button.


Is there a way to customize highlight colors in Preview (Mountain Lion and later)? Since Mountain Lion, the highlight tool in Preview allows one to select among a small number of colors. Is there a way to customize the colors (add to or change)?

What they are talking about is having more color choices for highlighting text than are available by default. Both the Yosemite choices in your post and the Mavericks choices (see below) limit the user to 5 preset colors. There doesn't appear to be any way to use the OS-built-in Apple color picker to choose anything other than this very limited set. Very frustrating.

I don't know what you guys really talking about, but in 10.10.2 everything works  just through the right click:


How to Change USB Thumb icon using Terminal or Bash/other scripting language I'm looking for a method to change USB or External Drive Icon using bash or any other command line method. I know how to manually chnage them like this

I am using El Capitan

You need to copy the .icns file to the root folder of the volume. The new file needs to be named .VolumeIcon.icns. For example, if you are using a Bash shell, have the file vol_external.icns and destination /Volumes/MyStick, then below would be the command.

cp  vol_external.icns  /Volumes/MyStick/.VolumeIcon.icns

  A word of warning: Once you assign an icon to a volume,  changing this icon is very difficult. I feel there must be a bug somewhere in OS X. However, deleting the icon does seem to work.

To get a directory listing for this copied file, you may need to include the -a option in the ls command line. For example, the command

ls  /Volumes/MyStick

will not display the file .VolumeIcon.icns, but the command

ls  -a  /Volumes/MyStick

will show the file.

  Note: Normally, files starting with a . do not appear in the Finder application.

In my case, simply copying was insufficient. I used the SetFile attribute as shown in the below code:

cp vol_external.icns /Volumes/MyStick/.VolumeIcon.icns
sudo SetFile -a C /Volumes/MyStick/


Why is my startup disk so full? I've been getting messages recently that "My startup disk is almost full," and I'm quite sure I haven't used the full 250GB of my Macbook's hard drive. Using "Get Info" on Macintosh HD says that I'm using around 245GB (aka 5GB from being full), but I have no idea what could be using that much space. My home directory (with Photos, Movies, Downloads, etc.) is only around 34GB. Applications? only 11.

In fact, I looked into it using a disk sweeping application, and it profiled my hard drive as only having 65.1GB in total! Where are the other ~200GB? What's filling them?

(I did search using Finder for files over 1GB, and there were only a few, so I don't think the problem is one massive file).

Result of ImageDiskSweeper:

It turns out that another user account (not the one I was logged into) had many gigabytes of photos stored on the hard drive. DiskImageSweeper, along with any other tools (spotlight search, etc.) could not search through the other user's files, so they were virtually undetectable.

I solved the problem by logging into the other user account and clearing up space. I imagine that you could also just delete the user's account and have the same effect.

My startup disc was full with over 90G of the dreaded "other"!I read some of the answers and thought I'd give you a more current answer to how to free up space. From the Apple App Store, I downloaded an free, Apple-approved app called "Disc Expert". (I haven't checked but they may have one for Windows, too.)

Darn it! I thought it would show my screen shot! But if you copy & paste the address in your search bar, you'll see what I wanted to show you here.

It will show the top 25 largest files, (and in my case, also hundreds of other files that I didn't know existed!)  Anyway, you can right-click on any file--it gives you an option to open it in Finder so you can see what it is. Then you can drag and drop any unwanted files into the trash! (I used an external hard drive to save important things.) I also dragged a lot of files into my iCloud account (which you can see on your Finder window on the left-hand side. External Hard drives are MUCH more reasonable, cost-wise, than they used to be. I just bought a Seagate Backup Plus Slim 1TB for $59.00 on Amazon, but check different electronic stores to compare prices. It also comes with 200GB of free OneDrive cloud storage for 2 years is included when you register a new Backup Plus drive online!
After registering your drive on Seagate.com, a link will be provided to add 200GB to any new or existing OneDrive account.
Sorry so long! I'm not an expert--but I am a fast learner and researcher, so I tried to write this in layman's terms. I hope it helps! Good Luck!:-)


Listing all Openmeta Tags and associated Files Some month ago I started using openmeta tags to manage my files. Is there a tool which shows all openmeta tags on my mac and the files tagged with these tags?

Some suggestions:
Tags
By CASEapps.

Lists all created tags and files associated with them
Can tag
Easy search filtration
QuickLook

Leap
By Ironic.

Lists all created tags and files associated with them
Can tag
Easy search filtration
Ratings
Heavier/more feature rich interface

TagLists
By Ali Rantakari

Free
Tags & Tag searches for file lists must be made manually

ie. doesn't list created tags, which was what you were after

but hey, the price is right!

Nifty Box was a great free, scriptable application.

I wrote some nice AppleScripts that could go through tags and color certain files.

Links (added by grahamperrin): http://web.archive.org/web/20120623015606/http://www.nifty-box.com/ … discontinued on or before 2012-06-23.


Cursor stuttering: "IOHIDSystem cursor update overdue. Resending." My 2011 iMac running Lion recently developed a new problem; the mouse cursor stutters. At random intervals when I move the mouse it lags, then jumps, like it missed a couple of frames. Ordinarily I'd blame my wireless mouse or system load or something, but the Console has this very useful note in it:

4/8/13 11:25:28.000 AM kernel: IOHIDSystem cursor update overdue. Resending.
4/8/13 11:25:28.000 AM kernel: IOHIDSystem cursor update overdue. Resending.
4/8/13 11:25:29.000 AM kernel: IOHIDSystem cursor update overdue. Resending.
4/8/13 11:25:30.000 AM kernel: IOHIDSystem cursor update overdue. Resending.

That suggests to me something is wrong with the rendering system, not the input hardware.

I've done some searches on this error and have found the usual superstitious-user suggestions for fixing the problem but nothing that seems to address how computers actually work. This writeup on StackOverflow is good but the question was closed before any answers came in.

Rebooting fixes the problem. The problem occurs even if the system hasn't been to sleep since a reboot. My system is unloaded, I have fresh batteries and a reliable wireless mouse. Problem also occurs with a wired mouse.

Update some of the research I've done suggests this problem is symptomatic of the kernel being busy and not servicing interrupts fast enough. I don't know how to verify that explanation or find the cause of the kernel problem if there is one.

This is more of a comment adding data, but I'm not yet permitted to comment, so this will have to do:

I'm seeing this several times a day since getting my imac back from the shop with a new hard disk and Lion install, followed by a time machine restore.  I also upgraded the machine to 32G of ram after it came back.  When it occurs, the kernel_task in top goes to 95%.  The problem goes away after a minute or two without a reboot or other action.  There does not seem to be any disk activity, and I've tried replugging most of the USB devices since "IOHID" sounds like a USB thing, though I don't know that is the case.  That didn't seem to make a difference however.

Your notes are fantastic and I hope that I can help in a small way. If the kernel is timing out and/or causing other processes to time out then it might be time for a re-install.

I agree that your mice are least likely to be the cause of your troubles but the OS remains a big suspect in my eyes.

I recommend going into the Mac App Store and under purchases redownloading Lion. This will automatically download the latest version (10.7.5)... For the time being stay away from 10.9 if you are truly looking for a resolution to the problem. Maybe consider 10.9 if the issue remains but best wait until 10.9.2 or so.


Using iCloud as file storage and synchronization service I am considering to choose iCloud Drive vs Google Drive to store old music and photos folders present in external drives.
Is it possible to upload large folders to iCloud Drive that are not present in my Macbook SSD, but in an external drive?
What is the best option for this kind of purpose?
May I use both services, each one for a certain task?

You can not selectively sync content explicitly. If you allow it in iCloud settings, it will delete local copies of large files–but this cannot be directly controlled. You cannot sync iCloud drive to an external disk.

You need a local copy for iCloud, so you may want to use Dropbox or Google Drive for your external drive.


How can I take a screenshot of the app switcher in macOS? Pressing Cmd + Tab brings up the application switcher in macOS. I'd like to take a screenshot of this view.

I've tried:

Opening the app switcher with Cmd + Tab, holding Cmd, and then pressing Shift and 3 at the same time to attempt to activate the usual Cmd + Shift and 3 screenshot keyboard shortcut.

It results in the app switcher switching to the next app and no screenshot getting captured.
Changing the screenshot keyboard shortcut to F6 or Shift + /, which were unmapped before. Now after opening the app switcher using Cmd + Tab, holding Cmd, and then pressing this key combination again results in no screenshot getting captured.

Is it possible to take a screenshot of the app switcher? I'm happy to install additional software to achieve this.

Use the timer option in the new screenshot popup app.

 Cmd ⌘   Shift ⇧   5
Select Capture Entire Screen on the left & 5 seconds from the Options menu

Click Capture.
During that 5s countdown, hit  Cmd ⌘   Tab ⇥

The resulting image will contain the switcher [intentionally tiny picture]

Interestingly, whilst composing this answer I discovered you can open the Screenshot app, then take a picture of it using the 'old'  Cmd ⌘   Shift ⇧   3  command ;)

launch /Applications/Utilities/terminal.App

type sleep 5 && kill -STOP `ps -ef |grep "/System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/MacOS/Dock"|grep -v grep |awk '{ print $2 }'`

press Cmd-Tab to show the App Switcher and wait for 5 seconds, the App Switcher window is going to be "froze"

launch screen capture app, you can capture the App Switcher window now

don't forget type kill -CONT `ps -ef |grep "/System/Library/CoreServices/Dock.app/Contents/MacOS/Dock"|grep -v grep |awk '{ print $2 }'`to release the Dock


How can I use Jabber with OTR on IOS? I would like to use Jabber with OTR Encoding on my iPad. Which clients are supporting this?

Apps already tried:

ChatSecure doesn't seem to work with XMPP.
IM+ Pro is not recommended.
Trillian has no OTR support.

ChatSecure works now:

Just enter Username and password and leave the other settings default:

In chat you can activate OTR at the top right corner

For iOS, I know I use PGP. Maybe this can help you.


Google maps is not working on my IPhone 5S the last 2 days when on LTE For the last 2 days when on LTE, my Google Maps will load the data, but once it comes up, it's immediately deleted.  It's only Google Maps I have trouble with, as my Gmail comes up without problem

I have not met with this problem before, but i suggest that you can uninstall Google maps and download it again


Symlink Google Drive I want to sync folders that are on my Mac to Google Drive, without having to drag the folders to the Google Drive folder and preserving my folder structure on my Mac.

I assumed you would have to have a symbolic link (symlink) for this to work.

So I tried in Terminal:

cd /path/to/google/drive
ln -s /path/to/folder/

The folder appeared on my Google Drive folder, but it did not want to sync.

So I then tried

ln -s “/path/to/folder”  “/path/to/google/drive/”

Still did not work. So I referred to this  HowToGeek article about this topic and it said that you must move the original folder to the Google Drive folder and make a symbolic like to the original parent folder.

I'd like to have the original not in the Google Drive folder. Is there a free alternative to the symlink? I have looked at jdrivesync but had failed to install (that'll be another problem in another discussion).

Thanks for your help!

You can use a directory hard link, but only on HFS+ file system. You'll need GNU ln to use the -d option. This can be installed using Homebrew: brew install coreutils, then run:

sudo gln -d "/path/to/original" "/path/to/drive/folder"

You will be asked for your password. This command creates a hard link to the file/folder itself rather than how a symlink links to a pointer to a file/dir. As the link folder is essentially the same as the original folder, Google Drive syncs it correctly.

To unlink a hard link, use unlink "/path/to/drive/folder".

WARNING: APFS (Apple File System) does not support hard links. If you plan on installing macOS High Sierra or later and want to continue using directory hard links, you will need to maintain your HFS+ file system. By default macOS High Sierra intaller on a mac with SSD (e.g. without HDD or Fusion Drive) automatically converts HFS+ filesystem to APFS. To skip conversion during upgrade you will need to run the macOS installer as follows:

/Applications/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/*/R*/startosinstall --converttoapfs NO

If you avoid the last option you will end up with mess of hard linked dirs in /.HFS+ Private Directory Data after the the upgrade.

Two ways to get lots of files/folders into Google Drive without altering your file structure:

With Google Drive for Mac installed: duplicate the relevant folders and drag their copies into the Google Drive folder.

OR

Using Google Drive with Google Chrome: drag the relevant folders onto a Google drive window in Chrome; they'll upload and this won't mess up your file structure.

Using either of these methods will get your folders into Drive without altering your file structure.

I know neither of these are what you requested, but they should both do the job. Comment below for anything else.


How do I send someone a normal text if they also use iMessage? My brother has a Windows Phone, and an iPad. Whenever I try to text him, it sends him an iMessage to his iPad, not a text message. Since he does not always have his iPad with him, he doesn't get my texts most of the time.

Is there a way to choose when a message is sent via iMessage, or via SMS?

Right now, my solution is to have two separate contacts for him, but that is annoying.

compose a new message, start typing your brother's name in the box, select his cellphone number.


Yosemite - Finder has a disconnect button when attached to OSX Server, not working You can endlessly click disconnect, but you are never disconnected.  On the OSX Server (Yosemite Server.app 4.0.2), you can see your user account still connected, on the client (Yosemite 10.10.1) the finder still shows the folders and the disconnect button.  Any ideas?

In the Finder, select the "Go" menu > "Connect to Server...", then click on the Recent Servers menu button (button with tiny clock, to the right of the "+" button) and select "Clear Recent Servers".

Now go to a Finder window, select the server from the list and click on the Disconnect button and the server will be disconnected.

(OS 10.10.3)

I can shake off the hung connection on 10.10.5 by rebooting the Mac and on Yosemite it takes so long that it requires going to stick the kettle on!

sudo killall Finder doesn't sort it for me.
I wrote an Applescript to force refresh all Finder windows — doesn't sort it.
Cleared recent servers and hit disconnect — eventually worked if I left it alone for 10 minutes. It's marginally quicker to reboot the Mac (allowing for the slooooowwwwww process of quitting all running apps, especially if any of them are Adobe fodder).


After logging into OSX all I see is a black screen I am currently having an issue with my mac.

Turn on the mac
The apple logo appears followed by the login screen.  There are 2 logins, one is a guest login and the other is my login.
When I choose guest I am able to login
When I choose my login it shows the apple logo briefly and then a blank screen
When I tap the touch pad the screen briefly flashes the login screen but remains black
I can hear the volume indicators and when I press buttons I can hear sounds.

I have tried restarted several times but it does the same thing. I'll need some help finding the next steps to solve this black screen.

I tried the PRAM many times and it didn't work. Thank you Reve. Your link solution was the one that worked. Dunno why your solution was down voted.

I am copy pasting the text:

In the three years of using my MacBook Air, I have never had any major problems with it. It was totally reliable, even after I accidentally spilled coffee on it. However, the update to macOS Sierra 10.12.2 ruined its streak, leaving me with a blank screen that only displayed the cursor.

I initially blamed the update for this, but after I saw no similar reports from other users I started doing some digging. As it turns out, this problem predates Sierra by a couple of years. Apple has not addressed it yet, but, don’t panic: it is pretty easy to fix it yourself.

It is not clear what exactly is causing macOS to act up after installing an update, but it rears its ugly head after powering on the Mac. You can try to reboot or reset the PRAM and SMC — the first things that Mac users can try when something isn’t working right — but that will not fix it.

So, here is what you need to do. First, you need to shut down your Mac, if it’s powered on. Pressing the power key for a couple of seconds will do the trick.

Next, you have to boot your Mac in single-user mode. That’s done by pressing the Command and S keys at the same time, right after pressing the power key. If you did it right, you should see a whole bunch of lines on the screen in what is a Terminal-like interface.

(I’ve seen someone recommend that you reset the PRAM three times before booting in the single-user mode. There is no harm in doing that. Hit the Command, Option, P and R keys at the same time, right after you power it on, and wait until you hear the startup chime for the third time before letting go. Then, quickly press the Command and S keys, to get you into the single-user mode.)

You then need to type the following commands:

/sbin/fsck -fy
/sbin/mount -uw /
rm -f /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow.plist
rm -f /var/db/.AppleUpgrade
reboot

You will have to press the Enter/Return key after each one. The fifth command restarts your Mac. It will show the login screen. That’s normal, even if you previously bypassed it. Type in your password and you’re back in business.

You may run into this problem even after macOS Sierra 10.12.2, but know that you will be able to apply this method again if that happens.

I experienced this problem and found this resent article that resolved the issue.
Click here for the link

This is the actual original article


How to access/edit iPhone Contacts on computer? I run Windows 7 (no Outlook available) and don't seem to find any native Address Book application on my computer (it is a work-provided laptop). We use Lotus Notes as our mail application. Because my phone is also used for work, I can't use any iCloud services (security restrictions)

I would like to be able to easily see and edit/manage my contacts on my computer and sync them to/from my iPhone (two-way sync), as I mostly am looking up #s and addresses while at my desk, and don't want to have to manually maintain it all twice, or log onto my phone every time I need an address, and then have to manually type it on my computer. Any suggested applications that will do this? I've looked a bit in the app store, but don't find any.

Also - my apple ID is currently linked to the Sweden App Store (I live in Sweden); if there is an app available in another country, can I create an ID for that country and have apps for both IDs on my device?

For synchronization of your Lotus contacts and mail with your iPhone, you can try My Notes app: https://itunes.apple.com/app/my-notes-mobile-client-for/id726998714?mt=8

You can edit Address book directly via browser at http://www.icloud.com if you have iCloud sync enabled.

One can have multiple accounts, but only one is active. An app loaded via account 2 can be used when account 1 is signed in. But for updates, you will need to login with account that downloaded (paid) the app (in this example number 2), you don't see updates for apps from non-logged-in account.


Playing Music while recording? So I'm having the issue; How can I play music on iOS 7 while recording?

I've seen this post but "JamCam" isn't something I'm interested in.

Is there a Cydia tweak which allows this? I'm surprised I can't find it on Google!

You can try with this app: Record And Listen

This app solves the problem of not being able to record a video while playing music from your library. You choose a song and record a video which is automatically saved to your phone. This app is great for taking dance videos, or if you just want to continue playing your music while taking a video. Price is 0.99$.

You can also try Relish - Record, Listen, Shine

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ofdy-CEDsmA


cannot add shortcut to switch to desktop 2 when apps are fullscreen on 10.8.4 I am running 10.8.4 and would like to switch to different desktops using keyboard shortcuts. Unfortunately for me, I only see "Switch to Desktop 1" and have not way to add a shortcut to switch to desktop 2.

If I have have 4 desktops, I have to scroll through all 3 of them if I want to go from desktop 1 to 4.

UPDATED QUESTION
Sorry - This question has become a little convoluted suddenly. I am able to desktops using CTRL + # shortcut only if the apps is not full screen. If I have full screen apps, I cannot use the short cut (perhaps because it is not longer a "Desktop" then). I use my editor, browser and terminal all the time in fullscreen mode - I just want to switch to them using one shortcut - I could do this in older version of osx, but not in 10.8.4 :(

Full screen apps do not count as a desktop.

So if you set up looks something like the above, you can not switch to desktop 2 because there isn't one. What you have is one Desktop and two spaces.

If you want to be able to switch between full screen apps, without cycling through each space you could change your Mission Control settings.

By checking the highlighted box you can switch full screen app spaces by using the command+tab keyboard shortcut.

Also, in order to create a shortcut for Desktop 2 you need to have at least two desktops running open before you open System Preferences.

Control + Right Arrow helps switch between the desktops.

I think it is not necessarily to make a shortcut for "Switch to Desktop 2".


How can I undo changes made to a picture I accidentally saved via preview? The was a picture that I was looking at in my computer, I drew a line with the preview tool.
Since my was slow and the app was not responsive,  I force quited Preview.
I opened the document and  it saved the line I drew on the picture as part of the picture. I don't have the original picture but I don't want the line to be there.
Can I undo what I have done via a backup or version of this file?

With Preview open:

File > Revert To > Browse All Versions

Select the original version.

Click command z
(you can also click on the edit icon on your screen and click undo)


Stolen iPhone: what is the security risk? Unfortunately today my iPhone 6 Plus was stolen from my pocket on the streets of Sao Paulo. I did not have cellular data turned on. I had Touch ID and a 4 digit number lock in place.

How much data can an attacker get off the device? Presumably with access to the hardware he can pull off everything, but I understand it is encrypted?

In particular I am concerned about cached emails in the GMail app, and the Apple Keychain, which retains some credit card information and many passwords for internet sites.

About one hour after the phone was stolen, I received numerous password reset requests on my Facebook account. I have changed my master email password and Facebook login.

The iPhone never showed up on "Find my iPhone" and although I have requested a remote erase, I suspect that isn't going to happen.

Actually, the data on your iPhone 6 is encrypted at rest and furthermore no data comes off the device even if it is connected to a computer. Someone would need to brute force the PIN and then press Trust to trust a computer which would then be able to transfer off data or sync the device.

It's suspicious you got password resets. Perhaps the lock screen was configured to allow them to reply to messages or dial phone numbers or otherwise look at incoming mail. That would of course mean that the phone had WiFi or data connection - so in that case, the remote wipe is a good possibility.

I hope you get a response to the wipe, but you are in a fairly good situation all things considered.

Here are Apple's documents on how data is protected and what to do in the case your device is lost or stolen:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT202775
https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201472

Two situations:
Situation 1: If Find My iPhone is enabled on your missing device

You can use Find My iPhone to find your device and take additional actions that can help you recover it and keep your data safe.
    Sign in to icloud.com/find on a Mac or PC, or use the Find My iPhone app on another iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch.
    Find your device. Open Find My iPhone, and select a device to view its location on a map. If the device is nearby, you can have it play a sound to help you or someone nearby find it.
    Turn on Lost Mode. Using Lost Mode, you can remotely lock your device with a four-digit passcode, display a custom message with your phone number on your missing device's Lock screen, and keep track of your device's location. If you added credit or debit cards to Apple Pay, the ability to make payments using Apple Pay on the device will be suspended when you put your device in Lost Mode.
Report your lost or stolen device to local law enforcement. Law enforcement might request the serial number of your device. Find your serial number:
    On the original box or receipt.
    On My Support Profile (supportprofile.apple.com) if you registered your device with your Apple ID.
Erase your device. To prevent anyone else from accessing the data on your missing device, you can erase it remotely. When you erase your device, all of your information (including credit or debit cards for Apple Pay) will be deleted from the device, and you won't be able to find it using Find My iPhone. After you erase a device, you can't track it. If you remove the device from your account after you erase it, Activation Lock will be turned off. This allows another person to activate and use your device.

Situation 2: If Find My iPhone isn't enabled on your missing device

If you didn't turn on Find My iPhone before your device was lost or stolen, you can't use it to locate your device. However, you can use these steps to help protect your data:
    Change your Apple ID password. By changing your Apple ID password you can prevent anyone from accessing your iCloud data or using other services (such as iMessage or iTunes) from your missing device.
    Change the passwords for other internet accounts on your device. This could include email accounts, Facebook, or Twitter.
    Report your lost or stolen device to local law enforcement. Law enforcement might request the serial number of your device. Find your serial number:
      On the original box or receipt.
      On My Support Profile if you registered your device with your Apple ID.
    Report your lost or stolen device to your wireless carrier. Your carrier can disable the account, preventing phone calls, texts, and data use.


Changing the owner of a directory when username has a . (dot) in it If I enter whoami in Terminal.app my id is shown as Abhi.Sri

Now if I do  chown -R Abhi.Sri /usr/local it says the user Abhi.Sri is invalid.

I think your short username is malformed. I recommend to rename it to lower case characters (and no special characters except the underscore).

Additionally you would have to use a sudoers account (e.g. an admin account) and prepend sudo to change ownership of /usr/local since /usr/local is owned by root:wheel. Changing the ownership of /usr/local and subsequent items is non-standard and not recommended.

The terminal might be interpreting the dot ('.') as a wildcard character.

I'm not at my Mac, so I can't test this, but try escaping the '.' with a backslash:

chown -R Abhi\.Sri /usr/local


Wi-Fi disconnects when I lock the mac Everytime I lock my mac and log back in two minutes, It has disconnected the wi-fi network. Is there a setting to disable this?

Model: Mac Book Pro - 15-inch, Mid 2010
I lock it by clicking 'Login Window...' after clicking my username on top right corner of the menu bar.

Do the following:

Find out what the network interface is for your wifi. Mine is "en1" for this example (I have obfuscated my MAC addresses with "00")

ifconfig
en1: flags=8863<UP,BROADCAST,SMART,RUNNING,SIMPLEX,MULTICAST> mtu 1500
ether 00:00:00:00:00:00
inet6 0000::000:0000:0000:0000%en1 prefixlen 64 scopeid 0x5
inet 10.0.1.16 netmask 0xffffff00 broadcast 10.0.1.255
media: autoselect
status: active

Then, you need to set up the airport util for your wireless card to tell it not to shut off:

cd /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Apple80211.framework/Versions/Current/Resources
sudo ./airport en1 prefs DisconnectOnLogout=NO

For maverick users-

To enabled the "Open Wireless Diagnostics.." as it doesn't show up by default to diagnose the WIFI connection.

Click the wifi icon on the menu bar with the Option key pressed. On the bottom of the list, you have "Open Wireless Diagnostics..."


How can I remotely send an SMS message through my Mac from my iPhone? Is there an application for Mac OS X which would allow me to remotely send SMS messages through my iPhone? Ideally, just a simple application or maybe a full screen remote application like TeamViewer.

I prefer a free solution.

You can use myPhoneDesktop.

This solution has an iPhone and Mac (or Windows) client and sends a push notification from the Mac app to the iPhone with the information for a call, text, URL, text or an image. The iPhone app then opens the data sent to it by the Mac app.

The iPhone app costs $4.99 in the App Store and the Mac app is free. myPhoneDesktop requires an account to be set up, but it is free.

Maybe your mobile phone service provider has a web interface you can use to send text messages? I was also looking for a way to send SMS messages via iPhone on my Mac, and then found out that my service provider has this function they call "Web SMS": you just log in on their website, and can send messages from your phone number. If your service provider has something like this, it's a lot simpler than installing special apps on both Mac and iPhone.


Is there a way to do SMS from the PC with iOS? Is there a way to implement handoff to iOS so my PC running windows can send iMessage/SMS through bluetooth and iOS cellular data connections. This is analogous to MightyText on PC does  to Android hardware and cellular service.

I know I can do iMessage on the Mac, but I do not own that hardware and would also like to do SMS from my PC over iOS.

There is currently no way to send SMS from a PC or a Mac.

As you mentioned you can currently send iMessages from a Mac, and you will be able to send both iMessages and SMS from a Mac once OS X Yosemite is released (according to apple.com)

EDIT:

A quick Google search for "send iphone sms from pc" found this: http://www.myphonedesktop.com/

You can send SMS from your computer.  Use mysms.com, register your mobile number and login through that.  After that, you can send sms from your computer, which will get routed through your phone, which means you have to have your phone and the computer connected to the internet.  This works with Android OS.

For MAC, there is only one way, i.e. to use iMessage.  I hope this helps.


Macbook Pro mid-2014 (High Sierra) runs very hot My 5-ish year old Macbook Pro Retina running High Sierra runs very hot. I know the battery needs replacing, but I'm trying to work out if it makes sense to do this or if my Macbook is on the way out and I need a new laptop. The EtreCheck report is here: https://pastebin.com/VRaKknrF

The CPU temperature routinely runs above 65, and goes up to 75-80.

I'd be so grateful for any advice.

80 Celsius is well within normal CPU temperature for an MBP.

If it is working too hard, then I would look at all those third-party software listed in the EtreCheck report, and make sure they are necessary and up-to-date. If not, uninstall them.

I would definitely get rid of the Western Digital helper software. Some versions caused major problems with some OS versions.
Do you need VideoGuard? Flash? Silverlight? (MS killed that years ago.)
Some versions of Chrome have been known to install Google software update agents that run wild with CPU resources.
You're also running some fan control program: might that be limiting the cooling? Try it without.
You've got Monolingual from 2014. Loads of other stuff that I have no idea what it is. 'Freedom' doesn't seem to have been updated by the developer since 2014.

Your Mac might also be slow because you're running out of disk storage.

I have a 2014 MBP, and just got a new battery from Apple, and it runs like a charm.

I have a 2012 macbook pro, I always found it tended to run too hot for my liking (I use my laptop on my lap and at higher temperatures it is uncomfortable). I think the issue is the system default fan control errs on the side of quietness.

I have been using fan control tools for a while to help with this. More recently I  switched to one called TG Pro and configured the auto boost thresholds so that the fans kick in earlier than they would if the system was allowed to control the fans.

My macbook now runs considerably less hot most of the time (ofc when it is very busy it is still going to get hot).