Replace TextEdit as the default text editor in MacOS Big Sur I just never want TextEdit to be opened, and instead set sublime as the default editor for all plain-text files. So not only files with *.txt extension.
For older versions than Big Sur the following command always has worked for me:
defaults write com.apple.LaunchServices/com.apple.launchservices.secure \
    LSHandlers -array-add \
    '{LSHandlerContentType=public.plain-text;LSHandlerRoleAll=com.sublimetext.3;}'

From this answer: https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/123834/405588
But on Big Sur this doesn't work anymore. Even after restarting MacOS text files still open with TextEdit.
edit: apparently after running the command above double clicking dot files like ~/.bashrc do open in Sublime. But when running open ~/.bashrc from Terminal it still opens the file in TextEdit...

Have you tried SwiftDefaultApps? It's a modern replacement for the old RCDefaults System Preferences pane.
https://github.com/Lord-Kamina/SwiftDefaultApps
Here are two screen shots of SwiftDefaultApps, the first showing Uniform Type Identifiers tab for public.plain.text with Sublime Text 2 set as the Editor, and the second showing the Applications tab and Sublime Text 2 with public.plain.text checked. (This works the same with Sublime Text 3 too.)
With these settings, any plain text file, with or without a .txt extension, will open in Sublime Text when double-clicked in Finder.

 Historical Reference: RCDefaultApp @ web.archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20200312011847/http://www.rubicode.com/Software/RCDefaultApp/

From Finder, you can click on a .txt, .rtf, .text, or other text file extensions and press "command-i" keys. This is for get info. You get a new pane that looks like image below.

Towards the bottom you'll see a line that says 'Open With".  Under that is a text box with "TextEdit" in it. That tells the computer to open .txt files with TextEdit.  Click on the textbox and you'll see a list of applications. Choose Sublime Text from the pulldown menu and close the box. Under that is the phrase "Change All". Click on this.  Now all .txt files will open with sublime.
Repeat this process for other files types you wish to open with Sublime. Sorry there is not a single switch.


Unable to ssh root@localhost on jailbroken iPad with iOS 8.1 I jailbreaked (not for pirates) my iPad 4 (iOS 8.1) several weeks ago and found it unable to ssh root@127.0.0.1 via Prompt 1 or 2 on iPad. Even I cannot connect via LAN IP (e.g. 192.186.X.X). However, there's no problem if I ssh root@LAN IP on my iPhone or Mac in the same LAN.

By the way, I was able to ssh root@localhost on jailbreaked iPad when it was running iOS 6.1. It is also okay if I have already ssh logged in to iPad on my Mac, and ssh root@127.0.0.1 again.

The output of netstat on iPad:

Surface-Pro:~ root# netstat -an|grep .22
tcp4       0     28  172.22.29.64.22        172.22.26.158.47927    ESTABLISHED
tcp4       0      0  172.22.29.64.50293     17.110.228.29.5223     ESTABLISHED
tcp4       0      0  *.22

Does anyone know the reason that iPad cannot connect to itself in apps? (Maybe sandbox/containers model has been changed since iOS 8?)

A much better alternative than to run Prompt as root, is to create another sshd instance listening to a port above 1024.

In this example I have used port 10022.

Copy /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.openssh.sshd.plist to /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.openssh.sshd2.plist
Change the Label and the SockServiceName in com.openssh.sshd2.plist by appending 2 to ssh / sshd:

com.openssh.sshd -> com.openssh.sshd2
ssh -> ssh2

Add the following lines to /etc/services:

ssh2              10022/udp     # SSH Remote Login Protocol
ssh2              10022/tcp     # SSH Remote Login Protocol

Differences for iOS versions:

iOS 12.1.2 / unc0ver, iOS 13.3.1 / checkra1n:

from this answer choice #2.
copy the plist as above, but change the SockServiceName in com.openssh.sshd2.plist from ssh to simply the new port number 10022. The section will look like this:

<key>Sockets</key>
<dict>
   <key>Listeners</key>
   <dict>
      <key>SockServiceName</key>
      <string>10022</string>
   </dict>
</dict>

iOS 12.4 / chimera.sh

don't copy the plist file
instead, edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config as root. Details from this article
remove the comment in front of Port 22
add another line beneath for Port 10022

All iOS versions:

Reboot the device (or launchctl load com.openssh.sshd2.plist if you do not want to reboot)
Connect via port 10022 instead of 22

If you have installed bash, coreutils and sed you can automate it with this script:

#!/bin/bash
cd /Library/LaunchDaemons
cp com.openssh.sshd{,2}.plist
sed -i'' '/<key>Label<\/key>/{N;s/sshd/sshd2/}' com.openssh.sshd2.plist
sed -i'' '/<key>SockServiceName<\/key>/{N;s/ssh/ssh2/}' com.openssh.sshd2.plist

cd /etc
if ! grep ssh2 services; then
    cat >> services <<EOF
ssh2              10022/udp     # SSH Remote Login Protocol
ssh2              10022/tcp     # SSH Remote Login Protocol
EOF
fi

if you change the port 22 to 50022 (for example) work fine to me


What is the Mac equivalent of Windows' Power Plans' Maximum Processor State? One of my favorite features in Windows is the built-in Power Plans. I can change how much energy my computer uses - whether I want it to drain power like there's no tomorrow and get incredible performance or whether I want it to run like a turtle and use 1% CPU at the max and barely use any power, or anything in between.

My favorite feature of Power Plans is that I can limit CPU usage. I can make it 30% - or 72% - or 94 percent.

On a Mac, I notice that there are no Power Plans. There is this, but that doesn't do it.

What can I use to limit CPU usage by the entire system (not just one process) on a Mac?

OS X has SpeedStep built in, but as you have noticed you have no/little control over it.

Coolbook is a program that works on pre-Lion versions of OS X but is still not working correctly under Lion?  It is also limited to Core Duo and Core 2 Duo processors.

Unfortunately, there are no power plans built in macOS, however, they may be available from other third parties.  Most won't work with 10.7 or above though.


After disabling auto mount, can I show connected but not mounted drives in Finder sidebar? I have an external hard drive connected to my cinema display. I don't use the hard drive every time I connect my laptop to the display. However, I forget to unmount it almost every time I disconnect my laptop.

To avid incorrect disconnecting I disabled automounting in fstab as described here: How to Disable USB Auto-mount

Now it's hard to mount the drive as I have to go to DiskUtility. Is it possible to see the connection but not mounted hard drives in the Finder sidebar and have them mounted when the sidebar entry is selected? (the same way it works with the things shared on network)

To answer the question, no Finder does not offer that preference or option, however there is a workaround.

I have a similar situation and I use an AppleScript script saved as an application that mounts the unmounted target volume when I want, without having to go into Disk Utility to do it.

I have this app on the Toolbar in Finder, with the same icon as shown on the drive, so it's easy to just click it. It could be placed on the Dock or Desktop, etc. At times I access it from Spotlight too. Lots of options, even using the code in an Automator Service workflow and assigning it a keyboard shortcut if you want.

set theVolumeName to "TOSHIBA EXT"
try
    do shell script "diskutil mount $(diskutil list | awk '/" & theVolumeName & "/{print $NF}')"
on error eStr number eNum
    if eNum is 1 then
        display dialog "The disk containing the\"" & theVolumeName & "\" volume is not available." buttons {"OK"} ¬
            default button 1 with title "Check Disk Connection & Power Status" with icon 0
    else
        display dialog eStr & " number " & eNum buttons {"OK"} default button 1 with title "Error Status" with icon 0
    end if
end try

Notes:

Change set theVolumeName to "TOSHIBA EXT" so "TOSHIBA EXT" is the name of the target mounted volume.
This script assumes there is and will only be one volume with the target name. If not, then the awk command will need to be modified to accommodate.

Understanding what the do shell script command is doing:

do shell script "diskutil mount $(diskutil list | awk '/" & theVolumeName & "/{print $NF}')"

do shell script - Executes a shell script using the sh shell.
diskutil mount device - Mount a single volume.
$(...) - Command Substitution. - Command substitution allows the output of a command to replace the command name. In this case it will be device in: diskutil mount device
diskutil list - List disks. If no argument is given, then all disks and all of their partitions are listed.
| - Pipe the output of the previous command to the next command.
awk '/" & theVolumeName & "/{print $NF}' - The example will be: awk '/TOSHIBA EXT/{print $NF}'

awk - Pattern-directed scanning and processing language.
/TOSHIBA EXT/ - Search pattern. Outputs the record (line) containing the search pattern.
In this example it matched:
        1:               Windows_NTFS TOSHIBA EXT             2.0 TB     disk1s1
{print $NF} - Prints the last field of the record. Which printed: disk1s1

The following is example output in Terminal:

$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *751.3 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Macintosh HD            750.4 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     FDisk_partition_scheme                        *2.0 TB     disk1
   1:               Windows_NTFS TOSHIBA EXT             2.0 TB     disk1s1
$ diskutil list | awk '/TOSHIBA EXT/{print $NF}'
disk1s1
$ diskutil mount $(diskutil list | awk '/TOSHIBA EXT/{print $NF}')
Volume TOSHIBA EXT on disk1s1 mounted
$

So it finds the device for the diskutil mount device command regardless of how many disks are attached to the system.

No, but you could use Terminal:
diskutil list
is the command.


Mavericks screen lock occurs immediately instead of after 15 minutes of sleep I'm on OSX 10.9 on a late 2013 Macbook Air. iCloud Keychain is disabled, FileVault is turned off, and my Energy Saver settings are all at their defaults. I want to require a password after 15 minutes of sleep or inactivity, which should be straightforward. However, I am getting some strange behavior.

A- With the Require Password <option> hours after sleep or screen saver begins option in the "Security and Privacy" preference pane unchecked, my machine does not ask for a password if I close and immediately open the lid.

B- With the "Require Password <option> hours after sleep or screen saver begins" option in the "Security and Privacy" preference pane checked and the timeout set to 15 minutes, my machine requires a password if I close and immediately open the lid.

I want to be able to wake from sleep without a password if it has been less than 15 minutes since I last used my mac. This should be simple, but for some reason the appropriate setting isn't having the desired effect. Any ideas on how to fix this so the setting works as it should?

I have tried to replicate and analyze your problem.

The key word here is close the lid and "immediately" open it again.

There is a file called com.apple.screensaver.plist located in your user library preferences folder that should change when you change the settings for password timer.

While observing it there is actually a slight delay in writing that file, since a temporary version is written first. If you do the immediate stuff it is possible the .plist file is not correctly completed so your 15 min delay is not working.

In your case I would take a wild ques that plist file does not change the settings to 15 minutes and it is stuck to the "Immediately" request password.

That can also be caused the corrupt ACL permissions, or the immediately action you are doing.

Make sure the plist file has the accurate date/Time stamp before attempting to close the lid.

To test log in as another user and try again. If it works with other user reset your ACL.

According to Apple documentation, "Upon waking, a user login password must be entered before the Mac can be used." If we take that at face value, being able to not enter a password after the system has slept, e.g., you've closed the lid, presents a security vulnerability.

http://support.apple.com/kb/PH14125


What is the chance that jailbreaking my iPhone will brick the phone? How does it actually work? Does it change just the firmware on the main filesystem? Does it touch the bootloader?

I'm trying to figure out what's probability of

iPhone jailbreak bricking the phone
Apple's update bricking the jailbroken iPhone (In the line with those questions, does Apple's update simply overwrites the flash partition with the new one and then applies the backed up data?)

Edit: should probably mention it's a 3GS with 4.1 firmware.

Jailbreaking utilizes an exploit in the OS (or in the latest cast, the boot ROM), and injects the payload onto the phone, which is usually a loader to install Cydia, or Cydia itself.  Cydia is the source for applications not in the App Store, and once this is loaded, other software can be installed which could modify system files.  One such case is Winterboard, which allows you to customize aspects of the UI.

With regards to question 1:

It depends on what happens during the jailbreak.  If, for example, you're running the exploit to jailbreak the phone and the battery dies (or the software malfunctions), there's a chance you'll brick it.  It's hard to pin a percentage on it.

With regards to question 2:

Since Apple is expecting their software to be running on the phone, it may do some things that could brick the phone.  Again, it definitely varies on what has been changed, how the jailbreak was performed, etc.  Personally if Apple comes out with an iOS update, I'm not going to just allow it to run.  If I want it, first thing I'd do is restore the original firmware via iTunes.

Jailbreak means replacing the content of the boot.

So, everything is changed. It's like a new harddrive with a new boot image on it, changing everything in that hard drive since how it start's, to host the actual Operating System that in Jailbreak devices is an altered OS so all methods, functions and properties are available without any restrictions.


Does plugging in an iPhone/iPad make a difference to its battery lifespan? I've been led to believe there's a difference between how a MacBook and an iPhone/iPad consume power: when a MacBook with a fully charged battery is plugged in, its components draw power directly from the charger while when an iPhone/iPad with a fully charged battery is plugged in, its components still draw power from the battery which is frequently recharged to keep it at 100%. Hence, it doesn't make a difference to the battery's overall lifespan whether the iPhone/iPad is plugged in while you use the device.

Or in other words, if I'm using an iPhone/iPad and am not worried about battery life, there's no point in plugging it in anyway in the hope of prolonging battery lifespan?

Is this correct or have I been misinformed?

Deeper discharge/charge cycles shorten an Li-Ion battery's lifespan faster that shallow ones.  (e.g. One 100% cycle is more wearing that four 25% cycles, etc.)  Therefore, keeping an iPad or iPhone on a charger or always topped off between short uses will tend to lengthen the battery's total lifespan by reducing the number of deeper cycles per annum, all other thing being equal (such as total time of use).

"Calibrating" has almost nothing to do with the battery lifespan.  It's mostly needed to help the battery gauge icon behave more accurately.  Once or twice a year is probably good enough for that purpose.

As far as I know, most mobile phones including iphone in the market will have their battery life shortened if you constantly use them plugged in.

The power keeps going charger - battery - phone.

Since this batteries have what some call "Memory". If you have them constantly plugged in, it will affect that "memory". On a more technical term is like with old PC laptops, since the power is still going through the battery, the battery cell contacts get over used because of the constant power.

The best thing is once a month or every two months calibrate the battery like with laptops. Empty it completely, then plug it in and leave it charging without turning on your device. This will improve the battery life in the long run.


Is it possible to have my iPhone 5 on silent except for one specific person? I want to have the phone on silent (no vibrate) and have it ring only for one or two specific people. Is there any way to do this?

I know how to turn the phone on silent (the switch on the left side above the volume buttons), but I can't seem to create a "profile" for this (I recall this being possible with Blackberry's).

This is possible using Do Not Disturb:

Open Settings.app
Go to Notifications > Do Not Disturb
Select "Allow Calls From"
You have several options. Either create a group, or have only those few people in your Favorites. The best is probably to create a group as that allows you better flexibility. After you have created the group with only the people that you want to allow to reach you, select it from the list.
Now, to enable silent mode except for those two people turn on Do Not Disturb in Settings.app.

Creating/Editing Groups: This isn't as easy as it appears on iOS. See my question about it. As mentioned in the accepted answer, your best strategy for creating or editing groups is to go to iCloud.com on your computer. Quoting the answer:

  "No, there is no way to create or edit contact groups on iOS. I share your frustration! The best workaround is to use iCloud.com (or your primary Mac, if you have it with you)."

But you can add contacts to a particular group, (though it isn't straight-forward):

  In Contacts, tap the Groups button in the top left
  Tap "Hide All Contacts"
  Tap the group that you want to add the contact to (making it the only visible group)
  Tap Done in the top right
  Tap the Add button (+) in the top right

So, the easiest is to just use a Mac (if you have one) or iCloud.com to create and add people to a group. After this is done, the new group with the people that you want to reach you should appear on iPhone.

For those that do not have DND, assign a memorable individual ring tone to each one in the group so you'll even know who is calling. Then assign a silent sound as the default ring for everyone else.


How to stop iOS Mail from automatically downloading attachments? I would like to know how to stop Mail app on iOS 9.3.5 from automatically downloading the mail attachments. It is taking a lot of space on my iPhone.

Most attachments in emails are actually remote images. You can stop iOS Mail from downloading remote images as follows:

Go to Settings
Tap on Mail
Under the Messages heading, toggle Load Remote Images off

In terms of stopping other attachments (e.g. MS Word documents etc), there is no such option to prevent downloading these. However, the way it should work is as follows:

When your iPhone is connected to the internet via a cellular network, any email attachments over a certain size will not download automatically.
Instead, for these attachments you would have to manually select them in the body of the email to download them.
When your iPhone is connected to the internet via Wi-Fi, all email attachments will download automatically.

As far as I'm aware there is no way to stop this, although there may be 3rd party email apps that give you this option.

If you're sure that emails are taking up a lot of space on your iPhone, you may need to rethink how regularly you delete older emails. You can also filter emails by attachment and then delete the oldest ones to free up space. Another option is to set up a Mailbox for emails with attachments so it's easier for you to manually manage them.

goto mail > preference > Accounts
select particular accounts and in AccountInformation tab set DOWNLOAD ATTACHMENT value to NONE.


Format a pen drive in NTFS format I've formatted my pen drive in FAT format but it's not showing in a Windows laptop, so I'm thinking the formatted pen drive through OS X is not compactible with other OSs. How can I format a pen drive through OS X El Capitan?

OS X and macOS can't format partitions as NTFS or write to NTFS without third-party software (read is built in).  Both Windows and Mac support read/write to FAT and you can erase a disk and set the format to FAT in Disk Utility which can be read in Windows. If Windows cannot read the FAT volume then this is a separate problem with the disk or Windows as it should work.

I would advice formatting any drive you want to use between OS X and Windows to exFAT. exFAT supports read/write both on OS X and Windows. You can easily format you drive to exFAT using Disk utility: WD guide and official Apple forum thread.

FAT-32 also works between Mac OS X and Windows just fine, but it limits you to 4GB per-file. exFAT doesn't have such limitation.

In your question you mentioned:

  I've formatted my pen drive in FAT format but it's not showing in a Windows laptop

If you want to stick to FAT-32 then try to reformat your drive once again using Disk utility on Mac or format it under Windows. On Windows you might want to uncheck the Quick format option to ensure better formatting.

Also make sure the USB port you're connecting your drive to is working and the drive itself is not corrupted.


Applescript - opening file inside app bundle I have used Automator to create an app bundle that activates an app ("Fuse") within the Resources directory of the bundle, which then opens the file "Exolon.tzx" (also located in Resources).

However, I can only get this to work when pointing to the full location of "Exolon.tzx" while the app is on my Desktop. Obviously, when I move the app it no longer works.

What do I need to change in this script to have it point to and open "Exolon.tzx" regardless of where I keep the app (in particular, I want it to work when I transfer the app to another Mac).

My script:

tell application "Fuse"
        open POSIX file "/Users/almeath/Desktop/Exolon.app/Contents/Resources/Exolon.tzx"
    end tell
    tell application "System Events"
        set frontmost of process "Fuse" to true
    end tell
    tell application "System Events"
        keystroke "f" using command down
    end tell

When I run the app from the Desktop it activates the Fuse app, opens Exolon.tzx and then executes the specified keystroke. If I move the app to another location (i.e not the Desktop) then an error is produced: “The action Run AppleScript encountered an error: “Fuse got an error: Connection is invalid”

You can use path to resource to get the pathname of the  file that's in an App's Resource folder.

Example AppleScript code:

set resourceName to "Exolon.tzx"

set filePathName to quoted form of POSIX path of (path to resource resourceName) as text

tell application "Fuse"
        open POSIX file filePathName
end tell

Note: The example AppleScript code is just that and does not contain any error handling as may be appropriate. The onus is upon the user to add any error handling as may be appropriate, needed or wanted. Have a look at the try statement and error statement in the AppleScript Language Guide. See also, Working with Errors.


How can I restore deleted contacts from iPhone 4s? My wife and I both have 4s models and we both downloaded iOS 7 and now we have all contacts (hers and mine) on both phones. I started to delete some of hers on my phone and it deleted the same contacts on her phone automatically. How can I restore her contacts?

The deleted and lost iPhone contacts can be recovered in 2 ways: recover from iPhone directly or restore from iTunes backup copy.

I was just looking to fix the same problem. All of a sudden my contacts were gone/empty.
Been lazy and never set up iCloud. So all these other suggestions weren't going to work.

What I ended up doing

Double tap home button
Hold down on an icon that appears on bottom of screen and close all running apps
Tap home button again
Power off your phone
Turn phone back on
Open contacts and they should be restored.

Hope this works for you and any one else with the same problem. I'm off to go back up my phone to a computer and the cloud.


How do I remove a stuck Mini CD from the SuperDrive on a Macbook Pro? I have a 2010 13" MacBook Pro that someone inserted one of those Mini CD type discs in to. The SuperDrive happily ingested the media but now refuses to spit it out. It does not show up as a mounted drive in Disk Utility.

I tried starting the machine up while holding down the Eject key and the SuperDrive makes a few clicks, but the media doesn't eject and the OS boots as normal.

There does not appear to be a hole on the outside of the Macbook where I might be able to insert a paperclip to push the media out.

Is there any way to get the disk out of the drive or am I destined for a Genius Bar appointment?

Do not stick anything else in the slot. Really.

The inject / eject mechanism is keyed for a full sized disc and you don't want to wedge it in the wrong direction or retract that delicate part any further by fishing around inside the narrow slot. There is no eject button so you will need either luck or finesse and skill to get the CD out.

Power down the Mac and hold it firmly with the Apple logo facing you at chest height with the CD slot pointing to your lap. Gently rock and shake it to see if the CD is loose and encourage it to peek out the felt skirt that is inside the unibody enclosure.

Your Mac when powered off is very strong and you gently start it down and then quite forcefully yank it back up vertically. One or two shakes is all it takes to get the mini CD poking out just a bit. At that point, the felt will hold it and you can return the Mac to a level table and use tweezers or needle nose pliers or nimble fingers to remove the CD.

If you can't get it out - take it in for service. Unless you work on these regularly, you don't know which model superdrive is in your Mac and how hard, deep, gentle you can be with tools to help dislodge the CD. Also, if you are comfortable popping the back off your Mac - you could use iFixit to get to the drive itself and the CD will likely fall out once you have that component out of the Mac and away from the felt skirt.

Again, have a good firm grip - if you are so nervous that your palms are sweaty, that's your signal to see about getting a technician to help or waiting a bit to convince yourself you can shake it loose. These computers are made to endure UPS and FedEx shipping, packing in luggage in a bumpy car and your shaking should be on that level of violence and no more. If it's lodged behind the eject mechanism, you'll need someone to get inside and clear things in most cases.

if you can see edge of mini CD ,try putting standard size CD on top of this mini CD and push it as much as it goes inside and then pull it out it will take both CDs out.


Chromecast: maximize tab on TV while multitasking on Chrome? I'm trying to use Chromecast to watch an ESPN3 game in full-screen on my TV, while continuing to work in Chrome on my laptop (OS: Mavericks). The ESPN3 player doesn't have an option to stream directly through Chromecast (to my knowledge), so I've been casting the entire tab. This works fine, I can see the tab on my TV. If I want to view full-screen, I can maximize the viewer. This maximizes the viewer on the TV, and also my laptop screen. So far, so good.

The problem is, I want to keep using my laptop for other stuff. If I want a different application, I can cmd-tab to Finder, then right-click the Chrome icon and hide it, allowing me to see other stuff on my screen. However, if I want to use Chrome, as soon as I activate any Chrome window, the video pops up as full-screen an obscures my view.

I suppose I could use a different browser for internet stuff, but that's obnoxious! For example, I'm using Chrome's dev tools pane to debug a page I'm working on. I don't want to give up using Chrome for other purposes just because I'm watching something on TV.

How can I go about watching a full-screen tab on TV, while still being able to use Chrome for other purposes on my computer?

Update: I tried having the media window in a separate space, but when I go fullscreen it always takes up the laptop screen no matter which space I switch to.

Have you tried creating a new space, opening a new Chrome window in that space, opening ESPN in that new window, and cast that single tab on that isolated Chrome window to your TV? Then you should be able to work in your other space(s) and leave that one alone/aside to stream to your TV.

I do something similar when I want to work in Chrome but stream Hulu/Netflix/whatever to my TV via AirPlay (I set the AirPlay display as a separate display and drag over a totally separate Chrome window to that AirPlay display).

With Chrome 35, Fullscreen stays within the tab, which should directly solve your problem.


How can I revert to Snow Leopard? Lion is crashing on me all the time and I am sick of it.  I would like to do a clean install of Snow Leopard, but when I insert the dvd and hold 'c' on boot the computer just locks up and I have to do a hard reset.

What do I have to do?

The issue is likely due to the fact that the build of Snow Leopard you're using is incorrect and thus does not have the necessary drivers for your iMac. If it's a Mid 2011 or even Mid 2010 model, the reference release of Snow Leopard (10.6.3) was release before these models and does not have what is needed to use the hardware in your iMac.

If your iMac was purchased before or on Lion launch day, it should have come with some gray disks that will have the correct build of Snow Leopard on them. If you purchased your machine a few weeks after Lion launch, you may not have these disks.

If you don't' have these disks, I would suggest making an appointment at your local Genius Bar. Both Apple Stores I worked in always had reference releases of all major OS releases within the past 5 years, including a universal Snow Leopard build. They should be able to do a quick NetRestore and downgrade you to Snow Leopard (you will lost all files if they do it this way, so have a good backup!).

Hope this helps...good luck.

I had a client awhile ago wanting to return to 10.6 from 10.7. It is a BIG problem. Best is to use time machine, but in his case, NO BACKUP. Suggestion is to back up what you think you need - safari bookmarks.plist, documents, etc. Then re-install the OS after re-partitioning and start over. Even migration asst won't perform correctly. I had AppleCare on the phone and didn't have any better info than to re-format and start over.


High Sierra 10.13 : Keychain Access Menubar Item Missing? Is the Keychain Access Menubar Item missing for anyone else?

The in-built Help app still claims setting the Keychain Access Menubar Item is possible through Keychain Access > Preferences > General. I no longer have a General pane in Keychain Access > Preferences and, thus, no way to choose to set the Keychain Access Menubar Item.

Do other people using 10.13 still have this option?

UPDATE:

I'm glad you've found ways to lock your screens, but all of the initial responses were weirdly answering a question that wasn't asked.  I rarely used the Keychain Access Menubar Item for the Lock Screen feature; my screen is set to lock after a short period of inactivity. I used the Keychain Access Menubar Item to access my keychain data and to quickly and easily create UserID/Passcodes outside of Safari and to create Secure Notes and to grab Certs.

Please, see my Crude Solution below.

"Lock Screen" is now available via the Apple menu.

Or, you could just say " Siri - put my macbook to sleep"


Is it possible to only see contacts with phone numbers? I recently started syncing my iPad and iPhone with iCloud. I selected to merge my contact list into iCloud from both devices. The problem is that, while I use my iPad for my email, I don't use it at all on my iPhone. Now, if I want to call a contact, it's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

I need a way to only view phone numbers, not email address-only contacts.

I know that Android has the option to only view contacts with phone numbers (well, at least in CyanogenMod). I'd like to know if I can do the same thing on the iPhone? I am not using a Mac, and certainly don't have OS X Lion, so I'm only using iCloud on my iPad and iPhone.

The native Contacts and Phone apps do not support this in iOS. As a workaround, you could use a third party contacts manager which supports smart groups, creating “Has a phone number” and “Has an email address” groups and working from these. Note that the contact lookup sheets shown by other apps (like, say, Mail) are provided by the native app and thus will not show your new groups.

A free example of such an app for the iPhone would be Tacts – searching for “smart groups” on the App Store should get you more.

Settings -> go to the app you don't want to sync contacts -> switch off Contacts


What are these characters from the OS X keyboard? I've never seen these characters before and never seen them in action either.

Does anybody know what they are and what they're used for?

Maybe somebody has this drop of trivia lying around...

Option+Shift+6

  ﬂ

Option+Shift+5

  ﬁ

These are U+fb01 and fb02, Latin Small Ligature Fl and Fi.  They are in Unicode really only because they were contained in legacy 8 bit character sets like MacRoman, but should no longer be used for anything.  In modern technology such ligatures are created by fonts on the basis of the underlying codes for the separate characters, which is what should aways be input in place of option shift 5/6.

The search tern to use is ligature

ﬂ and ﬁ are ligatures i.e. the two characters are joined together as one thing (Wikipedia says glyph).   This is just how typesetters think make the text look better so is a design idea makes ﬂ look better that fl and ﬁ better than fi

The only thing I have seemed them used for explicitly is the abbreviation for florin ﬂ which used to be the Dutch currency.


What happens after a stolen Mac was remotely wiped? A Macbook Air was stolen from us last month and we immediately activated "Find my Mac" and a few minutes later we requested it to be wiped (through iCloud). Today, 1 month later, we received an email saying that the Mac had been wiped (but no location).

My question is: now what?

is there any chance we get a location on the Mac? (i.e. is "Find my Mac" still active? even if OS X is reinstalled?)
is the Mac usable or is it locked by a pin code? Is it possible to reinstall OS X and use it?

In general, do thieves know what to do with stolen and locked Macs (is it easy to unlock them?), or is it now a brick?

Also the name of the Mac was changed to something generic: "Macbook de mac" (in english: mac's Macbook), which sounds like the thief might have been trying to sell the mac. Now that it has been wiped, could it be because somebody bought it and connected it to a wifi? If it's locked and un-usable, maybe there's a chance that they would bring it to an Apple Store and that we could get it back.

Yeah u ain't getting it back! Once iCloud is turned off it can't trace like with a phone I factory reset it I don't add iCloud an that tracker the hole thing is factory reset. An that's what a thief would do reinstall it it's easy to get the firmware password. Were u insured? If so talk to Apple about them giving u another one. But straight up truth its long gone.


Can't add music to iPhone anymore I have seen this: Greyed out songs when trying to add from itunes to iphone? but though the issues are similar, I think my version has a different cause. Anyways, none of the answers there did work for me.

When I try to add an album to my iPhone, it does not synchronise the album. I think this is the case because:

When I click "Synchronise", it only takes a split second. This is strange, since the album is a little over 100 MB in size (according to iTunes itself).
The album does not appear on my iPhone
They do appear in iTunes->iPhone->On My iPhone, but greyed out, with a dotted circle to the left of the tracks.

What I did first was (as I have always done and never had problems with) just select the album from iTunes->iPhone->Music (with "Sync Music" and "Sync only selected items" checked), but this gave the result described above. I then tried to do it manually (after checking the "manage music and videos manually" option in the summary) but this gave the same result. I even tried another album, which doesn't work as well. Both albums come from CDs and do play normally in iTunes. (In fact, I'm listening to one right now.)

I do not mind deleting all songs from my iPhone, since restoring that wouldn't take long, even manually (it's just one album right now), but future visitors might benefit more from your answer if it didn't require that.

What I think to be the cause:
I reinstalled the operating system on the computer with iTunes a while ago (see my previous questions for more info) and didn't want to restore from the Time Machine backup, since I had accumulated a lot of superfluous bytes, and the reinstallation seemed like a good opportunity to get rid of those. I restored my iTunes library by simply restoring only the ~/Music directory, which restored all my songs. But when I connected my iPhone to my computer it asked me if I trusted the iPhone (and the iPhone asked if I trusted the computer). I think my manual restoration of iTunes didn't include some files connected to managing devices with iTunes which causes this now.

There could be several reasons for this as far as I can tell, but my solution, after hours of research was rebuilding the iTunes library.

You might be able to check if this will actually work by addig some new music to your library and then trying to sync it to your device.

If becomes available (black instead of gray in the Music section), then this might work for you.

The steps for rebuilding your library are pretty simple, described here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201561

Basically:

Close iTunes
Go to your iTunes Music folder
Move the itunes library xml to a different location (e.g. desktop)
Delete the .itl file (the actual library information)
Reopen iTunes and import the moved xml (Import Playlist)

I talked to Mac support because all the cd's I have put in my iTunes all of a sudden couldn't be played in my iPhone. they said that it's not possible anymore to add own cd in iPhone unless it is bought in iTunes Store. I WILL NEVER buy my music in iTunes Store period. I have bought the CD and as long as I do it for personal use I can't see the problem. He said that too many people are borrowing cd's from others and recording those so in Apples optic I am a criminal???? Normally one is innocent until proven guilty but not according to Apple. Companies like Apple are having way too much power and should be stripped from it or maybe we, the consumers should go back to PC to gain a certain level of freedom?


Blocked websites on Safari I was using a public WiFi spot at the airport and noticed that certain websites on Safari were being blocked. I was able to go to these websites when I used my own data, but I have limited data so is there a way to bypass this?

Public WiFi hotspots, especially free ones, tend to block certain sites just to limit bandwidth usage or potential liability issues. Workaround number one you have already found: use your own cellular data, which is not always an ideal situation.

VPN software is sometimes a good solution to this depending on if the public WiFi allows VPN connections. If it does you can get one that supports iOS (I use TorGuard but there are hundreds of others) and use that to bypass the limitations of some public WiFi hotspots.

Note: depending on what you are trying to do online that WiFi hotspot might see you sending and receiving large amounts of data (Netflix, YouTube, etc.) and block your MAC address and you are, again locked out of that particular WiFi hotspot.

The best way is to use a vpn. Because, this is due to the rules of the wifi firewall.


iPhone 6 after death My 89 yr old Dad just died.  Before I catch static, yes, I have a death certificate.  He was somewhat forgetful and would often forget passwords and reset them (and forget those too).  I have his phone and I know his iCloud ID but I do not know his phone unlock code nor his iCloud ID.  When I try to reset his iCloud ID, it wants to notify his iPhone (which I cant unlock).

Can I:

erase his iPhone -- so it will be unlocked
have iCloud send the password reset to the iPhone
get into his iCloud and then restore the phone?

I guess your objective is to be able to use iPhone again and not recovering anything from the phone. You can follow this guide to erase your phone and remove the passcode.

https://support.apple.com/en-sg/HT204306

If you don't have any way to get in to his iCloud:

Reset the iPhone.

If you have the iCloud password:

Unlock the passcode with iCloud.


Mount "Windows" part of hybrid ISO in OS X (10.9.5) I have an old hybrid ISO, WAR2BNE (Warcraft II: Battle.net Edition) in fact, that I am trying and failing to mount. The problem with the auto-mounting is that it uses the Mac portion and I need access to the Windows files.

A few web searches came up with various solutions, usually years old, that no longer work when attempted:

http://hints.macworld.com/article.php?story=20080708145453136
http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/os-x-development-darwin/233131-mounting-windows-side-hybridized-cd.html
http://loonsoft.com/post/2762643736/mount-iso-images-in-osx

I'm not afraid of the Terminal, I'm just not sure where to start researching to solve this.

This worked for me to mount the Windows files in a hybrid CDROM. You should be able to do something similar for an ISO.

Run mount to list the currently mounted disks. Find the one for the disk you are interested in. E.g. /dev/disk2s1s2
Create a new directory under /Volumes, e.g. /Volumes/win
Mount to the new directory with sudo mount_cd9660 -er /dev/disk2s1 /Volumes/win. 9660 is the windows CD format, ISO 9660. Pay close attention to the device name, it is not the same as what is listed for mount. There is only one s, you truncate the extra s. So instead of /dev/disk2s1s2, you just use /dev/disk2s1.
Now when you go to /Volumes/win, it should have the Windows files, not the Mac files.

sudo mount_cd9660 -er /dev/diskx /mountpoint

where x is the disk number and mountpoint is any directory


Whitelist available in Apple Mail for automatic Load Remote Content when this option is deselected in settings? The 'Load Remote Content' is a great feature and I like to use it. Is there a way to make a whitelist of sender addresses for which remote content is loaded automatically, whilst remote content of addresses not on the whitelist are not automatically loaded?

Such whitelist will help me having the media content local and therefore the emails readable even after some time (media may have been deleted on server side by the sender after some time).

In addition such whitelist will be more productive, since I do not have to press for each email the button 'Load Remote Content'. Today many companies send their brand in an image, or add images to direct the reader to their Facebook/Twitter or whatever social media page. For these message I always have to press the button 'load remote content' since I do not know if other media content may have been added to the body of the email which the sender wants to share with me (eg photo).

The reason why I do not want to automatically load remote content is to not give feedback to spammers that my email addresses are active. Spammers usually work with a small media added to the email (usually 1 pixel image). When spammers see your email address active, they 1) continue spamming you 2) selling/giving your email addresses to other spammers.

You can try using Mail's built-in Rules.

It is located here:

Mail -> Preferences... -> Rules -> Add Rule

Then you can fill up the info.
Like for example, let's say there is Facebook sending you an email every day. You can add a rule to maybe send it to the inbox or you can archive it etc.


Deleting orphaned files from iphone Is there an easy way to remove all files NOT referenced by "iTunes Library.itlp" on my iphone? I need to free up some space and I know I have audio files saved on the iphone that are just orphaned..

Backup the phone using itunes and then restore to defaults and reload the backup. That should delete any files not in the itunes database. If the files are used by other apps they might still hang around and you might need to tell itunes not to load that app any more.

yes, but the only way i know of requires mobil terminal, which requires jailbreaking and is unfortunately only available on software no later than iOS 2.0


Error when connecting USB Drive to VirtualBox virtual machine How can I use external hard drive via USB connection on a virtual machine using VirtualBox?

I ejected the hard disk from OS X host, then the disk becomes available in OS X virtual machine.

Clicking on the disk throws an error:

USB Settings:

Why is that?

EDIT: I added external drive to the USB panel. I am still getting an error `Failed to attach the USB device Seagate Expansion to the virtual machine El Capitan3.

Failed to create a proxy device for the USB device. (Error: VERR_PDM_NO_USB_PORTS).

Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: ConsoleWrap
Interface: IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}

I assume the you have downloaded and installed the "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack". This enables support for USB 2.0 and USB 3.0 devices, VirtualBox RDP and PXE boot for Intel cards.

In the Ports window pane, I do not see where you have added a USB Device Filter. Below is where I added a 2 GB USB flash drive.

An alternative to ejecting the USB external drive would be the following:

Unmount the USB drive before starting the virtual machine. The timing is very important, since OS X will try to remount the drive automatically. Use the Terminal application command

diskutil list

to determine the identifier for the external USB drive. For example, say the identifier is disk1, then the command to execute, just before you start the virtual machine, would be

diskutil unmountdisk /dev/disk1

Update:

Actually, I was able to gain access to the USB flash drive after starting the virtual machine. All I had to do is execute the

diskutil unmountdisk /dev/disk1

command while the virtual machine was running.

Accessing the External USB Drive as a Virtual SATA Drive

The following Terminal application commands create the file share.vmdk needed to access the external USB drive as a virtual SATA drive. This file will be stored in the folder named Share on the your Desktop. I assume the identifier of the external drive is disk1.

cd ~
cd Desktop
mkdir Share
cd Share
diskutil unmountdisk /dev/disk1
sudo chmod go+rw /dev/disk1*
diskutil unmountdisk /dev/disk1
vboxmanage  internalcommands  createrawvmdk  -filename  "$PWD/share.vmdk"  -rawdisk  /dev/disk1

Note: The effects of the sudo chmod go+rw /dev/disk1* command are temporary. The permissions may revert, if you restart the computer or eject the external USB drive.

You can now add the share.vmdk file as a second drive in your virtual machine. Note: Before clicking on the "Open" button, you will need to execute the command diskutil unmountdisk /dev/disk1.

Before starting the virtual machine, you will be required to execute the command diskutil unmountdisk /dev/disk1.

  Note: You can stop OS X from automatically mounting the external USB drive by creating/editing the file /etc/fstab. See man fstab for more information.

Accessing a Read/Write .dmg File as a Virtual SATA Drive

Use the Disk Utility application to create a new blank disk image. Below is a example where the share.dmg is created in the ~/Desktop/Share folder. (This was done using Yosemite OS X 10.10) Other types of disk images can also be created and used.

Again you need to create a share.vmdk file. The commands are given below.

cd ~/Desktop/Share
diskutil unmountdisk /dev/disk1
vboxmanage  internalcommands  createrawvmdk  -filename  "$PWD/share.vmdk"  -rawdisk  /dev/disk1

Next, execute the same steps already given to access the USB drive.

Installation of Intel(R)_USB_3.0_eXtensible_Host_Controller_Driver helped me


iPhone 5s takes blurry photos only in apps that access camera My iPhone 5s takes perfectly clear photos when I access and use the stock Camera app to take a photo. However, if I try to use the camera in an app, e.g. to use the camera in my banking app to deposit a check, the photo is too blurry to use. I have found this is the case with all apps that use camera other then the Camera app.

Sometimes, even when we have tried "everything," a reset of the device can help.  This 'reboots' the phone.

Hard Reset

Hold the Home and Power buttons down at the same time until the  logo comes back to the screen. (The screen will go black, keep holding.)
Let go of BOTH buttons when the logo comes back.  (Continuing to hold the Home button will put the iOS device into Recovery Mode)

Recovery mode will re-download iOS and then give you the option of restoring from a backup.

If this doesn't work, and a restoration of the phone from scratch in Recovery Mode (which is time consuming for the download) doesn't work, if you iPhone is under warranty see if Apple will be able to help.  They want you to be happy and will do what they can within reason.

From a thread in Apple support community:

  Soft = Turn phone off and on.
  Hard = BOTH buttons held until you see Apple Logo.

  Difference: I like to explain by thinking of a laptop. On a laptop (or
  even computer) you can go to hibernation mode (memory gets written to
  disk then powers down). When turned on, it loads back up from memory
  and thus everything that was loaded in memory before shutting down is
  put back. That is what a Soft reset is (when you do the power button
  the slide to turn off). Thus if there was a memory leak for example in
  some program causing issues (sluggish, crashes, etc)....then if you
  just turn off and on, it will still have issues. A hard reset is like
  pulling the plug on your computer. It will have to turn back on and
  reboot fully. It does write an error log out to itself (nothing you
  see) but causes no harm to your phone or data. It is just a way to do
  a full clean boot up. This actually fixes about 90% of the issues most
  people have.

  Has no effect on battery outside of the fact it has to boot up thus
  processor and read writes will be happening.

Have you tried going a DFU restore of the phone and setting up as new this should sort it.


Deleting (intrusive?) Facebook files ok? Platform(s): MacOS Catalina (10.15.2) and an iPad (13.3).

Disclaimer: I'm in no way experienced or knowledgeable in anything relating to computers.

Background: I'm keen to cut ties with Facebook completely and thought I'd investigate if there are any Facebook files lurking around on my Mac to do whatever Facebook files likes to do; spying, stealing info etc.

Found: I found the following files using Double Commander, scouring the entire drive.

/System/iOSSupport/System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/FacebookSettings.axbundle
/System/iOSSupport/System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/FacebookSettings.axbundle/Contents/MacOS/FacebookSettings
/System/Library/Accounts/Access/FacebookAccessPlugin.bundle
/System/Library/Accounts/Access/FacebookAccessPlugin.bundle/Contents/MacOS/FacebookAccessPlugin
/System/Library/Accounts/Authentication/FacebookAuthenticationPlugin.bundle
/System/Library/Accounts/Authentication/FacebookAuthenticationPlugin.bundle/Contents/MacOS/FacebookAuthenticationPlugin
/System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/CalendarDraw.framework/Versions/A/Resources/FacebookIcon.tiff
/System/Library/Frameworks/Quartz.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ImageKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/profile-photo-facebook@2x.png
/System/Library/Frameworks/Quartz.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ImageKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/badge-facebook@2x.png
/System/Library/Frameworks/Quartz.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ImageKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/badge-facebook.png
/System/Library/Frameworks/Quartz.framework/Versions/A/Frameworks/ImageKit.framework/Versions/A/Resources/profile-photo-facebook.png
/System/Library/Frameworks/Social.framework/XPCServices/com.apple.facebook.xpc
/System/Library/Frameworks/Social.framework/XPCServices/com.apple.facebook.xpc/Contents/MacOS/com.apple.facebook
/System/Library/Frameworks/Social.framework/XPCServices/com.apple.facebook.xpc/Contents/Resources/FacebookContactUpdater
/System/Library/Frameworks/Social.framework/XPCServices/com.apple.facebook.xpc/Contents/Resources/FacebookIcon.icns
/System/Applications/News.app/Contents/Resources/facebook.js
/System/Volumes/Data/Users/idontthinkso/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/8joe3ovp.default-release/safebrowsing/social-tracking-protection-facebook-digest256.vlpset
/System/Volumes/Data/Users/idontthinkso/Library/Caches/Firefox/Profiles/8joe3ovp.default-release/safebrowsing/social-tracking-protection-facebook-digest256.sbstore

Question: Are these all safe to delete?

Bonus question!: Is there a Terminal command to delete files in this manner? As there is for xCode etc.

While I am not aware of the insides in detail, but I can comment(answer) on some.
/System/iOSSupport/System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/FacebookSettings.axbundle
/System/iOSSupport/System/Library/AccessibilityBundles/FacebookSettings.axbundle/Contents/MacOS/FacebookSettings

https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=zh-CN&u=http://www.duozy.com/article/44379.html&prev=search

http://yesanotheriphoneblog.blogspot.com/p/apple-apps-removal-list-60.html
indicate that these should be deleted from an iPhone after jailbreaking or otherwise to delete Facebook app from the iPhone. No comment on macOS there. However, I don't even have this(FacebookSettings.axbundle) on my Mac and never had FB on iPhone either.

/System/Library/Accounts/Access/FacebookAccessPlugin.bundle
/System/Library/Accounts/Access/FacebookAccessPlugin.bundle/Contents/MacOS/FacebookAccessPlugin

https://opensource.apple.com/source/kext_tools/kext_tools-326.1.12/systempaths.plist.auto.html
lists them for some reason.

All the tiff, png, icns files are just images and icons and I wouldn't mind them sitting where they are.
For the news one, it's a JavaScript file and it can be worth reading, if it's readable, to see what it has.
For the last two of Firefox, I routinely delete the Profiles folder every time YouTube's suggestions become obsolete or one sided. So you can delete that folder using Finder (yay!) and see if it comes up again. It could be a good thing to save to protect you from tracking!

Thank you all for your responses. As mentioned I can't delete any of these files no matter what I do, so I guess a clean reinstall of the OS will solve it - as long as I steer clear from using Facebook whatsoever and perhaps conducting a clean OS reinstall of iPhone and iPad too avoiding the FB app.


403 forbidden on Apache vHost I'm using Mac OS X 10.6.8 and I'm trying to configure a vHost. I configured it and it gave me a 403 Forbidden, and I'm having trouble giving _www permission to read/write in ~/Document/workspace/dev

httpd.conf, I thought this might be causing trouble with me accessing public host, not vHost, but I'm not sure.

    #
    # ServerName gives the name and port that the server uses to identify itself.
    # This can often be determined automatically, but we recommend you specify
    # it explicitly to prevent problems during startup.
    #
    # If your host doesn't have a registered DNS name, enter its IP address here.
    #
    #ServerName www.example.com:80

    #
    # DocumentRoot: The directory out of which you will serve your
    # documents. By default, all requests are taken from this directory, but
    # symbolic links and aliases may be used to point to other locations.
    #
    DocumentRoot "/Library/WebServer/Documents"

I also made sure to uncomment the include on this:

    # Virtual hosts
    Include /private/etc/apache2/extra/httpd-vhosts.conf

And I defined these vHosts in httpd-vhosts.conf

    <VirtualHost *:80>
        DocumentRoot "/Library/WebServer/Documents"
    </VirtualHost>

    <VirtualHost *:80>
            DocumentRoot "/Users/isaacbeckett/Documents/workspace/dev"
            ServerName isaac.local
            ErrorLog "/private/var/log/apache2/isaac.local-error_log"
            CustomLog "/private/var/log/apache2/isaac.local-access_log" common

            <Directory "/Users/isaac/Documents/workspace/dev">
                    AllowOverride All
                    Order allow,deny
                    Allow from all
            </Directory>
    </VirtualHost>

And here is my /etc/hosts file:

    ##
    # Host Database
    #
    # localhost is used to configure the loopback interface
    # when the system is booting.  Do not change this entry.
    ##
    127.0.0.1       localhost
    255.255.255.255 broadcasthost
    ::1             localhost
    fe80::1%lo0     localhost
    127.0.0.1       isaac.local

I've flushed the local cache with dscacheutil -flushcache
 several times and tried chmod 755 ~/Documents as well, but no success. Can someone please help me figure this out?

This is very much off topic as it is unrelated to Apple hardware/software.  However, I wanted to point you in the right direction.

The problem that you are running into is that

In your httpd.conf, the directory permissions are not set properly
Your .htaccess file is not configured properly
The system doesen't have the correct permissions for the directory

The best thing to do is consult the Apache documentation about the VirtualHost directive.

The Server Fault and/or Super User boards here on Stackexchange would also be beneficial to solving this particular problem.


How do I prevent a menu extra from appearing at login? Recently I reinstalled OS X 10.6.8 and afterwards I removed my DVD drive since it was no necessary. However, upon booting the 'eject' menu extra appears. Dragging it off does not help as it reappears during the next boot. There are no other drives removable connected.

Is there any simple solution other than deleting the menu extra file?
(Though it is a wonderful application, using Bartender is not a solution.)

Try this

  http://macs.about.com/od/macoperatingsystems/qt/ejectcdmenu.htm

or

Rename eject.menu in /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu Extras/ to something else "eject.menu.bak"

restart mac and then rename the file back to original.

Not sure if it works but trying doesnt hurt anyone.

It seems that your solution of CMD-Click&Drag to remove the menu extra should resolve your issue, and the item should not reappear at login.  I would investigate other potential causes of this issue.

First I would repair permissions.


Can't install OS X on MacBook Pro after installing Windows 8 So my hard drive stopped working, water damage I think.
I bought myself a new ssd and straightaway put Windows on it as I use it for work.

This was a few months ago I'm now stuck as I can't figure out how to install OS X whilst Windows is its main OS.

If anyone has a solution that doesn't involve me wiping my ssd I'd be very happy.

Boot with ⌘R, use Disk Utility to partition the disk, then use the OS X Utilities to reinstall OS X, selecting the new partition as the destination.

Use a virtual machine. You can run mac on windows. But it is a hacked version of OS X so i don't think you would want it because it is not the legal copy.


"Accountsd wants to use the 'iCloud' keychain" I, too, am suddenly getting this message.  I don't see a Keychain First Aid option in Keychain, and the two Login Keychain Settings were already unlocked.  Any other ideas for what the error message is all about, and what I should do about it?

A reboot solved this issue for me.

I had this same pesky popup with no apparent source. There were actually two of them:

acountsd wants to use the "iCloud" keychain.
Address Book Source Sync wants to use the "Local Items" keychain.

Clicking 'cancel' on the first one would cause it to reload instantly, so there was no way to opt out of responding.

I closed all open applications and restarted, apparently resolving the issue. Several things make me nervous about this: (a) The persistent behavior of the modal, (b) the lack of clear source and reference,  and (c) the request for password on keychain which I never use. Is this a new virus?

Here is a screenshot:

Type this in the terminal:

security -v set-keychain-settings -t 72000 login.keychain


App behavior with spaces and minimized window I would like to change the behavior when I click on an app that's not open on the current space. Right now, it goes to whichever space has that app. Instead, I'd like it to favor the current space, including minimized windows.

example: I have two open Chrome windows. One is minimized on space 1, and the second is open on space 2. The currently active space is 1.

What happens by default: I click the Chrome icon in the dock, and I am switched to space 2 to the open Chrome window there.

What I want to happen: The minimized window on space 1 is restored and made active.

What doesn't work: disabling switching spaces to an app to make it active. If I don't have a minimized window on the current space, then I do want it to switch spaces.
I tried this, it still doesn't restore the minimized windows. It just makes the app active on the current space. Then when I click the app again, it switches spaces, instead of restoring the minimized window. It only seems to restore the window when all the windows are minimized. How frustrating.

Basically I just want to swap the priorities of the two actions: unminimize and switch spaces.

Anyone know how to do this?

I am not sure that this is possible, however you could use ctrl+click on the dock icon or long click anbd use the sub menu system to show windows / switch to windows.


How can I disable the dictionary for Google Chrome? Is there a way to disable the below shown dictionary integration inside Google Chrome?

The "Look up" functionality has coverage across the entire operating system, not exclusive to Google Chrome


Create bootable USB with multiple installers? I have a 64GB thumb drive and about a dozen or so installation ISOs I'd like to have on it.  I would like to be able to have a single partiton, so that if I boot to it I am given a GRUB-stle boot menu which will allow me to select which ISO to boot from. When I select an ISO, I want it to boot from that ISO on the thumb drive. Simple as that.

I have a 2011 MacBook Pro running OS X 10.12. What do I need to do to accomplish this task?

I'll answer each of your questions separately:

All on one partition

Not possible with the current state of technology. Apple's startup systems look for bootable partitions, not images. You'll have to partition your device if you want to put many systems on it.

GRUB-style boot menu and selecting ISO

Try using macOS' built-in Startup Manager by holding down Option on boot. This will show you a list of bootable partitions that you can boot your system from.

Installers

If you intend to put OS X/macOS installers on your partition, look into createinstallmedia. Provide the path to the installer under the option --applicationpath and the disk to put the installer on (and make bootable) under the option --volume. Example syntax as follows:

/Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app --volume /Volumes/somevolume

what you ask is not possible: apple osx asks for a different bootable formatted partition compared to windows iso's.


Deleting photos off of my iPhone but leave photos in the cloud Is there a way to delete photos from my iPhone without deleting photos from iCloud photos?

No, as far as I know, there's no way to do that using iCloud, they're always kept in sync. You can either:

Ask Apple to change this behaviour: http://www.apple.com/feedback/
Use a different cloud service, e.g. OneDrive, Dropbox or Google Drive, they all provide a way to backup your photos and sync them for offline viewing when needed.

In iOS, tap Settings > iCloud > Photos or Settings > Photos & Camera, then select a storage setting.
If you turn on Optimize [device] Storage, iCloud Photo Library will automatically manage the size of your library on your device, so you can make the most of your device's storage and access more photos than ever. All of your original, full-resolution photos and videos are stored in iCloud while device-size versions are kept on your device. You can download the original photos and videos over Wi-Fi or cellular when you need them.

From: https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT204264
I don't use iCloud Photo Library, so I'm not sure if there's a way to completely remove the photo from your device and keep it in iCloud.


Can't access iCloud account I have forgotten my iCloud password. It has also an old email address I can't change. It is not the same as my Apple ID and password. Now I can't get into my iCloud.

My iCloud is updating for 3 days already and nothing is happening.

Now, how can I access my iCloud account when I can't change my password there or change my email addresses?

Call Apple

When all the 'normal' (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5787) verifications do not work, how can the iCloud be certain it is you?

You can call/contact Apple (http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5699). They will try to validate your account by multiple other ways. (billing information, creditcard info, etc). And one of the things they will probably ask for is some email conversations with other persons. So you might need to contact some friends/family/colleagues to dig in there archive for email conversations with your iCloud account.

You might expect your Apple contact to be suspicious, as they have recently had troubles with 'hacked' (wiki link) iCloud accounts.

Might this be a good lesson to always have a valid backup email address and a working 2-step verification☝.

Connect the device to iTunes go to - summary - restore iPad and it should work


Purchased/Rented movie is not played I have purchased/rented a movie (SD) and it is not playing... I have downloaded 1GB and the alert "ready to play" does not appear. Besides this, a doubleclick opens the Quicktime window and the player icons, but the movie does not start. The correct time is displayed and when I scroll the timeline I can see the pictures, but the play-button does not start playing the movie... I have the same problem with another movie :-(

EDIT: I used the native Apple iTunes Store (is there any other store?!)

Try setting your computers clock a day in advance.

I have seen a time-zone issue where the the movie won't play until the computers clock is set to the following day.

Give that a try.


Copy home directory from one Mac to another both running macOS Catalina I have a new 16" and an older 15" MacBook Pros both running macOS Catalina. I want to transfer all my the content in my home directory to the new MacBook Pro while retaining the same username.
How do I do this?
Different problems have occurred since I have a huge amount of data about 1.3TB of it to transfer.

With scp -rp: Over my local Wi-Fi network, it is slow and mainly, files with a too long full path are not copied.

With rsync -aZv: Slow here too and there are the same issue than with scp with the long full path of filenames to copy.

By linking the 2 MacBook Pros with a Thunderbolt cable : With Shared directory, too slow and I have had at each time errors that stops the copy, which is very frustrating.

So, how can I copy all this data (even with a long full path for files) on to the new MacBook Pro ?
i.e how to to be able to copy all the content of my /Users/name/ directory into another directory of my new macbook pro 16", i.e into /Users/name/home_from_old_macbook_15_inch/ ?

Migration Assistant was designed by Apple to do just that.  A direct copy may have problems because some of the things in ~/Library depend on MAC address, and some may change due to differences in hardware or O.S. version.
With 1.3 TB, speed cannot be expected.
You’ll have to have nothing else running (not even Time Machine or Spotlight indexing) to avoid error -42.  According to http://www.macwizard.com/errors.html, that means “too many files open.”  If no other apps are running, then report to Apple that Migration Assistant has a bug.  Actually two of them—it should not open too many files, and if it does get that error, it should close some and keep going instead of quitting.

I want to suggest to create a Time Machine backup of older 15" MacBook, then restore the backup in new 16" MacBook. Just configure Time Machine to exclude system files and applications for saving time and space.
The main issue must be the extra storage for saving the backup, but I'm quite sure that's not a problem since you have two MacBook Pro.

Choose Apple menu  > System Preferences, then click Time Machine.
Click: Options…
Click check box for: Exclude system files and applications
Click: Save
Create a backup.

Use this link as reference:
Exclude files from a Time Machine backup on Mac


iOS: How to set language of app independent of iphone/ipad language More & more apps try setting their language automatically, based upon the language of your iPad, then the list of chosen languages.

Unfortunately, as do a lot of people, my preferred iOS/OSX system language is English, but certain apps (notably the new TomTom Go Mobile) need Dutch to be much of use (at least in Flanders, Belgium).

At the same time, the new WW (Weight Watchers mobile app) has poorly implemented localisation as well. Result: when my iPhone is in English, it loads the French version (go figure) even if french is only the third preferred language (behind english & dutch)

These apps should receive a warning in the app store, get banned altogether until their localisation performs as advertised, or its settings should get set from the settings menu, imho.

Is there a way to set the language independent from the main iOS language?

This problem pops up regularly (notably in bi-lingual countries or international, cosmopolitan people whose preferences and language capacities vary greatly).

If anyone at Apple is reading this; please help!

Starting with iOS 13, there is now a way to set an individual language for each app. In the Apple Settings app, open the settings of the specific app, and select the language under "Preferred Language". You can select from the languages that the app supports.

If you change your region as well as your language and then download the app then all be well.


Missing disk space on macOS I have a 250G disk on my Mac with around 100G in use. But the system reports only around 20G of free space. I'm using macOS 10.13.2. I have the problem at least since the upgrade to High Sierra, but probably also before.

"About This Mac" --> "Storage" reports that "System" is using around 180G. But if I check the complete disk, it looks like that:

$ sudo du -cxhd 1 /
  0B    /.HFS+ Private Directory Data
1.0K    /home
4.3G    /usr
4.2G    /.Spotlight-V100
1.0K    /net
 34G    /nix
  0B    /.PKInstallSandboxManager
  0B    /.PKInstallSandboxManager-SystemSoftware
2.6M    /bin
  0B    /Network
1.1M    /sbin
3.8G    /Library
  0B    /.Trashes
6.5G    /System
476K    /.fseventsd
du: /private/var/db/ConfigurationProfiles/Store: Operation not permitted
du: /private/var/folders/z7/[...]/0/SafariFamily: Operation not permitted
du: /private/var/folders/z7/[...]/0/com.apple.LaunchServices.dv: Operation not permitted
du: /private/var/folders/z7/[...]/0/com.apple.nsurlsessiond: Operation not permitted
du: /private/var/folders/z7/[...]/0/com.apple.routined: Operation not permitted
du: /private/var/folders/zz/[...]/0/com.apple.nsurlsessiond: Operation not permitted
8.0G    /private
8.6M    /.DocumentRevisions-V100
  0B    /.vol
 32G    /Users
 11G    /Applications
207M    /opt
5.0K    /dev
4.0K    /Volumes
  0B    /cores
104G    /
104G    total

df also says that only 20G are available:

$ df -h /
Filesystem     Size   Used  Avail Capacity iused               ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk1s1  234Gi  211Gi   20Gi    92% 4019132 9223372036850756675    0%   /

Any tool I was using (Finder, Disk Inventory X, etc.) shows more or less the same numbers like df and du.

Output of mount:

$ mount
/dev/disk1s1 on / (apfs, local, journaled)
devfs on /dev (devfs, local, nobrowse)
/dev/disk1s4 on /private/var/vm (apfs, local, noexec, journaled, noatime, nobrowse)
map -hosts on /net (autofs, nosuid, automounted, nobrowse)
map auto_home on /home (autofs, automounted, nobrowse)

I read and tested many, many things like:

https://superuser.com/questions/1270727/macos-10-13-1-high-sierra-disk-space-imac
https://superuser.com/questions/1259175/mac-disk-full-error-but-plenty-of-space
High Sierra disk space issues
How can I figure out what's slowly eating my HD space?

... but with no success. So what could consume more than 100G of disk space without showing up in any tool?

Update

Running „First Aid“ in recovery mode:

What does this error message mean?

error: btn:1: invalid key order (1) oid 440198 / oxid 114577
fsroot tree is invalid.

Update 2018-01-25

Another report of the same error: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8246182 (but no answers, yet)

I'm pretty sure this file system error is the root cause for the missing disk space. But I have no idea how to fix that. I was hoping that 10.13.3 would maybe solve it, but it didn't change anything. I guess I need to reinstall...

It seems like the two most likely candidates are a mounted (shared) disk overwriting a location with large files, hiding them from your view, or large (or many many small) files that are held open by a process, but have already been deleted. If you haven't rebooted the computer yet, that's worth a shot, but also booting into recovery mode and running first aid on the disk might help. lsof | grep deleted might also reveal interesting information, if lsof is available on OSX (I assume it is, but I've never looked)

I've also noticed in my own use that if I use a tool like DiskInventory or Grand Perspective and there are other users on the system, they won't show the size of other users files if I don't have read access to them (reasonably so). If you have other users on your system, they may have large files in their home directory you're not seeing.

I suffered a similar problem, only 800gb available from the 1tb.

to fix it, I boot up using ubuntu usb drive for macOS, then I can see the missing 200gb space.

I deleted both the 200gb and 800gb from ubuntu.

then boot up Mojave and the 1tb is all there.

hth.


How to get file sizes of large files in OS X Terminal? I'm trying to get the file size of a big file (1GB +) using the OS X Terminal. I'm using du -sh. But also after 30 seconds I don't have any result, is there any faster command?

Thanks.

Say you are looking for big files in your home directory, use this command:

find ~ -size +1G

Replace ~ with the directory of interest.

Update

My original response was wrong, but I'll keep it to remind myself. If you are trying to get the size of a file, try this:

stat -f '%z' filename  # Normal file
stat -L -f '%z' filename  # symbolic link file

I have not figure out how to do it for a directory yet.

You can use the following command

  $ sudo find / -type f -size +1G

In case you want to avoid traversing mounted drives, your command should be:

  $ sudo find -x / -type f -size +1G


What happens when MDM vendor certificate expires? There is no way to renew the MDM vendor certificate,you just have to create a new one.
After I create a new one, the devices have to be re-enrolled.
Is there a way I can avoid re-enrollment of devices?
I want to know what happens to the enrolled devices when the MDM vendor certificate expires?

If APNS certificate expires you have to enroll the devices. APNS certificates are valid only for an year.

Here is how you can renew APNS .

https://www.hexnode.com/mobile-device-management/help/renew-apns-certificate/


How can I prevent FaceTime from launching when I plug in an external video camera? We have iMacs that we use as industrial control computers, and we connect FireWire cameras into them via Thunderbolt adapters. On previous OS X versions, we would have to go into the preferences for iChat / Messages and prevent them from automatically launching when these cameras were connected, to make sure those applications didn't mess with our own video software.

However, on Mavericks these preferences have disappeared, apparently because now FaceTime is the application that automatically launches when an external FireWire camera is plugged in.

FaceTime seems to lack any formal exposed preferences, so is there another way to disable the automatic launching of this application on the connection of an external camera (a preference setting written at the terminal, etc.)? If so, how would we do this?

You can control which applications automatically open after attaching a camera to your Mac using the native Mac application, Image Capture. Try plugging in you camera and then launching Image Capture. If the camera is recognized by the app, there will be a drop down menu visible in the bottom left-hand corner of the app. Click the drop down menu to choose which application to automatically open when the camera is attached (in your case, choose "No Application").

If for some reason Image Capture does not recognize your camera, the drop down menu will not be visible. In that case, I'm not sure how to fix your problem.

The only solution that I found is to backup and then remove Facetime.app completely


Contacts and Phone on iPhone think I'm in a different country Yesterday I got a call from my wife and the iPhone said "Maybe Mrs. SSteve". The phone number was the international version of a U.S. phone number and her custom ringtone didn't play:

Voicemail is also showing international versions of U.S. phone numbers and also shows "Maybe" (normally it just shows the name and no phone number at all):

Contacts isn't formatting phone numbers at all:

Contacts on my iPad still formats numbers the way I expect:

I'm running iOS 12.3.1 on an iPhone 6. I remember seeing recently that there was a carrier update. I must have installed it because Settings -> General -> About doesn't show an available carrier update.

I tried iPhone Contact List Default Country Wrong but dialing *228 says the number isn't allowed.

I tried setting my Region in Settings -> General -> Language & Region away from United States and back but that didn't work. Where else does iOS get the region for phone numbers?

When I was writing this question and was in Language & Region, I tried setting the iPhone Language even though I didn't expect it to do anything. It was already set to English but I went ahead and selected "English (US)". It went to a black screen that said "Setting Language" (or something similar) for a while and when it was done all the phone numbers are displaying correctly. So I guess it's possible the language wasn't set to "English (US)" but I can't imagine why. Anyway, since I already went through the effort of editing the screenshots and writing the question I figured I'd leave this here in case it's helpful to someone.

iOS apparently gets the region from a buggy codebase, unfortunately. I'm glad you were able to solve this!
Like Christopher and JDH, an overseas adventure with an eSIM & Physical SIM messed me up - and it even persisted across a backup.
Given no combination of changing region (and restarting via power off), language (incl. a full restart), and Dial Assist (of course incl. restart via power off as well) will get the iPhone dialer to show the standard (###) ###-#### phone number format format, I have one last idea. I believe I still have a foreign SIM in the phone (although the line is disabled in favor of using my eSIM as my only, Primary line). I'll remove it. Even if that fixes the formatting, I'll still reset my phone as I upgraded from 13 to 14 without setting the phone up as new and it's showing its age (iPhone 11 Pro).
Thank you for the thread!


Keyboard shortcuts for renaming file and accepting extension When I try to rename a file (by pressing enter, then changing the extension of the file), it pops up with an alert asking "Are you sure you want to change the extensions ... " and the old extension is selected in blue. I haven't found a keyboard shortcut for selecting the new extension from the popup alert. Is there a way? I need to rename dozens of files, and doing it all through the keyboard would be so much quicker than selecting this one alert with a mouse.

You can disable the prompt under Finder's Preferences (see picture below):

This might save you some time if you are renaming multiple files. Additionally, you may want to look at Rename. It is a free utility that should serve you well for such simple batch renaming.

In Mountain Lion, ⌘ + A works like a charm


How can I make a screenshot (printscreen) on my Macbook Pro using Windows 7? How can I make a screenshot on Macbook pro using Windows 7?
The keyboard does not include a special key for this function.

If you are using Bootcamp, Apple has provided documentation of key mappings:

  print screen = fn + ⇧ shift + F11

Try using the on screen keyboard and hitting the prt scrn button


Hidden ‘in use’ file preventing Office MAC 2011 uninstall I am moving from Mac Office 2011 to Office 365. After running the uninstaller, An invisible file in the Excel package, Microsoft Office > Microsoft Excel > Contents > Resources > En.lproj > Help > Art > wheel, continues to show “in use” despite several restarts, so I cannot empty it from the trash. My UNIX skills are embryonic at best. How do I kill this file?

If sudo rm didn't delete it, then maybe it somehow got the schg flag set?

You could try this:

    sudo chflags noschg /Users/bob/.Trash/nasty.file.ext

    sudo /bin/rm -f /Users/bob/.Trash/nasty.file.ext

As I mentioned in the comments, you could also try moving the file to /tmp/ and rebooting, since that usually clears out the /tmp/ but I have a sneaking suspicion that isn't going to help in this case.

I will assume that you have no files that you need in your Trash (because why else would they be there?)

(I am assuming this is your own Mac and that you have an admin account, if that is not the case, please let us know).

Launch Terminal.app and enter this command:

sudo rm -rfv ~/.Trash/*

Be very careful: sudo rm -rfv is just about the most dangerous command there is.

You will be prompted to enter your administrator password.

Enter it when prompted (it will not appear in Terminal when you type it).


Ethernet LAN speed too slow on one machine I have a LAN that has 4 Macs and a router / switch to connect them all.

My Ethernet LAN speed on my iMac is pathetically slow. I additionally have a MacMini, MacBook and G4 in my LAN, they all go way faster. For measuring I used a 220GB file to copy from one machine to another. While between the MacMini and MacBook this estimates to take about an hour, when copying to my iMac this measures at about 15 hours.

I then unplugged the cable from the iMac and plugged it into the MacBook to check if it might be a cable, and the speed was fine. So the cables seem to be fine.

I then connected the MacBook directly to my iMac bypassing the router and the speed was fine too, so the iMac port seems to be fine.

So, I’m thinking it’s something in the settings. On the iMac, I have two partitions, one running 10.11.6 and one running 10.6.8. On both systems I got the same results. When looking at network Utility, it shows Gigabit.

I reset the router and switch, restarted the iMac and am out of ideas right now.

This problem has the feel of a data packet size mismatch causing fragmentation with corresponding delay. Possibly combined with the machine hardware for some reason being set up for half-duplex communication.
For more information about packet size you can use the ping command from terminal with different packet sizes as described in this article: https://community.hpe.com/t5/Networking/What-detail-symptoms-will-I-be-getting-if-MTU-size-mismatch/td-p/6909407
Compare the ping results between the fast and the slow computers on the same physical connection.

As Allan pointed out, the switch was the problem. Without the switch the speed is as expected for a gigabit network.

All credit & thanks to Allan.


OS X Mavericks Screen brightness auto adjusting even when option is disabled Now I know from trying to find an answer to this to go uncheck the auto adjust box, since apparently it got checked when I updated to Mavericks, but now it seems my MacBook Pro has a mind of its own and still feels the need to auto adjust when I'm not doing anything.

I made sure 10 times at least that the auto adjust box wasn't checked, and it's not. So why is my Mac randomly doing this? (and btw, this only started today, and I got the update on the first day it was available)

I was just struggling with the same issue—it really annoyed the hell out of me. What helped me was a good ol' SMC reset:

See http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3964 on how to do it.

Are you sure?

System Preferences -> Displays -> Display -> Automatically adjust brightness


Why does my laptop shut down overnight? Whenever I leave my MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015) unattended (plugged in, or not) overnight (or for long periods of time) it shuts down by itself. When I open the lid it boots up to the FileVault password screen. It seems that if the lid is up, the laptop does not shut down.

It is running the latest and greatest macOS Sierra build (10.12.3 (16D32)).

There is no kernel panic, and I cannot find anything in the logs or settings that would cause this behavior. I tried searching and did a SMC reset.

EDIT

log show --style syslog --predicate 'eventMessage contains "shutdown cause"'
Skipping info and debug messages, pass --info and/or --debug to include.
Filtering the log data using "eventMessage CONTAINS "shutdown cause""
Timestamp                       (process)[PID]
2017-02-08 09:54:22.064782-0800  localhost kernel[0]: (AppleSMC) Previous shutdown cause: 3
2017-02-08 20:07:46.801647-0800  localhost kernel[0]: (AppleSMC) Previous shutdown cause: 5
2017-02-10 07:52:07.041401-0800  localhost kernel[0]: (AppleSMC) Previous shutdown cause: 0
2017-02-10 19:10:11.005920-0800  localhost kernel[0]: (AppleSMC) Previous shutdown cause: 0
2017-02-11 10:17:08.462940-0800  localhost kernel[0]: (AppleSMC) Previous shutdown cause: 5
2017-02-12 10:22:55.834601-0800  localhost kernel[0]: (AppleSMC) Previous shutdown cause: 0

EDIT 2
It turned out that the batteries on the laptop were failing. We sent the laptop to Apple for fixing under Apple Care.

Your "Shutdown Cause" has three separate values:  0, 3, and 5.

"5" is a clean shutdown
"3" is a dirty shutdown meaning the power button was held for 3 seconds or more
"0" means power loss

(contrary to what you'd think the values "should be", I know...)

There's an answer here on Ask Different that addresses the shutdown causes:  Are OS X shutdown cause and sleep cause numbers listed/explained anywhere?

A power failure on a "desktop" Mac (iMac, Mac mini, Mac Pro) is easily explained.  However, since you have a laptop (MacBook Pro), it's very concerning because if your electric current is cut, your battery will kick in and if that battery gets too low, it will save a hibernation image.

The 0 is as if you had no battery and pulled the plug - the system just cut out.  I would take it in and have a look at it.  This is definitely not normal behavior.

Dont fix it if its not broken. OS upgrades I feel should not be done. Unless doing so offers some great advantage or performance enhancement.
UPGRADE not updates. Updates within the same OS version should also be done with with the same thinking in mind but with less concern or caution. As far as SHUTDOWN issues, most are software related unless from what I have read and seen in the various complaints all over the web. Most answers I see seem to offer various ways to remedy this via the terminal or console. And other long drawn out ways to check this or remove that or change those and add this... no one seems to troubleshoot the issue as most may not know how or where to start. Everyone wants the answer and wants it now. Try this;  1. Log in as another user, or create an account similar the one your machine is using when the problem occurs. Then sit an wait.

If the problem does not happen with the new account. ITS SOFTWARE related and simply dump but not delete the system prefs from the problematic user library restart and see what happens.
If the problem persists then guess what.... it still may be software related but most likely its hardware related.
;- Determine what has changed if anything, unplug all added devices, check your settings and make sure to Reset the things apple suggests the way they suggest you do so regarding power management and the like.
know the history of the machine if you don't find out by asking those who use that machine. Machines just don't shutdown unless the hardware over heats, a program has crashed or unexpectedly quits which would show in the log file, few will cause a complete power off.

bottom line there are just to many people with similar complaints that claim they are all having the same problem. Which they are NOT once the conversation continues with everyone and their mother piping in with answers to a problem thats not fully understood.

Id you have a problem Make sure you know exactly what your problem is which often takes a qualified technician to determine. And in the 30 plus years I have been in the IT and Computer industry. I have met very few Qualified technicians with the proper training and education in computer electronics engineering.


Upgrade Mac OS X from 10.8.5 to 10.10.5 How do I upgrade my Mac OS X from 10.8.5 to 10.10.5?

I obviously can't use a 10.9 or a 10.10 Combo Updater.

To upgrade from 10.8.5 to 10.9 or 10.10 you had to "purchase" Mavericks or Yosemite in the Apple App Store previously. Purchase is overstated because it was free then. After launching the final El Capitan 10.11.0 in the public the possibility to get the former systems in the store is gone if they don't populate your purchase list.

The Combo Updaters only update a system to a later or the latest point release:

10.9.1 -> 10.9.5 or
10.0.0 -> 10.10.5

Go to App Store → Updates. Wait a while whilst it checks for updates. If you are eligible you will see the screen below. Click on Free Upgrade to get the upgrade.


"You don't have permission to save files in the location where screen shots are stored" Every time I take a screenshot, I get this error:

  You don't have permission to save files in the location where screen shots are stored.

How do I fix it?

If you type defaults read com.apple.screencapture location into a Terminal window it should tell you where OSX is currently trying to save screenshots.

You can change the location with a similar command. For example:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Desktop will save screenshots to your Desktop.

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Documents will save screenshots to your Documents folder.

Once you've told it a new location you need to run the following command for OSX to pick up the change.

killall SystemUIServer

Go to the location, right click and select Get Info, then uncheck "Locked"


How to clean off keyboard marks on screen? On the screen on my MacBook Air, there are some little square marks from the keyboard.

Are they permanent, or can I clean them off? How can I prevent this from happening in the first place?

If you are very lucky it is just dirt and can be wiped off but usually it is permanent and there isn't much way to avoid them. I have seen it happen even when a soft cloth is used to cover the keys when the lid is closed. In fact that may even make it worse as the cloth adds thickness to the sandwich and may make the contact between the high points of the screen and the keys firmer. The screen surface of an anti-glare display just isn't very hard - glossy glass is harder but can still be marked.

Using a quality micro fibre cloth with a 70% water/30% isopropyl alcohol solution is a good way to clean the marks off if they are not permanent. I have been using the cleaning solution provided by my optician for my glasses for years with no ill effects, and I love the iKlear blue microfibre cloths (for both glasses and displays). They call it "terry" as opposed to their "chamois" cloth.

I know this is old thread but I had to sign in to point one thing that no one here is sharing that for future references instead of going for a thin cloth or smth lol simply apply screen protector and I bet it won't ruin your panel it would only if you have a titanium key cap keyboard or smth lol


Some "sources" in Cydia are empty - how to get the content? I've just upgraded my iPhone 4 to iOS 5.0.1 and also jailbroken it. I've waited with the upgrade until the jailbreak because there are some tweaks I don't want to miss. Now that I have iOS5 jailbroken, I want to re-add those tweaks, but I don't find them in Cydia.

Looking at the sources in Cydia, I see that Modmyi.com and Cydia/Telesphoreo are listed and they do contain lots of items, but Big Boss and Dev Team and cydia.zodttd.com are also listed, but when I select each then there's nothing in there.

So it would appear that some of the repo's are not properly set up. To test this, I removed Big Boss and hit the "Add" button to add it again, but got an error message "Did not find repository".

Aha, it turns out that the sources have moved. They're no longer located as specified in Cydia, so of course Cydia can't find any content.

The solution was to remove the faulty sources and add them again by following these instructions: http://www.appleiphoneschool.com/how-to-add-a-source-to-cydia/

Restore your device using itune, then jailbreak again, its the best way to solve the problem.

Thanks.


OS X won't create any symbolic links, creates aliases instead No matter how I try to create an symbolic link OS X refuses to play along and instead creates an alias. I've tried several tools and also through the terminal using the ln command.

I am on a fresh install and using the ln command worked fine before. Any idea what's up?

Thanks,
Will

Let's try a few experiments, and look at a few things.

In a terminal emulator, such as Terminal.app in /Applications/Utilities, go to your home directory (cd ~) and create a directory (mkdir [directory]).

Make sure you go in the directory we just created (cd [directory]).

cd ~
mkdir directory
cd directory

After that, make a file; a simple text file will do:

echo "This is a simple text file" > originalfile.txt
ls -l@

Now, try creating a hard link, like this:

/usr/bin/ln originalfile.txt hardlink.txt

Then, try creating a symbolic link, like this:

/usr/bin/ln -s originalfile.txt symboliclink.txt

Now, open the directory in Finder with open . and make an alias.

In the terminal emulator you opened before, another ls should get us this:

Testarossa:test tonyw$ ls -l@
total 2528
-rw-r--r--  2 tonyw  staff      19 25 Jan 15:51 file.txt
-rw-r--r--@ 1 tonyw  staff  426048 25 Jan 15:52 file.txt alias
com.apple.FinderInfo        32
com.apple.ResourceFork  850686
-rw-r--r--  2 tonyw  staff      19 25 Jan 15:51 hard.txt
lrwxr-xr-x  1 tonyw  staff       8 25 Jan 15:53 symbolic.txt -> file.txt

The Finder GUI should result in this, too:

Please note that the Finder GUI displays a symbolic link as an alias.

A symbolic link is not the same thing as an alias. A real alias has extended attributes than a symbolic link.

In the Finder GUI, there is no way of telling a hard link is anything but a file.

For any symbolic links, there is an 'l' at the left hand end of the attributes, and the ls command tells us where it points.

When you try this, exactly what do you get?

I had this problem. Tried saving the link to a different folder. With a bit of trial and error it worked. No idea why.


iPhone 7 won't charge consistently from MacBookAir 2015 I've had my MacBook 11' 2015 Air since July 2016 and my iPhone 7 since April 2017, and my phone never had any issues charging on my Mac. I'm not sure when it started, but at some point both USB ports in my MacBook won't charge my iPhone 7, it just keeps going from charging to not charging very rapidly which only makes it even more annoying and frustrating.

I've tried multiple different cords, reset my iPhone, shut down and reset the NVRAM on my Mac, force quit USBD, deleted (and later reinstalled) the Thunderbridge network.

I'm far from a computer person, so I am very frustrated and currently want to smash both devices :-). I've googled it plenty, but hopefully I can get some new results that actually work.

If you have any solutions, please help me out here and explain it clearly to someone who knows how to operate a computer, but has little knowledge of coding or most of the inner workings of a computer.

I'm not sure when it started, but at some point both USB ports in my
  MacBook won't charge my iPhone 7, it just keeps going from charging to
  not charging really rapidly

Given that you've tried different cables, you've ruled out the possibility of the cable failing.  However, there are a few more things to try to isolate the problem

Reset the SMC (this manages the power in your MacBook)
Try a different computer with the same cable and iPhone.  If the problem goes away, you've narrowed it to your MacBook.  If not, the problem is with your device.
Try a different device with your MacBook.  Same concept as the previous point; if the symptoms remain, it's probably your MacBook.

Now, given that it's happening on both ports, it's entirely possible that there is an issue with the power rail that supplies the 5V to the USB port, the USB controller itself (unlikely unless your keyboard, Bluetooth, camera also stopped working) or any of the related components.  If this is the case, you will need to take it in for repair.

This YouTube video from Louis Rossman on repairing the USB port is a good resource for what the problem might actually be (I've started the video at the point where he discusses the 5V power).