How to let MacBook Pro recognize my external hard drive as internal hard drive? I'd like to install Windows 7 on my MacBook Pro, but as the internal hard drive cable is not working, I'm using it with an external hard drive plugged in which OS X is installed on.

When I try to install Windows 7 it says that I have to have an internal hard drive to install it. So I'm just wondering if there is a way that can make my laptop think that the external hard drive is an internal so I could install Windows, or is there any other way to install Windows?

I don't want to install Windows in a Virtual Machine.

You should be able to do this with dd by setting Removable to False.

Unmount your disk, then run…

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/disk2 bs=1 count=1

Don't forget to replace disk2 with the actual disk identifier. This command will erase the contents of the disk. Untested, be careful, usual 'not responsible if stuff goes wrong' applies :)

Using Mac OS X's built-in Boot Camp Assistant (in Applications, Utilities Folder) you can install Windows 7. After install, when you turn-on your Mac, hold the Option Key to Boot into Windows. This method runs the Operating System off it's own Partition of the internal Macintosh Hard Drive. When you boot into it, Windows will be Full-Screen, and "running natively."

-or-

An alternative is to Run Windows INSIDE Mac OS X using a Free program called "VirtualBox." This way, VirtualBox will be in your Dock on the OS X side. You will launch it, and run Windows 7 (or any Operating System) Virtually. Please note, this will be slower, and will need certain Drivers. There may be limited Functionality running Windows inside VirtualBox, instead of natively inside Boot Camp. And it lacks some of the Hardware Features available to a Native Operating System.

If there is a "problem" with your MacBookPro's Hard Drive, I would consider getting a NEW Solid-State Drive (of say, 128 GB). This can be purchased for around $100-$125. A few benefits: your Operating System and Programs will boot/launch Faster.

It may also be a good idea to move all of your Media to the External Hard Drive (noting that they will only be available when the External HD is plugged-in via USB. Go to iTunes and in Preferences tell iTunes to use the External Hard Drive for Storage.

Check your MacBookPro Model Number on Wikipedia (search MacBookPro). Make sure to Upgrade your RAM to Maximum Capacity. Then, Download whatever version of Mac OS X is the latest that machine will run. After Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.8, the Mac App Store is Available. That means all versions of Mac OS X after 10.6.8 can be easily downloaded via the Mac App Store onto a New Hard Drive.

So, basically:
1. Purchase the latest version of Mac OS X your MacBookPro will run for $20 in the Mac App Store (let's say Mountain Lion, or Mavericks on Tuesday October 22nd)
2. Purchase an SSD (Solid-State Drive) for around $100 at 128 GB
3. Plug the SSD into the Mac's USB Port.
4. Go in Disk Utility.
5. install OS X onto the SSD using Mac OS Extended (Journaled)
6. Turn-off the MBP (afterwards)
7. Flip the MBP over and open the botttom.
8. install the New SSD that you just installed Mac OS X onto.
9. Turn-on the Computer.
10. Run Boot Camp.
11. install Windows 7 onto it's own Partition, using Disk Utility again.
12. After install, boot into Windows by holding the Option Key after hitting the Power Button to turn the Laptop on (hold it down for a few seconds).
13. Install all the Microsoft Updates and Drivers for your Printer and Peripheral Devices.
14. ReStart into Windows.
15. After all this is done, any time you turn-on your Computer, you choose which OS to boot into. You can even choose a Default in Mac System Preferences, System, StartUp Disk.


Can't access /etc folder in OS X Mountain Lion In OS X Mountain Lion's Finder, I can see a grayed-out /etc folder, but cannot see inside.  Using Terminal's ls command, I can see the existence of a file that one of my programs is trying to find (Free Pascal's fpc program has a fpc.cfg file in /etc).

How can I change parameters for this folder to enable more open access?

Hit ⌘+⇧+G (or select Go - Go to Folder... from the Finder menu bar) and enter /etc or any existing and readable path as the target location to browse it.

Given you enabled showing of hidden files, while double-clicking etc from Finder does not work, you can still right-click it and choose Open from the context menu.

The system-wide configuration files in /etc are best to be treated with caution just as all the other hidden system files and therefor I'd certainly not recommend changing permissions for them, but if you do need to view or edit them I would suggest doing it from the Terminal. This will also make it easier to gain the necessary root privileges for changing them by using the sudo command.

lrwxr-xr-x@   1 root     wheel       11 Oct 19 16:00 etc -> private/etc

the folder owner is root. if your program need to access it, you can run it under root account.


Apple Pages underline When I underline a word with Pages 5.5.3 on OS X.

For the fonts I use, the underline goes very close to the text, much closer than it is common with Microsoft Word.

Just as "tracking" controls how close the next line of text follows the previous, I want to adjust the "tracking" space to lower the underline.

Is there any way to control this and give more space between the text and the underline?

Pages does not expose this control and from experimentation using large font face sizing (96 and above), it appears the spacing between the underline and the characters varies on the typeface selected.

For example - see Courier and Courier New - the second font has a much larger spacing than the first.

It looks like you'd need a tool to edit the typeface or choose a typeface that matches your expectations. It is a bit surprising now that I look how close the underline hews to the characters for Pages default styles.

Actually not (unable to find it on the interface).


Closing 128 new Preview documents without saving I opened 128 .png files in Preview, hoping to use it to create a PDF out of them, as I believe was possible in earlier versions using the New from clipboard trick, but apparently, on Yosemite, not any more.

Now I want to close the newly created documents, but it'll require me to click Don't Save 128 times.

Is there any way around this?

As of Yosemite, at least, there's a much easier way. Just choose Quit from the File menu.

Preview will ask you if you want to review changes. If you say no, you're done!

Similar to what Chris and Tetsujin collectively said:

Open System Preferences (Apple Menu, System Preferences...)
Click "General"
Make sure "Ask to keep changes when closing documents" and "Close windows when quitting an app" are both checked
Go back to Preview, click the "Preview" menu, and click "Quit Preview"


Change iTunes Store country and keep Apple Music library? Is there a way to change the iTunes Store country and still keep the Apple Music library? Preferably in an automated way.

The reason for asking is that the Apple support article on changing the iTunes Store country or region says that your Apple Music library will be lost if changing the country and does not offer any workarounds:

  You won’t see the items from your iCloud Music Library that you matched,
  uploaded, or added from the previous country’s store

I have spent considerable time on building up my music library (adding from Apple Music) and would not like to lose it just because I'm moving to another country.

In my case it is not an option to use multiple Apple IDs or keep using the old iTunes Store country. Device versions are iOS 10 and macOS Sierra.

In theory if you have a friend who has an iphone and apple music and you both upgrade to iOS 11 then you can follow each other’s apple music playlists then get your friend to save and add your songs and playlists to their device, then on your device switch over app store countries, re subscribe to apple music in the new country and then do the reverse and follow your friends playlists and re add them back to your apple music library.

best advice i can give is have someone who is on the country you was originally on send you an app from the app store via the share feature. once you hit "Get" it will prompt you to "Change the app store to the country you originally was on . Instead of going through that long process. I just did it for myself so i can GUARANTEE IT WORKS!


Can I schedule Do Not Disturb for specific days? I currently have Do Not Disturb on my iPhone (iOS 9) scheduled to run while I am at college. The only issue is that I am not at college every day.

Is there a way I can schedule Do Not Disturb for certain days? (For example: Tuesday-Thursday)

Sadly, on a non jailbroken phone you can only set Do Not Disturb to set hours, regardless of which day.  Therefore, every day gets the same hours.

What would be nice, would be a system like the alarms where you can set multiple ones and have them repeat on choosable days, then you could set 2 DND period, one to cover weekdays, and one for weekends etc.

I would recommend making a feature request at this link.

The only way to achieve that is with a jailbreak.


Is my 13" rMBP capable of running a 4k monitor at 2560x1440 scaled resolution? I have a late 2013 13" rMBP and a 4k monitor (3840x2160) that's running at 60Hz over mini display port. Right now it uses a scaled 1920x1080 resolution so everything is displayed at 2x HDPI (retina mode), which seems to be default.

Everything is a bit big for my liking, however, and on the flip side 3840x2160 is far too small, so I was hoping to go for around 2560x1440 for a happy medium.

As System Preferences seemingly doesn't permit this, I downloaded SwitchResX, created a custom resolution ("scaled" mode and 2560x1440 resolution) and selected "save", rebooted, but it still won't show up in System Preferences.

What am I doing wrong? Is my computer not capable of displaying that resolution (I realize it has to scale it up to 5120x2880 first)?

Option-clicking the scaled button in System Prefs will bring up many more options.


Can I copy xcode from my applications folder to external hard disk? I downloaded xcode from the Mac App store on my home computer and it installed to around 11 GB on my applications folder. I tried copying the xcode app from the applications folder to my external hard drive where I was stopped mid-way and the error said some items can't be moved to due permission issues (that's not exactly what the error said but something like that). Is there any solution?

Have you reviewed the helpful details in this question?

I have successfully moved Xcode to a different drive (though in my case an internal SSD), but as the answer says a simple move doesn't quite sort everything out, and you need to fix where various Command Line Tools think the install is. The problem with permissions is probably not due to it being an external drive. You need to get enough permissions to move files, which you can do at the command line ('terminal' application). If you don't know how, then look for help on moving and relinking directories in OS X and proceed carefully having practiced on tiny directories first, having taken a backup.

PS I can't comment on the question, wpbut I think your mean move not copy which makes a big difference.

There are a lot of possible solutions, including, making use of symlinks, dual booting two versions of macOS (one on external SSD), and many more.

But the best way I found was to create a new macOS user and change its home directory to external SSD (by going to advanced user settings under Users & Groups System Preferences).

The exact steps I followed:

Create a new APFS partition on external SSD with 100GB storage. (say NewVol)
Create new macOS user and change its home directory to /Volume/NewVol/user
Logged into the new user with external SSD connected, and installed xcode in ~/Application. (i.e. the local Application folder, not /Application)

Why this works best is because you don't need to manually manage symlinks, also symlinks might create problems during builds. All the required files (including builds and temporary files) are stored in user directory, so no space occupied on internal drive. Also, no hassle of installing a complete separate OS, and going through cycles of reboots to switch the OS.


mac mini flashing mouse repetitive sound wont let me click on stuff https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5NeoGTkkZ4&index=2&list=PLTlfSplem0iX3CLphwxx5fPGD98ydgbpZ

okay so basically half a week ago my computer would start making weird sounds and not letting me click on anything. pretty sure that's not normal for macs, but anyway, i have searched long and hard for the solution tried restarting my computer, using all the computer repair tools built into the mac
literally nothing has helped. now i have two main theories, either my computer has been cursed or hive a virus. no clue what to do.

any help at all would be very very very much appreciated
Ps: i had to use someone else's computer to post this (yes it's that bad)

i eventually just decided to do a factory reset, it worked.


Mac mini Apple bluetooth keyboard DELETE key can't do 'backward delete' I have mac mini and I bought an original apple bluetooth keyboard from ebay. The problem is that the DELETE key always do 'DELETE' action and not 'Backspace', even if I use the function key with it. The same problem is occurred on both windows and osx 10.8 in my mac mini. Please help me guys. Thanks!

Yes, it does for me: "fn" "delete" does a backward delete.


How to debug iPhone overheating when the cause is clearly not the environment when the phone is used? My iPhone 4s with iOS 5.1 started to present overheating very often: 2-4 times a day and this happened while the outside temperature is only around 18-20C and the phone was not under heavy use, in fact in half of the cases it wasn't even used.

How can I debug these?

Going with the phone to Apple store would be the next step, but I don't want to loose precious time. I could bet that this will not happen while a "genius" is playing with the phone. Also, I'm sure they will ask me to wipe the device, something I don't want to do (did it too many times and takes a lot of time to sync ~50gb of data).

Note: Rebooting does not solve the problem!

I would advise phoning Apple first. you will be able to speak with someone regarding the overheating error you are having.

They will more than likely tell you why, and failing that recommend that you go to an Apple store. They will look at the device and run diagnostics.

If you report an issue with a product at the store and the issue cannot be replicated they will usually replace the device with a refurb model on the spot. I have had this happen twice (the swap, not the overheating) once with an iPad and the other an iPhone 3GS, both were replaced.

Yes the sad thing is that they will need to wipe all the data if they cannot fix it after diagnostics. You will hopefully have a backup on your computer, or if you used iCloud a back-up in the cloud, which you can start to download instantly at the store.

Hope it works out for you

As I bicycle rider in south Florida overheating has become a huge probelm on the i-phone.  The phone gets extremely hot when set in the holder on my handlebars.  Like in several other discussions I brought the phone in to be checked. The phone is fine according to Apple.  After viewing a number of discussions I see it's more of a common problem than I thought.  After alot of frustration and lose of data I've figured out the remedy!! It's not technical but it works. I simply place a wash cloth over the device and jury rigged it with a small clamp.  Since doing this it has not overheated once.  Yesterday I was on a 4 hour ride in the sun and beside the battery problem(!) which I will describe next it never overheated.

My I-phone battery when using gps related program gets about 2 to 2 1/2 at tops.  For this I have turned the screen setting brightness to half.  Still another frustration.  I've just purchased a extended battery back that plugs write in to the bottom for $5 on EBay.  Also I purchased a portable charger from Brookstone.  The latter is great except I need to dismount my bicycle and invest an hour into letting it recharge.  If I take a lunch break it is super but for continueous exercise a problem.  Hence, I bought the prior mentioned plug in on ebay today.  Funny, other phones have both exteneded battery life and also no overheat problems.  hmmmmm
RichE


Reduce the storage space taken up by "System" on my iPhone 6s without restoring and setting up iPhone as new I have an iPhone 6s with iOS 11 and I have just noticed that a large amount of my iPhone's storage space being occupied by "System" (12.27 GB).

I have tried the answers for the iPhone 4 explained in the question Why is so much "Other" space occupied on an iPhone 4? (except for factory resetting and setting the iPhone up as new as I need to keep my app data) however those did not solve the problem on my iPhone 6s. I have tried restarting and syncing with iTunes, but neither solved the problem.

No need to backup or restore anything !
I just spent some time with a good Apple Care advisors : this problem is caused by iCloud Drive. If you deactivate it, no more problem. It worked for me.

Try the following (taken from here)

Open Settings > general> system storage >
Note the space used by certain messaging apps
Open Whatsapp > setting > manage > clear


com.apple.quarantine extended attribute gets re-added each time I open the file I have a file called tasks.taskpaper that I associated with FoldingText. When I open the file, the dialog pops up with text

  “tasks.taskpaper” may be a script application. It was created by
  FoldingText and will be opened by FoldingText. Are you sure you want
  to open it?

And, indeed, the com.apple.quarantine extended attribute is associated with the file:

$ xattr -l tasks.taskpaper | grep com.apple.quarantine
com.apple.quarantine: 0002;53b0afc9;FoldingText;

I can remove the attribute:

$ xattr -d com.apple.quarantine tasks.taskpaper
$ xattr -l tasks.taskpaper | grep com.apple.quarantine
$

But when I open the file with FoldingText again, I get the popup dialog again, and the attribute has somehow been re-added to the file:

$ xattr -l tasks.taskpaper | grep com.apple.quarantine
com.apple.quarantine: 0002;53b0b0dc;FoldingText;

How can I get this to stop happening?

Note that I'm running on Mavericks and I installed FoldingText (2.0.2) using the App Store. Also, the file is in a Dropbox directory.

You need to add the direct path to the file  in your command to remove it permanently:

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine /complete/path/to/tasks.taskpaper

If this fails, there may be multiple instances. Attempt to globally remove it amongst all versions:

find . -iname '*.taskpaper' -print0 | xargs -0 xattr -d com.apple.quarantine


Reinstall OS X Lion on Macbook Air 2012 I have a MacBook Air (11-inch, Mid 2012) MD223LL/A MBAIR 11.6/1.7/4/64FLASH running OS X 10.7.5. It shipped with Lion. I want to reinstall the OS on the laptop without an internet connection. Is this possible on these newer machines? What are the steps?

Use-case:
The main purpose of the Macbook Air is to use it on the road when i travel. recently, I was testing my client's app on it and made lots of changes to the OS settings. Experimentation led to instability and the fastest way to get back is to reinstall the OS to a fresh start. I want it to be possible from a placewith out internet as well. On top of  it, I just realized that I can't reinstall OS X even with wifi using the recovery console, it led to the screen saying 'Could not find installation information for this machine. Contact AppleCare'. I paid a per-incident AppleCare call and they said they do not support non-internet recovery anymore and I have to take it to a care center to reinstall the OS for me(in the post laptop era, owner has no control of OS installation any more). Probably I have to end up paying to reinstall OS X, but I think I would use a disk cloner from now on.

You could make a bootable drive with the Lion installer. To do so, you'll need the original Lion Installer, downloadable from the Mac App Store once you've purchased it and a USB flash drive with a GUID Partition Table format. You'll find here a step by step guide for the formatting part. Afterwards just:

Go to the Applications folder and find the installer, which should be called Install Mac OSX Lion.app.
Right+click on it and choose Show Package Content from the contextual menu.
Under Contents / Shared Support you'll find a file called InstallESD.dmg, drag it to Disk Utilities' sidebar and mount it.
Select the installer and click the Restore button.
The installer should appear in the Source field, if not, drag it there.
Connect the USB and drag it into the Destination field.
Click Restore.

If everything was done correctly, you'll, then, have a drive from which you'll be able to boot just by holding C while restarting your computer.

I'm ignoring the OP's problem, but you can normally reinstall OS X from the recovery partition without needing any external drive.

To erase and reinstall OS X:

Start from the recovery partition by holding command-R on startup
Erase the OS X partition from Disk Utility
Choose Install OS X

To reinstall OS X without erasing the current installation:

Start from the recovery partition by holding command-R on startup
Choose Reinstall OS X

See these Apple KB articles:

OS X Lion: Erase and reinstall Mac OS X
OS X Mountain Lion: Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Mavericks: Erase and reinstall OS X
OS X Lion: Reinstall Mac OS X
OS X Mountain Lion: Reinstall OS X
OS X Mavericks: Reinstall OS X
OS X: About OS X Recovery


How do I restore my iPhone from an iCloud backup? I just installed iOS 5 on my iPhone 4 several days ago, and I backed it up to iCloud. After performing a sync with my PC, it deleted a bunch of apps. I'd like to restore these from the iCloud backup.

I tried searching Apple's site and Google to see how to restore from a backup, but all the examples are for newly activated phones, not existing phones. I couldn't find any options relevant to this in the settings app.

I tried pressing "Restore" in iTunes, which deleted all the data on the iPhone. When it started up again, it took me through some basic configuration steps, but none of the steps asked me if I want to restore the phone from an iCloud backup. The only thing close to this was when it asked me if I want to backup to iCloud or my PC. I chose iCloud.

How can I force my iPhone to download all the data that was backed up to iCloud?

Update: according to iCloud: Backup and restore overview, it says that I need to go through the setup assistant and choose to restore from iCloud. The problem is that the setup it took me through was the standard iOS 5 setup which just asks you to enable/disable services such as location and iCloud backup. It doesn't seem to be the same setup assistant that appears on brand new phones. So the question is how to force the setup assistant to show on a non-new phone.

When you restored your phone, did you do the configuration steps in iTunes or on the iPhone itself? Try restoring again, and follow the steps on the iPhone, not in iTunes. I've seen some reports claiming that iCloud restores can only be started from the device itself.

I just wrote instructions on how to do this. Hopefully it helps...


How does one export all contacts from iCloud? How does one export all contacts from iCloud in some sort of standard format? I would prefer to keep a backup in case my sync goes bad and I'm yet to find a way to export all my contacts. I would hate to lose hundreds of contact details if my sync from the iPhone goes bad.

I just had a massive heart attack after attempting to switch Apple ID accounts...

I originally shared an itunes account with my brother so that we could share apps etc...

But after changing Apple ID's and reconnecting to the cloud, i lost all my contacts...

Luckily they were stored in the Cloud with the old iTunes ID. If you log into iCloud and select all your contacts on the settings button (bottom left) it says Export vCard. Click this and you can Export all your contact information as a .vcf file which you can then back up onto an external harddrive etc...

Hope this helps!!

This is by far the most useful answer on this topic - and the only one that doesn't involve exporting individual contacts via your web browser and the iCloud web interface.

This is for PC users only.

http://davidvielmetter.com/tricks/importing-icloud-contacts-to-outlook/


Apple Cinema Display Brightness no longer works in Mavericks or Yosemite So when you have a ~5-7 year old Apple Cinema Display monitor that looks something like this:

and you upgrade to Mavericks (MacOS 10.9) or Yosemite (MacOS 10.10), you will lose the ability to adjust the brightness on the thing via the "Display" Preference Pane. In other words, the brightness will be stuck at whatever level it was at when you were on Mountain Lion.

And this is because of a conscious decision by Apple to obsolete these things to motivate you to throw perfectly good monitors into the trash or recycling bin :-( (and buy new Apple products, but of course).

So, how to get your brightness controls back in Mavericks?

There are various threads on discussions.apple.com, but the solution I found on MacRumors I will not repost the solution there, since it's likely to be deleted since it's definitely a bit of a hack.

But one that will extend the useful life of your Cinema Display for at least a few more months (if not a year or two):

  I got the following .kext files from a computer running mountain lion.

  AppleBackligt.kext AppleBacklightExpert.kext AppleUSBDisplays.kext

  The files are placed in /System/Extensions

  Then i placed the kextfiles on the desktop, and ran a tool called
  "KextBeast". This app installs every kext file on the desktop. Then i
  rebooted and voilá..

  Get kext files
  Run KextBeast
  Reboot

"Running KextBeast" requires registering (i.e. potential spam) to download the KextBeast app.

Here is how to do the same thing in the Terminal:

 # make certain you have the ability to run as root or admin (so you can "sudo")
 cd /System/Library/Extensions/

 # move the old kernel extensions out of the way
 sudo mv AppleBacklight.kext AppleBacklightOLD.kext
 sudo mv AppleBacklightExpert.kext AppleBacklightExpertOLD.kext
 sudo mv AppleUSBDisplays.kext AppleUSBDisplaysOLD.kext

 # move the Mountain Lion kexts into position
 sudo mv ~/Desktop/AppleBacklight.kext .
 sudo mv ~/Desktop/AppleBacklightExpert.kext .
 sudo mv ~/Desktop/AppleUSBDisplays.kext .

 # set proper permissions and ownership
 sudo chown -R root:wheel AppleBacklight.kext
 sudo chmod -R 755 AppleBacklight.kext
 sudo chown -R root:wheel AppleBacklightExpert.kext
 sudo chmod -R 755 AppleBacklightExpert.kext
 sudo chown -R root:wheel AppleUSBDisplays.kext
 sudo chmod -R 755 AppleUSBDisplays.kext

 # mv the OLD kernel extensions out of the way
 # (or put them in the trash via the Finder)
 sudo mv *OLD* ~/Desktop

Reboot and voila!  You will have brightness controls with your "Vintage" Cinema Display.

I hope this helps somebody else out.

Try the brightness buttons on the apple keyboard


Why are CPU fans running on my MacBook Pro 15" full blast while my laptop has just booted up and waiting at the login screen? I know a lot of people have problems with the MacBook Pro's CPU fan running super loud and IMO the Activity Monitor is less than unreliable in telling what's really causing it… but let's check what happens when no applications are running.
What I find absolutely unbelievable that my Mac's CPU fans were running at maximum speed after just booting up, from a switched off state, with the charger cable disconnected. I can't see any reason for that, no applications should be running at this stage.
Is it possible to debug this somehow or is this simply an indication of a possible rootkit and a complete reinstall of my Mac?

Check your login items and launch agents.
Update to the latest OS.
Open Activity Monitor when you log in. See what is gobbling up your CPU.


Apple Watch - Getting weight lifting to count towards "move ring"? Is there any way to get exercise like weight lifting to count towards the "move ring" of the activity app. I realize it will count a small amount just from moving the wrist around, but some days I would like most of my calorie burn to come from weights and the basic app doesn't seem to cover this.

Make sure you are using the Workouts app on the watch as this will make the heart rate monitor get your heart rate more often. Therefore, it won't miss any spikes from lifting and moving about.
Make sure your watch is securely fitted so the heart rate monitor can get an accurate measurement!
Lastly, it's a bit hard for a device on your watch to know that you are using weight resistance, etc. so don't expect much. Perhaps we'll see some updates from Apple about this, here's hoping!

I set the workout to other when lifting. It's something


Tell if running process is running under Rosetta or is M1-native by Command Line If you have an M1-based Macbook you can tell if a process running on the machine is Apple/M1 or Intel/Rosetta in Activity Monitor, but is there a way to get this information on the command line?
I'd like to be able to quickly show a count of how many Intel processes are currently running on my machine under Rosetta.

You can definitely rule out some things (go to the terminal).
e.g.
# ps -ef | grep -i firefox$
  502 56288     1   0 11Mar21 ??       207:43.89 /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox

USE the executable name and pass to file command.
# file /Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox
/Applications/Firefox.app/Contents/MacOS/firefox: Mach-O 64-bit executable x86_64

So if that gives you x86_64 it has to be running under Rosetta - it's got only x86_64 architecture (the pre-M1 one).
On a M1 machine some things ship with universal binaries - for instance do the same thing for Safari and I get something like this (sorry machine is air-gapped .. this is TCP-over-ME so may not be 100% correct :-)
# file /Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari
/Applications/Safari.app/Contents/MacOS/Safari:Mach-O universal binary with 2 architectures: [x86_64:Mach_o 64 bit executable x86_64][arm64e:Mach-o 64-bit executable arm64e]

.. and then proceeds to give output that is for each architecture ... According to Apple it will "prefer" arm64e.


App icons go missing on MacBook I've been having this problem for a while now and it really starts to bother me. Every once in a while, a lot of my app icons go missing in the dock, launchpad, finder, cmd-tab switcher, just everywhere.

Some pictures:

Obviously this is really annoying.
I already tried a lot of stuff to solve it.

I tried relaunching the Finder
I tried relaunching the Dock (terminal: killall Dock)
I tried clearing icon cache

The only way I can (temporarily) solve this by doing the following:

Reboot, now the icons have reloaded in finder and launchpad, dock icons are still missing
go to Library/preferences/com.apple.dock.plist
& delete the file
open terminal: killall Dock

This way everything is fixed, but I have to rearrange my dock again since I removed the preferences file. It is only a temporary fix though, the issue keeps coming back and I always have to do this, which is very annoying.

Does anyone know what causes this? How could I solve it permanently? It’s really getting frustrating!

Thanks a lot!

How to Rebuild Launchpad Database in OS X Yosemite (10.10) and Later

Go to Library folder, which is hidden. To access it, click anywhere on desktop and make sure you see word 'Finder' in the top menu near Apple logo.
Press and hold alt/option key and in the top menu bar select Go and finally Library.
In the Library folder, locate and open the Application Support folder.
In the Application Support folder, locate and open the Dock folder.
You'll find a number of files in the Dock folder, including one named desktoppicture.db, and one or more files starting with a dashed set of capital letters and numbers and ending in .db. An example file name is FE0131A-54E1-2A8E-B0A0A77CFCA4.db. Grab all the files in the Dock folder with the dashed set of letters and numbers that end in .db and drag them to the trash or press ⌘/command + delete keys.
Launch Terminal, located in the /Applications/Utilities folder.
In the Terminal window, enter the following:

defaults write com.apple.dock ResetLaunchPad -bool true; killall Dock

Launchpad has now been reset. The next time you open Launchpad, the app will rebuild the databases it needs. Launchpad may take a bit longer than usual to launch the first time, and the Launchpad display will now be in its default organization, with Apple apps shown first, and third-party apps next.

Eventually this is a MacOS software issue. You need to boot the mac into recovery mode and reinstall MacOs to fix the icons. It wont delete any information since its only rebuilding the system files. That should fix the missing icons.


How can I copy files from my Mac to PC via Microsoft Remote Desktop? I installed Microsoft's Remote Desktop and connected to a PC. How can I share files between my Mac and PC?
When I use RDP on Windows, I can simply add a file to the clipboard and paste it inside the RDP window. The same thing doesn't seem to work in the mac version of RDP.
If I try to share one of my Mac's folders with the RDP computer, and then double click that drive in RDP it says:

\\tsclient\Downlo1 is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions.
Access is denied.

When copying files from Mac to PC using Microsoft Remote Desktop I prefer to share a subfolder, not the entire drive.

Here's how:

In Remote Desktop on your Mac select your PC in the "My Desktops" section.
Click the "Edit" button (pencil icon).
In the popup click the "Redirection" button (folder icon; see image below).
Check the "Enable folder redirection" box.
Click the "+" button at the bottom of that window and browse to the Mac folder you want to share.
Connect to the remote PC.
Look for your shared Mac folder in your PC's "My Computer"
directory (see image below).

Finally, as noted by @Bart and @robbpriestley in the comments below, if you are already connected to the remote computer you need to re-establish your connection in order to see the shared folder.

Your shared folder has a name that is too long.  Try calling the share "foo," connecting to terminal services, and then accessing \\tsclient\foo.


macOS High Sierra: Create Windows bootable Usb I just install macOS High Sierra and Windows 10 through BootCamp Assistant.

The problem is that, Windows have a strange issue and I need a bootable USB to go to the recovery mode.

I tried to make one from BootCamp Assistant but in the latest macOS the process is different and there is nowhere the "Create a Windows 7 or later version install disk" option and the only option I have is to remove the windows partion.

So, how I can make a Windows Bootable USB in macOS High Sierra?

This can be done by console for Windows 10 iso images (Not sure about 8/7, but leave any comment if it worked for you).
Start connecting your usb drive and type diskutil list to display all connected drives.
You'll see something like:
/dev/disk0 (internal):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                         500.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     314.6 MB   disk0s1
   2:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         500.0 GB   disk0s2

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +500.0 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s2
   1:                APFS Volume Macintosh HD            185.7 GB   disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 47.1 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                512.8 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      4.3 GB     disk1s4

/dev/disk2 (external, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *15.6 GB    disk2
   1:                 DOS_FAT_32 LALA                    15.6 GB    disk2s1

For my case, the usb drive was /dev/disk2. Knowing this, format your usb drive with:
diskutil eraseDisk MS-DOS "WINDOWS10" MBR disk2

where disk2 is the usb drive id known in the prior command and "WINDOWS10" is the volume label (to be used later).
Please double check this step, or you could delete all data in another drive.
Then mount your image with:
hdiutil mount your_windows_10_image.iso

the command will return the location of the mounted iso
/dev/disk3                                      /Volumes/CPRA_X64FREV_ES-MX_DV5

so finally copy all the files from the mounted iso to your usb drive:
cp -rpv /Volumes/CPRA_X64FREV_ES-MX_DV5/* /Volumes/WINDOWS10

Boot Camp Assistant has been stable as always. Failed several times before I made a Windows 10 install USB on Mac 10.14. Here are a few tricks:

The USB Flash drive must be formatted as exFAT
Make sure download the latest Windows Support Software
If there is not an AutoUnattend.xml at the top level of the drive, download AutoUnattend.xml, unzip it, and add it to the drive. AutoUnattend.xml provides the location of the $WinPEDriver$ folder to load the drivers during boot.

If this still fails, then here are a few good alternatives to Bootcamp for creating bootable USB on Mac:

https://unetbootin.github.io/ (Free, Cross platform)

https://www.balena.io/etcher/ (Free, Cross platform)

https://www.uubyte.com/iso-editor.html (Freemium, Win & Mac)


Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition (OS X) and Dropbox I was trying to share the saved games of Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition using Dropbox (on OS X). Configuration files are stored in

~/Library/Containers/com.beamdog.baldursgateenhancededition/Data/Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition

The options file Baldur.ini should not be shared as it contains machine specific data but I tried to make the saves folder a symbolic link to a Dropbox folder but then data is not recognised.

My workaround is to manually copy the folder to and from Dropbox after and before playing but I would like to know if someone found a better alternative.

Edit

The goal is to share the saved games between two machines using Dropbox (or another cloud storage server). Sharing the whole container is not an option as the settings file is machine specific.

As it seems that the question is not clear: How do I share Baldur's Gate saved games using Dropbox?

It is because of the sandbox. If you will look in your console you will see errors like: ...kernel[0]: Sandbox: Baldur's Gate...deny file-write-data .../Dropbox/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition/Baldur.ini

looking into how to allow this; I suspect that a hard link (instead of symbolic) would work. Best be sure you understand what that means before doing it.

Another way to do it would be to symlink the entire sandbox container for BGEE instead of linking a subpath. instead of a symbolic link for ~/Library/Containers/com.beamdog.baldursgateenhancededition/Data/Documents/Baldur's Gate - Enhanced Edition make one for `~/Library/Containers/com.beamdog.baldursgateenhancededition

I haven't tested this with BG:EE, but I've done it with other sandboxes and it works.

I've tried the same think for BG2:EE on OS X (mavericks), but failed as well.

First I moved the save folder to my dropbox folder:

mv ~/Library/Containers/com.beamdog.baldursgateIIenhancededition/Data/Documents/Baldur\'s\ Gate\ II\ -\ Enhanced\ Edition/save ~/Dropbox/save

Then created a symbolic link from the original save location to the new dropbox location:

ln -s ~/Dropbox/save ~/Library/Containers/com.beamdog.baldursgateIIenhancededition/Data/Documents/Baldur\'s\ Gate\ II\ -\ Enhanced\ Edition/save

But indeed the game does not find/recognize the saved games :(


Flag disappears after reading a message in Mail In Mail 9.0 (OS X El Capitan) I have set a rule that marks a message with a flag if it satisfies some conditions.
When I receive a message which satisfies that condition, it is correctly marked with the flag, but when I read the message, the flag disappears and the message is automatically unmarked.
How can this be explained? I would like to always keep the flag, also after reading the message.

I reported this as a bug in 2006. It appears that Apple either doesn't use Mail or doesn't care about this feature.

You can get add-on software, such as Mailhub, to repair this feature.


Has anyone else been able to find out why Back to my Mac isn't working in Yosemite? After upgrading to Yosemite, I can no longer see my other computers that I was able to access with Back to my Mac, under previous OS X versions (while I am away from home - usually accessing my home computer(s) from work).

As each one was upgraded to Yosemite (10.10), each one in turn "disappeared" from being accessible by Back to my Mac. I'm pretty sure its the O/S, but the question is - why?

I didn't change anything, they just don't appear in Finder anymore, but my computers still on Mavericks do appear.  There's also an issue with the local screen sharing, as shortcuts that were created and working under 10.9, are no longer working in 10.10.  I am forced to open Finder and connect that way.  I re-saved the shortcut from screen sharing, but it still doesn't work.

I have the Airport Extreme 802.11ac, firmware 7.7.3

I have tried the Apple suggested steps with no success.

I'd love to hear from others who can verify this, and perhaps know what Apple changed that broke this for me.

Ok, just found this…. Hope this works.
http://support.apple.com/kb/PH18990?viewlocale=en_US


Exclude apps from iPhone/iPad backup? I own both an iPhone (4S) and an iPad (mini), running iOS 5 and 6 respectively. The two of them are quite filled with large apps (roughly 40GB in total) and thus my Macbook is getting crowded. This is because iTunes stores all downloaded apps, PLUS all apps from all devices, so there are three copies of many apps saved (downloaded app + 2 iOS backups).

I would like to exclude stuff which can be reinstalled from the iTunes store from my iOS backups, just like iCloud does - only without using iCloud (I prefer my backups being physically at home).

Is there a way to do this? If so, how?

Thank you!

I just had the same question and found a solution here:

I do not want to sync apps in iTunes11.

  iTunes > Preferences... > tab "Store" > section "Automatic Downloads" in the middle, there is a check box "Apps"


Why is Quit disabled in Mail.app? Recently, when I try to quit Mail, the Quit menu option is actually disabled and the keyboard shortcut doesn't work (it "beeps" just like when you try to do anything that isn't permitted). Screenshot for proof:

Any idea what's causing this and how I can prevent it from happening? The only "solution" I've found is to force quit Mail...

I'm running Mail 6.2 on 10.8.2.

This problem has previously been reported and apparently hasn't been resolved. Apple's solution is to force quit Mail. If you are not especially loving Mail, and don't mind upgrading, Mozilla Thunderbird is an excellent replacement option. I use it on a daily basis, and it never has issues. Hope this helps!


Complex Appear In Keynote Presentation In my presentation, I have a slide with six lines.  I'm trying to set it up so lines 1 and 6 will appear, then 2 and 5, and finally 3 and 4.  I know I could throw a box over them and have the boxes disappear but there must be a better way to do this.  :-)

Create 3 groups of the line pairs. Then schedule the appearance of the groups via the Inspector.


Jabber XMPP chat client for iOS with push notifications Chat Secure is working on iOS with Jabber but it doesn't stay active in the background (just for 10 minutes) so it is not really an alternative to the internal iMessage Chat.

Which app is able to save Jabber messages offline and send them as push notifications as soon as you are online again?

I use iOS 7 on an iPad Air


How to prevent iMessage syncing without access to device I foolishly logged into someone's iPad with my Apple ID. This person is now receiving my full communications on iMessage. I know I can remove my account from that iPad but I don't have access to it. How can I stop the device from getting my iMessages without physical access?

Try changing your Apple ID password. That'll lock any device out of any service using your Apple ID without the new password. Good luck to you!

You can change it from your iOS Device, right in the iTunes or App Store at the bottom go to "Apple ID: [Your Apple ID here]", click on "View Apple ID" and change your password.

You can manage devices that have access to your Apple ID through iTunes/iTunes Store.

Open iTunes
Click "Store" on the menu bar (Mac OS X).
Select "View my Apple ID (xxx@xxx.xxx)" from the drop down menu.
Log-in to the Apple ID you wish to revoke access to.
Under the "iTunes In the Cloud" section you can manage/add devices.

I'm honestly not sure if this revokes access to iMessages, but I assume it does.


Sparse bundle on NAS - can't open "Resource temporarily unavailable" I just got a new Lacie NAS with their NAS OS 4. After making an initial Time Machine backup to this device I wanted to mount the resulting (encrypted) disk image but when doing so I just received an error message "Resource temporarily unavailable". Googling this error message returned a lot of Voodoo fixes. However, after playing around a bit, restarting a few times etc I realised that I had something called Time Machine service enabled for this share. Turning this service off immediately made the disk image available as expected.

Disable "Time Machine service" for the share the disk image is stored on.

(Note to Moderators: this answer might have to be moved elsewhere).

Let me share my experience with backing up and restoring a MBP for a family member after a wipe in preparation for a "Genius Bar" visit....

Personally, I do not use TM, but my mother does... We are both Mac users, the difference being she knows nothing about computers yet due to her stubbornness, I was essentially compelled to fix her legacy backup procedures. She uses a WDMyCloud to backup both an MBP and an iMac over her network. Being the great son that I am, I had to make sure these were running smoothly.

I struggled greatly for an entire day to figure out how the heck TM works. What a disaster. I prefer CCC, as I don't need snapshots of my system every minute. Utter ridiculousness. I can attest to there being curious permissions issues with sparsebundles, which I adjusted accordingly (read, "nuked)", but am not even sure if that fixed anything. I'll say that you must be extremely patient if you're wanting to mount said bundle in order to explore it's contents. You can't have multiple systems contending for access to your TM backups, or else you'll get the dreaded "resource temporarily unavailable". Basically, the mouse sucks and I use Cmd+O to mount any disk images, and then I WAIT SEVERAL MINUTES. It was upon this realization, and the fact that multiple machines cannot access the same disk image simultaneously, that I was able to consistently mount and explore the TM backups.

Mounting and exploring these disk images truly is a long process and requires a lot of patience. I also recommend adding all the mounted disk images to Spotlight's list of excluded locations. This just wreaks all kinds of havoc.

TL;DR - make sure only one machine is attempting to mount the sparsebundle, be PATIENT after attempting to mount (several minutes), wait another several minutes for file indexing. You might even hear your fans spool up as DiskImageMounter goes into overdrive. Add these images to Spotlight's excluded list.


A better workflow for screen real estate than spaces? My impression of the general feeling toward spaces is that it's a good idea that doesn't work very well and so most people don't use it. I do use it and I can't imagine having all my windows open on one screen as being easier to navigate.

I'm interested in any better workflows people have in play.

My primary machine is a 15" MBP (no separate monitors), with a space each for mailplane, browsers, omnifocus, evernote, and two clear work spaces for whatever projects I am working on with relevant apps and windows within.

Really, you can't beat two physical 1080 monitors and an extra, smaller (~1024x768) one (touchscreen a plus). This works best for headless machines, or machines with an integrated 1080 display. Here are example workflows for different scenarios (Big1=1080 main, Big2=1080 extra, Small1=small extra):

Coder:
Big1: The piece of code you're actively working on. Big2: The list of related files (like in XCode), and the interface design. Small1: Where the app's windows(s) go when you test it, unless it's big. Or music controls.

Web Developer
Big1: Code. Big2: Browser preview. Small1: FTP client or ebooks or list of files or editor utility panels.

Photo Editing/Design
Big1: Editing window (Ps controls, image, etc). Big2: List of photos w/ previews.
Big 3: Original image or music controls or editor panels.

Student (the one I spend the most time in)
Big1: Paper/essay on the left and outline on the right. Big2: Research websites, ebooks, works cited, etc (two open simultaneously works well). Small1: Music controls or assignment sheet/project requirements.

When I first switched to Leopard I tried out spaces, both with and without an extra monitor, but I found that I just couldn't get along with it whatever I tried.My current solution is to have spaces switched off, with one hot corner for Expose - all windows and another for show desktop. I also use the dock icons to show all the windows for that particular application and Opt-Tab to switch between applications, using all of these I find it is always easy to get the inforamtion I need on screen when I need it.A partial solution to overcome the lack of real screen estate: I often use cmd+tab to efficiently switch back and forth applications that I use concurrently. This doesn't require 'thinking', I rarely try to pick another app from the multitasking list other than the last used.I usually have all apps open and full screen (MBP high-res). Then if I need another app I fall back to Exposé (mapped to a screen corner).The other thing you might try is Divvy, which is a sort of tiling window manager thing for OS X. Sink some time into configuring it, and you'll it back hundreds of times over from time saved organizing stuff.


Folders disappeared from iCloud Drive following path name change So that GNU Make could access my iCloud Drive folder, I removed the space in 'Mobile Documents'.

So I changed my iCloud Drive path from:

~/Library/Mobile Documents/

to

~/Library/MobileDocuments/

As far as I can tell, my Mac has automatically re-created ~/Library/Mobile Documents/ (ie, it has re-created my iCloud Drive folder).

On my Mac, the only folders that are now showing in ~/Library/Mobile Documents/ are Preview, Numbers and Pages (ie osx and iOS apps).

On my iPhone, I can access my iCloud Drive folder in all apps, but the only apps in which files are syncing via iCloud are Preview, Numbers and Pages. In apps such as Textastic, which I only have installed on my iPhone, the files are no longer syncing via iCloud.

All my apps and their files that were previously in ~/Library/Mobile Documents/ are present in ~/Library/MobileDocuments/. Therefore, I tried transfering apps and their files present in ~/Library/MobileDocuments/ to ~/Library/Mobile Documents/, but my Mac said the files are all present in ~/Library/Mobile Documents/, even though they are not showing.

Can anyone tell how I can revert my changes? Therefore, how can I have all apps and their files returned to iCloud Drive and syncing using iCloud?

Depending on the number of files you have, iCloud Drive can take a while to get itself situated.

I would move the files somewhere safe that is not part of iCloud and is easy to get to. Leaving them where they are should also work. Then, turn off iCloud Drive and follow all the prompts. It’ll want to “finish updating,” which you can skip. It’ll leave a folder in your home folder that’s an archive of some files it thought may not be uploaded yet.

Once everything is off, re-enable it. Wait until everything comes back. This can take a long time (hours) and it may look like nothing is happening. It will finish.

Once everything is back, make sure your data is all there and delete the old stuff.

Doing things from the ~/Lbrary/ is dangerous, try this:

I would first move all the documents from ~/Library/MobileDocuments/ to your desktop so they are no longer considered iCloud files.
Delete the ~/Library/MobileDocuments/ folder.
Delete any and all files from iCloud Drive as normal, not from the
Mobile Documents folder.
Wait a hour or so, then copy the files from your Desktop back into iCloud Drive, again, using the standard method.


Preview App bug - "Highlight" shortcut not working normally I'm not able to use "Highlight" shortcut. No matter I press control+command+h or control+command+u, it results in underlining text. Clicking the "Highlight" button also underlines text. I can highlight text using highlight with specific though.

But it's quite inconvenient that I am not able to use shortcut to highlight. How could I fix it?

Try clicking the highlight button (while not having any text highlighted) and select the highlight colour. It'll show a check mark beside the one you choose. Then unclick it and try the highlight shortcut again and it should make the default that colour highlight.

There is no need to use any shortcut command ... its direct... just keep the highlight selected and u can highlight text by just double finger drag...


Cannot reset password using Apple ID I got quite the headscratcher here...
I'm in a password reset loop. I have been tasked with "fixing" my wife's MacBook. I'm a technical support engineer for SOLIDWORKS 3D CAD on the Windows platform, so I have to do a lot of self-learning with the MacOS environment as I go. I've exhausted everything I could find mentioned online and would be very appreciative of some insight from more experienced users.
THE GOAL

Access the HD to recover important documents and pictures.

THE SITUATION

My wife left her computer unused for many months. The battery ran
out and it was left 100% dead for a good while.

When charging it back up and trying to log in, the machine will not accept my wife's machine password (she had written it down previously). We've tried over 50 iterations. We tried all passwords and all permutations of any Apple passwords past and present. No dice.

So far, no method of resetting the password has been successful.

The machine seemingly can't connect to the internet to reset the password via Apple ID even though I have verified it is connected to Wifi. I tried multiple networks to rule out faulty internet. It rejects incorrect passwords, so I know it actually connects when the Wifi credentials are entered correctly. At this point, her Apple ID is the only credential I can independently verify is accurate.

My wife inadvertently activated FileVault and can't remember if/where she stored the Recovery Key. Big "uh-oh."

Because FileVault is active, I cannot access the macOS Utilities (⌘+R held while booting) to run the 'resetpassword' command in the Terminal. It only boots to the Recovery OS which isn't helpful.

I also am locked out of single-user startup (⌘+S held while booting) which is disabled when FileVault is active. I was hoping to run some command-line codes to reset the password or create and admin account. Can't do any of that with FileVault enabled.

The 'Macintosh HD' Startup Disk is encrypted in the Recovery Assistant. It asks for an unlock password, but I have no idea what to enter. Any attempt has been unsuccessful.

Need some insight!

Have you tried this method?  From this source:

Use Recovery Mode to reset your password
You'll need to boot your Mac into Recovery Mode in order to access the
password reset tool. I've found the easiest way to do that is to turn
off your Mac.
With your Mac turned off, press and hold the Command and R keys on
your keyboard, then press the power button. Hold in Command+R until
you see a progress bar show up below the Apple logo. You can also get
into Recovery Mode by restarting your Mac and trying to time the
keyboard combo of Command+R, but in my experience, starting with your
Mac turned off is the most reliable method.
With your Mac now in Recovery Mode, click on Utilities in the menu bar
followed by Terminal. A new window will show up, waiting for you to
enter a command. Type "resetpassword" as one word, without the quotes,
and press Return.
Close the Terminal window, where you will then find the Reset Password
tool. A list of all user accounts on your Mac will be on display. To
reset the password for your account, you'll need to set a new password
for all users. Make sure you write down the new password for anyone
who shares your Mac.


Why is my hostname set to a random number (228) in the bash prompt on OS X? Today I saw that when I open a terminal, the bash prompt displays username@228~:. When I type in pwd I get /Users/username so I was wondering where does this 228 come from? It wasn't like that couple of days ago and I am not sure what introduced this change.

My OS is OS X Yosemite 10.10.5.

In .bash_profile I have export PS1="\u@\h\w: ".

From the list of prompt strings (see PROMPTING in man bash):

\h     the hostname up to the first `.'

Usually, this gives a nice short hostname but in your case leads to the slightly confusing 228.

You are connected to the wrong Internet provider.
Yep, in your WiFi router, you have (at least) TWO WiFi networks.
You are connected to the one which is accessible to everybody.
Probably, your ISP allows you to connect country-wide with the same credentials you use at your home.

This is the explanation, but the solution ... doesn't exist.


How to create a Windows 7 installation USB from OS X? I'm trying to create a Windows 7 installation USB (for use on a PC) from OS X.

I've tried following these instructions from a similar question on superuser:

Insert the USB flash drive and run the command diskutil list to find out the disk name, we'll use /dev/disk1 as an example
Now unmount the disk using diskutil unmountDisk /dev/disk1
dd if=/path/to/Win7.iso of=/dev/disk1 bs=8192

But the instructions don't work. When I insert the created USB drive into my PC and try to boot from it, I get this message:

  Reboot and Select proper Boot device or Insert Boot Media in selected Boot device and press a key

What am I missing?

Turns out OS X Lion ships with Boot Camp 4.0, the coolest feature of which appears to be the ability to create install USBs.

Right after turning on your PC press Del to enter Bios Setup and make sure that USB listed first in Boot Priority menu.


New screenshots/files not visible in Finder in Catalina, well visible when using a file manager like Nimble Commander Pro I've set the permissions to the 'screenshots' folder 'read & write' for all users in the list.  The screenshot app is added to have full rights on the drive in the settings...  I don't understand why I can't see the new screenshots via Finder but via any file manager, is not an issue.  Is there someone that can plz let me know what I'm doing wrong?  I'm Catalina since a few hours only, and this really works on my nerves... :-(. I noticed that I can't see newly added or created files either in the Finder!  If you ask me, this is not really an improvement!

The problem is solved after performing the macOS 10.15.1 update.

Seems it's not solved at all!
It happens once a while, with no reasons and when this happens, only a reboot helps!


Has there been an end date established for the Maps app on iOS less than iOS 6? It has been reported that the contract between Google and Apple to supply maps for iOS has not been renewed (or perhaps already has or is about to expire). Furthermore, it's clear that Google charges significant amounts of money for businesses like Apple to use the maps API so it's not clear to me that this data feed can continue to older OS indefinitely.

Has anyone seen a credible announcement if and/or when the map data might stop working for people that choose to stuck with iOS 3, 4 and/or 5 and the Google-data-fed integrated iOS mapping app? (And by choose, I mean the devices are not even supported on iOS 6 so the choice is more to buy new hardware or keep running what you have.)

I'm not looking for an alternative (like running Google Maps on iOS 5.1) - just an announced or a real end date of the map tile feed to iOS.

As long as you do not upgrade to iOS 6, you will get to keep the app forever. As for the API not working any more, since Apple used the official API any changes Google makes that would break the old Maps app will also break millions of other apps on many platforms. There is a possibility that Google could revoke Apple's API key, but I seriously doubt that will ever happen.

As numerous news reports said, "if you stay on iOS 5, you can keep Google Maps on your iPhone". And now there's also the Google Maps standalone app for iOS 5.1/6.


High Sierra shows wrong disk usage for photos in information I installed high Sierra a few months ago and nowadays there seems to be a problem with System Information.app, it always shows the disk usage wrong like for example System 40GB but it shows photos to be 0KB even though I have 19GB worth photos and DaisyDisk reports correct disk usage.

I have tried booting into safe mode and rebooting, this persists after restarts

Screenshot:

I have run this scan as root user not admin.

so how do fix this missing photo sizing in system information.app?

I recently ran into this - on my 500GB SSD, my free space was only 5% where I expected more like 75%.  I found an answer in a blog that worked for me:

Apple state that they automatically remove local snapshots when disk space is low, but their definition of low is apparently only 5GB of free space remaining – not really much free working space in 2017 when you might want scratch space of 22GB for 1 hour of 4k 30FPS footage.
On older MacOS releases, it was possible to disable the local snapshot feature entirely, this doesn’t seem to be the case with High Sierra – but it does appear to be possible to force an immediate purge of local snapshots with the following command:

sudo tmutil thinLocalSnapshots / 10000000000 4

From the tmutil manpage:

thinlocalsnapshots mount_point [purge_amount] [urgency]

Thin local Time Machine snapshots for the specified volume.
When purge_amount and urgency are specified, tmutil will attempt (with urgency level 1-4) to reclaim purge_amount in bytes by thinning snapshots.
If urgency is not specified, the default urgency will be used.

I solved this issue just relaunch finder.
Click on apple logo->Force Quit->Finder and click Relaunch.
So I opened my finder and it shows the correct size.


How do I transfer my Disney Digital Copy movie to iTunes using Lion? I want to try this "Digital Copy" to iCloud movie deal but when I pop in the DVD it says:

  You can't open the application Up because PowerPC applications are no longer supported.

Is there any other work around besides using Snow Leopard or a Windows PC?

I just want to watch Disney Pixar's Up on my iPad.

I agree 100% with Adam's answer that DRM is a horrible thing, and "Digital Copy" in particular is a bad joke; see here.
However, I'll point out you can still watch your Up! Digital Copy on your Mac, even if OS X Lion doesn't support the PowerPC-based installer software on Disney's antiquated disc.  I had the same issue and solved it as follows:

Launch iTunes.
Put the disc in your Mac's DVD drive.
In the left navigation area, select the disc.
You should see a page on the right asking you to Enter Code.  Enter the unique activation code that came with your copy of Up!, then click Redeem.
Authenticate with your iTunes credentials, when prompted.  (Assumption: You have an iTunes account, a working Internet connection, and your Digital Copy code is valid, not expired, and not yet redeemed.)
After authenticating with iTunes (the service), iTunes (the program) will proceed to copy the now-authorized movie content from your Up! "Digital Copy" disc to your Mac.
Find the new title in your "Movies" library.  Watch it on your Mac*.

All the details, including screenshots, can be found at:

Apple Support - Transferring or downloading an iTunes Digital Copy.

* Worth mentioning:  Even after you get your "Digital Copy" into iTunes on your Mac, it remains protected and can only be played back on a device authorized to play back purchases from your iTunes account.  Consequently, you may still prefer using another extraction method on the original movie, in order to yield a liberated version of your content unencumbered with such restrictions.
Summary: DRM is still a horrible thing, even with the workaround above.
(p.s. FWIW, this method also worked (for me) for non-Disney titles such as Dr. Seuss' Horton Hears a Who!, from Twentieth Century Fox, and Despicable Me, from Universal Studios.  Mentioning this in case somebody else finds this answer but has a non-Disney disc; i.e. it doesn't seem to matter whether the "Digital Copy" is Disney or not, the above method should work to authorize & copy the content to iTunes.)

Macs are a bit dumb when it comes to this stuff. New ones work well, but if you got the disk a few years ago when Digital Copy was first included, basically you have to ignore the instructions included with the DVD/Bluray and do the following:

Load Itunes
Put the Disk in
Itunes will automatically load the "redeem this item" page
Put your code in and press redeem...

Now it will load. I know Chris already gave this answer, but his second instruction of "In the left navigation area, select the disc." is confusing, so I've worded it better.


Burn Movie to DVD on a Mac Possible Duplicate:
  How can I convert MKV files and burn them to DVD?

Does anybody know a good program for Mac that can burn a .avi or .mkv movie file to a DVD to play on any regular DVD player? I am looking for something like ConvertXtoDVD for Windows.

Sounds like you need Toast Titanium. Toast will take individual video files and put them into a DVD player compatible format. It doesn't have many options for the DVD's menus, but it's a quick and easy way to burn video files to DVD. It supports both AVIs and MKVs.


How do I get out of a boot loop with an iPhone with a broken power button? How do I get out of a boot loop with an iPhone with a broken power button?

Things I have tried that didn't work:

I've tried draining the battery and then restarting it;
I've tried connecting it to the computer but the computer doesn't recognize it as a device.

It's an iPhone 4 running iOS 7 if that additional information helps.

ok, now i have this same problem but have found a solution that is not for the people who are shallow to technology...

Step 1: Connect your iPhone 30-Pin cable to your computer. (lightning adapter for iPhone 5 and up)

Step 2: Wait for the device to begin another loop.

Step 3: When another loop begins, hold the home button, volume up button, and plug the charger in.

Step 4: Fix whatever is making the device loop.

If the power button is stuck on mechanically, then you may need to disassemble the phone and try to fix it. Not for the squeamish.


Is there a way to temporarily pause iCloud sync of photos? Is there a way to temporarily pause the syncing of photos over iCloud on an iOS device? Sometimes I'm on a 3G connection and don't want to waste my quota syncing photos or sometimes I want to speed up the download of other files by pausing iCloud. Is it possible?

There is no way to pause it, but you can disable it temporarily. The only downside is that you will have to redownload all the pictures when it is re-enabled. To disable cell data for photo stream, you can go into Settings>Cellular and find the Photos app. Simply turn it off.

I had a slightly different situation...my wifi is shared with macbook air (laptop), 2 iPhones and an iPad.  I upgraded my storage plan with iCloud and a lot of syncing was going on so I couldn't do much else online.  This article helps pause iCloud syncing on a mac.  I then put the phones and tablet into airplane mode.  That freed up the wifi so I could at least work on my laptop.  Before I go to sleep for the night I will re-activate everything and hopefully syncing will pick up where it left off and be done by morning.


How can I "Page Down" from the keyboard in an Apple Mail message list? With recent versions of Apple Mail, the Page Down key always applies to the message content pane (unless no message is selected), even if the message list had focus. However, you used to be able to type Control–Page Down to make it apply to the message list. This no longer works in OS X 10.9. Is there another way?

I wrote some AppleScripts that can Page Up/Down in Mail’s message list, and the scripts can be assigned Control–Page Up/Down as keyboard shortcuts.

fn + down arrow seems to work on yosemite


Sudden sounds in Mountain Lion I run Mountain Lion on my macbook pro, and experience an unusual effect: sometimes system sounds happen, without any visible reason.
Does anybody know, why it could be?
Or, if it is possible, how to monitor the audiu subsystem to find out what application and when plays sounds.

There are a couple of things you can do figure out what's going on. First, see if it happens within other users. When it happens, see what Applications you're running, through Terminal or Activity Monitor, and check the Console, which logs all system's messages, and see if any of the running Application is sending any warning or having any issue.

All of these Apps can be found under Applications / Utilities.

Mysterious! Did you know that with Mountain Lion, it is possible to connect to your Computer via a Virtual Screen?

Someone may be logged in into another account, (via Finder ➝ ⌘+K ➝ vnc://...) and removing items from his/her dock, or triggering system sounds.

Or… have you considered that you are being pranked by your colleagues?


Make terminal transparent to show wallpaper The opacity option of the Gnome terminal in Ubuntu had a neat behavior, which showed the desktop wallpaper instead of the other windows behind it.

Has anyone been able to make Mac Terminal, or an alternative terminal app, do this?  I know you can set a terminal wallpaper, which squashes and stretches with the terminal window.  Thanks!

This can be done simply by typing this command in the terminal:

" defaults write com.apple.terminal TerminalOpaqueness '0.85' "

Without the quotes of course.

You can adjust the opaqueness level to whatever you like


Can't boot into or mount Mojave APFS partition after repartitioning for Linux MacBook Pro 2015, 256GB SSD disk
I have created a second partition on my disk to try Linux. Everything was fine, but at some point, macOS disappeared from the boot menu.
After some googling and trying some things, I thought it was a problem with the boot manager. I installed rEFInd but it didn't help. So I tried torecover everything using recovery mode. But there was no option to reinstall macOS on the first partition. I could only erase it. I also couldn't mount it to macOS Recovery.
I installed OS X 10.10 Yosemite (base for my MacBook) on the second partition and updated it to macOS 10.14 Mojave (to be able to mount that first APFS partition). But I still can't mount it:
daniils-MacBook-Pro:Volumes daniilkk_yose$ sudo mount -t apfs /dev/disk0s2 plz/
mount_apfs: mount: Inappropriate file type or format

Also, diskutil outputs many F's instead of type and name:
daniils-MacBook-Pro:Volumes daniilkk_yose$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0 (internal, physical):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *251.0 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2: FFFFFFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFF-FFFFFFFFFFFF               129.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_APFS Container disk1         121.6 GB   disk0s3

/dev/disk1 (synthesized):
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      APFS Container Scheme -                      +121.6 GB   disk1
                                 Physical Store disk0s3
   1:                APFS Volume disk1s3                 12.8 GB    disk1s1
   2:                APFS Volume Preboot                 43.1 MB    disk1s2
   3:                APFS Volume Recovery                510.4 MB   disk1s3
   4:                APFS Volume VM                      1.1 GB     disk1s4

Disk Utility doesn't show this partition at all:

Is there a way to mount it and get my data back?

I've had exactly the same issue on an older MBP running 10.13.6.  I've tried twice to work around it and got your problem.
In the end (both times) I had to do a recovery using internet recovery (option-command-r) and then restore my stuff from Time Machine.
I looked at rEFInd but didn't install it, so I can't say how to drive it.
It seems that APFS doesn't like to be messed with.  I'm looking at dropping the APFS and just living with the old journaled FS as a fixed size partition.
After that, I figure I can tinker with the EFI partition until I get it right.


Late 2006 iMac without OS: How do I boot to reinstall? I was given a late 2006 iMac with the hard drives erased and no OS loaded. The iMac boots to flashing folder. I purchased a Mac OS Tiger Install DVD but it is not bootable. I also have a Mac OS Leopard Drop-in DVD that will boot to the installation menu but will not install because 10.4 is not found on the HD.

I have a MacBook Pro with Yosemite loaded and purchased a Thunderbolt to Firewire adapter and Firewire 800 to 400 cable to connect to the iMac. I put the iMac in Target Disk Mode and partitioned the HD into two partitions and copied the Mac OS Tiger install DVD to partition 1. On the MBP in Finder I can see on the iMac the Tiger install DVD loaded onto the partition 1 but in Finder the Install Mac OS has a slash through it. When I double click the Install Mac OS icon I get a pop-up when on the MBP saying Power PC Applications are not supported so I cannot run the Install MAC OS.

Is there some other way to get Mac OS Tiger installed on the iMac since the MBP cannot run the Install Mac OS on the iMac?

If you Tiger DVD is not bootable it might as well be PowerPC one.

If your iMac is Late 2006 it will support Mac OS X 10.7 as latest.
You can buy it from Apple for 20$. System requirements for OS X 10.7 is at least 2GB RAM though. So you might check first if you have enough. These are guides on how to get to the memory.

Then you will need USB pen drive and Lion Disk Maker to make it bootable out of bought file.

The mac will accept 2 or 3GB of DDR2-667 SODIMM RAM total(depending on exact model).

2006 is the year when Apple switched from PowerPC CPUs to Intel CPUs, so you've probably got a PowerPC MacOSX Tiger Installer. (which cannot run on Intel MBPs)

If you cannot boot the installer disc from iMac, then your iMac is probably also Intel. You may be in luck getting a OSX 10.6 or 10.7 running on it depending on it's hardware capability, and you don't have to worry about the architecture because all post-10.6 OSXs are Intel.


How does the name of a Parallels VM translate to the default name in Terminal.app prompt? I Parallels Desktop version 12 I have a virtual machine named Cinquième. Note the accent on the e. That VM is running macOS Sierra. In that VM, when I open the Terminal.app, the prompt shows:

  cinquiÃ¨me:~ basilbourque$

Questions:

• Where exactly does bash in Terminal.app pick up the name of the VM?

• Obviously there is some kind of character encoding problem where Cinquième is being mis-interpreted as cinquiÃ¨me. I would guess the original name is in UTF-8 and is being misinterpreted as ASCII. Any idea where along the chain of Parallels > macOS > Terminal.app > bash that misinterpretation might be happening?

indeed it may have to do with the accent, try it without the accent.
my VM is called "PD XP MBP-Lex.pvm" in the mac and in Terminal and not changed.
Do you have the standard language keyboard?
If not maybe opening the keyboard from the menubar and select the US-International-PC keyboard and use the displayed keyboard layout to make the accent-grave.
Lex


Can I change the default music player app on my iPhone? If so, how? I want to change the default music app on my iPhone from Music to Spotify. Is this possible?  My first guess is that I would have to jailbreak my phone. Is there anyway to do it without jailbreaking?

Uninstall the default music app in iOS 11.
Restart. voila.

My headphone control now works with wynk music app.
control center also shows wynk music.

Sorry for bumping old thread. iPhone users can now download "MusicTube" for listening YouTube music on lockscreen.


how to install latest possible iTunes without Yosemite upgrade? My Mac is running OS X Mavericks (1.9.5) and iTunes 11.1.

After I upgraded my iPhone to iOS 7 to iOS 8, I get a message saying that I need at least iTunes 11.2 to connect to this iPhone. However, when I click on the "upgrade" button, App Store only gives me the option of upgrading to Yosemite. I can't find a way to just install iTunes 11.2 or whatever version without upgrading to Yosemite.

Is there any place where I can download older iTunes versions?

thanks!

Download the latest version from the Apple Support Downloads here

If you click on the more button, you can pick and choose which thing to upgrade.


How do I install "R" on OS X using homebrew? How do I install "R" on OS X? Ideally using Homebrew?

There seems to be very little information online.

Install Homebrew (if needed)

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"

Install R

brew tap homebrew/science
brew install r

1.- http://cran.r-project.org/bin/macosx/ and download in Mac-GUI-1.62.tar.gz.
2.- INSTALL

You need R built and installed as a framework: see the 'R Installation
and Administration Manual'.  A CRAN binary install of R suffices.

 Building R.app

Only Mac OS X 10.6 and higher are supported, and only 64-bit R. The
project is called "R.xcodeproj" and requires Xcode 3.2 or higher.

The project can be built by selecting "R" target and "Build" inside
the XCode GUI.

Supported configurations are:
  SnowLeopard64 (release, current OS X, default)
  Lion64 (release, OS X 10.7+, Xcode 4.5+)
  MLion64 (release, OS X 10.8+, Xcode 4.5+)
  Debug (with debugging output, current OS X)

The configurations differ mainly in the SDK selected (recent versions
of Xcode only support the current and immediately previous SDKs, so
for example in Mar 2013 the default would build for 10.8, but
configuration Lion64 allows building for >= 10.7).

To build the project from the command line in the Mac-GUI directory
use something like:
    xcodebuild -target R -configuration SnowLeopard64

To build the R for Mac OS X FAQ use either
    xcodebuild -target Docs
or manually in docs folder
    makeinfo -D UseExternalXrefs --html --force --no-split RMacOSX-FAQ.texi

The resulting html FAQ file will be found in Mac-GUI/docs directory.

Note about binary compatibility:

The general rules for R apply, that is binary compatibility is given
only if the major and minor version numbers match - only the patch
level may differ. When using the X.Y.Z version form it means that X.Y
must match. For example R-GUIs linked to 3.0.x and 3.1.x are NOT
binary compatible.

The compiled R.app is usually bound to a specific version, such as
3.0.1. If you upgrade R removing the older version, let's say using
R.app built for 3.0.0 and updating R to 3.0.1, you may need to fix the
absolute path to libR.dylib. The nightly builds use a generic path
/Library/Frameworks/R.framework/Resources/lib/libR.dylib which points
to the latest version of R, but this is done by an additional call to
install_name_tool in the building script.  Release versions of the GUI
use a fixed-version path as they come with a specific R version (in fact
the default behavior doesn't depends on the GUI, but on libR.dylib -
changing its own reference entry changes the way R.app is linked).


Mac Pro average lifetime? I am thinking of buying a new workstation computer, and Mac Pro is like the first thing I thought of buying.

I know Apple supports their computers for quite a generous time period, like the mid-2007 iMac is still supported in Yosemite. However, I see that only models going forward from Early 2008 are supported for Mac Pro(source: http://www.ibtimes.com/os-x-yosemite-compatibility-find-out-if-your-mac-will-be-able-update-1594262).

So are Mac Pro's not supported for as long as iMac's or is there a different reason? How long are Mac Pro's generally supported for? Thanks in advance.

Well, the Mac Pro went through quite a long period of stagnancy recently, which is likely the cause of the disparity you see between the iMac and Mac Pro in terms of software compatibility.

According to the MacRumors Buyer's Guide, the Mac Pro has by far the largest average time between refreshes (449 days), so new models are sparse.

Because of that, it's a good time to buy, if that's what you're asking. Though there could be a minor spec bump or price drop at any time (those are more or less unpredictable from afar), it's not worth the risk of waiting for one. The December 2013 update is likely the only major refresh we'll see for quite a while.

As far as average lifetime goes, the Early 2008 Mac Pro shipped with OS X Leopard (10.5), and is still supported in Yosemite (10.10), so it has received five software updates so far (and there could still be more).

Based on that, you could expect software compatibility to last for upwards of 6 years on a Mac Pro bought today, if that's how you define lifetime. However, the Mac will of course function on old software for much longer than that.

The inclusion of Hyperthreading and Turbo Boost technologies as well as supporting DDR3 RAM and SATA HD's in a fully realized 64bit system with Quadcore processor(s) is the current benchmark for a Modern Desktop. Performance with these features, even at the first entry as can be seen in the stark differences between the 2008 2x2.8 Quad & 2009 2x2.93 Quad. Gains of  50% and higher are realized with a system that allows maximum expandibility (note here the 2014 MP powerhouse with no internal expansion) with a redesign that takes advantage of the technologies now commonplace in modern computing solutions. Hitting the thermal barrier, soon broken with the Skylake series of 16nm processors, multicore-multithreaded processors with smarttek such as Turbo allowing for single core clock gains of +30% are the current gold standard for  processor evolution.

It's interesting to note that in 2009 we had off the shelf consumer desktops with near 3.0ghz base clock speeds in Quadcore HT, TB Intel (x2) set ups supporting 64gb of RAM realizing dual 2x wide PCI GPU monsters, 4x1TB HD's and twin optical drives that allowed even more expansion with all the I/O needed. Dollar for dollar it was a golden era of expandable decade long lasting computing solutions.

But, come this fall my mobile will have the computing power of the entry level 09' laptops, so we are progressing!


How to convert synced photo folders to camera roll folders? I currently sync ~3000 photos from my PC onto my iPhone 3GS. These photos are split into folders on my PC and these folders show up in the Photos app on my iPhone. However, these photos don't show up under the "Camera Roll".

The iCloud Backups page states that iCloud backs up "Photos and video in the Camera Roll".

http://www.apple.com/icloud/features/apps-books-backup.html

I would like to make sure that all my photos get included in an iCloud backup - Is there any way to convert my synced folders so that all the pictures show up in my Camera Roll and the folders show up as regular Photo folders which I can add/delete on my iPhone?

If not, is it possible to get my existing sync'd photos included in iCloud backups?

There is no supported way to do that, for two reasons:  the backup would grow huge, rapidly consuming iCloud space, and non-camera-roll photos are resized to display well on the iPhone while taking minimum space. As such, they're not the "original" photos any more. Backing them up would be a false sense of security.

The best solution is to back up the PC.  The My Pictures folder will get backed up with the rest of your PC data, and you'll have copies of the original, non-resizd images should disaster strike.

send pics from your mac to iPhone using airdrop it will save in camera roll.


Macbook Pro 15 mid 2012 - not able to solve overheating I've been trying to solve my overheating problem for quite a long time, but had no luck, so I will try to describe it to you and hopefully, someone can come up with some solution.
I've also read numerous topics about heating problems, but that didn`t help me at all.
My specs are Core i7 2,3Ghz with nVidia 650GT, 8GB RAM, 500GB HDD, OSX Mountain Lion 10.8.4. SMC reset is not helpful in any case, did OS reinstallations many times with no noticeable effect.
MBP is 1 year old, I have cleaned it up from dust and also did the thermal plaste reapply (Arctic Cooling MX-4).
I use iStat pro on Dashboard and iStat menu for temperature monitoring in OSX and Mac fan Control along with Real Temp in Windows 7 (Bootcamp). Room temperature is pretty cold and I use two table fans directed to the MBP to help cool the alu case and also, MBP is elevated about 1,5cm in the back and 0,5cm in the front for better heat dissipation.

Now for the temps and issue itself:
In OSX, it usually idles at about 45C average with default 2000rpm fans, quite no problem with that. All cores are +-3C around 45C. which seem quite fine. When really idling for few minutes, sometimes it goes lower even to 37-40C.
I do not really game in OSX, but when I do (GRID 2, DIRT 3, and other more demanding games on low to mid settings) I set the fan speeds always to max 6200RPM. But even if I do, temps usually wobbles around 95C and I experience thermal throttling sooner or later. Temps do not stay at 95-100C but they oscillate, probably due to thermal throttling. Temps are generally better in OSX as it should be, but I made another test with Prime95 under both systems.
OSX:
I use torture test (in-place large FFTs: maximum heat and power consumption as stated), all four cores go 100% load, which are supposed to. I set fans to 6200rpm everytime I test this.
Starting from idle temperatures and MBP case pretty cold, temps are like this:
After 3 minutes, C1 is 88C, C2 96, C3 99, C4 95
After 5 minutes, C1 is 91C, C2 99C, C3 101C, C4 98C
Then it goes celsius by celsius up and up, about 20sec/1C more. Core 1 is usually able to stay under 95C, while C2 and C3 are running up the most, even to 104-105C, C4 is a bit lower, about 101-102C.

Same torture test under Windows 7 shows similar pattern, except idle temps are about 55C and load temps go up little faster, while gaming under W7 (Battlefield 3 on lowest setting except resolution, which I use native) is experiencing throttling and Realtemp shows reaching 104-105C eventually on C2 and C3.

Of course, I'm worried about my MBP and I do not want it to suffer any heat damage, so I stopped playing for now and hoping for some solution you guys may help me with.
Please notice, that MBP is not under warranty and there is NO apple store in Czech Republic, where I live.
I did few thermal paste replacements before this one and I believe I made it correctly. Temperatures before the paste replacement we're slightly worse than I have now.

Thanks for reading and your help.

I understand your concerns (justified or not), you love your Mac and want to keep it alive as long as possible.

Here are some home remedy (Do it Yourself)-- (also available where you live).

If you want to keep your Mac cooler during HOT games, go to pharmacy and buy what they call a gel-pack (gel balení). Freeze it!

Then put it under your Mac with a towel in between (to prevent freezing).

That will provide additional cooling for few hours. Have second gel-pack if you want to continue gaming for 24 hours a day :)

As for your temperature reports, so far they look normal based on this example.

  Throttling

  This test wouldn't be complete if we didn't address the subject of
  throttling. Prime 95 and Furmark can extract the maximum performance
  out of the hardware. When both programs are run simultaneously, the
  core frequency drops (caused by Prime 95) to 1.2 Ghz. Running Prime 95
  alone, we measured temperatures between 92 and 104 degrees Celsius
  (197.6 and 219.2 degrees Fahrenheit), and the word "Throttling"
  flashes repeatedly in HWiNFO. Furmark on its own cycles through all
  available Turbo Boost steps. After about one hour, the temperature
  settled at a fairly consistent 85 degrees Celsius (185 degrees
  Fahrenheit) with the fan system running. We never measured above 100
  degrees Celsius (212 degrees Fahrenheit) with Furmark. This limitation
  might be due to the power adapter: in the above scenario, the system
  would require 86.6 watts - but the power adapter can only supply a
  maximum of 85 watts. Immediately after running our different tests, we
  subjected the system to 3DMark 06 and CineBench R11.5. The results
  were identical to after a cold boot.

The fastest way to quick check is to use the surface temperatures as shown here.

cooling fan pad with usb under the laptop.


When apple replaces the battery in a 15" MBP retina, do they replace the entire top portion of the case? Apple's site says it is $199 to replace the battery.   Do the techs replace the entire top portion of the case including  the keyboard and trackpad?   I've read a few things on the internet alluding to that since the battery is glued in, they replace the entire assembly.

Just wondering if this includes the keyboard and track pad.   (I think it must include the keyboard since it is riveted in).  I'm wondering specifically about the trackpad, since mine has been flaky for a while, and now battery is about due for replacement.

Mine is a mid 2012 macbook pro retina.

Update:  Had this done, and for the low price of $199 I got a new keyboard, trackpad and topcase as part of the deal, as expected.   I can't believe how worn out my old keyboard was!

It appears to be the case that Apple will replace the top case assembly if you want to replace your battery.

  As first reported by Treehugger, which received a copy of an Apple internal service document for the "Mid-2012" 15-Inch Retina Display MacBook Pro, Apple informs its own service personnel that "batteries must be replaced with the top case assembly" and that "the battery alone is not a replaceable part." EveryMac.com also has been provided with copies of the internal service documents for subsequent 15-Inch Retina Display MacBook Pro models and although there are internal differences, the battery design effectively is the same.

  Additionally, Apple warns its own technicians that "batteries should
  not be separated from the top case assembly for any reason," as
  attempting to do so could puncture the battery and lead to fire or
  injury. Do not attempt to pry the battery apart from the top case.

Source:  EveryMac.com

According to iFixit, it will cost local repair shops around $500 to source the top case assembly to replace the battery.

IFixit.com also has instructions on how to remove this battery should you want to replace it.  Batteries with a minimum of 12 month warranties can be had for $90USD makes this a worthwhile consideration.  Keep in mind that this is a difficult repair and if you are unsure of your ability to tackle something like this, best hand it over to a pro.

There wouldn't be a need to replace the keyboard and trackpad unless during the battery replacement they damage it.

Check out this iFixit guide to see how they remove the battery


Xcode failed to download. Use the Purchases page to try again Xcode is showing in the Mac App Store, ready to be updated. Clicking update results in an error:

  Xcode failed to download. Use the Purchases page to try again.

Steps taken that didn't help:

Rebooting
Removed ~/Library/Cookies/com.apple.appstore.plist
Searched and removed MAS-related files:

sudo find /var/folders/ -ipath '*com.apple.appstore*' -print | xargs sudo fgrep -i xcode
sudo find /var/folders/ -ipath '*com.apple.appstore*' -delete

How can I successfully update Xcode?

Deleting the temporary folders as recommended didn't help. In the end I got it working again by enabling the Debug menu for the App Store app and resetting the application; it is now finally downloading the update as it should.

Steps:

Open Terminal.
Run the following command:

defaults write com.apple.appstore ShowDebugMenu -bool true

Relaunch the App Store.
Choose the menu item Debug → Reset Application.

Based on steps from: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/4398074?start=0&tstart=0

It is possible that signing out (Store → Sign Out) might have solved the issue too (part of the application reset process is to sign you out) but this was not tested.

I have solved this by using CCleaner (free trial) to clear temporary files.
Worked for me after relaunching the Mac App Store.


Configuring Siri to tell me the things I want to know in the morning Is there a way for me to configure my MacBook or iPhone so that Siri will tell me my schedule for the day and other relevant information I want to know (like what the weather will be for the day) without having to ask multiple questions?

Ideally, I could just say "Siri, tell me the plan for the day" and she would respond with something like "You have a meeting from 2-3 and 4-4:15. It is going to be rainy today with highs in the upper 70s."

Welcome to iOS 12!

Once iOS 12 is released you will be able to use Siri shortcuts to add a phrase and have it do what you want for example.

"Good morning" could

Greet you
Tell you the weather
Tell you your schedule for the day
Send a good morning text to your family
etc.

all just with "Good morning".

I will edit this answer to include the step by step to achieve exactly what you want to do as soon as iOS 12 is released.

iOS 12 is planned to be released early fall).

Not sure that Siri is a true 'assistant' like Alexa, etc. I've previously researched the query in the past...


Can iTunes be made to play Apple ProRes files? My videos encoded as Apple ProRes are playable in Quicktime but not in iTunes.  Is there anything I can do to make iTunes play them?

Apple's support page suggests to me that iTunes can play any .MOV file:

  QuickTime and MPEG-4 movie files that end in ".mov", ".m4v", or ".mp4"
  and are playable in QuickTime Player.

but this does not seem to be the case in my testing, instead I find that I am unable to add the files to the iTunes library. There is no error dialog.

On 24 of July I tried for some hours to get iTunes 12.x (actual version at this time) to play other 3rd Party Codecs. In short: I was not successful. iTunes has changed a lot, so none of the older hacks work anymore.

I'm very interested in a solution for this problem, because I have a lot of FLAC-Files I would love to manage in iTunes. If I find a solution I will update this answer and provide a "Tutorial".

You could try this really old hint to Make iTunes 6 accept non-native video formats, which explains how it used to be possible to add .AVI and other formats that iTunes does not support natively to its video library by using the Saving As… command and creating a small reference .MOV movie. iTunes did accept these reference movies in its library, while it played the original referenced movie when instructed to play the added ones.


More than 100 GB disappeared on MacBook Pro 250GB SSD I was installing a software on the MacBook Pro of my girlfriend when I have found that in " > About this Mac > Storage", it says that she have 134 GB of space used by "Applications"...

I have then looked at what she installed, and I see that the only apps she installed are Caffeine, Kindle, VLC, Google Chrome and Skype (along with the default applications of OS X).

I've downloaded Disk Inventory X to see what's happening, and it says that the Applications are taking up about 9GB.

The question then is... Where are all these gigabytes gone?

PS: Using the "Disk Utility" app, it says that 130 GB are used by Applications, but it also says that there are 202 GB of free space... I wonder how this can be possible since the SSD is just 250 GB...

Maybe, the Spotlight is not indexing correctly any more.

Open the System Preferences > Spotlight/Privacy and drag the Macintosh HD icon to the window. Click OK. Choose the icon and and click the - sign to remove it, so that the reindexing routine starts. Test when completed.

/usr/local/mysql-8.0.11-macos10.13-x86_64 is been written by a virus delete it. I used daisyDisk to figure it out


Can I have multiple monitors on my MacBook Pro (Early 2011)? I have a MacBook Pro (13") from Early 2011 and want to use 2 external monitors (And not the actual display). I've seen the Matrox, but that appears to make one BIG display out of 2 monitors, so I can't really have 2 desktops.

Is there any way for me to have 2 external displays and have them recognized by the OS?

If you want a cheaper alternative to running two Thunderbolt Displays, you can add a second monitor (in addition to one off the mini-Displayport) try a USB Displaylink adapter, like this one from OWC (there are other brands, any one using the Displaylink technology should work).

The performance won't be as good, but as long as you're not doing anything involving lots of 3D, it should be acceptable.

It seems I fell into the vicar's tale (http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F4U085/) and bought this Belkin Thunderbolt™ 2 Express Dock HD.

It's page states "Imagine connecting two displays to your laptop. Now imagine one of those displays boasting an eye-popping 4K cinema resolution. With the Belkin Thunderbolt 2 Express Dock HD, you can make the display setup of your dreams a reality." but I cant tell if it's a MacOS issue or not as "notebook" includes WindoZe notes.

If I plug a thunderbolt adapter to it, HDMI port stops ;/