How to copy/paste parts of a text in Messages.app I am pretty sure I used to be able to select and copy text in Messages.app like in any other app (click + drag, double-click, etc.)

Right now I don't seem to be able to do this.

I am not sure what updated last, I am on macOS 10.14.6, Messages.app 12.0

Use case:

How do I copy the code from the message?

It does have an odd behaviour, but one that's easy to work round.
If you click-hold, the 'reaction' pop-up will appear, so the trick is just a short click.
If you click once straight onto the message bubble, anywhere, the text goes grey. At this point any interaction is with the entire message. If you directly double click or right click whilst the text is initially black, it doesn't go to grey, you can interact directly.
Basically, don't do that first click. You can do anything else & it works as individual words - so right click, double-click or click-drag works, for instance.
If you click outside the message bubble, the text goes back to black & you can now interact like any ordinary text.
BTW, verification codes like that will be found by Safari & will click right into the web page.
Examples

Grey text - handled as a single item for copy/paste.

Black text, can be individually selected.

Same in dark mode (first message is selected)

Smart fill-in feature in Safari

This answer assumes that you haven't clicked on the message to make it selected and thus light grey.

I do right click and it selects the word. Two finger single tap.

For a long sentence, click and drag to the destination word also works for me, at least.


Alternative way to move windows around screen In X (Xfree86 on Linux or UNIX) I could move a window around the screen by holding down a modifier key (the CTRL key if memory serves me correctly) and move a window around the screen by dragging it from anywhere in the window (not limited to the title bar.) Is there a similar functionality available in OS X?

MercuryMover
Although it's a paid-for utility (which comes with it's own PrefPane etc), this is a great tool for chucking around your windows. You can also set it up to force windows to certain sizes on a shortcut, which is handy if you want to check out your web pages in a browser at 800x600, etc.
By default, you jut press CtrlCommandup-arrow and you get a little black pop-up window that helps you to move/resize the window that had focus when you pressed the shortcut. (the screen grab includes the PrefPane too).

I got annoyed that the only options for this aren't free and come bundled with a bunch of other features that are useless to me, so I wrote my own.

metamove

A utility for emulating XFree86-style Meta+click and drag window movement. The default bindings are Cmd-Shift-Click for window movement, and Option-Shift-Click for window resizing.


How can I uninstall Safari Technology Preview? I installed Safari Technology Preview, but want to get rid of it now. Clicking and holding on Launchpad doesn't do the trick, STP "wiggles" without a cross. The download is an installer, so I'm wondering if anyone knows of an uninstaller. Else I guess I'll just dump it in the trash.

I used AppCleaner.app to make sure I don't have any leftovers. And it turned out there were a lot, namely crash reports, plists, diagnostics, cookies and more.

Just make sure no Safari files are included in the list of files about to be deleted. In my case there were no such files, it was either plugin related crash reports (e.g. VLC plugin) or other files clearly related to Safari Technology Preview.

I would highly recommend an app cleaner or uninstaller. You ca usually use the free versions from the App Store.


Chrome notifications not appearing on both monitors (dual monitor)? When using Chrome notifications on OS X, how can I set the notifications to appear across two monitors simultaneously?

I'm using a Macbook Pro and a Thunderbolt Display, and Chrome notifications - for example, a notification of a new message on Meta Chat - only display on the Macbook Pro. I would like the notifications to display on both monitors.

I have tried:

Going into the 'Settings' of Chrome Notifications, which only allows
users to change what sites can send them notifications.
Apple's Notification Center looks to control Apple's native notifications, rather than Chrome notifications.

This is currently not possible.

Google Chrome uses its own code for displaying notifications which Keyboard Maestro doesn't seem to be able to interact with. There appears to be no AppleScript for even detecting notifications and Google Chrome seems to refuse to provide the content of the message to Keyboard Maestro for any sort of macro.

Also, sending Chrome notifications to Growl also doesn't help since Growl still can't show notifications on multiple displays:

How can I show Growl notifications on both displays?

video Mirroring

  Mirroring displays the same image on each display.

  1) Make sure your additional display is properly connected and powered on.
  2) From the Apple () menu, choose System Preferences.
  3) From the View menu, choose Displays.
  4) Click the Arrangement tab.
  5) Enable (check) "Mirror Displays" in the bottom-left corner.

  In the example below. the blue boxes represent each display that is connected. The white bar at the top of both boxes represents your menu bar and is shown on both displays when they are showing the same information.


skype wants to export "Apple ID Authentication" from the keychain Today, I came back from having a coffee, unlock my Macbook (12" 2017, running Skype version 8.39.0.175 in Mojave 10.14.3 and I see this:

Does anyone have any idea what is this and why would Skype want to export it? I haven't even restarted it, unless it autoupdated and restarted itself

Update:
I allowed it eventually and nothing happened as far as I can see, all the keys are still where they are supposed to be, contrary to some comments.

I seem to have fixed this... unfortunately I don't know what part of what I tried was the actual key to the fix.

I spoke to Skype support, live chat. They hadn't heard of the issue - though tbh, 1st line support are always going to be 'last to know'.
The best I could get was 'Have you tried reinstalling it?" I said, it's a Mac, reinstalling isn't going to make any difference.
We tried it - it didn't. No surprise there.
I did it again, this time using CleanMyMac to get all the prefs & hidden stuff, kexts etc; rebooted & tried again. It still remembered my login details so I'm not sure how successful that was.

I looked in keychain to see what was in there. I was surprised at how many bits & pieces there were.
Having made sure I knew my login details, I deleted the whole lot; everything that came up when I searched 'skype' - maybe 10 or 12 keys - & rebooted again.
Skype had lost my auto-login... good.
I could then see which new keys it added as I completed a manual login.
There were only two keys - Skype for Desktop & Skype for Desktop MSA. After several days there are still only two.
No functionality seems to have been lost. Conversation histories etc appear to be stored at Skype, not on the local Mac.

It hasn't asked me to export anything since.

It would probably be useful if someone else with this issue could try deleting only the Keychain entries, or only doing the 'clean' reinstall; reboot & see how that goes. See if we can figure whether it's the 'clean' reinstall or the keychain deletion that actually fixes it.

Note: This machine has a complete line-of-sight migration path back to my first OS X Mac in 2005 & some data from before that, when I migrated from OS 9. Skype has been on it since it was invented, so I may have a whole lot more historic cruft than most people.

Try to reinstall the Skype.
It helps me.


Print from iPad without AirPrint or Wi-Fi Consider the following configuration

I have a Wi-Fi iPad without 3G support.
I also have an HP printer that doesn't not have Wi-Fi capabilities.
My printer supports USB.
I am planning to buy a 3G Wi-Fi Router.

I understand, in order to print from my iPad to a printer I need an AirPrint-compatible printer. I am also aware that for certain selected printers (let say mine is one of those privilege) you can use iOS Apps from OEM such that you can print from your iPad. But even to use it, I need a Wi-Fi enabled printer.

I am planning to purchase a 3G Wi-Fi router so that I can connect my iPad outside a Wi-Fi network.

Now from here I was wondering, if I can use such a 3G Wi-Fi router which suppose has a USB Port to connect my printer and provide me the option to print from my iPad?

Note
I am not sure if this question fits in Ask Different as my target device is an Apple Device but even then there is more than that this question would cover. So in case if you feel this question fits there, feel free to migrate.

To print to your HP printer using AirPrint you will need some kind of AirPrint server.  It is not enough to just get network connectivity to the printer, you need some software running somewhere to handle some of the communication details.  It is conceivable that someone makes a 3G WiFi router that includes AirPrint support but I think is unlikely.

Probably your best bet is to run AirPrint software on the computer that is connected to the HP printer so that computer can act as the AirPrint server.  You can get NetGear Genie for free (though I removed it because the version I used with the OS version I was running caused my computer to crash with kernel panics, but maybe that's fixed now) or something like handyPrint (never tried it).

If you don't have an AirPrint compatible printer you can use the app, Print Hub, which supports printing every filetype I've tried, has the option to connect to Dropbox, lets you edit photos before printing and it's only $0.99!

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/print-hub/id612603224?mt=8


Install Windows on MacBook Pro without Optical or USB Boot I have a Mid-2010 MacBook Pro (MacBookPro6,1) and my optical drive has died. I need to install Windows on it, and was hoping to do so via Boot Camp.

I have a Windows 7x32 .iso and have also created a (nominally, untested) bootable USB stick via the Windows 7 USB/DVD Download Tool. Using the tip on this page I can mount the disk image locally and get Boot Camp to create the Boot Camp partition, but when I reboot I see "No bootable device -- insert boot disk and press any key". Presumably this is because I cannot boot from USB on this older model MacBook Pro.

I've purchased Paragon NTFS in the naïve hope that creating a NTFS partition and copying the ISO or bootable USB to that would work, and tried using rEFIt to boot from such devices. In both cases the end result is a black screen with flashing underline, but no further message.

I also have an external drive (USB and FW800) that I can format and partition in any way that might be helpful.

Is there any way I can get Boot Camp/Windows 7 working on this machine…other than replacing my optical drive with one that works?

You can boot from an external USB drive from this MacBook Pro. Use bootcamp to copy the ISO on a 8Gig (or more) USB Drive. Then boot from it by pressing option at the boot chime.

I'd highly recommend installing Windows on virtual machines like VMWare or Parallel Desktop. These applications would let you choose the ISO file on Mac OS X hard drive for installing. The performance is decent for regular tasks, unless you're looking for a gaming platform.

If you'd insist to install Windows on Bootcamp, you can create a bootable Windows 7 installer media on a USB flash drive.


How do I turn off App Store notifications in Mountain Lion The App Store on Mountain Lion pushes update notifications through Notification Center. Unfortunately, this also happens for users that are not system administrators (and so cannot run the App Store). How can I turn this off?

Notification Center has preferences, where applications can be vetted, but App Store does not appear in this list.

You can now simply go to System Preferences > App Store, and turn off "Automatically check for updates."

No messing with firewalls, and just works with App Store. So just remember to check every now and then manually to find out when you have updates!

Try: System Preferences, App Store, and turn Automatic Updates off. Simple


Can I use my Mac's speakers and AirPlay / Bluetooth at the same time? I have an iMac at my home office that I'm often playing music on from the output speakers. I also have an AirPort Express with a speaker connectable to via AirPlay / Bluetooth. I was wondering, is there any way to play my music from the standard output on my iMac, and at the same time, play it from my AirPort Express using AirPlay or Bluetooth?

Reference:

iMac 27" Late 2013 running OS X 10.11.3

AirPort Express Dual-band 802.11n

Try using the midi setup application included in OS X it can let you group sound outputs together. You just need to create a new multi-output group with the + button.

If you're using iTunes to play music, it's actually much easier than that, and doesn't require any other software.

In iTunes, click on the Airplay icon next to the volume control, click "Multiple" and select the devices you wish to play through.


How do I make more space on a Macbook air? I have a bunch of files that I don't need. I'm wondering what's taking up all the space. I am tempted to almost format the laptop and start fresh.

What can I do to find out what is taking up all the disk space in my Macbook?

I suggest using a tool like Space Gremlin to identify files eating up your disk space.
https://itunes.apple.com/de/app/space-gremlin/id414515628?mt=12
http://www.spacegremlinapp.com/

Did you check your "About this Mac" and the tab "Other"?
All the files that are not in one of the listed categories.

This article talks about what is other and how to clean your mac safely


Can I replace my charger twice if its under warranty? I have a problem: due to high power electricity my charger was damaged and I had to replace it - an Apple 13 inch MacBook Air charger. This has happened already once before, a month ago, and now it has happened again.

I want to know if, having replaced the charger previously one or two months ago, and now that the replacement charger has been damaged via the same issue (i.e. high power electricity), can I replace it again under warranty without any cost? What can I do if the Apple Care Centre in my city refuses to replace my charger the second time around?

I have no idea what you mean by High power electricity, but generally Apple will replace something as many times as necessary while it's under the warranty period so long as you haven't damaged it in some way.

Your question implies that your chargers were not faulty, so if Apple determines that they've been damaged, you may be out of luck. However, if the chargers are supposed to be able to manage whatever it is you mean by High power electricity, then they should still be covered as something isn't working properly.

Of course, this assumes that by damaged you mean it no longer works, rather than just some sort change in cosmetic appearance.

Regardless, the only way to find out is to ask Apple. If you get no joy and feel that a replacement is honestly warranted, then your local consumer laws may offer a process you can avail yourself of.

Apple returned and replaced with new one :)


Is it possible to get digital audio output from a MacBook Air (2011), like on other Macs? I know the audio line-out port on the MacBook Pro – and even older MacBooks and the Mac mini – sport a dual capability: in addition to providing the expected and obvious 3.5mm analog stereo audio output, the port is capable of digital optical audio output.

Then by using a Mini-TOSLINK cable, it is possible to connect such a Mac to an A/V receiver (or a dedicated DAC, if you're really into this kind of thing) and thereby enjoy fully digital audio from the Mac.

Sadly, I also understand the MacBook Air does not enjoy this dual-purpose audio output port.  I tried, and I checked the specs, and I was disappointed it is simply plain analog stereo.  So, what I'd like to know is:

Is it possible, using a third-party device, to produce digital audio output from a MacBook Air?  I'm wondering if this may be possible via USB or the Thunderbolt port.  Do such devices exist?

Yes its possible and here is an example of a USB to Digital audio output adapter, just like the ones found on other Macs, but external.

Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Micro II USB Analog & Digital Audio Adapter

Have connected using usb A-B and Macbook air 2012. Now sound. What player are you using in the Mac. I used iTunes/Apple music


How does Apple Watch backup work? Does the Apple Watch use the same mechanics of the iPhone in terms of backup data in the cloud?

For example, if for any reason, such as password forgot or whatever you need to reset to factory setting the apple watch, can you make a restore from a backup or do you need to sync again all the info from the Apple Watch app on your iPhone? How does it work?

I am pretty sure that I understood that when the Apple Watch is paired with the iPhone it continuously sync data with the iPhone and the iPhone itself does the cloud back up, but I would like to know more about it.

Yes, the Watch uses basically the same mechanics as the iPhone, since it more or less piggybacks it's backup with the iPhone's backup.

In your given example you would likely want to first unpair the Watch in the Apple Watch app on your iPhone.  You might notice that the unpair process takes a while (a minute or two) compared to unpairing of other bluetooth devices, this is because the Watch automatically backs up to the iPhone when unpairing is initiated.  When you pair the Watch back to the iPhone you will be prompted to set it up as new or restore from a backup, similar to how an iPhone asks when you first set it up.

Source - Just had this conversation with an Apple Genius yesterday when dropping my Watch off for service.

This Apple KB article explains this as well - HT204518 Back up your Apple Watch

Check this Apple's official document in-order to know how backup works and how it can be done: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT204518


How to add MySQL to $PATH variable to resolve "mysql: command not found"? I installed MySQL on my Mac, and now I would like to add it to my $PATH variable. I want to be able to type mysql anywhere.

I tried adding the following to my .profile file:

export PATH=${PATH}/usr/local/mysql/bin/

I have restarted my Terminal but it does not do the trick. It still says: -bash: mysql: command not found.

How can I add this properly to my $PATH?

I am using OS X Yosemite.

Here is why your current code is not working:
export PATH=${PATH}/usr/local/mysql/bin/

You forgot the colon and the trailing "/" is unnecessary.
export PATH=${PATH}:/usr/local/mysql/bin

is the correct code.

edit the system wide configuration file:

/etc/paths


Disabling Preview's "sliding" animation The pages of my pdf presentation add incremental changes to the first page. The second page, for instance, consists of the diagram on the first page in addition to a few more lines. This way a complex figure can be introduced gradually.

But Preview now "slides" each page, which defeats the effect I am after (a few changes just appear). Instead the audience is treated to a distracting effect.

Is there a way to disable the fancy sliding and go back to replacing pages?

You can use ⌥ + ↓/↑ or ⌥ + ←/→ to navigate pages without the sliding effect.

Um...If you go to "View" then click "Continuous Scroll", everything should go back to normal.


Calendar won't let me add new events on my iPhone Suddenly my iPhone won't let me add new events to my calendar. In the upper right hand corner of the 'month' calendar there are 3 symbols.

A rectangular box with 2 lines underneath.
A magnify glass.
A '+'
The first two are red and active
The third one is gray and inactive.

I've read solutions to problems from others, but nothing has helped.
I also have and iPad, and the calendar on it works fine. I have compared settings on both products, and they seem to be set the same way.

I had the same problem, went into the calendar, tapped on "Calendars" in the bottom center, here there were two calendars listed - holidays, and birthdays.  I pulled down on these items (like scrolling, the screen refreshed then showed 5 calendars.  From some reason I-cloud was not selected, I selected this and all the calendars listed became active.

I went back to the calendar view (by month) and am now able to add events.

BTW, none of the other options I have tried worked, only this method.  Under general settings both my iCloud and Yahoo calendars were active, but under the actual program they were not.  Don't waste your time in the general settings change it from the program.

I had the same problem on my Iphone 5c.  I went to the plus sign like I was going to add a new event.  The scrolled down to where it says 'calendar."  Nextto it was the word home.  I cicked the arrow and it gave me the option to choose "calendar."  I did and it is now adding the events to my calendar, but I have to choose it every time.  I need to figure out how to make it permanent so every event is added without me having to change that setting each time.

Hope this helps you!


Using LaTeX and SVN on iPad I'm used to write technical documents with LaTeX and use SVN as version system.

I really would like to be able to do the same with my iPad.

The first problem is found a good App for LaTeX

I found some of them bu they are not cheap and I don't want to spend 8$ each one just for finding out the best one.  Does someone can point me to the best one from thee followings or other I don't know?

Tex Touch
TeX Writer
Texpad

A good App should have the following features:

Local compilation (there are some Apps which send data to a Server which returns the compiled PDF)
Support for documents splitted in multiple files
Support for images

The second problem is found a good SVN client

The SVN client should allow me to check out a project an do commits and updates.

Having a LaTeX Apps which allows me to open and edit the files downloaded with the SVN client would be already great.

Having a LaTeX App which integrates SVN support would be a dream.

Dis someone had the same problem? How did you solve it?

Please, go to read tweets in Twitter under #texwriter. You can find a lot of this type of questions. Anyway I recommend TexWriter. You may find my writing useful here where I mention my favourite apps and how I write LaTex in iPad -- confessing: I like to use Git instead of SVN, I use DropBox and my laptop for commiting -- I don't know yet any better way for this.

TeXWriter: Tex -app with builtin compiler

  It is the best app currently in the market although buggy but getting better. I have tested all of them and Texpad and Tex Touch are more slow/buggy -- and without the builtin compiler. TexWriter is the only app with the compiler builtin -- and you can find a growing community around it in Twitter and some here -- we want to make it better!

Use Git instead of SVN

  Most cool things appear in Git such as Git-Annex here. Instead of DropBox, this may be a promising candidate. I haven't tested it but it claimns to be some sort of replacement. For now on, you may want to use Git inside DropBox before getting Git-annex -working.

I have been using scribtex for some time now and am quite satisfied. It is on the web and you are given lots of space free. The editor is not too good but then, if you know enough of Latex, you can write the entire document in Evernote or Plain Text (both free apps for iPad) and then paste it in the scribtex editor and compile it to see the result. All these are free. Like you, I am also a bit skeptical about the paid apps and scribtex is working out quite well for me.


Disabling Voice Control, or at least muting it (iOS 10) I have an iPhone 6S recently updated to iOS 10.0.1.

Holding the Home button for about 1 second activates Voice Control, with a characteristic loud double beep.  This is very easy to activate accidentally, which is especially undesirable if I am trying to discreetly check my phone during a meeting or something.  It's also easy to accidentally push the button when the phone is in my pocket (and locked).

I have no interest in actually using Voice Control at all, and it's very important to me that my phone not make unwanted noise.

Is it possible to:

Disable Voice Control entirely?
Stop it from beeping when activated?  (It doesn't respect the hardware Mute switch.)
Reduce the volume of the beep?  (It doesn't seem to respect the ringer volume.)
Prevent Voice Control from activating when the phone is locked?  (I would also prefer that unauthorized people not be able to use its features.)

I saw Disable voice control on iPhone 4s, ios7.1 which suggests turning on Siri.  Indeed, Siri has options to disable access on lock screen, and to turn off "voice feedback", making it silent.  But for privacy reasons I do not want to enable Siri.

Since that question relates to much older versions of hardware and software, I am hoping that something has changed since then.  (Also, unlike in that question, my Home button works fine physically.)

As of iOS 10.2.1 (maybe as early as 10.2), it is possible to disable Voice Control.

Settings > General > Accessibility > Home Button

There is a setting PRESS AND HOLD TO SPEAK.  Set this to Off.  The descriptive text is "There will be no response when you press and hold the Home button."

I would like to thank Bob Briscoe for providing this answer, which he received from Apple Support. Since the question is protected, he cannot post an answer himself, so I am posting on his behalf.

You either have Siri on, but remove her access to the home screen, or you have voice control on the home screen. There are no currently options to disable both.

With Siri on but no access to the home screen you won't have the pinging, but you'll have to live knowing Siri knows everything about you. If you disable her, the voice control ping comes back to the home screen. Hopefully Apple updates this garbage "update" soon.


How to preserve portrait mode of iPhone recording in iMovie and Final Cut Pro? If an iPhone screen recording, which is 1080 x 1920 (portrait size) is edited in iMovie or Final Cut Pro, and resaved as a final video, I noticed the video will be landscape: 1920 x 1080 with black bars at left and right.

It isn't a problem if viewed on a desktop computer, but if viewed in any mobile phone, then, the left and right black bars will "push" the video to be really tiny, about 1/9 of the screen size.

Is there a way to "preserve" the video as portrait: 1080 x 1920, so that there is no black bars, and so the video will be shown on mobile phone as the original 100% screen size, instead of 1/9 of screen?

(iMovie's crop must crop it as landscape size, and Final Cut's crop can do a crop, except when "Share" as file, the file saved is landscape size again.)

I can think of one way which is to use HandBrakeCLI to do a crop, but then can it and how can it be done in iMovie / Final Cut Pro?

I had this problem just last night, editing portrait iPhone X video in iMovie. Here’s how I got around it:

In iMovie, when I added my video clips and titles and such to the timeline, I used the ‘Cropping’ edit panel to rotate them all 90° anti-clockwise. It’s weird editing video that’s lying on its side, but I got used to it.

After exporting from iMovie to a .mov file, I used Handbrake to transcode it to a smaller .mp4 file (which I usually do anyway). In Handbrake’s ‘Picture’ tab there’s a ‘Rotate’ filter; I used that to rotate it back 90° clockwise.

I’m sure you could do something similar on the command line with FFMPEG too.

You should be able to set the resolution (0x0) in the project settings or the timeline settings.


How to play or pause multiple instances of VLC simultaneously? I have 3 open VLC windows and whenever I see movement in one I need to pause all of them at once. Ideally I'd like a keyboard shortcut to do this. I tried AppleScript but I'm not familiar with the language and I can't see how to iterate through all processes of an application and tell each one individually.

This will check for all instances of VLC and pause any of the instances that are currently playing something. Let me know if something unexpected happens! To create the shortcut, follow these steps:

Open Automator and create an Service, with a single Run AppleScript action, containing the following code:

tell application "System Events" to repeat with VLC_instance in (application processes whose name is "VLC")
    tell the menu "Playback" of the first menu bar of VLC_instance
        if the menu item "Pause" exists then
            click menu item "Pause"
        else if the menu item "Play" exists then
            click menu item "Play"
        end if
    end tell
end repeat

Set the service to receive "no input" and to work in "VLC" or "any application", if you want to ensure you can use the shortcut from anywhere. Save it with a name of your choosing.
Now, go into the Shortcuts tab in the Keyboard preferences in System Preferences, and click on Services. The newly created service should be at the bottom, under the name you chose. Click on the service, then click on "add shortcut", and specify a shortcut to your liking.
You may have to allow Automator access in Accessibility in the Privacy tab of the Security and Privacy preferences.

That's it! You should now have a service set up, tied to the shortcut you chose that can be accessed from anywhere.

When you have one VLC "active" (in front of you) hit CMD+Q and it is ended.
And so with the next active one.


Is it safe to delete my Time Machine sparse bundle? Can a fresh one be recreated? Is it safe to delete my Time Machine sparse bundle file? Can a fresh time machine backup be recreated WITHOUT reformatting the drive or affecting any other files on my external Time Machine drive?

My time machine backups stopped a month ago and nothing I do will get the backups to continue as usual.  The drive is 25% full.  I don't know what to do.  The way I look at it, the best option might be to delete the sparse bundle entirely and just start a fresh sparse bundle, right?   This seems logical to me but I cannot find any advice anywhere to affirm my belief.

I am afraid to choose the "Delete backup disk" option in the Time Machine applet because, while I want it to delete my sparse bundle, I am afraid it will take the liberties of deleting all content on the "drive".   That would be disastrous since I also use the drive for a important file share.   I'm also afraid to delete the sparse bundle because I don't know exactly how it works.

Can anyone provide advice?  I cannot find any advice on this specific subject anwhere.

As long as you don't care about anything in the backup being gone, yes it is safe to remove the sparsebundle.

Disable Time Machine first. Instead of deleting the whole bundle at once:

Right-click and choose Show Package Contents.
Open the bands folder.
Select a large number of bands (8000 at a time seems to be good from what I read) and move those to the trash.
Repeat until all bands have been deleted, then delete the main sparsebundle file.

The way that worked best for me was to shut down the mac and start a linux computer.  If you do the same thing in Ubuntu there are two benefits compared to mac:

You can feel relaxed and not have to worry about Time Machine starting automatically which will lock up the process and force you to start over.
Finder never showed a progress bar, even when I tried with a small amount of files.  Nautilus (the Ubuntu equivalent), on the other hand, has a nice little wheel that shows the overall status when you delete files and folders.

Everything went smoothly in Ubuntu and even command-line was easy to work with despite the thousands of files in the "bands" folder.


Writing to plist file multiple preferences same time I need to write about 50 preferences to a .plist file. Is there any way to write just once to plist file? My current code has 50 defaults write lines.

do shell script "defaults write testing.testing mypref " & "Kjlk"
do shell script "defaults write testing.testing otherpref " & "something"
do shell script "defaults write testing.testing thirdpref " & "whateva"
...

Mac's default command is not designed to work like that.

You will see a substantial speedup by having Applescript make (or call) one shell script to issue all 50 commands. You can wrap both versions of the script in a date call or use the time function to time the shell script if you are not sure where the delay lies on your Mac.

The vast majority of the delay will likely be Applescript looping and then forking each an environment for each script to be executed. By writing one script, not only will the startup be reduced to 1/50 of the time, it will likely execute far faster overall.

If you really wanted to, you could write yourself a function to parse multiple inputs; but it's probably easier for you just to have 50 lines of shell script.

If you really wanted to, you could write yourself a function to parse multiple inputs

Thanks. I think i will create one shell script.

I have no idea what above quote means.


How to recover iPod touch 2G stuck on green screen and Apple logo? I have an iPod Touch 2G, I have been trying to switch it on for a few days but it won't. When I plug it in my laptop a green screen appears then it is stuck on the apple logo. I tried to start it in DFU mode but I see nothing at all on the screen then when I plug it in there is the Apple logo.

What steps can I do to recover from this situation?

I have been able to start the ipod in DFU mode and restore it with iTunes and now it starts up again but half the screen is dead.

it simpal , when struck log came appear just click power button for 3 sec then hold home button and relese the power button and hold home button until restore on itunes came up for restore for you press shift key and restore from itunes , provid ios file n enjoy


Iterm2 disable Command shortcuts I use Iterm2 on the Mac. Many times, I accidentally press Command+some key, so I'm wondering, is it possible to disable the Command shortcuts? Like Command+D for example, as I use tmux for split panes.

You'll want to override iTerm's default shortcuts with your own shortcuts to "Ignore".

Go to Preferences > Key and press the + button at the bottom of the Global Shortcut Keys:

Then add an entry for Cmd+K and choose "Ignore" for the action:

This disables Cmd+K.

You could just go to Preferences > Keys and manually delete every shortcut with Cmd.


Switching between open pdfs in Preview without losing your place If I have multiple PDFs open in preview, as shown with the "table of contents" sidebar, if I click on one of the other documents and then return to the current document, it returns me to page 1 instead of the page I'm on (in this case, page 9). Is there any way to have preview return me to the page I'm on?

AFAIK only with a work-around:

add a bookmark with cmdD in your currently visible PDF
choose another PDF read a bit and add a second bookmark there
switch to bookmark view with altcmd5
choose the bookmark of your first PDF in the sidebar
You may delete the bookmark using the context menu

Option+Page Up/Down. Or on a Macbook, Fn + Option + Arrow Up/Down


Is there an iOS app that measures/reports the battery charging current? I suspect my fake lightening cable charge my iPhone 5 much slower than my original lightening cable on the same charger. Is there an app that will display the current battery draw/charging current and also plot it over time?

The battery doctor HD app by KS moblie tells me the charging current for my iPad 2.  However the battery doctor app for iPhone 4s does not appear to give this information.


Avg load goes up after upgrading to Mavericks Just upgraded to OSX 10.9 Mavericks. Everything is good and shiny. However, when I open my iTerm to code, I notice that the performance is lower. If I run a uptime command, the average loading is always bigger than 1 even if I run almost no other user process. Before the upgrade, the number is usually near 0.

Anybody got the same problem? Any idea how to solve it (except rollback to 10.8)?

Finally found the culprit. I'm using zsh and the plugin vi-mode from Oh-my-zsh interacts poorly with git tools. Disabling the plugin made my zsh usable again in terms of responsiveness and reducing CPU load.

There are conflicting reports whether Apple's git needs to be upgraded and you can follow that process at https://github.com/robbyrussell/oh-my-zsh/issues/2189

Still many thanks for all the people reply to the answer.

Just now, an iTerm2 update arrived that fixes this exact issue for me.

  iTerm2 1.0.0.20131108

  Mavericks fixes and performance improvements.

  Fix bug where arrange horizontally computed the wrapping position incorrectly if the screen's visible frame wasn't 0
  Set coprocess file descriptors nonblocking to avoid deadlock in bug 2576
  Revert to old text drawing methods
  Fix bug where the char under the cursor wasn't drawn
  Fix bug where cursor blinked while moving
  Fix crash in tmux with line drawing characters.
  Fix a bug where a session would split using its old profile after its profile was changed.
  Improve how font width is computed.
  Fix occasional hang when a session terminates.
  Hide menu bar on all screens in Mavericks in non-Lion fullscreen mode.
  Speed up drawing in instant replay.
  Update instructions for enabling access for asssitive devices on Mavericks.
  Changes how text is drawn for improved performance.


Backing up a Boot Camp partition I see in the Time Machine options that my Boot Camp partition is excluded. I haven't even tried to remove it from the list of exceptions since I have read that Time Machine will not work with NTFS partitions. Assuming Time Machine won't work with said partition, what is the easiest way to back it up?

Ideally, the solution would work like Time Machine. The problem I anticipate is that I would need a second disk (formatted as NTFS) to hold the Boot Camp backup--or maybe I could also bi-partition my external hard drive and make an NTFS partition to store the Boot Camp backup? That way I would not need a second physical disk plugged in.

What are your thoughts on backing up Boot Camp partitions? Thanks.

You should back up your Windows partition while booted into Windows, using Windows-compatible backup software, and you must backup to an external drive that is NTFS-formatted, whether it is over Ethernet, USB, FireWire or whatever else you can work out. Do not try to use a physical hard drive that has one partition formatted for Mac or Time Machine, and another partition formatted for NTFS. Use a completely separate hard drive.

Don't try to back your BootCamp Windows system up using Mac OS X outside Windows. You might figure out how to back up some files, but you will not be able to create a bootable "bare-metal restore" image, like those people in Windows-land call it.

Windows Vista and Windows 7 have a good built-in Backup utility that can make a full disk image for a full restore, but only to a hard drive that is NTFS-only. They can also do incremental/differential file backups in a separate procedure. And there are many third-party backup software solutions for Windows, such as Acronis.

  Trust me, you will not want to try to do this using an Apple Time Capsule or a drive that has a partition that is formatted for Apple Time Machine. A couple of years ago I actually worked out a procedure for doing this using unsupported features on the Time Capsule, and I regretted it, because it interfered tremendously with my Mac Time Machine files when I needed to do a full restore on my Mac partition on my MacBook Pro.

CarbonCopyCloner is free, and can make a backup of any disk, including Bootcamp.

It doesn't work exactly the same as time machine, you will not be able to see every version of every file ever backed up. It's a good choice to create a backup copy of almost any disk.

Edit: As pointed out by Alrescha, CCC cannot make a bootable copy of a windows partition. But it will still make a backup copy of all your files on the windows partition, so it's not completely useless.


Is the length of Facetime calls made with Apple Watch recorded? If I make a Facetime audio call with my Apple Watch, is there a record of the time date and length of that call stored on the iPhone.

It will, as you call with your phone to make the call.


What does (MM) mean in the iPad model lineup? While looking at iPad models, I notice several showing as (MM).

In particular, the 4th generation iPad mini with Cellular has models A1454 and
A1455 with the latter being labeled (MM). The same exists for A1459/A1460 on the larger iPad with a Retina display.

What does MM represent?

I do not have a direct link or citation on/about Apple to prove my conclusion. But the most logical answer I could gather by reading several sites is that MM would stand for "Multi-mode", signifying that the iPad supports not just CDMA and GSM, but also multiple LTE implementations. The term "multimode" or "multi-mode" is used to designate chips/devices that support multiple, disparate communication technologies (a device with WiFi and Bluetooth can be called multimode too, but we're talking only about cellular here. Plus, all of Apple's iDevices have had WiFi and Bluetooth in all models).

Only the GSM + CDMA + LTE models that support multiple carriers have the "MM" tag.
Example: The 4th generation iPad and the iPad mini have models that support CDMA/GSM/LTE on Verizon and Sprint. So they're marked as "Cellular (MM)" to give them a more substantial (and carrier neutral) name.
The GSM + CDMA + LTE models in older generations that support only Verizon have a "VZ" tag instead of the "MM" tag.
Example: The 3rd generation iPad, the first iPad to come with support for both CDMA and GSM on a single device, has a CDMA/GSM/LTE Verizon model, but it does not support Sprint. So it's marked as "Cellular (VZ)" to signify that it's tied to Verizon (and cannot work with another CDMA carrier like Sprint).

In Apple's current terminology:
"Cellular" implies GSM+LTE
"Cellular (MM)" implies GSM+CDMA+LTE (across CDMA carriers)

Note that there is no "CDMA only" version of the iPad after the iPad 2, unlike "GSM only" versions that have been and continue to be available.

You can come to similar conclusions by comparing the cellular support across iPad models/generations and how they relate to the chipsets used, the carriers supported, and their technology implementations.

Here are some links related to the iPad specs across generations and multi-mode (as it applies to cellular technology) that would help understand my conclusion better.

Technical specifications for iPads of different generations (pay attention to the technologies/carriers supported):
1. iPad (4th Generation) - Technical Specifications
2. iPad mini - Technical Specifications
2. iPad (3rd Generation) - Technical Specifications
3. iPad 2 - Technical Specifications

Links related to multi-mode (read them completely or search for "mode" to go to multimode related snippets on these pages):
1. Multi-band and multi-mode phones, Multi-mode and multi-band mobile phones
2. Cell phone bands and modes
3. Qualcomm Fifth Generation Gobi Platform
4. A rare look inside an LTE cell site
5. Sprint - multimodal hardware rollout
6. Intel previews multimode LTE chips


Application keeps bouncing on dock and won't open I have a game (Borderlands 2: Game of the Year edition) directly purchased through the App Store. I've been playing this game for a month until it started to have this error everytime I launch it: the application just keeps bouncing on the dock and does not open even for an hour of waiting. Force Quit option do not work but when I click on the "bouncing" icon on the dock, it disappears. The application is not the "Force Quit application" list when I hit command + option + esc. Any workaround on this error?

Disclaimer: I do not own Borderlands 2 and so I cannot predict what the results of this process will be. Your safest bet is to go the Mac App Store page for Borderlands 2 and use the Borderlands 2 Support link. All Mac App Store apps are required to have a ‘support’ link, although some are more useful than others. The one for Borderlands 2 looks like it will lead to actual, official support, so I suggest you try that first.

That being said, the following is the troubleshooting technique that I use when trying to figure out why a Mac App Store app won’t launch.

Use at your own risk, etc. Remember that I’m just some guy on the Internet (allegedly!) giving you free, un-guaranteed advice. I almost always have a complete, recent, fully bootable backup on my Mac just in case something goes wrong. So should you, especially before mucking around with stuff.

1) Quit The App

We’re going to be moving the app’s preferences file, and you don’t want to do that when it is running. That would be a bad idea.

2) Use the Finder:

Use the Go → Go to Folder menu item

Enter ~/Library/Containers/ as shown here:

Click “Go” (or press Enter) and you will see all of the various “Containers” used on your Mac.

n.b.: Tread carefully. Apple hides the ~/Library/ folder because mucking around in there can cause problems.

This is what mine looks like:

Yours will look different but similar. Hopefully you will be able to tell which one goes to the you are trying to fix.

I am going to use com.multimarkdown.composer.mac (MultiMarkdown Composer 2) just because it’s easier to work with a specific example.

Find the “Saved Application State” folder for the app which will not open.

You will find it inside the app’s “Container” folder (above) → Data → Library → Saved Application State

Inside that folder will be one more, which ends with “.savedState” and contains the information used to restore the windows which were open when you quit the app.

Move that folder to the Desktop, or even the Trash if you want. Then re-launch the misbehaving app.

If it still won’t launch I’d repeat the process but instead look inside the ”Preferences” folder instead of ”Saved Application State” and I’d look for the file which doesn’t look like a link or an alias (in this case, com.multimarkdown.composer.mac.plist) and I would copy that file to the Desktop or the Trash, understanding that I was effectively deleting all of my saved preferences. Then re-launch the misbehaving app.

If that didn’t work, well, then I’d probably do something desperate like move the app’s entire folder from ~/Library/Containers/ (such as ~/Library/Containers/com.multimarkdown.composer.mac/) to the Desktop or the Trash and try one last time.

After that I might even delete the app and download it again from the Mac App Store.

(If you need to see any of the images in a larger size you can find them all at http://media.tjluoma.com/askdifferent/116501/.)

my friend is having the same problem with league of legends. It helped when he reinstalled it.


Can I automate location changing so I don't have to drive the choice manually? Wondering is anyone knows of an application that can change settings on my Macbook Pro depending on the wireless networks it detects?

Ie, If I was at work, connect to the Work Wireless, Change default printer, chance location, change wallpaper etc.

I seem to remember seeing an app at one stage, however after much Googling I cannot find it.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

AirPort Location** takes snapshots of the system settings you select and re-applies them the next time you use your machine at that location.

** Update Oct 2016: Airport location appears to be no longer maintained, but still available at [MacUpdate.com][2]. It may be limited to older versions of OS-X. The same site suggests [ControlPlane][3] provides similar functionality; I have not used it.

There is one more alternative: Locader, right now it changes wallpaper only, but in the future more location based functions will be available.

You can set different places, and when you're there, wallpaper will be changed to the one, that you selected.


Accessing temporarily Another User's directories by entering his User ID and Password in Mac I've two user accounts in my mac, One for me and other for my friend. When friend is using the MacBook and he needs some file from me, for that I've to login into my account and share the file by file sharing or USB data traveller. It takes time. What I want is, when my friend needs some file from my account, I should just double click on a folder in finder within my account under Users and finder ask my login id and password and grant me access on entering right password. How can I do so?

There are several options:

First, set up a shared folder on your account (or both if you need both way) so that every file you'll copy there will be visible from your friend account.
You already have a public folder which can accomplish this.
Next, you can enable fast user switch from Preferences > Users & Groups > Login Options. Doing so, you'll have login controls in the right side of the menu bar. You just need to login, copy the files in the public folder and logout.

Even faster, open the Terminal (Applications > Utility > Terminal), and type

su YourUsername

it will ask for password. Enter it, and you will be logged on the shell with your account. From here, browse the folders and find the files you need (cd foldername to enter a folder, cp filesource filedestination to copy). Then logout with exit. Example:

Mac:~ Jack$ su epistrephein
Password:
bash-3.2$ cd Downloads
bash-3.2$ cp picture6.jpg ~/Public/picture6.jpg
bash-3.2$ exit
Mac:~ Jack$

Or share via Dropbox or a similar service


How do I add Unix executables to the Parental Controls 'Allowed Apps' whitelist? One example is some of Karabiner's executables, I get popups saying "You don't have permission to use the application "karabiner_grabber." as well as karabiner_console_user_server and a few others. They all appear to be located in /Library/Application Support/org.pqrs/Karabiner-Elements/bin.

If I select 'Always Allow' on the popup, it just comes up again within about 15 seconds.

The executables don't appear under the list in Preferences > Parental Controls > Apps > Limit Applications on this Mac > Allowed Apps

I can drag them in from Finder, but they disappear if I exit the preferences then go back in.

You could take the approach suggested here.
Open the terminal, then switch to your child's user account with:
su - [username here].
Go to the bin directory you mentioned above:
cd /Library/Application Support/org.pqrs/Karabiner-Elements/bin
Then, give all users permission to execute all the files in the bin directory:
chmod a+x *


Need clarification on macOS proxy configuration settings I'm attempting to configure the proxy settings for a MacBook to work in my office. My company uses a proxy pac file and provided me the URL, what I am unclear about is the other options. I confirmed we dont have WPAD setup, so I assume that there is no reason to enable Auto Proxy Discovery. Additionally, when I check the proxy.pac file, I can see that there are a number of domains and ip address ranges that are configured to bypass the proxy, so my assumption is that I dont need to modify the "Bypass proxy settings for these Hosts & Domains" section, would that be used if my company didnt have a pac file and I was entering the proxy server address for Web Proxy and Secure Web Proxy?

Appreciate any insight that can be provided, I'm really looking to understand the various settings and options and which should be used in conjunction because Mac support is non-existent so I will be supporting myself.

Thanks!

if you a .pac file. u can use it with the following syntax https://ip_addr:port/proxy.pac [or could] in Firfox. The section just below the manual proxy settings.
hope helps


What's your strategy for archiving emails in Mail.app? Do you archive your Sent & Trashed emails too? I'm using Mail.app + IMAP email accounts for my email. I want to be able to archive all my email and make them searchable.

Currently I copy the previous month's email from my IMAP folders to local folders called 2010, 2011, etc. However I don't copy my Sent email, so I'm wondering what's the best way to archive them as well. Any suggestions? Please share!

I'd like a method that doesn't involve Gmail if possible, as I'm not a big fan of the company and the service.

I use Mail app's "smart mailboxes" instead of copying and moving the actual messages in Mail.
For example, to archive July 2011:

create a new smart mailbox,
name it "Mail Archive July 2011" or whatever,
set the find criteria to "Date Received is in the date range 1 Jul 2011 to 31 Jul 2011",
you will probably want to check the "Include messages from Sent"
Hit okay and in a moment you have a folder contain all of July's email
Right-click the smart mailbox and choose the "Archive" option and save.

After this you have the option of keeping the smart folder or deleting it. Spotlight (in OS 10.6.8) searches the .mbox archives Mail produces, so your archive remains searchable.

There are many options, but I recommend the module archiving emails OpenKM. Because allows us to use the repository as a document management system to store messages massively. The mail file is an automated process for the preservation and protection of all emails.


Best way to stream videos and music from my iPhone to my TV? So I got a samsung galaxy s advance and found out that it can stream stored music and videos wirelessly (via WIFI) to my TV. It is very efficient with no buffering time and full HD quality.
I use an AppleTV for my iPhone, however the connection keeps dropping (the icon disappears), the buffering time takes ages to load a video stored in my iPhone, and the whole experience is very dissatisfying.

Is there another way (through an App or Cydia app) that allows streaming similar to the Galaxy S ?? I have a jailbroken iPhone so I can use cydia.

Thanks

Well, this is one of those things where there's 101 ways to do it and it's just trial and error to see which works best for you. You could try wired connections using an HDMI cable  or composite AV from your iphone to your TV, or there's a variety of aftermarket apps that may work better for you. I've detailed some ideas below:

Connect With HDMI

You'll need to purchase an adaptor for this option.

Plug the adapter into your device’s 30-pin iPod connector.
Plug one end of an HDMI cable into the HDMI port of the adapter, and
the other end into an available HDMI port on your TV.
Switch your TV to the appropriate HDMI input. For earlier models
such as the iPhone 4, the original iPad, or the fourth-generation
iPod Touch, the display won’t be mirrored, but it will show photos
and videos in supported apps once you start playing them on the
device.

Connect With Composite AV

If your TV doesn’t support HDMI, or if it doesn’t have an available connection, you can link your device to the set through an analog connection, using an Apple Composite AV cable.

Plug the adapter into your device’s 30-pin iPod connector.
Plug the yellow video cable at the end of the adapter into an
available analog video port on your TV.
Plug the red and white audio cables at the end of the adapter into
the red and white audio ports corresponding to the yellow video
input on your TV.
Tune your TV to the appropriate composite video input. The display
won’t be mirrored, but it will show photos and videos in supported
apps once you start playing them on the device.

Connect Wirelessly via Airplay

Apple developed a wireless technology called AirPlay specifically for streaming content from iOS devices to other devices that support it.

Make sure that your iPhone is on the same wireless network as your
other AirPlay devices.
On your iPhone, double-tap the Home button.
Swipe the list that appears to the right, until you get to the
volume and AirPlay settings.
Tap the AirPlay button to bring up a list of supported AirPlay
devices on your network.
Tap the device to which you would like to stream. A TV icon next to
the device indicates that you can stream images, video, and/or
audio, while a speaker icon indicates that you can stream only
audio.

Connect Wirelessly via DLNA

If you don't want to shell out for an AirPlay-capable device, you may be able to use DLNA instead. These days, many modern TVs support streaming from a local network (wired or wireless) via the DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) standard. If your TV supports DLNA (or sometimes just "UPnP") streaming, you can use your iPhone as a DLNA server. Just download and install a DLNA-server app--Media:connect, for example--and you're good to go.

Connect Wirelessly with Aftermarket Apps

You could try iMediaShare or AirVideoEnabler as alternatives to the standard airplay functionality.

I'm wondering if anyone else is using this. Here is a list of 14 useful DLNA Streaming Apps For iPhone.


Why does my Macbook overheat and use so much CPU and energy when on YouTube? For a long time now, my Macbook has been overheating and hogging my CPU. According to Activity Monitor, Google Chrome Helper is the culprit. Whenever I am browsing the web, there are usually ten seperate entries of Google Chrome Helper in Activity Monitor, each individually using around %0.5 of my CPU. On YouTube, one of these can spike up to using %82, with a second using %22. I don't understand the math behind it but its evident in the screenshots I took. I own an up-to-date MacBook Pro (13-inch, Mid 2012) so it could be a result of an old system but only Chrome and YouTube (or just videos) are causing this issue.

Here are some things I’ve attempted to control / solve this:

updating FlashPlayer
disabling extentions
turning off Unsandboxed plug-in access to "not allow any site to use a plug-in to access [my] computer"
turning off JavaScript (which, of course, just stopped the page from loading in - very power efficient and cool, but not the trade off I had hoped to accomplish)

I've tried other web browsing apps and they net similar results as Chrome. I believe it has something to do with videos in general that are being served

At the moment, I have had to use an app called MacsFanControl so my fan stops the CPU and computer from overheating as it used to get to around 50˚C. Now, it is sits at 40˚C with the fan running on high to prevent it increasing.

Am I missing controls or options to have less heat from the CPU of this era MacBook Pro?

You can test the efficiency of video encoding and decoding quite well by getting a video from Apple’s events page and playing it in QuickTime player.

Same in Safari - and then same in Chrome.

You’ll quickly find out which encoding are easy to run for the CPU and which have GPU acceleration.

When that’s done, you can see if Chrome or the app in question can choose a lower resolution or if you can download the file for offline playing so that it doesn’t hit the CPU so hard. Also, you might use an iPad or other far more efficient video handling device if you just want to watch videos with the most economy / least power.

Unfortunately, Mac overheating issues arise often :((
If you faces this problem constantly, I kindly recommend you to make the following steps in order to reduce and prevent overheating of your Mac:

monitor the state of Mac constantly (special apps can help here)
clean your Mac from all the unnecessary files and apps
move large files to the cloud
don't open too much apps or tabs in browser at once

Also I use several apps which help me a lot to overcome overheating problem. But I know almost definitely that I have no troubles with hardware, so if you had ones - I don't know whether these apps will also help you. Anyway, if someone have overheating problems - I recommend to start from this step (for instance, try iStat Menu and CleanMyMac - here you can try these apps for free https://explore.setapp.com/8) and then see what happens with your Mac (whether cleaning your Mac helped you) and decide what to do next.


Cannot Add new Google Account on iPhone I have existing Gmail accounts for Mail on my iPhone, but I want to add a new one. I went to Settings -> Passwords & Accounts -> Add Account and I tap Google, and nothing happens. Here is a GIF:

This is iOS 12.1 on iPhone 6. Any ideas of how get around this to add a new Gmail account? Rebooting the phone, toggling WiFi off/on, and holding the lock + home button for 15 seconds to reset the phone did not fix either.

I held my finger on the Google button for about 15 seconds, let go, went back 1 screen, then tapping the Google button worked. I don't like this answer because I'm not anywhere near certain if doing this fixed the problem.

SOLVED IT!!
Reset your Network settings.
Settings > General > Reset > Reset Network Settings
Cheers.


How to make a bootable disk from an image with Toast? I read contradictory information, some say it’s possible, some say it’s not  and Apple’s Disk Utility is required.

I prefer to use Roxio Toast for its multi-purpose but I don’t want to waste blank disks.

So is it possible and if yes how to make a bootable disk (DVD or CD) from an image (dmg, iso, toast, cdr...)?

I also heard that it must be burnt at the slowest speed.

Toast:

"Do not mount the Disk Image first!"
Launch "Toast.app"
Click "Data" icon (upper left) and choose ISO 9660
Select "Copy" icon (upper left) and choose Image File
Click "Select" and "Choose a Disk Image File" from the dialog (do not drag and drop).
Click "Burn" et voilà.

Disk Utility:

Launch "Disk Utility.app"
Click "Burn" icon (upper left)
"Select image to burn" from the dialog (do not drag and drop).
Insert CD / DVD
Click "Burn" using the dialog.

Most effective Option:

Launch "Terminal.app"
Use the following command(s). Replace "imagefile.dmg/.iso" with your dir and/or prefferd name.

hdiutil convert imagefile.dmg -format UDTO -o imagefile.iso
hdiutil burn Imagename.iso

This method uses the exact pre-installed function of "Disk Utility.app" only without the GUI!

Go to Copy > From Image File, put an image (dmg, iso, toast, cdr...) into the Toast. Burn.


How can I create a keyboard shortcut for LaunchPad on OS X Lion (10.7)? I know how to open Launchpad via a gesture, creating a hot corner and obviously clicking on it in the dock .... what I am looking for is creating a keyboard shortcut to open Launchpad. I tried going to System Preferences | Keyboard | Keyboard Shortcuts | Launchpad & Dock, but I cannot add any shortcut for the "Show Launchpad" checkbox that is there.

Has anyone figured out how to add a keyboard shortcut? I believe that would make Launchpad infinitely useful.

You can also set a shortcut of your choosing by adjusting Lion's built-in keyboard preferences. If you go to System Preferences --> Keyboard, one of the settings menus on the left side bar is for Launchpad & Dock.

Make sure the check box next to 'Show Launchpad' is selected, then double click to the right under the listed shortcut to turn dock hiding on/off. You'll see a data entry box selected, and you can then enter whatever shortcut you'd like.

Try apptivate and it's free to add shortcut for any app.

If you have a trackpad then you get another chance to do this with gesture, although i'm hurting my fingers to do so.


ntpd not updating time I had updated my old iMac to Mavericks just fine. I then bought a new (certified refurbished, actually) iMac and migrated everything over from a Time Machine backup.

The new iMac's clock loses several seconds a day. When I unlock the Date & Time system preference, the time then synchronizes to the correct time immediately. But then it just loses time again.

I read this answer and now have a total of 3 time-servers, but it doesn't seem to solve my problem.

In the system.log file, there are these relevant messages:

Dec  3 22:31:34 iMac.local ntpd[66350]: SYNC state ignoring +0.155735 s
Dec  3 22:31:35 iMac.local ntpd[66350]: ntpd: time set +0.308737 s
Dec  3 22:31:35 iMac.local com.apple.time[158]: Interval maximum value is 946100000 seconds (specified value: 9223372036854775807).

The Interval maximum value one doesn't look good.

Anybody know how to fix this so that the time stays sync'd?

Update

It took a little while, but the addition of multiple time servers did make it better (not perfect, but better). Now it gains time, but seemingly at a much slower rate.

If the addition of multiple servers (3 in total) had anything to do with making it better, perhaps (?) the addition of yet more servers will make it better still. I now have a total of 5 servers in ntp.conf.  I'll watch it over the next couple of days and see what happens. (Even if this fixes it, this still doesn't answer why all of this is necessary to fix it in the first place. An answer to that would be nice, but I'll settle for it just being fixed at this point.)

BTW: you can set multiple via the System Preferences GUI: just type server names into the field with commas to separate them. This keeps the GUI and the file in sync.

BTW #2: here's the site I got the list of publicly accessible NTP servers from.

Well, some of these questions (your bullet list including "why 5 servers") are a little difficult to answer, time synchronization is quite the rabbit hole. The old parable about the man with one clock knowing what time it is but the man with two never being sure...

One server is an obvious "truechimer" always because there's nothing to invalidate it. Two servers is the "worst possible configuration" according to the NTP authors since it will never know which one is "more" correct. Once you get to three servers NTP can begin to mark clocks as "falsetickers" based on some internal metrics - those will show up with a status of 'x' when you run ntpq -p on the system. More information about what the columns and status indicators are for that command is available on ntp.org.

To get back to the issue at hand, a few notes:

placing the line pool us.pool.ntp.org iburst in your /etc/ntp.conf file will automatically add four stratum 2 ntp servers from the ntp pool to your time server list. These use DNS round-robin rotation to spread out load. If you are not in the US, there are other pools you can use.
you can't do the pool configuration line from the System Preferences GUI; you could, however, put the following in which would have the same effect: 0.us.pool.ntp.org, 1.us.pool.ntp.org, 2.us.pool.ntp.org, 3.us.pool.ntp.org.
in selecting time servers yourself, you should always ensure you select "stratum 2" or higher servers (best practice online is to only go to stratum 1 servers if you are serving time to dozens of machines locally). you'll also want to check policies in the public time server list before altering the default minpoll/maxpoll with public servers, some administrators do not want you to change from the defaults (this can place a higher load on their public servers). The best approach is to just use the NTP pool servers.
I am also seeing a substantial change in time quality since upgrading to Mavericks. I have just added more servers as you did to see if that solves the issue, but something definitely changed. I have a stratum 1 server on my local network and the clock on my iMac drifts all over the place whereas prior to the Mavericks upgrade it didn't.

It is broken, even in Mavericks 10.9.2. The solutions I have seen recommended apparently don't really fix the problem. It seems like the only real fix is to replace Apple's broken ntpd and configuration. For a thorough explanation, see this guy's post:  http://www.atmythoughts.com/living-in-a-tech-family-blog/2014/2/28/what-time-is-it


Is it possible to extend the time i'm logged as administrator when enter sudo mode from the console? Is it possible to extend the time i'm logged as administrator when enter sudo mode from the console?
If yes, how?

Yes, it is possible.

Edit the sudoers file by typing the following at the command prompt:

sudo visudo

Find the section commented with # Defaults specification and look for a line like this:

Defaults  env_reset

Change that line to:

Defaults  env_reset,timestamp_timeout=10

Where you can replace 10 with whatever the number of minutes you'd like for the sudo password to live. Save the changes and you're done.

Edit: if you don't like to use vi you can tell visudo to use another editor. The editor must block until you're done with your edits. Just set the EDITOR environment variable before envoking visudo and it will use that editor instead:

EDITOR=/usr/bin/nano sudo visudo

would use nano to edit the file instead. I recommend you do not use a graphical editor like Sublime Text without knowing how to run the editor, from the command line, in blocking mode (for subl that means calling it with --wait).

sudo bash

You may now remain the root user for as long as you want. No tinkering with system files required.

exit or <control-d> to return to the normal universe.


Why won't my iPhone switch to 3G when I'm out of WiFi range? My iPhone refuses to switch over from WiFi to 3G when the WiFi signal gets too weak to be usable. It will sit there indefinitely, unable to load a web page because I'm too far from the router, and not switch to the strong 3G signal that is available. Has anyone else had this problem? Is there anything I can do about it? Would it be better if I bought an Apple router? Do Android phones do this? I already submitted a bug report to Apple. It seems like such a simple thing to switch to 3G when WiFi stops working.

I know how to switch manually, but that's not a good solution. I think it's an iOS bug. I don't think it's the router's fault either, because the phone should be the one to determine when to switch to 3G. It should happen when WiFi fails to respond for a certain amount of time. I have a high-end Linksys router and an iPhone 4S. Router works great with all other devices and iPhone works well besides this one problem. This only happens when I'm outside my house and the router signal is no longer strong enough for data to get through. Once I go far enough down the street the signal switches to 3G, but there's about 30 yards where it hangs onto WiFi even though it can't get anything through.

The expected behavior is probably for the phone to stay on WiFi as long as it can connect, and then switch to 3G; as of iOS 5, I don't think the capability is there to automatically notice a dead WiFi connection and switch to 3G.  So what you're seeing is perhaps a lack of functionality, but it's not strictly speaking a bug.

I can't really see Apple making that the default functionality, though.  They'd get a lot of flak for making the iPhone too smart; nerds would complain that they don't have control.  If it was done, it would probably be an option.

It also would be very difficult to do well automatically.  How does iOS know a connection is bad?  What exactly does "when WiFi stops working" mean?

Lack of public internet access?  Windows 7 (and maybe Vista) does this by requesting a text file from Microsoft's website with predetermined content; that's how it knows if your connection has internet access or not.  But what if you're on a network at work that only offers access to intranet sites, and not the public internet?
Lack of data transfer despite network requests going out?  What if you're repeatedly trying a site that's experiencing a lot of traffic?  How many repeated failed requests mean a bad connection?
Long response times for outgoing requests? How long is too long? It could be averaged over time, but where's the threshold?

It could probably be done, but it would be difficult to do well, and the gain in widespread user satisfaction probably isn't that huge in comparison to other things.

Try switching iphone messaging off in Settings Messages but leave MMS Messaging on - then the phone will thinks its a phone and not a computer.  It worked for me.


Unable to customise Samba in macOS Big Sur I'm trying to customise the parameters of /usr/sbin/smbd in Big Sur. Most posts advise to tweak  /etc/nsmb.conf. However it seems that modifying /etc/nsmb.conf has no effect for me.
I even tried introducing a syntax error in /etc/nsmb.conf. Stopping smbd with
launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.smbd.plist and checking that no smbd is alive. Finally restarting smbd with launchctl load -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.smbd.plist. But /usr/sbin/smbd doesn't pick up any syntax error and runs normally.
I tried looking for other *smb* files in /etc and /Library and found none. Could it be that Apple doesn't allow modifying the parameters of smbd in Big Sur? Or perhaps should I look at other files?
Thanks for any suggestions!

See the comments above from @nohillside and @Marc Wilson. Samba cannot be configured in OSX as you would do in Linux. Thanks @nohillside and @Marc Wilson.


MacBook Pro, 15" (Early 2011), not booting I have a MacBook Pro 15" (Early 2011) model which suddenly is not booting correctly.

Symptoms:

Apple logo and loading bar appear.
Loading bar loads part way, freezes for a while.
Screen flashes momentarily, then grey screen appears.
Grey screen stays forever.

Attempted troubleshooting:

Safe mode: symptoms unchanged
Single-user mode: symptoms unchanged
Verbose mode: symptoms unchanged
Clear NVRAM: Apple logo and loading bar appears, freezes, and stays that way forever.  After another reboot returns to original behavior.
Boot from USB memory (with MacOS Sierra install): boot menu appears, and allows me to select the USB memory stick for booting, after starting boot process from memory, returns to original behavior (note that I used same memory stick to load MacOS Sierra onto a Mac Mini with no problems)
Removed Hard Drive completely (and attempted to boot from USB memory): symptoms unchanged
Replaced internal memory: symptoms unchanged
Attempted boot with charger unplugged: symptoms unchanged

Question:

So, I'm thinking that, if it is not the

Hard drive, or
Memory, or
Power Supply

...then it must be the motherboard that is bad.  Before I make that definitive conclusion, I'm wondering if there are any other ideas that I might try?

P.S.

On a side note that might be more relevant than I think, I noticed that this model is one of the models potentially implicated in the MacBook solder scandal (see https://www.apple.com/support/macbookpro-videoissues/ which lists the 15" Early 2011 model as one of the model lines with problems).  The symptoms don't exactly match what is listed there.  I haven't noticed any video problems (except for when I was changing out the memory: I got a couple of strange all-blue screens, but that could just be a result of poorly seated memory).  However, is it possible that a failing video adapter could cause problems at boot time?

Try Resetting the  SMC (if you haven't already, and see if that changes any of the mentioned behaviors)

Shut down the Mac.
Plug in the MagSafe or USB-C power adapter to a power source and to your Mac.
Using the built-in keyboard, press Shift-Control-Option on the left side of the keyboard, then press the power button at the same time.
Release all keys, then press the power button again to turn on your Mac.

The SMC or System Management Controller can require a reset and exhibit similar symptoms when malfunctioning. If this doesn't help, I can only suggest there may be hardware damage somewhere or possibly latent water damage side effects manifesting themselves.

I'm having trouble remembering exactly which computer this was, but I am 99% sure it turned out to be a bad video card - one of the recalled models.

To make matters worse, the local Authorized Mac Resellers (this was in a country that does not have official Apple stores) refused to repair it, even under the recall notice, until finally the recall period had expired.

I think the local store eventually tried baking the motherboard, for a charge, which then resulted in more damage.

Anyway, as I've heard, Apple was just swapping out the bad parts with similar parts with the exact same fault that would eventually fail again.  What a ****show.


Sharing a single Dropbox between multiple accounts on one Mac - possible? This seems like it should be easy, but...

My partner and I use a single Dropbox.com account to keep all of our joint projects synced up between our computers - and this has been working great for years. We've now added a MacBook Air to the mix, and we each have accounts on it and can grab it and go when we need to do some remote work.

I've been trying to get the Dropbox synced to the Air - but I want to have it in the "Shared" directory so that we both can access it - it shouldn't matter who is logged in. This doesn't seem to be working.

I can located the Dropbox in the shared directory fine - but when I change the user who is logged in that user has no permissions to sync the Dropbox or access the files.

I can get it to work if I create a separate ~/Dropbox folder for each user, but this ends up with 50GB duplicated twice over if the entire Dropbox syncs - a particularly ridiculous waste of space on an SSD.

Any ideas how to make this sharing work????

You can do this using ACLs, which will avoid permissions problems when new files are created:

sudo chmod -R +a "$USER allow read,write,append,delete,list,search,add_subdirectory,delete_child,file_inherit,directory_inherit" "$DIR"

where $USER is the username of the other user, and $DIR is whatever directory (Dropbox or otherwise) you want the other user to have full permissions in.

We use this to share a single Dropbox folder between four users (2 adults with full access, 2 kids with access to their subdirectory only), and it has been working well for us.  The only limitation is that the user running Dropbox has to be logged in and running Dropbox.  The other users don't have the Dropbox icon and status info in the menu bar.

You can use umask to set up restriction to file permission.
Default setting is 022 so file mask is 644 (or 755 for dirs).
Simple way is to set umask 002 (in file /etc/profile or some others), but this leads to security issue.

Oops, this is answer on the file permission problem when 2 users work under one Dropbox account on the same PC.

And the second one remark Mac users must edit umask in files /etc/launchd-user.conf or /etc/launchd.conf (see http://support.apple.com/kb/ht2202 for details)


Differentiating Apple products by their MAC addresses Apple has registered a ton of MAC address ranges for its products.  Does anyone know whether it's feasible to reliably identify which Apple product (particularly iPad, iPod, iPhone, and MacBooks) a particular device is in network traffic via specific MAC address prefixes? In other words, is there something about the MAC address of an iPad that is distinguishable from the MAC address of a MacBook, for instance?

No, sorting or determining a pattern in the MAC address isn't a feasible way to map to model of Apple product.

Over years of watching MAC addresses on networks as well as the explosion of devices on the iOS end of things, if there were a nice pattern, it would start showing in deployments with hundreds of devices.

For example, I have one Mac that has data on about 1,000 iOS devices that have been connected over time to that Mac while iPhone configuration utility was running. Looking at the data now, there are no clear patterns to help differentiate between the device types.

This also applies to Macs. Sadly, my data here is in the hundreds and not thousands presently. Yes - a string of MacBooks when ordered together will usually have sequential addresses (more so than sequential serial numbers in fact) - but over time, the iMacs seem mixed in with the Airs and the MacBook Pro.

It could be that there is some encoding present and no-one has stumbled across which bits are coded with model numbers, but a simple sort of the MAC addresses has the devices all jumbled up. Perhaps if you can find someone that runs the mobile device management software for a very large company or school district and see if they are curious enough to see if a larger data set would yield some better results for you.

I haven't seen a case where a Mac and an iOS device share the same smaller block of MAC addresses, but I can't even rule that out for you based on my experience running networks that log MAC address and are in a position to know what hardware is associated with which MAC address over the years.

My guess is the addresses are issued sequentially rather than by final destination. It would make sense to dole out parts of each region to factories that are expected to make 5 or 10 thousand devices in the next month and onle issue more once the existing addresses are consumed. If so, we might have better luck trying to bin the numbers by approximate manufacturing date rather than by where it ends up in a shipping product. Also consider on the Mac end, repairs often give a new MAC address to portables and even desktop Macs when the ethernet controller is replaced.

things like a netscaler can differentiate by the browser whether it deals with an smartphen of laptop/tablet/book etc.


software to create timeline from excel data for mac I'm looking for a free or cheap product to create a timeline from an upload of an excel file, simple data (year and description). Any thoughts?

BEEDOCS Easy Timeline or Timeline 3D

Both of BEEDOCS timeline creation software for Mac will let you import a tab-delimited file (which you could export your Excel file as) into a 2D or 3D timeline.

You can also include photos, audio, or movies in your events, as well as web links and 3D motion graphics.

Aeon Timeline

You can also create timelines from data using Aeon Timeline:


Auto Adjust Brightness Secondary External Non-Apple Monitor I have recently purchased a Dell S2340l monitor to extend my MBPr late 2013 screen. So far I can say it's a great monitor, colors are great, but still in the test phase...

Whatsoever, I really love that the MBP auto-adjusts the screen brightness depending on the light in the room. Therefore, my question: is there any possibility that this feature can be extend to the secondary monitor as well?

I don't know about auto adjustment but the way around is you can creat a sort cut or using this app you can change it if there no hard button or program available for you monitor. Use this app. You can adjust brightness and also set shortcut for it

https://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/brightness-slider/id456624497?mt=12

Enjoy!


iOS 6 update problem: how to switch to Indian store? I just updated my iPad 2 to to iOS 6 yesterday. Today when I tried to buy an app the usual way from the App Store, I got the message "Your account is not valid for use in US store. You must switch to the Indian store before purchasing." I am unable to update my old apps as well and am getting the same message. Any idea how I should switch to the Indian store?

I too faced this problem after the iOS6 Upgrade. This worked for me:

Open the Appstore
Go to Featured (scroll down to bottom until you see your Apple ID)
Click on Apple ID
View Apple ID
Enter your Password
Once you login it will say your account is transferred to the respective country.

Hope this solves your problem with updates.

Message told me your account is not valid in the Indian store you have to switch your account to the u.s store before purchasing.


How do I disable private browsing in Safari One of my friends has a child who is being overly sneaky online (imagine that). She wants to disable the ability for her child to select "Private Browsing" in Safari. In her opinion, Parental Controls are too limiting for a teenager, but Private Browsing is too permissive. Is there a terminal command or other way to do this on OS X?

(Of note: I did see the trick of using Interface Builder to edit the NIB file to delete the option from the Safari Menu, but I think it would be beyond her tech ability to perform those steps. I also doubt she'd want to install Xcode).

Thanks for you help!

I could suggest something more evil :

Enable parental controls and use the logs !

Someone on Apple Support asked if private browsing disabled logging. It appears no, the parents controls will still log the websites. Even if the sneaky kids enable the private browsing, the logs will spill the beans !

Click on Safari. Click on Preferences. Click on General. Go to first choice "Safari opens with" select "a new window". Mine was selected on the choice of "Safari opens with" "a new private window". This had been driving me crazy for a month.


External Monitor's USB ports don't work I have connected an external monitor to my macbook pro through a thunderbolt vga adapter. The monitor has several USB ports on it and if I plug a mouse or keyboard into them, they will not work. Is there a fix for this?

You'll need to connect a USB cable (probably A/B) from the monitor to your laptop.

Before assuming that their is a problem with your device.  Some P.C's Require a manaul download of a driver. Which can be found Apple web sight.Original cable for your device is a must. If you have a cable for a camera device with the apple plug should be saficient. Sometimes additional driver to communicate with manufactures is also required for image or file output. Off brand cables are no good.


What is preventing an OTA update to iOS 6 on an iPod touch 4th gen? I have iPod Touch 8GB 4th generation version. I got a notification that iOS 6 is available for the iPod. I have downloaded new iOS 6 but it's not getting installed.

When I select Software Update -> Install now, it shows "Verifying update" and then it shows me "Software Update Unavailable, Software Update is not available at this time. Try again later".

I don't understand why its shows me such message though the update is already downloaded.

To avoid rendering your device unusable due to a bad upgrade file, iOS does some verification of the download before installing (likely some type of checksum to ensure the download wasn't corrupted and it's for the right device, etc.). Given that your install process fails during the verification process, it's likely that you either got a bad download (possible, although it should try to re-download if that's the case), or the authentication and verification servers that the installer needs to check against are having some problems (not unlikely, given the load they've had since iOS 6 came out).

Best advice is to just wait it out and try later. However if you're impatient, you can directly download the update to your computer and update via iTunes (although if the servers are experiencing issues, it might affect this method as well).

Steps for a direct update

Go to this page and download the proper file for your device.
With your device connected in iTunes, open the device page, hold down option (shift on Windows) and click the Update button.
An Open File dialog should appear. Browse to the .ipsw file you downloaded in step 1 and open it.
Your software update should begin normally.

iOS 7 isn't available on iPod touch 4th gen, so either way it work. It's available on 5th gen though.


Consequences of disabling kext signing What are the consequences of disabling Kest Signing on OS X Yosemite? I have disabled it to keep TRIM enabled on my aftermarket SSD. What are the security issues I could run up against? If I install applications only from trusted resources can I run in any kind of trouble?

I couldn't find online extensive answers to these questions. Sorry if it's a duplicate.

TRIM Support has been enabled for Third Party SSDs in OS X El Capitan. You can google it or watch this Youtube video

It is OK. It is mainly used to detect tampering/modification of device drivers at the kernel level. You should see Trim's note here http://www.cindori.org/trim-enabler-and-yosemite/

  In OS X 10.10 (Yosemite), Apple has introduced a new security
  requirement called kext signing. (A kext is a kernel extension, or a
  driver, in Mac OS X)

  Kext signing basically works by checking if all the drivers in the
  system are unaltered by a third party, or approved by Apple. If they
  have been modified, Yosemite will no longer load the driver. This is a
  means of enforcing security, but also a way for Apple to control what
  hardware that third party developers can release OS X support for.


No FaceTime app after iOS 8 upgrade Upgraded to ios8 on my iPad air. There is no FaceTime app on the settings page to turn or or off. How to I set up face time

Since this is a strange and unusal thing that I have never heard of, I can't offer a single solution, however I can offer multiple procedures to try and solve the problem.

Turn your iPad off and back on. Simple yes, but don't underestimate the power this procedure can do. It works wonders!
If that didn't work, try resetting all of your settings. This can be acheived by opening the settings of your iPad and navigating to General -> Reset -> Reset All Settings. This will not cause you to loose any data, however anything in the settings app will be set to their default settings, ranging from iCloud login, WiFi networks, wallpapers and even your ringtone will be set to the default. No data will be lost, but you will need to sit with the iPad for a solid few minutes reconfiguring it again to its proper settings.
Hopefully that worked, because if it didn't it's time for a device fresh restore. This is where you will need to get a computer and a USB to lightning cable and hook it up to iTunes. This procedure will force EVERYTHING to be removed from the device unless you restore it from a backup. So before you do anything, make sure you create a backup by going File -> Devices -> Back Up. Now that you have your backup this step splits into two options for you.

a) Click on the Restore button in the device summary page to wipe the device clean. Once installation is finished and while the iPad is still connected to the computer you may select Restore From Previous Backup. This will restore everything back onto the device, including apps + their data, photos and anything else, even your wallpaper at the time. If the setting STILL isn't there. Then there is no choice to do a full restore and keep it that way

b) The best way to go about is is enable iCloud and sync all of your contacts/calendars/anything else to it if you haven't done so already. Also, a nifty new feature is iCloud Photos where it stores your photos in your drive. You can use this as a first line of backup for photos but if you want you can copy them off your computer while its still plugged in (eg iPhoto if you are on a mac). Once all your important data is backed up somewhere other than the device, hit that Restore button once again. Let it finish and go through the step by step tutorial to setup as a new device.
Proceed to restore all your data by logging into iCloud/redownloading your apps/changing settings once more, but before you do any of this, check to see if the FaceTime setting is there again. If it isn't, you may as well restore from the iTunes backup once again and this time call Apple for support.

Hope it doesn't have to get anywhere further than option 1 but if all else fails I hope it works out for you. Good luck! :)

I had the same problem.

I turned off all restrictions in settings, then rebooted and found that Facetime came back. Worth a try before resetting everything.


Why is Photos using my battery for Audio like this? My new iPhone 7 (which I set up as a new phone and not from a backup) is reporting strange battery usage due to Photos.

It's saying that 15% of the battery has been used in the last 24 hours due to photos being onscreen for 5 minutes, using Audio!

What's happening?

It could be because you have been watching some of your own videos in the photos app. It doesn't mean that the photos app has been doing this for the full five minutes, it just means that there has been audio playing in that app at some time, and the rest of the time could be other things.

If you have iCloud Photo Library turned on, it'll try to download all of your pictures.


How do you EXIT full screen mode in Yosemite? I just discovered the new green button behavior in Yosemite that causes the window to go to full screen instead of maximizing it.  That's fine, and I can live with option+click to get the old behavior, but I can't figure out how to exit full screen mode.  I'm doing it in Chrome 38.0.2125.104, if that makes a difference.

The Esc key certainly doesn't work, and there's no longer the blue double arrow when you move the cursor to the upper right hand corner.

How do I exit full screen mode after entering it by clicking on the green window button on the upper left corner of the window?

Click the minimize/maximize button a second time or press Control-Command-F simultaneously. The button can be green or grey depending on how you have configured the appearance under the General pane of System Preferences.

To resize window, simply double-click window bar.

The best way to do this that I have found is to put the cursor in the upper left hand corner and wait a second. The green button reappears (you also get the top bar back in case you want to do other things than change the view.) and you can click on it to get back to normal view.


How can I tell if a 30-pin USB cable for an iPhone is genuine? I have many of the 30-pin USB cables for the iPhone, and I would like to determine which are authentic Apple and which are not. (Over the three years that I owned an iPhone 4 and my wife an iPhone 4s, I purchased several "knock-offs"). Is there a good way to determine which cables are authentic and which cables are not?

The cable itself will be stamped with the text: "Designed by Apple in California Assembled in China".  The "knock offs" wouldn't be allowed to stamp their cables in this way.Edit: It would be on the cable itself near the end that plugs into the iPhone (30-pin end).Edit: The photo shows the text I refer to.  This is an example of a genuine lightning connector in which they added a serial number for identification and moved the stamp about 8 inches down from the USB end of the cable.

Use the iTunes application on a computer and connect them to the computer. If the phone does not connect it means that the USB cable is not authentic.


How to do Control+Backspace on standard USB Keyboard? At work we use Macbooks, so I am trying to adapt :)

I am using to many things, one of them is doing Ctrl+Delete in Mac OSX (In IntelliJ IDEA).

What I expect to happen, that works in Windows and on another external keyboard (Mac one!) is that when you press ctrl+delete, the left most word is deleted.

This does not happen on Mac, I could not find any other key combination to do this.
I need to functionality to quickly move around my code, please help.
My Mac version is 10.12.5

The keyboard shortcut to delete the word to the left of the insertion point is, on a Mac keyboard:

OptionDelete

On a Windows keyboard use:
AltBackspace

I use both Windows and macOS on a regular basis and noticed that some keyboard shortcuts that use Control in Windows work with Option in macOS, for example:

Delete the word to the left/right of the insertion point:

Windows: ControlBackspace / ControlDelete
macOS:  OptionDelete / Optiondelete⌦

[On keyboards that don't have delete⌦ (Forward Delete) use FnDelete instead.]

Move the insertion point to the beginning/end of the previous word:

Windows: ControlLeft Arrow / ControlRight Arrow
macOS:  OptionLeft Arrow / OptionRight Arrow

Extend text selection to the beginning/end of the current word:

Windows: ShiftControlLeft Arrow / ShiftControlRight Arrow
macOS:  ShiftOptionLeft Arrow / ShiftOptionRight Arrow

Please refer to https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201236 for a complete list of keyboard shortcuts (scroll down to the Document shortcuts section for the juicy stuff).


Add TL Symbol to Character Viewer (Unicode 20BA) [TL simgesi] I want to add the new 2012 Turkish Lira currency symbol, U+20BA, to Character Viewer as shown at

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkish_lira_sign

What can I do?

Here is a reference to a font which will give you the character you are looking for in Character Viewer

http://m10lmac.blogspot.com/2012/05/font-with-new-turkish-lira-symbol.html

You may need to deactivate some other font if that has an interfering character -- I had one called PT on my machine.

option+T makes the ₺ symbol if you have your keyboard set to Turkish - QWERTY PC


How do I set environment variables on OS X? I have always difficulties setting the Environment variables in OS X like JAVA_HOME, M2_HOME or PATH. How to set these on OS X Mavericks?

I did some research but the answers I've found didn't really help me yet:

export JAVA_HOME=/... (But it seems that the changes are temporary, just for one terminal session.)
setenv JAVA_HOME=/... (But command not found.)
Open .profile and write the variables inside to make the changes permanent- (.profile does not exist).
Open .bash_profile and write the variables inside to make the changes permanent- (.bash_profile does not exist).
vi ~/.bash_profile (Quite a challenge for somebody who doesn't know vi.)
Creating your own enrivonment.plist file.

Can somebody please walk me through the steps to get that to work on OS X Mavericks, assuming no Unix knowhow?

I have a .profile in my home directory; it contains many export … statements for environment variables.

You can create such a file by opening a Terminal and issuing the command touch .profile
Close Terminal.

Then you should open that file in a plain-text editor (TextWrangler for example). You can also use nano .profile in a Terminal window (current directory should be your home), which is much easier than vi. Insert lines such as export JAVA_HOME=… . Save, exit nano if you used that and quit a running Terminal.

Open Terminal and issue the command env to see all environment variables. Check that the ones you defined have the value you assigned to them. You should be good to go now. But don't forget that environment variables defined in .profile are not passed to GUI applications.

Create file on Home directory : .bash_profile (if not have)

Open file with text editor : vim / nano (This is a hidden file, may not visible on Finder)

Add env variables (add these lines) : export VARIABLE_NAME=VARIABLE_VALUE (Don't add spaces between variable name and value)

Save and Exit.

Run : source .bash_profile at home directory on terminal.

Check : Open new terminal and run echo $VARIABLE_NAME. (should display the VARIABLE_VALUE)

PS : These variables may not load for some IDEs, need to load with .env file.