Very high kernel_task CPU usage after updating to Yosemite 10.10.4 I updated to 10.10.4 on July 1, and ever since I've had very high CPU usage - roughly 270%, i.e. two and a half of four processors - by kernel_task.

It appears on login for about five minutes, then drops to 0.  If I start Safari or Chrome or Parallels, it reappears, and this makes me wonder if it's related to the network.  I know there were DNS changes in 10.10.4 - could it be related?

I have:

Tried running without external displays (there are several bugs about high CPU usage with an external monitor)
Removed all login items, and all automatically starting apps
Removed all items in /Library/LaunchAgents, /Library/LaunchDaemons, /Library/StartupItems
Checked I don't have anything odd installed. The only thing was flux, and I removed it.  I do still have Crashplan installed but ensured it was set to only work twice a week - which is not today. I also have and use Parallels Desktop 10 (latest update), and sometimes it seems the high CPU usage is related to starting it. However, quitting it does not restore CPU usage to normal.
I don't think it is heat-related; the CPU temperature is the low end of normal, and fans are running normally, and the laptop has good airflow and I can't feel "hot" air coming from it, only normal temperature air.
Booted in safe mode. This was fine and I had normal CPU usage. This makes me think it must be a kernel driver or similar issue.
I ran EtreCheck, which shows the only kexts loaded are com.parallels.kext.hypervisor (10.2.1 29006 - SDK 10.7), com.parallels.kext.netbridge (10.2.1 29006 - SDK 10.7), com.parallels.kext.usbconnect (10.2.1 29006 - SDK 10.7), and com.parallels.kext.vnic (10.2.1 29006 - SDK 10.7).
However, my battery health is 'Check Battery' - could that be related? Despite the health status, it has done 590 cycles and this model is supposed to only be consumed at 1000. Odd; not sure why that would be / what it means.
System.log: nothing obvious. I sat watching it for several minutes and didn't see anything added to it. Scrolling back showed lots of messages, but nothing that seemed like fast repeated failures or anything that might explain constant CPU usage. I browsed the other logs as well and didn't spot anything.

Examining Activity Monitor, all CPU usage is shown as in kernel_task itself, not any descendant apps.

I have an early 2011 model 15" MBP, which up until 10.10.4 Yosemite ran really well on.

Any ideas on how to analyze and resolve the issue?

PS: Although the weather is hot (it's 35 degrees C - Europe is having a heatwave) it is unlikely to be this issue since smcFanControl shows a steady 65-67 degrees C, the low end of a normal temperature range. Both fans are spinning at 6000RPM, but that too is normal. Ambient temperature today and yesterday is the same as it was before I installed 10.10.4, but the high CPU usage of kernel_task occurred only when 10.10.4 was installed.  That's the key difference. Something in relation to 10.10.4 causes high CPU usage.

As far as I am concerned kernel_task was always trying to tell me that the computer is running hot. It seems to be a strange countermeasure which occupies the CPU with a low energy No-Op task which prevents it from doing "hotter" things. So you should be looking for that "other" process eating up the rest of your CPU time.

However I noticed very high CPU usage of Safari ever since I update do Yosemite 10.10.4. The browser visibly (in Activity Monitor) starts several processes now and two of them (Safari Networking and nsurlstoraged) routinely take up a lot of CPU, especially Safari Networking often takes more than 50% of one CPU. It seems to be less constant now, so maybe there is some "trickle down" effect on this one.

just make a new account and move all your data to your account.. and whoola.. the kernel task is gone..


Using Console utility to get the full logs with admin perms but as a non admin user I maintain at least 2 logins:

normal  is non admin permissions

admin - to do those sometimes tasks but increase my security.

[10.11.6 EL Cap, not new logger system. I hope to get to that sometime but many steps before that arrives!]

As a normal user my Console shows many fewer messages than if I am logged in with admin permission. I prefer to try and have an admin level console available to me, without user switching which is too disruptive, so in normal I run terminal (iTerm2 for me) and:

su -l admin_self

sudo /Applications/Utilities/Console.app/Contents/MacOS/Console &

This works in that I see ALL parts of system and can access older system logs etc in this console BUT... I get lots of pasteboard permissions errors in my terminal at launch:

2018-11-25 12:31:07.502 Console[71471:18037307] CFPasteboardRef    CFPasteboardCreate(CFAllocatorRef, CFStringRef) : failed to create global data
2018-11-25 12:31:19.472 Console[71471:18037307] CFPasteboardRef CFPasteboardCreate(CFAllocatorRef, CFStringRef) : failed to create global data
2018-11-25 12:31:19.474 Console[71471:18037307] CFPasteboardRef CFPasteboardCreate(CFAllocatorRef, CFStringRef) : failed to create global data

and I get similar in error logs when swapping from/to the app. This is annoying, but more importantly I can't copy error text in this mode. So all those long paths etc create considerable blocks for me to go digging!

Any ideas on options to allow shared pb access? I can copy and paste between different terminal logins, but the host app (iTerm2) is always in my Normal environment. Maybe some switches, permissions I can safely fix, or some sort of pipe to localhost with a modified plist for a PrivConsole copy of Console or ???

Possibly helpful, I found remote pbcopy over ssh

and a similar, and unanswered question:

How to get output from the console.app from a non-admin account?
not sure if he does the same, terminal environment, partial solution that I do...

A bit more research by me: I get similar errors if I launch Console as my normal non-admin user in terminal; ALSO I get a bigger clue in this:

Failed to connect (_consoleX) outlet from (NSApplication) to (ConsoleX): missing setter or instance variable

A good work around, for me at least is lnav. It is probably more resource efficient than console, will run happily in an admin mode terminal session and offers:

filters
multiple file interleaving
choice over what log files where
understands a number of standard log file formats
colouring error/warnings (a bit lurid, maybe that can be configured)
neat help about where in log you are and the source of messages (if multi-file)
calculates message rates and can move to slower sections etc
bookmarking
time line summary (e.g. normal, error & warns errors in each 5 min block)
SQL query engine

And much more I'm sure, just starting here. A tool written by and for users I think! 10% of the memory and CPU of Console, more functions.

The binary download wants a later sqlite3 than standard mac distort so I brew'd the lot. Not sure how it works under the rewritten logging system!

So far? I'm thrilled!


Can I put a 1TB HDD in my optical Bay I have a 2011 17" Macbook pro with a 1TB HDD installed and running the latest OSX. I am looking at installing a SSD in the original HD bay for my OS and Programs and moving the 1TB drive to the optical bay. My current HDD location says it has a link speed of 6gb and negotiated link speed of 3gb and the optical drive says it has a link speed of 6 gb with a negotiated speed of 1.5gb. So my question is twofold. 1. Will my current drive work correctly in the optical drive space and 2. Can I put a 1TB in there? Most of the adapters specify up to 500gb.

Thanks

Yes.  You can put a 1TB drive in there.

The port that your optical drive connects to is a standard SATA III port.  This is why you are seeing that it supports 6Gb/s.  The "negotiated" speed is the speed at which the device will communicate.  A SATA I drive has a transfer rate of 1.5Gb/s.  So, even though SATA III can go 6Gb/s, a SATA I can't go any faster.

A SATA III port is backward compatible with SATA II and SATA I.  That being said, a SATA port is a SATA port - it doesn't care if you are attaching a spinning hard disk, an optical disk or an SSD.  SATA supports 48-bit LBA (Logical Block Addressing) which means your drive can be up to 128 PB (Peta Bytes) or 128,000 1TB drives.  So, there is no limitation from a hardware standpoint.

I have personally [used this model optical bay drive caddy][3] with a 1TB drive with no problems.  The specs say "up to 500GB" but I suspect that since this product has been out for such a long time, they just never bothered to update the marketing material.

Try MacSales.com and use My Upgrades.  Note that your year model has three different versions.

I did attempt to guess on your specific version. You can find your specific version under About This Mac from the Apple menu.
I didn't gleam the specific answers to your questions, however it seems plausible.  I'd call them to confirm before ordering.


Applications gone from Dock. How to restore? Somehow the Applications icon is gone from my Dock. However I can't just drag the Applications folder (from Finder) into the Dock. How else can I restore it?

Is there a config file somewhere for the Dock that I can just edit with vi and fix this?

Thanks.

Hmm, depending on how precisely you formulated the question there are several possible answers:

The Applications folder is missing from the Dock

Navigate to Computer in Finder (Shift-Command-C)
Open local hard drive (usually called "Macintosh HD" or computername)
Drag the Applications folder to the Dock (near the end where the other folders and the trash are located)
Right-click the folder in the Dock and select show as folder

The Applications folder/link is missing from the Favorites list in any Finder window

Step 1 and 2 as above
Drag the Applications folder to the Favorites list

You are actually missing the Launchpad icon from the Dock

Step 1 and 2 as above
Open the Applications folder
Locate Launchpad and drag it to the Dock (near the beginning this time)

Drag Launchpad.app to the Dock.  I am using Maverick 10.9.2


Keeping New and Old Ipads My wife gave me a new IPad for Christmas. I want to keep the other Ipad for the use of my 6 year old daughter that has countless games on that Ipad. How I can keep applications that interest me (like QuickOffice Pro) of my old Ipad and leave the rest of the applications on the old Ipad to my daughter?

The easiest thing is to back up the old iPad to iCloud or your computer using iTunes.

Then restore the old backup onto the new iPad Air (you need to erase all content and settings to get the device clean for the restore).

When the setup asks if you have a backup, load that on the new device.

delete all apps and settings on the old iPad that should not be there.
delete all apps and settings from the new iPad that should not be there.

At that point, you can use the two separately. Look to perhaps turn off automatic downloads. At some point you can wipe the old iPad and let your daughter start buying her own apps or split things with a mix of the old Apple ID and her new Apple ID as well - you can mix purchases unlike iCloud settings.

Make sure you have a valid backup before you follow my steps.

if you have iOS 7 or any type of iOS here's what you can do, format the ipad drive : http://techchannel.radioshack.com/format-ipad-1036.html

You can also do another way to format the IPAD. Go to your General Settings. You should find a option that says "Reset Phone", tap on that and tap "Delete Everything" known as format.

Check out this blog for more help : http://www.padgadget.com/2010/06/14/ipad-quick-tip-%E2%80%93-reboot-reset-format-your-ipad/


How to get rid of the "ears" in the bottom of the screen? I have a mild form of OCD so by ears I mean this:

I know that I can hide the dock, but then I do not see the opened programs.

What solutions are available to extend the opaque dock background to the edges of the screen so that visually it is a wider bar matching the screen width?

On a Windows machine you have a notification area wth clock and date in the "right ear" and the start button and search etc. in the "left ear".

If you put the dock on the left- or right-hand side of the screen instead of at the bottom, the unused space around it will be much smaller.

Wow, I have found this:

http://brawersoftware.com/products/ubar

This looks like the Windows 7 taskbar I was using and loving for so long. Great!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D5XDS6V3Ce0

Now I just need to move the top menu to the actual windows of the program, the current sticky position reminds me my TOS but I think the way of menu being with the window of the app is much better.


What does the ⌧ button do? I just bought a wired mac keyboard. Where I would expect numlock to be, it has a key with this mysterious symbol on:

⌧
(a rectangular box with a cross through it)

What is this button?

This is Clear key.

From Wikipedia:

  A Clear key, instead of a Num Lock key, on models with full numeric keypads, as these are dedicated to numeric input and not generally used for cursor control. In Unicode, the Clear key is represented by U+2327 ⌧ x in a rectangle box, defined as "clear key"

In the calculator program (Dashboard or Today Widgets), use "delete" key to remove only one digit, use "clear" key to clear the number (all digits).


iPhone 4 has 3G connectivity but can't access internet Just last week, my access to the internet over mobile data networks has stopped working. I've already talked to my operator, and they gave me a new SIM card and tested that 3G works in another phone with it.

Basically the operator is expecting this to be an antenna failure, which seems odd as I still get full connection bars, WiFi works flawlessly and my 3G does transport e-mails, just nothing else (like opening websites).

I do have 21M/2M speed, so the connection isn't just clogged.

Does anyone have any idea what this could be?

If nothing comes up, I will probably have to get a new antenna and install it myself.

I've discovered that SSH connections are working on 3G. This is becoming really weird...

Settings -> General -> VPN (should be not connected, if this is a personal device)
Settings -> General -> Cellular -> Cellular Data (turn off, reset the device)
After the device boot-up
Settings -> General -> Cellular -> Cellular Data (turn on, reset the device)

IF that doesn't help (follow this )

Settings -> General -> Reset -> Reset Network Settings (this will delete all Wi-Fi passwords)
Settings -> General -> Safari -> Clear History -> Clear History
Settings -> General -> Safari -> Clear Cookies and Data -> Clear Cookies and Data
Settings -> General -> Safari -> Advanced -> Website Data -> Remove All Website Data -> Remove Now (** All data saved in Safari will be deleted)
Reset the  device

I had to turn off my "LTE" it was preventing me from getting a connection...I am on 4G now and everything is fine


Internet sharing from USB iPhone to Wifi on OSX 10.10.2 Yosemite not working For years I've been sharing Internet on my MacBookPro Wi-Fi coming from USB connected iPhone. After OSX 10.10 Yosemite things started working erratically and now definitely stopped in 10.10.2.

Hardware connection:
iPhone->USB->MacBook Pro (hotspot/tethering active, Internet is working on MBP)

Sharing preferences: "share USB iPhone to computers using Wi-Fi"

Now I'm not getting the usual "arrow up"  icon instead of WiFi on the menubar and sharing is not working.

Internet sharing from Ethernet to Wi-Fi is working as expected.

During many tests I've been able to activate internet sharing only once, after a long series of SMC resets, disk repair and reboots, but never been able to reproduce it anymore.

After installing 10.10.1 everything seemed back to normal.
Just tried now with 10.10.2 and it's not working.

In system logs I'm getting this strange message:

  22/02/15 12:03:34,580 airportd[34]: WARNING: com.apple.preferences.sharing.remoteservice (385) is not entitled for com.apple.wifi.keychain, temporarily allowing request with background priority —— all entitlement requirements will be strictly enforced in a future release

Not sure if it's related.

Any clues?

Someone on Apple Communities says "sharing from iPhone is no more supported...", then why device is still there in the menu and you don't get any warning?

Using the Bluetooth connection to my iPhone works, while USB does not.


How do I find a recently added contact? I recently met someone and got them to type their info into my contacts.  I was really busy for a few days and didn't get around to contacting them.  Now I can't remember their name.  Is there a way to view the most recent additions to my contacts list?

On iPhone, you can download several different apps.

The one I found was free, quick, and simple called 'Recent Contacts' by Kyle Gorlick.

On Android there are also several apps, but I have not tried them myself.

Contacts by creation app from appstore is all you need.


Can't create new notebook in Microsoft OneNote for Mac When I try to create a new notebook in OneNote for Mac, I receive the following error:

  Cannot Create This Notebook

  The location may not be available at
  this time, or you might not have permission to save files on it. Also
  try using fewer characters in your notebook name.

Simple solution just found it:

Go to onenote.com and log in.
Make a new notebook from the webpage.
Then wait a minute or two.
Then quit OneNote.
Then re-open it and try it again. Should work.

Seems to be a problem with university-sponsored 365 accounts.

Sign out of your OneNote account then log back in. That should fix the issue.


How do I distinguish text conversations from the same contact with different phone numbers? I have a contact with whom I share text messages from two different phone numbers. How can I distinguish the two text conversations? Right now, it labels them identically with Full Name at the top, and first name beneath.

iPhone 6 running ios 10.

The answer is: you can't distinguish the different numbers from a single contact


Bypassing Boot Camp to install Windows using a non-standard partition scheme My new Retina MacBook Pro is on its way, giving me time to contemplate setting it up. Good thing I got started—I had no idea how difficult it was going to be to install Windows and create an auxiliary data partition. I've been a Mac user for years, and have kept my files separate from the system disk since the days of System 7, but I haven't upgraded to a new Mac since Snow Leopard and built-in optical drives.

Boot Camp is Apple's solution for this, but it doesn't work on drives that have any non-standard partitions. Beyond whatever "user experience" logic Apple may have for this, there's a simple technical explanation: the MBR partitioning scheme used by Boot Camp supports a maximum of 4 partitions.

Originally, the Boot Camp engineers had no choice. They was forced into an ugly hack workaround involving the use of a hybrid GPT/MBR scheme (basically overlaying an MBR scheme on top of a GPT disk) since Windows used to be unable to boot from GPT disks.

That wasn't a problem on my old machine, where I had an optical drive and no OS X recovery partition. Partitioning the new one the way I want means 5 partitions. I find tons of guides and tutorials online that tell me how I can, with a bit of work, interrupt the Boot Camp process and repartition the drive, giving me almost what I want. Except every one that I've seen requires me to give up my recovery partition, since they remain hobbled by MBR's limitation of 4 partitions. I don't want to do that.

I'm wondering if I really have to compromise. Modern 64-bit version of Windows no longer have this limitation—they boot fine from GPT disks on EFI-based computers. Which are the only versions that are officially supported by the current version of Boot Camp, and the only versions that I care to run. So:

Is Boot Camp 5 (as provided with OS X Mavericks) still using the hybrid GPT/MBR scheme? Since it explicitly supports only 64-bit versions of Windows 7 and 8, it is possible that they've jettisoned this ugliness. That would be a good explanation for the lack of support for Windows XP and Vista as well as all 32-bit versions. I don't have a lot of confidence here, but maybe all the online tutorials are just old. Has anyone actually tried it?
If not, I don't want its grubby paws mucking up my disk. The obvious alternative is to just add a Windows partition manually in Disk Utility, install Windows, and then install the Boot Camp-provided drivers. If I do this, what do I stand to lose? What features/benefits does the Boot Camp Assistant and its associated setup process provide to me?

I have installed Windows 8.1 Pro via Boot Camp on my MacBook Pro Retina 15-inch mid-2015, with OS X Yosemite 10.10.4 and Boot Camp Assistant version 5.1.4. I can prove that this version of Boot Camp is no longer creating hybrid GPT/MBR partition scheme to install Windows 8 x64 on Intel-based Macs, and Windows is directly booted in EFI mode. Here are what I have tried:

Running Ubuntu on its installation flash drive, I ran sudo disk -l /dev/sda to check my local Mac SSD; results:
MBR: protective, BSD: not present, APM: not present, GPT: present Found valid GPT with protective MBR; using GPT Therefore Windows is not booting from and running on a disk with hybrid GPT/MBR scheme.
In Windows, C:\Windows\panther\setupact.log has one entry: Callback_BootEnvironmentDetect: Detected boot environment: EFI How to tell if windows 7 installer boot in EFI or BIOS?

Therefore theoretically Boot Camp is not needed to install Windows 7/8 x64, which support booting from GPT disks on UEFI(that is EFI 2.x)-based systems. But still it's better to use Boot Camp to create the Windows Installation flash drive and download drivers for Windows. The guide: How to install Windows 8.1 on Mac without Boot Camp To sum it up:

Partition your disk as you wish in Disk Utility in OS X; just format your desired Windows OS and data partitions as FAT32.
Since Retina MacBook Pros do not come with a SuperDrive, you need to create a Windows Installation flash drive from the ISO file. Please do this in Boot Camp Assistant. I have tried run dd command on Mac's Terminal to copy the ISO, but the created flash drive is not bootable on UEFI Macs: the Apple boot manager simply does not recognize the flash disk.
Plug in the flash drive, restart the computer and hold option to open Apple boot manager. You will see a yellow drive called "EFI Boot", which is the Windows Installation. Continue the installation as normal, and format your Windows OS partition as NTFS when asked.
Whenever the computer restarts, you need to hold option key and select "Windows" drive on your local SSD to continue installation. Finally go into the system and drivers from Boot Camp will automatically install.

You should keep a Time Machine backup before these operations. Even if things really mess up, you can just create a OS X Yosemite installation flash drive, re-format the SSD to one partition and re-install OS X. How to make a bootable OS X 10.10 Yosemite install driveThe newest version of Recovery HD partition will automatically come back. This worked successfully when I wrongly operated the disk in Ubuntu.

Hope this works!

I can't help you with the first part of your question but the second matches how I do my windows (or Linux) installations. The only features from the Bootcamp assistant you really lose is the windows support software from Apple, but you can go through the Bootcamp setup assistant to download that software and then cancel out of the setup. Once you've got that software, you can install windows in a different fashion and still be able to use all of the drivers from Apple.


Change volume of airport using the master keys, not itunes volume slider My roommate recently bought an airport express, and I love it.  Minus the fact that when I'm blasting music and someone wants to talk to me, I need to open iTunes and either lower the volume or pause the song.

I am so used to usng the f11 f12 keys that this is driving me insane!

I read somewhere about sizzling keys and how it can help me assign a different shortcut to control iTunes volume.  Is there a different, or better, fix?

I would love to be able to use f10-12, and not the iTunes volume.

Note:  I am on a Macbook Pro 2012 with standard keyboard, so currently, f10 is mute, f11 lower, f12 raise volume.  They work fine when I'm not using airport.

SOLUTION
github.com/alberti42/iTunes-Volume-Control

This created assigned cmd - volume key to iTunes so I can control the iTunes volume with very little effort!

This might do what you wanted, however I did not test it my self.

https://github.com/alberti42/iTunes-Volume-Control

This is a late comment, but if anyone happens upon this, the standard keyboard shortcuts are command + up arrow for increase volume and command + down arrow for decrease volume. To check, you can click on the controls menu tab when in iTunes and scroll down - you should see them there. Alternatively, you can set up your own shortcuts as Code Commander listed above.


iOS Calendar Adding Its Own Alerts I am using a Google account on latest iOS, and the Calendar app appears to be adding it's own alerts to all-day events:

Click to enlarge images
Yes, I checked the "default alerts" in Settings:

Click to enlarge images
And even confirmed Google Calendar doesn't have the alerts:

Click to enlarge images
So... what gives? I've also tried deleting the entire Google account from my iPhone and re-adding it. No joy. It's driving me bonkers. Perhaps it's a bug with iOS 9.0.2, or something I'm just not understanding. Is anyone else having this issue/know a fix?

Do you use Apple Calendar on your Mac? (Preferences -> Alerts). Perhaps these are the preferences that push those alerts to your iPhone.

On the IOS calendar it is sometimes able to schedule things on its own. If you have scheduled something in previous years it may ask you if you are doing that thing again. For the Google Calendar I don’t use them so I don’t know much about that.


Microsoft Excel not working on macOS Catalina I have Microsoft Excel 2011 installed on my MacBook Air. It worked on Mojave’s but no longer works on Catalina.

When attempting to open an Excel file on my desktop it usually opens but now archives it instead.

Why is this?

The issue is macOS Catalina no longer supports 32-bit apps, and Microsoft Office 2011 is 32-bit. Support for it was stopped a few years ago and it won’t be updated.

You will either have to buy a newer version of office or use an alternative software like G Suite by Google.

One could also try to perhaps add the program to the list of apps allowed to access the disk.

This can be found under: Settings > Security & Privacy > Privacy > ....

I just did this for the MS Office Programs (Word, Excel, Powerpoint Outlook etc..).

While in contact with MS Support they advised me to delete everything and reinstall. Adding the programs was a lot easier and retained all my data.


Can you use the Apple Watch with an iPod touch? I may or may not be be getting the new Apple Watch. Before I think about it I want to know if I can use it with an iPod Touch 5th generation instead of an iPhone.

Is the apple Watch locked to the iPhone 6 only or can I use it with an iPod Touch. If I can use it with a iPod what features will I loose or what will the ones be available.

On every page about the Apple Watch, it's stated at the bottom of the page that Apple Watch :

  Requires iPhone 5 or later.

This means no iPod touch.

You can still use it. The only thing the phone allows it to do is call, receive texts, check distance you've gone (GPS) or some other key features like camera. Everything else is still accessible to to it being able to connect to wifi.


How do I get detailed SMART disk information on OS X (Mavericks or later) I'm trying to get a detailed SMART status report on the drives in my Mac. I'm not talking about "Verified," I'm talking about the detailed report that's about 100 lines long listing all the vital statistics of the drive.

Anyone know how to do this with diskutil? If diskutil can't do it is there a different free tool I can use?

I recently had the same question and found a command line tool www.smartmontools.org which can be installed via brew:
brew install smartmontools

you can then run it
smartctl -a disk0s3

for the full report where disk0s3 is the disks physical backing which can be found in Disk Utility.app by getting info on the drive. (or via diskutil list on command line.) Here is an example of the output:
smartctl 6.2 2013-07-26 r3841 [x86_64-apple-darwin13.1.0] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-13, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Samsung based SSDs
Device Model:     Samsung SSD 840 Series
Serial Number:    S14LNEAD609248A
LU WWN Device Id: 5 002538 5503acd2e
Firmware Version: DXT08B0Q
User Capacity:    500,107,862,016 bytes [500 GB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate:    Solid State Device
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ACS-2, ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4c
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.1, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Thu Jun 19 16:34:10 2014 MDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x00) Offline data collection activity
                    was never started.
                    Auto Offline Data Collection: Disabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                    without error or no self-test has ever
                    been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:        (53956) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:            (0x53) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                    Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                    Suspend Offline collection upon new
                    command.
                    No Offline surface scan supported.
                    Self-test supported.
                    No Conveyance Self-test supported.
                    Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                    power-saving mode.
                    Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                    General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:    (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:    (  70) minutes.
SCT capabilities:          (0x003d) SCT Status supported.
                    SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
                    SCT Feature Control supported.
                    SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 1
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       2379
 12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   098   098   000    Old_age   Always       -       1579
177 Wear_Leveling_Count     0x0013   096   096   000    Pre-fail  Always       -       38
179 Used_Rsvd_Blk_Cnt_Tot   0x0013   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
181 Program_Fail_Cnt_Total  0x0032   100   100   010    Old_age   Always       -       0
182 Erase_Fail_Count_Total  0x0032   100   100   010    Old_age   Always       -       0
183 Runtime_Bad_Block       0x0013   100   100   010    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
187 Uncorrectable_Error_Cnt 0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
190 Airflow_Temperature_Cel 0x0032   059   039   000    Old_age   Always       -       41
195 ECC_Error_Rate          0x001a   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
199 CRC_Error_Count         0x003e   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
235 POR_Recovery_Count      0x0012   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       1571
241 Total_LBAs_Written      0x0032   099   099   000    Old_age   Always       -       14090964124

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
No self-tests have been logged.  [To run self-tests, use: smartctl -t]

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
 SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
  255        0    65535  Read_scanning was never started
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

Here is a complete guide to smartmontools on osx, including where to find it, how to install it, and how to use it, by the author Benjamin von der Weiden.


How to use Jupyter Notebook with iCloud storage to read a data set? I am trying to work with a very large dataset in my Mac. The storage space on my Mac was not enough, so I bought 50 GB of iCloud storage. But I don't know how to use it. I still cannot download data on my Mac.
I am a data scientist and I am working in Jupyter notebook. I need to save my data in iCloud and then load it from there.

If you haven't already, first setup iCloud Drive on your macOS.
Once iCloud Drive is enabled on your macOS, you can access it using the Finder. You can now copy files to iCloud drive as you usually do with any other folder or drive.
The iCloud drive path on macOS is:
~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/

So if you create a folder called dataset in iCloud drive, it's path will be
~/Library/Mobile\ Documents/com~apple~CloudDocs/dataset

You need to use this as the startup folder for your Jupyter notebook as described here - Access iCloud Drive in Jupyter Notebook.

On file level iCloud basically is a syncing solution so you can't use it to extend your local storage into the cloud. You can let macOS manage your local storage by offloading everything on the Desktop and in Documents into iCloud and only download the specific things you need (see https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206985 for details).
If you need additional local storage and can't offload stuff into iCloud it's better to buy an additional local disk.


How do you configure airport extreme with dynamic dns? I have a domain via Namecheap. They support dynamic dns updates. I'd like to use my airport extreme (firmware 7.6.1) to do the DNS updates, anyone know how to accomplish this?

Here's the info about namecheap's dynamic dns.
http://www.namecheap.com/support/knowledgebase/category.aspx/11/dynamic-dns

For what it's worth, I am willing to pay the $30 a year to use DynDNS instead, if I could get instructions for setting up the Airport Extreme.

DynDNS does support Multicast DNS (mDNS), which provides the ability to do dynamic DNS and much more. They even have handy dandy instructions for setting it up with an Airport Device. It will cost you a $30/yr standard account, though.

I'm using Duiadns, which does support Multicast DNS (mDNS) for dynamic DNS on apple routers. On their official blog there is an article with step-by-step config instructions:
https://www.duiadns.net/running-duiadns-on-apple-router

This feature is not available for free accounts, it will cost you a $7.90/yr though.


How to search by image from the iPad? Google only allows image search from the camera directly (and not the gallery), but doesn't allow iPad users to search by uploading an existing image or typing a specific URL.

How can I search by image from an iPad?

When you're on the Google Images page scroll all the way to the bottom. There is a choice there to use either Google Tablet or Classic (defaults to tablet on the iPad). Click on classic and you should get the same options as on your mac/pc.

You could use "Image Web Search" from the App Store. Here's a link to it.


Phantom photos stuck on my iPhone that I can't delete? According to iTunes:

According to my phone:

But also:

What's going on? :-/

I look into my DCIM folder on my iPhone through Windows Explorer and it's empty, too.

Update: I have no photo syncing going on in iTunes, nor do I have any "recently deleted" items on my iPhone

Set the date of your phone a few months back. These phantom photos should now show up in "Recently Deleted" section on iOS photos. Delete them from there, and then set the date back to the present.

move the Date on your phone earlier by 1,2,3 months and find the phantom photos in the Recently Deleted Folder. Next, delete the photos manually from the Recently Deleted Folder and then reset to your current date


Are tags portable, and if so how? I am a relatively new Mac user, recently bought a MacBook Pro with OS X 10.9.1.

I see that there are tagging capabilities within the file system. I'm concerned about portability. If I get a new computer in a few years, how would I transfer my tags to the new system? What if I want to move my files to a Windows or Linux machine? Can I see the tags on these operating systems?

I just don't want to put some effort into the built-in tagging system only to have my tags useless at some point down the road.

Tags are not 100% portable in that they don't always survive mailing or copying to other computers such as Linux or Windows. On that respect, it's more about those OS supporting the Apple filesystem. I am impressed that even copying tagged files to a SMB formatted USB drive preserves the tag metadata and most copy operations from and to another Mac via an HFS+ hard drive or share does preserve the tags well in practice. (Even copying the file to a 10.8 or older Mac didn't strip tags in my tests).

Apple's article covering tags, http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5839, recommends:

  If you want to include your Tags when sending files through Mail, Messages, or other apps, compress your files and folders before sending them.

I found an interesting article over here which goes into some detail about the portability of tags in macOS. There is some writeup but it attempts to answer the question, "Which file systems and Cloud services preserve extended attributes?".


SQL-Coding App for iPad I'm searching for an iPad App where i can write and proceed SQL Statements.

I want to connect to my own Server.

Are there any Apps out there? I can only find MySQL Apps which are offering GUI-Editing of my Database.

There are quite a few SQL clients in the App Store, PostGres, MySql, Oracle, SqlServer

Impathic make one for just about every database such as

SQL Server Mobile Database Client

I've not used these products myself, but they are known to be limited to creating queries graphically, you can't write your own SQL.

The higher end versions, do allow you greater flexibility and the iPad apps are pretty good, however and this is a caveat, if you run SQL that returns lots of data, the query runs slowly since the amount of data being returned can be large and the handling of the large amount of data is limited by the iOS devices memory.  Write more concise SQL to return only the data you need and the apps run fine.

I don't believe Apple allows such apps because they execute code. I would look on the Apple Developer pages for more info.


How to remove MRT (Malware Removal Tool)? Note: I have already read MRT Process using large unbounded amount of memory (but here the context is different: "I'd rather not remove it") and a few similar questions/articles like MRT is peaking my cpu, but a good complete solution was not easily findable.
On my Macbook Pro with High Sierra, the CPU fan was making a loud noise, and after doing top in Terminal, I noticed that a process called MRT was using ~100% CPU.
So how do I remove MRT (Malware Removal Tool)?

Removing Apple's Malware Removal Tool is not a good idea, so it's better to figure out why it's running high.
Also, 100% is a per-core figure, so on quad-core i7, you can use up to 800% CPU. Various OS processes, like Spotlight, will use similar levels of CPU for short periods.
MRT may use significant CPU for a short time while it does its job: downloading malware lists from Apple, and then checking/removing anything on that list.
If you have got a 'runaway' MRT process, then that might indicate that it is trying (but not succeeding) to remove some malware. You could try using MalwareBytes to check and remove anything on your disk, as suggested on the other thread.
At worst,  I would just recommend restarting, rather than disabling SIP and killing MRT, both of which severely reduce the security of your Mac -- particularly if malware is already on board.

(As I struggled to solve the problem, I share it with the Q&A feature).
This is not recommended, but if you know what you are doing, and really want to remove MRT, here is how:

First reboot in Recovery mode (CMD+R pressed while reboot), open a Terminal, then do: csrutil disable

Then reboot in normal mode, open a terminal and do:
sudo launchctl stop com.apple.mrt
sudo launchctl remove com.apple.mrt
chmod -R -x+X /System/Library/CoreServices/MRT.app
sudo pkill MRT


How can you pause text to speech so that it restarts from where you left off? I have a 40 page Pages document which is a transcript from a hand written diary.  I wish to use Text to Speech to read passages from my Pages document so that I can check the text against the original version.  This works well except that when highlighting a portion of text in the document and I wish to stop (pause) the Text to Speech it only starts at the beginning of the highlighted text and not restarting from the point of being paused.

If I use the start/stop keyboard shortcut in Text to Speech system preferences the situation is worse.  No matter if you have a highlighted portion of text it will restart from the beginning of the document!!

So the question is How to pause the text to speech process rather than stopping it?

This is a feature people wanted for a long time but it never came. An alternative is to use voice over but it doesn't really allow you to read out loud the highlighted text, it has to be the entire document. To activate it the default shortcut is command F5. You have to enable it in setting, just search for voice over.

There is one other way. You can save the entire document as txt file and open it with any browser of yours, tested on chrome or safari. Select all and right click, then "add to itunes as spoken track." It will take a few minutes and then you will have an audio file you can play. Press pause key on the keyboard to pause or resume while reading.

add [[slnc 1000]] for pause of 1 second

add [[slnc 2000]] for pause of 2 seconds

and so on...


OSX Mail how to mark message as not junk I have some mail messages that OSX Mail puts in my junk folder but does not show the header saying  "Mail thinks this message is Junk Mail" and so does not show the button allowing me to mark the mail as not junk.

How do I get Mail to allow me to mark the mail as not junk.

These emails are put in the junk folder by me.com/iCloud so I would hope Apple would allow control via their apps.

It seems iCloud is marking the message as junk using its algorithm. I don't believe you can adjust this from within the Mail.app. You will need to log into iCloud.com, enter Mail, find the particular message in your Junk Mail folder and then with the message selected, select the gear menu and you should be able to Mark as Not Junk.

To recap, as iCloud is flagging message as junk you must unflag message within iCloud.

all you need to do in Mail toolbar is click on the thumbs up icon to the right of the trash bin.


My Toshiba hard drive doesn't work on Windows machines At first I was struggling to get my Toshiba Hard drive to appear (so I could use it) on my MacBook Pro (as I wanted to put all my photos, iMovie videos etc on there) so I eventually found a way by going to my settings and clicking time Machine and so on. Now that everything from my MacBook Pro is on the Toshiba hard drive, I plugged it into a Windows laptop (so I could put my photos etc on there) and it doesn't even pop up so I am unable to access my photos etc on there and put them on the Windows laptop, but when I plug it back into my MacBook Pro it shows the hard drive with all my pictures etc on there!

If you're using Time Machine on the disk, the disk is Mac OS Extended formatted which can't be read by Windows without additional software.

You can use the Boot Camp drivers which integrates HFS read/write into Explorer.

http://support.apple.com/kb/DL830

Alternatively, you can use HFSExplorer:

  HFSExplorer is an application that can read Mac-formatted hard disks and disk images.
  It can read the file systems HFS (Mac OS Standard), HFS+ (Mac OS Extended) and HFSX (Mac OS Extended with case sensitive file names).

If you have this drive set up as a Time Machine backup, this means that you have formatted it as HFS+, the Mac hard disk format. Windows can not usually read this format.

The problem is that if you change the drive to a different format, it will mean that you need to put all the data back on it afterwards (reformatting a drive deletes everything on that drive), and you will also not be able to use that drive as a Time Machine backup in the future unless you put it back to HFS+.

If the two machines are on the same network (WiFi or wired network), you can share the drive from your Mac and connect to it from the Windows machine, then copy the files that way. Over WiFi this could take a while.


Catalina and old application compatibility regarding new file system access rights I am trying to make Time Lapse Assembler work on Catalina but no luck so far. I can open the UI and input files etc but when it comes to writing a destination file it gives an error without giving much explanation.

My guess is that it has something to do with Catalina's increased per operation access rights but I am not sure.

I tried to give write access to Time Lapse Assembler on ~/Downloads, I tried to write on a SD card, tried to create a file with (chmod 777) everybody but no luck either.

I wonder if there is a trick to explicitly disable checks or if there is any other trick to make Time Lapse Assembler work on Catalina.

Exact error message on the pop up dialog is: "Error encoding file: There was an error accessing the destination file. File may already exist and be opened in another application. Close other applications and try again.

Have you tried with, for example, macOS High Sierra? If it works then it's not because of the APFS.

What changed with Catalina is that a part of the file system is mounted as write only.

First of all you can try giving full disk access on privacy and security preference.

If that doesn't help try disabling the SIP from recovery mode with csrutil disable and after reboot try sudo mount -uw /; killall Finder to mount everything as read and write.


How to delete text from an edited picture in preview? I recently edited a picture in preview by adding text to it. I then saved it, not realizing that the original would not be saved (without the text). When I went in to the picture later to delete the text, it was not possible. Is there a way I can either recover the original photo or delete the text I already saved?

There is a way to remove text from a picture that you have added with Apple's Preview application.

Open the picture with Preview, try to find as area where the background is the same as where the text is.

Select an area with the mouse, and copy it and paste it into the picture.
It will pop up in the center of the picture.
Use the mouse to move it over the text.
You can paste it several times as needed.
Save and quit the application.
Re-open Preview and Open Previous.

Select the picture you just edited and the text will be gone.

Open image in photos, click on image in tool bar, click on show edit tools. Once that opens look for revert to original image and click on that. Close show edit tools and it should revert back to the original photo.  It worked for me to remove text.  Hope this helps.


Convert partition from MBR to GPT I want to install Win10 in a partition on my Macbook Pro.

Model: Macbook Pro 13' MID 2010.

I already have Windows Software Support that I downloaded from Boot Camp app.

To do so, I created a partition with 140Gb with I called "BOOTCAMP".
I need to change this partition to GPT so, to do so, I downloaded GPT fdisk.
After I installed it I opened "terminal" and run the command sudo gdisk /dev/disk0

I got this:

    Warning: Devices opened with shared lock will not have their
partition table automatically reloaded!
NOTE: Write test failed with error number 1. It will be impossible to save
changes to this disk's partition table!
You may need to deactivate System Integrity Protection to use this program. See
https://www.quora.com/How-do-I-turn-off-the-rootless-in-OS-X-El-Capitan-10-11
for more information.

Partition table scan:
  MBR: hybrid
  BSD: not present
  APM: not present
  GPT: present

Found valid GPT with hybrid MBR; using GPT.

Command (? for help): p
Disk /dev/disk0: 976773168 sectors, 465.8 GiB
Sector size (logical): 512 bytes
Disk identifier (GUID): CCEA39AF-B83B-4EB6-93F8-9A87464AB53D
Partition table holds up to 128 entries
Main partition table begins at sector 2 and ends at sector 33
First usable sector is 34, last usable sector is 976773134
Partitions will be aligned on 8-sector boundaries
Total free space is 262157 sectors (128.0 MiB)

Number  Start (sector)    End (sector)  Size       Code  Name
   1              40          409639   200.0 MiB   EF00  EFI System Partition
   2          409640       701207815   334.2 GiB   AF00  Sem nome
   3       701207816       702477351   619.9 MiB   AB00
   4       702477352       976510983   130.7 GiB   0700

Command (? for help): x

Expert command (? for help): n

Expert command (? for help): w

Final checks complete. About to write GPT data. THIS WILL OVERWRITE EXISTING
PARTITIONS!!

The thing is, I'm afraid the process will overwrite my main partition as well.
Right now if I go to my Disk Utility I have this:

It is in Portuguese but I think you can understand the important things.

So, my question is: If I give it a "Y" in terminal, will it overwrite both of my partitions or only the partition called "BOOTCAMP"? (Will it erase my main partition?)

Thank you

If you want to do what you propose, then you are correct.

While using gdisk, you can the check GUID Partition Table (GPT) by entering the P command. After you enter the N command to change the Master Boot Record (MBR) table, you can again enter the P command. You will see the  GPT is unchanged. To see the changes to the MBR table, you will need to enter the following command before and after using gdisk.

sudo  fdisk  /dev/disk0

But, you do not want to do this for a 2010 MacBook Pro.

The 13-inch, mid 2010  MacBook Pro should install Windows 10 using the legacy BIOS boot method. The Windows Support Software for installing Windows 10 on your model Mac can be found at: Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033.

Apple does not officially support Windows on your model Mac beyond version 7. The drivers for 64 bit Windows 7 are in the Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033  download. Fortunately, Windows 10 is designed to accept older version drivers, when current drivers are unavailable. Unfortunately, these drivers are designed for the legacy BIOS boot method.

  Note: I am used the Boot Camp Support Software 4.0.4033 download to install 64 bit Windows 10 Pro on my 2007 iMac. Apple does not officially support any 64 bit versions of Windows on any 2007 Mac models. In spite of this, I am able to run 64 bit Windows 10 Pro on my 2007 iMac.

Yes, yes it will overwrite both partitions, as it will overwrite the partition table.


Is my Verizon iPhone 5c unlocked? I have a Verizon iPhone 5c. Is it unlocked so that I can just go to T-Mobile or AT&T prepaid, by just popping in the SIM card?

If you bought the iPhone at full price ($549 or $649) then yes it is unlocked.

If you and bought it subsidised (where the price is $99 or $199), no it is not.

This restriction is required by the carrier, because they paid the remainder of the price, and will claim it back from you (with a tasty profit!) over the duration of your contract with them.

First things first: if you have inserted a Verizon SIM card (or any other carrier's SIM card) within 20 minutes of turning on your iPhone, you are out of luck as it will ONLY work on that carrier. This is a very weird thing that happens with the iPhone, but I believe Apple added this on purpose to sidestep something within the carriers.

As for whether or not a prepaid plan will work, apparently it can. There is a webpage on WikiHow that explains how to do it (look at the iPhone 5 method in your case).

I'm not too sure if it will work on a Verizon iPhone, but it never hurts to try.


How can I remote control music on my computer from my iPhone? I want to change, play or pause my music using my iPhone while it is playing on my laptop.

Get Remote from the App Store which lets you control iTunes playback on your computer.

You can use Spotify. The music player has also a remote control. Start the app on iPhone and Windows/Mac than you can see  on the status your iPhone or Mac. The function called Spot remote

  Spot Remote is the leading remote control for Spotify, allowing you to control your music over the air from your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad. It is what Spotify has been missing.


Move to a larger drive My wife got me an external SSD for my bday. I'm on a 2013 Mac Pro, so my existing user folder is already on another external. I'd like to move to the new drive and use the old one for backups.

Given that the original user folder is not on a boot drive, can I simply copy the contents over? Is there anything else I need to do, like set the permission or anything?

Most guides say you should do this with Restore in DU, but the Restore... menu items is greyed out when I tried it.

I'm not sure about if you can just copy over. Why is your user folder on a separate drive?? Anyway. I do have another suggestion. I got an ssd drive to use for my main drive, cause it's like ten times faster. I then ordered this thing that is basically the same shape as a cd Rom drive, but it holds a laptop hard drive. I removed the cd Rom drive and replaced it with that, which holds a terabyte drive. I partitioned it in half. 500gb is for my time machine backup, and the other 500gb is for extra storage. Or "external", without being external. I don't use DVD or cd's anymore, so it made sense to me. Good luck.


display partial file path on Finder tab title Question
Is there a way to change the Finder tab title to include the name of the containing folder?
Problem
I work on projects that have the same standardized subfolder names (e.g., code), which makes it difficult to switch between projects without going through each tab to identify the containing folder.
Current state: ambiguous Finder tab titles for three different subfolders

Goal
I'd like to display the containing folder name as part of the Finder tab title. Extending the example, this would look like: projectA/code, projectB/code, etc.
Ideal solution (blue text only to emphasize the change):

Related questions and resources

My question is more general than a previous question that sought to edit individual Finder tab names.
Displaying the path in the Finder title bar only works for the selected tab, and does not solve the problem of distinguishing Finder tabs.
This answer suggests a possibility with DragThing, but doesn't make it clear how to implement the solution. UPDATE: DragThing is being retired.

I find using a code editor to view folder hierarchy works much better. If you don’t have an IDE I would start with a very free and very extensible / feature full editor like Visual Studio Code.

https://code.visualstudio.com/

That or making the jump to shell where you can exert exceptional control over prompts allow more customization than Finder does at present.

Use the app "Onyx". It's free and you can use it to customize macOS. Go to Settings > Finder and there is a box for showing what you want ;)


Make the Menu Bar never show while in Full Screen Pretty much every application I use in full-screen (including Firefox, MacVim and the Terminal) have tabs on the top of the screen.

The problem is, when I move my mouse to reach the tabs I'll often accidentally touch the top of the screen, bringing in the OS menu OVER the tabs:

Is there any way to change this behavior? I'd prefer it if the menu bar would stay hidden when I'm using a full-screen app, even if my mouse does touch the top of the screen.

Save the following AppleScript to a file named fullscreen.scpt:

use framework "AppKit"
use scripting additions

repeat with runningApp in current application's NSWorkspace's sharedWorkspace's runningApplications()
    if runningApp's isActive()
        set frontApp to (localizedName of runningApp) as text
        exit repeat
    end if
end repeat

tell application "System Events"
    tell process frontApp to set isFullScreen to value of attribute "AXFullScreen" of first window
    if frontApp = "Finder"
        tell process frontApp to set value of attribute "AXFullScreen" of first window to not isFullScreen
    else if isFullScreen
        do shell script "lsappinfo setinfo -app " & quoted form of frontApp & " ApplicationType=Foreground"
        tell process frontApp to set value of attribute "AXFullScreen" of first window to false

        (*fix to make sure the menu bar is not stuck*)
        delay 0.42
        tell application "Finder" to activate
        tell process frontApp to set frontmost to true
    else
        do shell script "lsappinfo setinfo -app " & quoted form of frontApp & " ApplicationType=UIElement"
        tell process frontApp to set value of attribute "AXFullScreen" of first window to true
    end if
end tell

From terminal, compile it to an application with the following command:

osacompile -o "/Applications/Full Screen.app" fullscreen.scpt

Open the Full Screen.app's Info.plist (e.g. vim '/Applications/Full Screen.app/Contents/Info.plist') and add the following to the dict:

    <key>NSUIElement</key>
    <true/>

Add Full Screen.app as an exception in System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility.
Launch Automator and create a new Service.
Change "Service receives" to "no input in any application".
Add a Library > Utilities > Launch Application action.
Configure the action to launch the previously created Full Screen application.
Save the service as Full Screen and close Automator.
On System Preferences > Keyboard > Shortcuts > Services, scroll down to the bottom of the list and the just created Full Screen service should be listed there. Associate an unique Command shortcut for it, like Shift+Command+\ or Command+F11 for example.

This creates a shortcut to cause an application to enter full screen while removing the menu bar, or to exit full screen bringing the menu bar back. It provides an alternative full screen shortcut!

For application-specific full screen launchers, check my other answer.

Caveats

There may be some disadvantages and/or misbehavior using this approach:

It works by setting ApplicationType=UIElement, which causes the application icon not be added/highlighted in the Dock and make the application inaccessible via Command+Tab. The Command+Tab issue was reported in comments, I didn't notice it since I mostly use the Mission Control overview to change between full screen applications.
It may not behave as expected for some specific applications, I've noticed issues with the Activity Monitor application (which is generally not used full screen anyway) and there's a report on Chrome, which I didn't try since I use Firefox and it works great.

Try to use hotkeys for switch tabs in browser/ide so you'll never move your mouse into the top to menubar appear


Iphone 3GS not charging My IPhone was on 20% last night and I immediately plugged it in to the wall, it continuously kept connecting and disconnecting and at times giving "Charging is not supported with this accessory". Today, when I woke up, I noticed that my phone was off. I tried to charge it, I used 2 different chargers, I tried it with USB and plug. I know it turns on because when I hold the button There is an image of a battery with the thing.

that's a tough one and could be an issue with a bad battery or something wrong with the "charging circuitry" in the phone itself which would require a visit to the Genius Bar or a 3rd party phone repair shop.

One thing you might want to try before going that route is to plug it into the Mac or PC that you normally sync with. Does it give you that same error? If so it may be that there is an issue with the connector. Either in the phone itself or the dock connector. You can try blowing in there to dislodge any lint/dust/dirt but a quick spurt of canned air would be my recommended method. Do both the connection port on the phone and the dock end of the connector and try again.

It is possible that the connector is worn and jiggling the connector in various ways might point to that.

Turn it off when you go to sleep and plug it before you go to sleep and in the morning it will be charged.


Launch different apps based on file name (other than the extension)? I'd like to have different apps handle .jpg files based on a naming convention I'll use for the .jpg files. Specifically most will go to Xee, but ones containing thumb should instead cause VLC to be called with the same path and file name, but with .mp4 (or .mkv, etc.) extension.

Is there an existing script / app that does this? I'm guessing the way to do it would be to create a shim app (sort of like choosy) that handles the main file type based on extension, and then hands off to the apps you configure based on a ruleset.

Just create an Applescript Droplet to read the name and extension of dropped files and triage them with if statements. This script should get you started. Save it as an application, and then you can put it in your dock or some place convenient to drop files on it.

on open these_items
    repeat with i from 1 to the count of these_items
        set this_item to item i of these_items
        set the item_info to info for this_item without size
        set theName to name of item_info
        try
            set theExtension to the name extension of item_info
        on error
            set theExtension to ""
        end try

        if theName contains "thumb" then
            tell application "VLC"
                activate
                open this_item
            end tell
        else if theExtension contains "jpeg" then
            tell application "Preview"
                activate
                open this_item
            end tell
        else
            -- open with system default app
            tell application "Finder" to open this_item
        end if
    end repeat
end open

If you want to be able to double-click a file and launch different app based on file pattern, you could use LinCastor Browser for that. It is user friendly alternative to writing AppleScript conditions by hand.

You make the LinCastor default app for extensions you want to handle differently
Create "single browser" for each pattern you want to handle
Configure condition for each pattern (e.g. URL path contains "thumb") and associate it with the right app.

Hint: click "+" button while holding option/cmd key in order to create more complex conditions (e.g. using AND / OR / NOT etc.)

You can also configure a "menu", which let you choose what app to open.

DISCLAIMER: I'm involved in LinCastor's development


How to "find and replace" in a PDF on OS X? I need to "find and replace" text in a PDF file on OS X Yosemite.

It would be better if there was a "replace all" feature. How can I do this on OS X?

As Tom Gewecke mentioned in a comment, Adobe Acrobat can do this.

I was also able to do this with PDFpen, as also suggested by Tom Gewecke.

Both apps seem great. Since both of them are quite pricey, though, I would also like to share a way to do this with the free and open source software LibreOffice.

Open the PDF with LibreOffice.
Click Edit in the panel, then Find & Replace.... Use the feature as desired.
Click File in the panel, then select Export as PDF.... Save the PDF.

I suspect LibreOffice probably decodes and re-encodes the document. But in my case the new document looked precisely identical to the original (except for the edits, of course.)

If you are willing to use latex, you could convert your pdf to ps, include it in a new document while using the psfrag package to do the replacement. A quick example would be

\psfrag{bla}{blub}

which replaces all occurrences of "bla" with "blub". The conversion to and from ps can be done by pdf2ps or ps2pdf.


iPhone - prevent automatic hotspot tethering when connecting to computer How can I turn off automatic personal hotspot activation when connecting an iPhone to a computer (Windows in this case)?  I had it plugged in when downloading an iOS update and it downloaded the update over cellular data instead of home Wi-Fi.

I understand I can turn it off manually each time by going into settings, but how can I have it not turn on automatically so that I can only turn it on manually as desired to prevent accidental usage?

The problem isn't on your iPhone, it's on your Windows computer using the USB tether rather than Wi-Fi. You need to set the network interface priority on your Wi-Fi to be higher than the USB device, or the USB device to be lower, so that it will only use the tether if it isn't connected to Wi-Fi.

Make sure to connect the iPhone first. Directions for Windows 7 are here (these will likely work on newer versions as well):

How to change the network connection priority in Windows 7

Alternately, you could disable the connection on your Windows computer but you'll still have to manually turn it on each time so I think the above fix will provide the result you want.

I think the above answers are incorrect. My iphone 5S under OS 11.2.5 automatically turned on the personal hot spot feature when I connected it to my Windows 7 laptop. My daughter had a similar experience with an iphone SE and a Mac powerbook. This suggests that it has nothing to do with windows per se. It is a misfeature of recent iOS versions


Internet sharing from Macbook to iPad Pro via usb cable (Tethered caching) not working on Catalia 10.15.6 I would like to share the internet connection on my MacBook Pro (a wifi connection) with my iPad Pro 4th generation via usb-c cable. The MacBook Pro is running Catalina 10.15.6.
I followed the instructions in this post:
System Preferences -> Content Sharing -> Switch ON and check "Internet connection".
However, nothing happens on the iPad. I can't load any page. Any help with this? Is there anything I should do on the iPad side?
Thank you very much!
ps: if you wonder why I would do that: the iPad Pro 4th generation (brand new) has a horrible wifi reception...

I just realized that the iPad was not showing in the Finder. I rebooted the iPad, now it shows in the finder and the connection started working.
I suppose then that it is/was a problem with the connection between the two devices, rather then the tethering itself. I will monitor the behaviour in the next days.

Is that how it looks for you?

You can choose something else instead of WiFi. At the moment your WiFi connection from the Mac goes through the USB port.
Please note, however, that you do not select the same network interface for "Share connection" and for "With computers via:" otherwise you will receive the message:

If you activate this connection, your Internet provider can disconnect
your connection to prevent network disruption.
If you z. For example, if you are using a cable modem, you may
inadvertently change the network settings of your Internet provider
and violate the license agreement.


Is there an app such as GoodReads for movies? I like the app GoodReads, and I'm looking for something similar for movies.
Is there any app you can suggest me?

It should be able to make a collection of the movies I saw/own and to share lists, items,... on social networks (Facebook, Twitter,...)

Yes, there is, Rinema.com

Check out: Rinema Features

Feature Details

Movies: Add, Rate, Review, tag, link...

These little buttons, pretty much everywhere on the site, should come in handy to rate, review or mark a movie as "watched" or "to watch". And, while you review the movies you can also tag them (using the good old #tags) and link them to other movies by taggin them as done in the review below.
Review

To tag a movie, write the movie name in square brackets. So, [[The Shawshank Redemption]] will show as The Shawshank Redemption

Discuss...

Apart from using these little buttons to vote up/down and adding comments. You can also post updates through the homepage. And, you can tag movies, add #tags or tag your friends in them.

Oh! and you can see all conversations about a movie on the conversations tab on every movie page

Lists...

Hop over to the lists page & check out some of the lists that others have created. Or better yet, create you own. It's easy peasy.

Search...

Use the search box on the top nav to search for any movie (by name), Celebrity or user.

If you are looking for a particular movie, but are unsure of the title or wish to search by cast/crew names or just want more options, hop over to the advanced search page (second last option in the dropdown menu)

Discover...

The Movies link in top nav will take you to our movie suggestions page where we show you some movies that you might want to check out. You can also refine suggestions by a particular genre and/or language.

The best suggestions though are always from people whose tastes you share. So, use the cinephiles link on the top nav to find interesting people to follow. Or invite your friends.

You can also toggle your updates feed on home page to show updates from all users or reviews(from all users). And, use that to find interesting people & movies.

Collections...

You can add movies to various collections via this dropdown accessible from mymovies, individual and review modals.

we've have given three: Must Watch, Favourites, Guilty Pleasure to get you started with but, you can add as many new ones as you want. Just type the new name in the textbox and press Add. You can also delete collections using the [edit collections] link given in the collections list on the my movies page (towards the top).

Try Letterboxd.com, we’re a social network, diary and list-making tool for film fans…


"New Folder with Selection" question I'm looking for a way to change the minimum number of files required to 1 so I can make a folder from a single selected file rather than having to have 2 selected before it becomes available.

To see what I mean...

Go to Finder
Select any two (or more) files in the same folder or the Desktop.
right click on the selection
you will see a choice "New Folder with Selection (x items)"

I would like to be able to only select one and have that choice appear.

Thanks.

I would suggest creating a new Service in Automator. Adding a service to the finder will add it in the contextual menu !

Create new service
Servicce receives selected  in
Add a run AppleScript Action
Paste the following code

Using just a simple AppleScript

on run {input, parameters}

tell application "Finder"
    set thePath to first item of input
    set ParentFolder to container of thePath
    set theFolder to (make new folder at ParentFolder)

    repeat with aFIle in input #For each file in input
        move aFIle to theFolder
    end repeat
end tell

end run

Save it and enjoy the new service by selecting your new service in the contextual menu of one of your folders.

I do not believe there is a way to change that. However, you can hit Command+Shift+N to create a new folder, and then drag the file in.


What is wired memory? I'm trying to figure out what is using all of the memory in my Macbook Pro running OS X Lion. I have 8 GB of memory total.  When I quit all active programs except Finder and Activity Monitor, then run a memory cleanup (FreeMemory) it shows about 5 GB of Free Memory, 1 GB of Active Memory, and 1.5 of Wired memory.  Support docs say Wired Memory is full of stuff that "can't be moved to disk".  What is taking up all of that memory?  Is it the menubar processes?  I have mozy, last.fm, dropbox, and growl running in the menubar but they all appear in Activity Manager and don't appear to be using a significant amount of memory. I also run Parallels but it is shut down completely so I thought all of it's stuff should be written to disk.  Is it just Mac OS X using a reserved chunk of memory and labeling it "Wired"?

From what I can tell, wired memory belongs to the kernel, the innermost core of Mac OS X.  It's many layers removed from the icons in the menubar, which are just ordinary apps showing themselves in an odd way.

Wired memory is used for some of the core functions of the operating system—things like keeping track of all the applications on your system, or open files and network connections, or chunks of memory used by various drivers.  The "page tables" that form a map of your system's memory are also stored in wired memory, and a system with more memory needs larger page tables.  I suspect that the memory used by the integrated video chips in most Macs is wired as well, but I can't find anything that says that outright.  In any case, much of this information is needed to manage and access memory, and so it can't itself be swapped out to disk!

To understand why, imagine an enormous library.  Think of, for example, the Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford, which has eleven million printed items.  There's no way you could possibly fit all that stuff into a single building—certainly not one in the middle of a university campus.

So instead, imagine that the librarians construct a vast warehouse.  (The real Bodleian Library has about forty sub-libraries of various descriptions, plus storage for really rare books, but this is a thought experiment.)  Most of the books are kept in the warehouse, but anything that's been used recently is kept in the library.  If you show up at the library looking for a book, and it's in the stacks there, you can read it immediately.  If not, ask a librarian and the book you want will be transported from the warehouse and given to you the next day.

The information in wired memory, then, would be things like the card catalog, keys to the book delivery trucks, and maps of the route to the warehouse.  If you stored these things in the warehouse, you could never retrieve books to bring them back to the library—so they must be kept in the library at all times, lest the whole system break down.

Anyway, getting back to practical considerations: wired memory is basically used by your computer for internal bookkeeping of various sorts.  You shouldn't worry about it.

And don't worry if you have lots of "inactive" memory and little "free" memory, either.  Inactive memory is basically memory that Mac OS is keeping something in on the off chance it's needed again; if your system needs that memory for something else, it'll be converted to free memory without any performance hit.

To extend the library metaphor, imagine that the library keeps books that have been recently used in the stacks. The space is there in the stacks; there's no use leaving it empty, so you might as well keep the books you already have there.  There's no harm in it, and sometimes someone will be able to pick up a book immediately that he would otherwise have had to wait for.

Similarly, inactive memory can only speed things up; it can't hurt your computer, so don't worry about it being too high.

Really, you shouldn't worry about your memory use unless wired + active starts getting close to the 8 GB in your computer.  That's when you could get into trouble, because that's when Mac OS will start consuming disk space to add "extra" memory, damaging performance considerably.

Otherwise, you might as well have something in that memory.  Ultimately, unused memory is just a waste of power—if you have it, you might as well put it to use.

virtual memory is basically free __ space used as an extension of ram


How to hide App Store updates in El Capitan? Right click won't work The App store is nagging me to update OS X software (like iMovie, Photos) that I have no interest in. When I click or Control-click the white space of the suggested update I do not get a hide option (except for the banner for upgrading to Sierra, which I have hidden).

How do I hide an unwanted update?

I believe you simply need to change where you are clicking. See the screenshot below. Hide Update only showed up when right-clicking (or Control-clicking) in the green area, not the red areas.

Right click on the center part of the update then left click on shown HIDE...
Then move your cursor onto the upper wallpaper, in my case the SIERRA. Wait until the update vanishes. Repeat until there are no more updates left. Everything becomes blank.

Last update left is the El Capitan to Sierra (which I don't want)
Right click in the center of the SIERRA wallpaper and left click on shown HIDE...

Blank.


Set up an iPhone 6 with non-working Home button My brother recently gave me and iPhone 6 and he reset it before before handing it over. I turned it on and it says "Hello, Press home button to unlock and get started". But the Home button on the iPhone isn't working.

How can I get past this without replacing the Home button right now, and set it up with the Assistive Touch, until I get it fixed.

There is no way to access Assistive Touch until the device is done past the initial setup. The only way to get through the first step is to have a working Home button.

You'll have to get the Home button fixed before you can setup your iPhone.

Believe it or not, this is easy.

You must have access to a mac and the right cable for your phone

With the phone at the setup welcome screen, you plug the phone in and iTunes should pop up. Open the Summary page for the device, and scroll to the Options section at the bottom. Select "Configure Accessibility", and turn on Voice Over.

Now you can double-tap on the "press home" text to voice-over-select it, then when you tap again, it enters it taking you to the next screen.

All the screens after the first one work without the home button so you can turn Voice Over off now and get to work.

Don't forget to turn on the Accessibility touch work-around from Settings as soon as you can! Good luck

Credit where it's due: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/303020/288316 for Scott


command line in AppleScript I want to create an AppleScript app with this perfectly working (bash) command:

cd /Volumes/MEDIAS/WORK/CONVERSION_VIDEO/PROXY_720P/INPUT/; for f in *.mov *.mp4; do ffmpeg -i "$f" -vcodec prores -profile:v 0 -s 1280x720 /Volumes/MEDIAS/WORK/CONVERSION_VIDEO/PROXY_720P/OUTPUT/"${f%.*}_PROXY_720P.mov" && rm "$f"; done

but I get errors with the variable "$f".

How can I launch it through AppleScript?

Shell scripts/commands in AppleScript are handled with the do shell script command, which executes a shell script using the sh shell. In the short form of:

do shell script "..."

Where ... is the shell script to execute.

See AppleScript Language Guide do shell script Commands Reference and Technical Note TN2065 do shell script in AppleScript, for additional details.

What you need to do, is escape the double-quotes with a backslash, e.g. \"$f\" and elsewhere as necessary.

I've tested your command, wrapped in a do shell script command, with the necessary escaping as shown in the command below and it worked without issue.

do shell script "cd /Volumes/MEDIAS/WORK/CONVERSION_VIDEO/PROXY_720P/INPUT/; for f in *.mov *.mp4; do ffmpeg -i \"$f\" -vcodec prores -profile:v 0 -s 1280x720 /Volumes/MEDIAS/WORK/CONVERSION_VIDEO/PROXY_720P/OUTPUT/\"${f%.*}_PROXY_720P.mov\" && rm \"$f\"; done"

Note: Because the do shell script command uses the sh shell, if the ffmpeg executable is not in the PATH passed to the shell, which is /usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin, you'll need to include the fully qualified pathname to the ffmpeg executable for your command to work in AppleScript.

The direct parameter of the do shell script command is a string containing the shell code you want to execute, as demonstrated in Listing 39-1, which simply lists a directory.

APPLESCRIPT

Open in Script Editor
Listing 39-1AppleScript: Executing a simple shell command that lists the contents of a directory

do shell script "ls /Applications/"
(*
--> Result:
"App Store.app
Automator.app
Calculator.app
Calendar.app
..."
*)


I can't update my iPhone 4 v7.1.2 (11d257) I tried updating apps and it directed to enter password for a different Apple ID which is not mine. Please what should I do.

Go to Settings -> iTunes Store & App Store, and click on the apple account (first thing on the list)

Then click Sign out and reboot

Go back to Settings -> iTunes Store & App Store and enter login + password for your account

Delete the App and re-install using your own Apple ID


How to hide notification center button in Mountain Lion? I am using Mountain Lion.

The only advantage (for me) over the gesture is that Option + clicking the button enables/disables showing alerts and banners (toggles the switch in the notifications center).

Is there a way to hide the button in the status bar that opens notification center?

I had the same problem yesterday, and found this tool called Bartender. It is paid software.

On my Mac, running Mountain Lion, the icon is gone but the other notification functionality remains.

Holding the Command key then click and drag-off-the-menu-bar totally worked!  This is so great.  (I wanted to remove my User Login Name from displaying up there.  I know who I am, and I never ever switch users...wasted space.)  I can also confirm that this idea works for all those system icons up there.


Non-native full screen in Terminal.app If you press Cmd+Enter on iTerm while having the preference "Use native fullscreen windows" turned off, it goes into fullscreen but not the standard MacOS-way.

Is there a way of doing the same in Terminal.app? I know I can use Ctrl+Cmd+F to enter a native full screen. And I know I can maximize the window manually to eventually consume all of the screen, but in this case the title is still visible.

No, there's no support for this in Terminal.app.

Option 1

There is an incredibly simply answer to your problem:

Double-click the title bar of the window.

Double-clicking the window again will return it to the previous size and position.

Note: Make sure that "Double-click a window's title bar to zoom" is set under System Preferences -> Dock.

Option 2

Add a system-wide keyboard shortcut. for the Zoom action.


Why is my Advanced Add Printer mode disabled? I am using a Unibody MacBook Pro on Lion. I am trying to add a networked printer at work so I can print to it, but OS X is not cooperating with me.

Typically for adding networked printers on a Windows network, most instructions online suggest you open the Print & Fax preference pane, hit the + button to Add Printer, then use the Advanced tab to select the type of networked printer, and type in a specific URL to reach it.

I would like to follow these steps, but I am unable. As you can see in the screenshot below, everything under the Advanced tab in the Add Printer window is disabled.

I don't understand how or why this is. My user definitely has full administrator privileges, and this tab of all the others in the dialog should be open-ended and allow you to type and search for printers to add regardless of environment, or perhaps what OS X may have already detected as plugged-in or over Bonjour.

I have searched the web for any indication of why this area of my Add Printer dialog is unusable, but have not been able to find any clues. Any tips to get this thing unstuck are appreciated.

P.S. My connection to the Windows network at work seems to be fine. I am able to mount and use several of the shared network drives over SMB.

Hey I ran into the same problem. If you turn off System Preferences -> Sharing -> Printer Sharing the advanced tab becomes enabled again.

just right click on the "add toolbar" and the go to customize toolbar" and add it from there..Done


Will older Adobe Applications (CS5/CS6) work with Mojave? I have some Adobe applications that I use for occasional work (Photoshop, Illustrator, Lightroom, Acrobat).  These are the versions prior to the CC version (Creative Cloud) and they work on El Capitan through High Sierra.

I don't do enough graphics work justify the cost of a monthly CC license and these older version have been more than enough for what I want to do.

Now, with the new Metal framework of Mojave, will the Adobe Apps continue to function?  Contacting Adobe results in a support call that (magically) turns into a sales call for CC.

Has anyone tested Adobe CS5 or 6 products on Mojave beta as of yet and if so, what were the results?

Depends on App

I have tested the following application with basic functionality and ability to open. Tell me if you need me to test others.

Note: I am on Retina computer so it's not going to look great no matter what software I'm using. Also, with almost every app (including Apple Apps) there are error messages about 32-Bit support ending soon or portions of apps are too old to be used but I have found they mostly have no effect on anything.

My Config

MacBookPro 2017
3.5 Ghz Intel Core i7
16GB Memory
macOS Mojave Beta 7

Works

Adobe Photoshop CS6 - Bit slow but not too noticeable
Adobe Illustrator CS6
Adobe Bridge CS6 - Didn't test import but should work
Adobe Premiere Pro CS6
Adobe After Effects CS6
Adobe Acrobat X Pro

Does Not Work

Distiller :(

If anyone can add to this please do!

my two cents for Catalina.
I can confirm Adobe PS6 works.

(even with some tricks..)


What does "Reinstall macOS" do, exactly? I was recently having some problems with iTunes, and decided to reinstall macOS Sierra. I held Command+R on startup and clicked on "Reinstall macOS" without erasing the hard drive in Disk Utility. Once the reinstall was complete, I started back up and all of my files and programs were still there, along with my settings, desktop wallpaper, and everything else. (The iTunes problems were fixed.)

What exactly does this "Reinstall" feature do, if it doesn't remove programs and change settings to default?

It does exactly what it says it does–reinstalls macOS itself. It only touches operating system files that are there in a default configuration, so any preference files, documents and applications that are either changed or not there in the default installer are simply left alone. No doubt it is a bit more complicated than that but all a re-install does is replace the old files with "fresh" versions.

No doubt there are preference files and other things that are deleted/modified but Apple seems to have gone to great lengths to ensure that reinstalling the operating system won't delete anything that you have subsequently installed/modified.

This installs the system that came with your Mac when it was new. It isn't associated with your Apple ID, so the new owner can use the App Store to upgrade to a later version using their Apple ID.

for more info visit https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204904


Can I add emojis to touch bar globally? I really like the emojis that appear on the touch bar in the Messages app. Is it possible to get this in other programs too? I can't see it in "System Preferences > Keyboard > Customize Control Strip" and it's actually the only useful thing I've found on the touch bar so far !

No. Currently there is no native way to do this and I doubt any third parties have managed to.

Each app has to build its own specific functionality for the touch bar. Depending on what view you’re on (i.e. composing vs reading email) on which app (mail vs safari) there is typically an option to "customize touch bar" in the menu on the top left of your screen that will be specific to that view.

Customize allows you to pick certain things you can add to your touch bar. Emojis are available in Mail and Safari (in addition to messages).

"Customize control strip" (in System Preferences) lets you edit the 4 slots that are always present on the right of the touch bar in addition to the view of the whole touch bar when you click the expansion arrow. These interact with the computer directly, not the app that you are using.

Update: Chrome now supports touch bar! Still no emoji button on the Mac or chrome strip...hopefully it will arrive soon.

Mac Emoji Keyboard Shortcut: ctrl + cmd + space

Try ChatMate for WhatsApp. It has the touch bar capabilities.


How can I opt out of updates for one app when using the App Store? I have an app that has been radically changed (Skitch) and I'd prefer to not see any of the updates that the developer has made available to that app on the App Store. I'm lazy and like to use the "update all" function. When I forget I don't want this app updates, I then have to delete the newly downloaded app, restore the old one from my backups, etc...

Can I go in and change the package receipt or something else to trick the App Store into thinking this app isn't a lower version of the current program?

I am looking for a Mac OS X solution and nothing to do with the iOS app store in case that's not clear. I'm also not concerned about hiding things in the purchased history - just that I want the older app to stay installed and have the system not want to feed it updates anymore.

While I'm not abosultely sure, how achieved my result, but after a reboot the update for one app-store app is gone now. What I did:

the following is tested on old Blackmagic Disk Speed Test.app (free from appstore), before my tests the app-store showing an available update for it.
Right click on app, select Show package contents
go to "Contents"
Move the following files and folders to some backup place

_MASReceipt (folder)

reboot

If that doesn't work, remove these additional items from the package contents:
  - _CodeSignature (folder)
  - CodeResources (alias)

Maybe it is not enough, (in my tests i did the following too), try:

Go to Library (alt-click on Finder's Go menu, select Library)
Caches
move com.apple.appstore folder somewhere else(backup location)
reboot

After the above steps, the AppStore don't showing the available update for the "Blackmagic Disk Speed Test.app".

Warning: all the above is tested only in one app, needs more testing, it is absolutely without any warranty and don't blame me when your computer will burns, gets grabbed by aliens or anything other...

If the app is on your device: uninstall it by pressing and holding on any app until they all start to jiggle. Press the red X by the one that you want to remove.

If you see the app under "Apps" in the side-pane of iTunes, you can delete it there by right-clicking (Option+click on a Mac) and selecting delete. You can also click on it to highlight it, and press the delete key on your keyboard.

Lastly, you can "hide" the purchase. Go to the iTunes Store homepage and navigate to "Purchases". From the home page, it's in the "Quick Links" section on the right-hand side, in the second section, it's the second link. Click on Apps at the top. Hover over the app in question and click the X that comes up at the top-left of it. This will "hide" the purchase all together.


10.8 reminders snooze duration When I get either a Calendar or Reminders notification, I have the option to 'snooze':

I would like to be able to say something like 'remind me in 10 minutes' or 'remind me in 2 hours' (much like the iCal notifcations used to allow in <= 10.7).

Is this possible?

Yes, Apple failed to include a multi-time snooze feature in the Mountain Lion version of Calendar.  LIke you, thousands of us would like to have this feature back.

Go to www.apple.com/feedback and tell them.  I did.  If enough people point out this omission, they will address it sooner than later.

Power in numbers!

According to this answer in the Apple Discussion Forums, it appears to be no.


How to mount EXT4 disk on 10.15? Since I have osxfuse installed it would be nice if I could use it. There are a lot of (heavily) outdated articles here, saying that it is not possible. Is this still the case?

Mac does not support Ext4 file system. If you plug in a hard drive, Mac won't recognize it. Fortunately, there are several ways to handle this situation.
1. Temporary options: Use VM
Just install a version of Ubuntu, or whatever your Linux distribution of choice is, in a virtual machine host like VirtualBox, then mount the drive as you would any other and read away.
2. Add Ext4 support for macOS
If you regularly use Ext4 formatted drives and / or need to copy multiple files from there to the macOS drive, you need a better option.
You need to install some software, namely osxfuse and ext4fuse. The easiest way to install them is to use Homebrew.
After Homebrew is installed (or if it is already), run the following commands:
brew install --cask osxfuse
brew install ext4fuse

After installing the Ext4 support software, you now need to determine the hard drive you want to mount. To do this, run the following command:
diskutil list

Save the partition ID (will look like /dev/disk3s1). Then, run the following command to mount the hard drive:
sudo ext4fuse /dev/disk3s1 ~/tmp/ext4_support_PARTITION -o allow_other

ext4_support above can be any name you choose. Now, navigate to the '/ tmp /' directory in the Finder and you will see the contents of the partition listed. If your drive has multiple partitions, you can mount them using the same steps as above. Just make sure to use different directory names to mount them.
Warning
Although these tools can help you read Ext4 formatted hard drives, they are not stable. As long as you are mounting read-only drives, as what is being done in this solution, you will not have many risks. If you try to use these tools to write to an Ext4 drive, you may lose data.
If you need to move files back and forth on a shared drive with Linux, this method is not recommended. Instead, use another file system like ExFAT or try the commercial option listed below
3. Use Paid Software
Software such as Paragon offers a free trial version, but to be safe, you should back up your hard drive first, in case there is a problem. If you want to buy software, it is available for 40$
Note: I haven't used this tool and can't say anything about what they have promised.
Although reading Ext4 format on macOS is no longer an impossible task, it is frustrating when Apple does not support this format.
Try it on your own risk but I strongly recommend the first solution which is easy and convenient.

With regards to the prior answer by @Udhy only the VM option has any chance of working but with a major caveat that it is VERY slow (I never got better than 30mb/sec).
Paragon simply does not work, refuses to mount any of my EXT4 disks.  Not sure why, maybe a Catalina issue?  However I'm not going to pay them so they can tell me we're SOL.
ext4fuse is a waste of time, it has not supported the last 3 versions of OSX so unless you're pre-Sierra this is not an option.  There's an open issue in the Github: https://github.com/gerard/ext4fuse/issues/36
It's five year's old and his last reply was 3 years ago, so don't get your hopes up.


Running two separate instances of Safari in the same user session I would like to run two separate Safaris at the same time. Each Safari having his own session, history, cookies, and so on.

I can do that with two users on my Mac.

But doing that in the same user session would be handier.

How can I do that ?

You can also type in the Terminal.app

open -n -a Safari

This will open an new instance of Safari even if one is already running. Not every application supports this, like Finder or FireFox. Those applications prefers to have one instance running at a time.

Chrome has this built in and is well implemented.
Firefox has a 3rd party plugin that manages this but it isn't as natively supported as it is in Chrome.
Safari, no.


Cannot restart, shutdown or log out I am on 10.14.4, the same thing was happening at least on 10.14.1.

Laptop: MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)

So the problem is if I open  "Apple Menu" in top left corner and click any of the following options:

Shut Down...
Restart...
Log out My Name

nothing happens.

sudo reboot works fine, holding the power button works fine, but that's not a graceful shutdown and I would like to avoid it, it also prevents updates from being applied if shut down this way.

Also when I go to Preferences > Software Updates > click Update Now then a dialog pops up with an option "Restart Now". Clicking it does nothing similar to Apple Menu.

What I tried:

I checked the Console application for logs (nothing relevant in there)
I checked /var/log/system.log, I checked /var/log/shutdown_monitor.log (nothing relevant in there)
SMC reset
NVRAM reset
Created new fresh user, to see if it's a problem with my user account (the issue persists)
I disabled all the login items and bunch of startup services (java updates, and bunch of similar non-system stuff)

This looks suspiciously like a problem with permissions. Open /Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility and fix permissions on your drive then reboot and see if it works.

EDIT: After comment, repair permissions is not available anymore in newer macos releases.

Then you will have to reinstall macos, I am afraid.

Try a NVRAM reset as others have pointed out. If that doesn't do it you almost definitely need a reinstall of OS X.

Restart your mac and hold cmd + R until you see the Apple logo and use ‘Install OS X ___’. This could take a few hours but none of your files/accounts will be erased - it just replaces the System folder which is where all the mechanics for that stuff is at.


App Store download progress doesn't go away after successful download Even after I successfully download any apps from App Store, the progress of that download doesn't go away from dock.

How can I fix it?

The problem is on macOS High Sierra, 10.13.4.

Restart the Dock by executing: killall Dock.
Reset NVRAM.
Reset SMC.

Resetting NVRAM clears the cache which generally causes the issue.

You can restart your Mac, Force Quit or delete Applications and restore the folder. Best: Upgrade to new OS