Is there a way to boot from a USB on a MacBook Pro with disc drive? I know that on certain models of MacBook you can only install Windows from the SuperDrive—is there a way to circumvent this limitation? My computer is a MacBook Pro 13" from 2010, it doesn't have a disc drive and I want it to boot from a USB with Windows.

As soon as you hear the boot chime, hold the Option or Alt key.

Some icons should appear. Be patient if they don't appear immediately (but if after an entire minute the screen stays white there could be a problem). If it simply boots into OS X, you might have pressed the Option key too late.

There should be a hard drive icon for every partition on your hard disk and a USB drive icon for your external drive. Click on the desired boot medium and click the arrow under the icon or use the arrow keys and press enter after selecting the boot medium you want.


Cannot partition internal SSD High Sierra I wanted to install MacOS Mojave on a new partition just to check it out. But I cant partition my internal drive using disk utility. I'm running High Sierra 10.13.5. I've included a screenshot of disk utility.

Any suggestions?

No room

The answer is in your screenshot.

Macintosh HD is too full and as a result partitioning the drive would result in a partition too small.

First Screenshot:
“This volume can’t be split because the resulting volumes would be too small”

You need to clear out some space on Macintosh HD by deleting some files. This may help with that, but please know 256GB computer is very small and is not meant to be partitioned to run two OS’s. Can it be done? Yes, but you are basically going to me limited to a couple files on each OS.

I would just suggest installing macOS Mojave on a partition on an external drive (such as the one in your screenshot).

boot the macos from recovery partition and go to disk utility from you should be able to make one partition as per the requirement. Since the disk is full you will not able to partition from the same drive and before processing to partition, you need to take an back up and delete unwanted files on the drive


Why won't Time Machine restore my Contacts even though they're visible in a Time Machine backup? I recently upgraded to Catalina but after a few surprises I went back to Mojave using a Time Machine backup to restore data. I use Google to sync contacts on my Mac and iOS devices, and Gmail runs fine in the Mac mail app. I've done this for several years and its worked flawlessly ... until I went back to Mojave.

I’ve had no problems with contacts in Mail but after I restored Mojave I noticed contact names in Messages on the Mac weren't showing - just phone numbers and conversations. When I checked Contacts on the Mac all of my Contacts had disappeared (they're still on my iPhone, iPad and safely at Google).

In Mojave if I open Internet Accounts in System Preference the Gmail account has Contacts ticked. I’ve ticked and unticked. No difference.

When I try to add a CardDav account in Internet Accounts Google won’t verify my username and password even though they’re correct.

Strangely, when I open Contacts, and then Enter Time Machine, I can successfully go back to an earlier time and see all the Contacts. However, when I click Restore, and watch the animation bring them all back - the animation ends with a pause and all the Contacts disappear before my eyes leaving an empty Contacts app with the words "No cards".

Any advice on how to get my Google contacts back in the Contacts app on Mac Mojave would be most appreciated.

This fixed my problem Fix corrupted Contacts database


Found a lost locked iPhone 6 So a friend of mine found a lost iPhone 6. It has activation lock, and I see no information on the previous owner.
I see the IMEI on the back, is it possible to get any information from Apple or whatever about who the user is? if I could get my hands on the email address, at least, I could contact him/her.

Any help?

Apple or the phone carrier won't likely give your friend any information about the owner, but I think that your only option for your friend is to turn it in to an Apple Store near him, tell them where/when he found it, and hope that Apple gets the phone back to the owner. Without any information about the phone other than the IMEI, there's not a lot he can do.

Hold down the home button and ask Siri, "Whose phone is this?"


Just installed Maverick and my Canon MP780 will print but no longer scan, would a new driver help? I get a message in the Image Capture window saying: No camera or scanner detected.

Scanner worked with Mountain Lion, but is not working with Mavericks.
On Canons website, this is the message on Canon's MP780 for Mavericks OS:
"There is no driver for the OS Version you selected. The driver may be included in your OS or you may not need a driver."

I know the hardware (Canon MP780) works as I tried VueScan, and the hardware scanned with this program - but I would have to pay $40.00 for VueScan.
Hoping there is a driver that would allow me to use my current software, without purchasing VueScan.

There are four options at present and being told you can't have the new thing without paying for an old thing to work means many people will resent the $40 option and be angry:

Pay the money and keep running Mavericks with VueScan to scan.
Don't pay the money and revert to Mountain Lion (or whatever previous OS works with your peripherals).
Get a new scanner.
Wait for someone else to provide a driver that either does more than VueScan or costs less than VueScan.

Couldn't wait for hp solution bought VueScan and all scanning problems solved


An unknown computer is – sometimes – shown in my Finder In the attached picture you can see the name of an unknown computer (desktop-aqnpumc) in my network.

"Delat" means shared and SuperNova is my own TimeCapsule which is shown in Finder. I cannot eject this computer, or server or whatever it is.

Is this a security breach? What shall I do about this?

Appreciate all feedback. Thanks!

[Edit: New info - Most of the time this computer is not showing up. But it has a few times the last month. So it really feel like someone has gotten into my network. PLEASE HELP!]

This answer is based on the comments as the user perhapsmaybeharry covered how Bonjour works and how to disable it.

  Edit: New info - Most of the time this computer is not showing up. But
  it has a few times the last month. So it really feel like someone has
  gotten into my network. PLEASE HELP!]

This could be anything from a shared computer that has been cached on your system to a non-expired lease on your router.

To clear your mDNS  (Yosemite and Later):

sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder
To clear out the unexpired entry on your router, just log into your router, go to the DCHP Client Leases area, and delete the unknown computer.  Each router is different, but all have this functionality.  You will have to look up the settings for your particular router.

  I have a PC that is always connected to the network and Timecapsule.
  But I don't recognize that unit name. And this unknown unit is not
  always connected, just sometimes

I am assuming that you have a wireless network and you allows friends/family to join the network to surf.  This may be a PC/Mac that belongs to someone you know, you just don't recognize their computer.

  I haven't seen that computer for a while now. Isn't the most likely
  theory that it is someone that has broken in to my network?

Again, I am assuming that you have a wireless network - if it were wired (meaning no Wi-Fi) it would be really difficult to get into your network unless they had a physical connection.

If this is the case, you can immediately address the issue by changing your network passphrase (password) to join the network.  Just log into your router and make the change (you will have to update your Wi-Fi settings on all your devices when you do that.)

The other option is to turn on MAC filtering (not Mac as in Apple Mac, but the media access control - mac - address) in you router.  What it will do is prevent anyone with an address you didn't specifically authorize from joining the network.  Keep in mind that this will become very labor intensive because every time you want to allow your friends/family who haven't joined the network yet, you will need to go into the router and add their MAC address, and that's after obtaining it (usually) manually from their device.  It's much more secure, than just a simple passphrase, but the trade off is convenience.

If you have more "transient" guests than regular family and friends, this is where you start looking at a guest network.  Most routers with guest network capability allow you to have another SSID (WiFI network name) a different passphrase (wireless password) and some rules like isolating the clients so they can't talk to your "private network" or each other; they also have the capability to limit your guest users by, time (only surfing at night), by site (no XXX) and even by bandwidth (limit streaming).

This is all dependent on the router.

If you think your Wi-Fi network has been compromised and you don't change your WPS pin, you may as well not bother changing your password.


File sharing between Mavericks and non-Macs I am using a MacBook running Mavericks and my brother is on a Linux box; and we often need to exchange files between each other. Both the laptops are Wi-Fi enabled and I also understand that Mac does allow file sharing over Wi-Fi. While I do know that Airdrop works only for Apple devices, I am sure there must be some way to share files with non-Apple devices using the built-in WiFi capabilities. Any suggestions around how? I have tried checking the file sharing option in the Preferences >> Sharing module but it didn't help. Is it possible to share files with a Linux user using SMB or AFP? I understand FTP is an option but connecting using FTP involves a lot of Terminal steps each time, i.e., activating FTP, sharing password with the user, connecting, and then closing FTP. Is there any simpler method?

Here are the steps I followed:

First of all I enabled guest sharing on my Mac:

Then I activated file sharing on my Mac and designated my Public folder as the share point (default).

Then I tried the following address on my Ubuntu's Nautilus:

smb://172.17.8.212/Public

It then asked for user name, domain, and password and I entered guest for all three, as advised by @deeviate. And this gave the following error:

P. S.: I am NOT interested in installing any third-party tool for this job. Mac gives SMB as a part of the OS and thats what I want to use. There might be tools out there that work better than SMB, doesn't matter. I still should be able to use SMB if my OS provides it natively!

Thought I threw my two cents in.

Being both a Mac and Linux user - I find that once a SAMBA share is created on a Linux machine (browseable option on Linux samba turned on with or without a login - you can "connect as" from the Mac to the Linux machine), my Mac would pick it up and list in on Finder's left pane. Here's a quick SAMBA setup for the Linux machine.

Its pretty simple to setup a public share folder (or even a private one) on the Mac. Here's one guide

I'd say install software specifically for this task so you can easily choose when sharing is active. (Just like turning on airdrop.)

The SMB or NFS route means you're running a server on one of the machines. If one of these is a laptop, that can be a pain to remember to disable the service when you roam on to public networks. Its easy to get wrong.

Something like Retroshare or Nullsoft WASTE would do the job.
Retroshare is a FOSS p2p client for mac and linux.
http://retroshare.sourceforge.net/downloads.html

You can set a folder to 'share' and its available to folks you chose to share it with minimal configuration.


Why isn't iTunes starting on my mac? I am trying to figure out why iTunes is not starting on my mac.  When I double-click on iTunes.app in the finder, I get the usual animation of the icon indicating that the app is starting, but then nothing happens.

Digging a little deeper, I see the following entries being created in the console:

2015-05-10 7:21:11.710 PM pkd[445]: com.apple.message.domain: com.apple.appextension.state
com.apple.message.action: Uninstalled
com.apple.message.name: com.apple.iTunes.today.TodayExtension-1.0
com.apple.message.reorder_direction: 0
com.apple.message.source: Apple
com.apple.message.type: com.apple.widget-extension
SenderMachUUID: 58242545-21FA-3D58-8722-ED1C2E256DB6

2015-05-10 7:21:11.720 PM pkd[445]: com.apple.message.domain: com.apple.appextension.state
com.apple.message.action: Installed
com.apple.message.name: com.apple.iTunes.today.TodayExtension-12.1.2.27
com.apple.message.reorder_direction: 0
com.apple.message.source: Apple
com.apple.message.type: com.apple.widget-extension
SenderMachUUID: 58242545-21FA-3D58-8722-ED1C2E256DB6

This pair of entries is created each time I double-click. There is no other indication that I can see on why iTunes is not starting.

I have recently re-downloaded and installed version 12.1.2 from apple and continue to have the same problem.

I am running Yosemite version 10.10.3 and I can provide any other information that may be useful. Does anyone have any ideas?

EDIT:

Logged in as Guest User and experiencing the same behavior.

Other seemingly related apps (eg- iBooks, keynote, app store, photos) have no trouble opening either as the regular user or as the guest user.

I have a workaround. Not a fix, but something that allows me to open itunes.  I've created this bash alias:

alias itunes='/Applications/iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunes --x &'

Now, whenever I type itunes in the terminal, the application opens.

The --x option is not valid AFAIK. For some reason, passing a command line option kicks iTunes to  open. When passing no parameters, iTunes does not open.

I cannot explain this behavior and would appreciate an explanation if anyone has one.

I'm going to try @Tetsujin's suggestion to see if it provides a complete fix.

Choose Force Quit from the Apple menu, or press Command-Option-Esc.
This is similar to pressing Control-Alt-Delete on a PC.
Select the unresponsive app in the Force Quit window, then click Force Quit.


in my website data for my iphone & ipad are those websites that only i have looked at? When I look at my website data I keep seeing websites showing up in there that I know for a fact I would of never pulled up or looked on.

For example: there was one for baby names, I can't have kids and have never pulled up sites for that.

Can it be that someone is hacking into my phone and ipad cause there's a lot of suspicious sites that aren't mine?

If you share an iCloud account with someone, or someone is signed into you iCloud account on another device, the history may sync to your personal devices.

What if you have never visited half of the sites that are on there? Does it mean someone is hacking in my devices? My laptop was once hacked before so I get super worried about all my other devices especially when certain things happen such as some apps when I go to delete it will have a white checkered board kinda look instead of the actually icon...? And storage full (when I cleared so much stuff?) but the weirdest thing was the website data there are tons of sites I’ve never even heard of and definitely makes me think it’s hacked... please if someone can help me figure this out I’d appreciate it so much! I’m horrible with iPhones. But here are some of the sites some I’ve never even heard of or have visited before... also I seen something about remote something and it freaks me out because last time I seen remote anything on anything I had was when my laptop was hacked and whoever (my ex I believe) was able to do whatever he wanted turn cam on have invisible files on my desktop and was exiting me out of things on my laptop and changed the icons on most of the apps on my desktop to make it seem like they were their actual apps and my phone and iPad have both been acting funny and everything is all linked together I just want to put my mind at ease will someone explain?! another thing (I know I’m all over the place but when I sign into my gmail and get that little yes prompt it keeps coming up different location and always says Cpu iPhone 12 something Mac or it will change sometimes I have a 6 and it said on my wallet that pay through Mac or something and it was set up with something purchases from Mac... I have a windows...


OS X Mavericks Guest Mode with Filevault → Safari flickers + crashes Did anyone tried out the Guest Account feature in Mac OS X Mavericks with Filevault2 = on?

I did and
- Safari flickers (like with wrong graphic driver) → https://discussions.apple.com/message/23784151#23784151
- Safari / the complete system crashs and freezes on several websites.
Summary it's not usable! :(

Does anyone have similar issues?
Who does know a solution or has an idea to get the bug?
Thank you!

The Guest account only appears on the FileVault 2 pre-boot login screen if iCloud's Find My Mac is enabled. It's essentially a way to encourage someone to get online from that laptop without having to unlock the encryption. Once online, the laptop phones home to the Find My Mac service immediately with its current IP and location information.

Long story short, the Safari-Only Mode is not really meant for everyday use. It's meant to be a trap for thieves.


How to find if a USB has been plugged in on a certain date? Starting from this great script offered by Daniel Azuelos

cd /Volumes/suspicious_USB
/usr/bin/sudo find . -atime -21 -exec ls -dluT {} \;

How is it possible to modify it in order to find if a USB flash was plugged in, on any random computer, on a certain date?

In Linux, there is a USB subsystem which creates system log events.

So it can tell you what was plugged into your PC. But it can’t in general tell whether it's a USB stick or something else connected to a PC, unless some files were changed. While USB sticks and SD cards are usually formatted as VFAT for compatibility, there’s no reason they can’t be formatted with a more powerful filesystem such as EXT3 or NTFS. In which case, if a USB stick was mounted read-write and not “noatime”, the file access timestamp would indicate if a file had been read, or if a directory had been accessed by a graphical desktop to create folder icons.

Since this is built-in to Linux and is part of the USB specification, it must be possible to get the same level of detail in other operating systems using an appropriate application.


A security update locked OSX.GenieoDropper.A I need to launch an app but OSX recognise it as a malware.

While launching this app, OSX says "app will damage this computer. You should eject this disk image. It contain OSX.GenieoDropper.A".

Normally, to bypass this alert, the method was to right-click the icon and select open when pushing alt, but neither this seems working, so how can I bypass this alert?

Sorted: type in the terminal

xattr -d com.apple.quarantine

leave a space after "quarantine" and then drag & drop the .app file.

Then press Return...et voila'!

The -cr flag is for operating systems before (and including) Mavericks. For newer operating systems (Yosemite & El Capitan) you must specify the flag -d along with the attribute (com.apple.quarantine) you wish to remove.


Where is the F13 button on my MacBook Pro? I was looking through the System Preferences for Mission Control in OS X Lion (10.7). One of the options had F13 in it but I couldn't find it anywhere.

Where is it?

MacBook's don't have the extended keyboard which contains the additional 7 function keys (F13-F19). They're only on Apple's full size ( with numeric keys) keyboard as presented on this photo:

Use these 3 keys to send an F13:  shift fn F1
I used this to send an F13 key to my windows application using Remote Desktop.


Can a Mac use AirPlay to stream to stereo HomePods? Set up two HomePods in a stereo configuration, and they act as one pair when used via Siri or an iOS device. Open the HBO, YouTube, or Music app on your phone, and voilà, stereo sound.
This doesn’t seem to be an option on a Mac. On my 2017 MacBook Pro, I can only choose one HomePod at a time as an audio out. I’m running macOS High Sierra 10.13.6. [Update: It’s the same on macOS 10.14 Mojave and 10.15 Catalina… Here's hoping for Big Sur.]
Is there a way to make this work?

There is an application that make possible to stream any source of sounds from mac to paired stereo HomePods. It also let you use others types of wifi or bluetooth speakers at the same time. I uses using it from some time ago and it works well, but is not free.
https://rogueamoeba.com/airfoil/mac/

Make sure you’re updated to Mojave as that is required.

Then follow these instructions:

  Make sure that both HomePod speakers are in the same room in the Home app.
  Open the Home app, double-click HomePod, then click Settings in the upper-right corner.
  Scroll down and click Create Stereo Pair.
  Choose a second HomePod to use as a stereo pair.
  Click a HomePod on the right or left side to identify it. Click ￼ to swap them to the correct left and right channel.
  Click Back, then click Done.

https://support.apple.com/HT208807

￼


How to send text with telnet in Terminal? I would like to send some text to a port on my machine using telnet in the Mac OS X Terminal.

I start telnet using:

telnet localhost 8080

Then I type some text. Is that text send automatically or do I have to do something to send the text?

Here's a simple Python server:

#!/usr/bin/env python

import socket

TCP_IP = '127.0.0.1'
TCP_PORT = 5005
BUFFER_SIZE = 10  # Normally 1024, but we want fast response

s = socket.socket(socket.AF_INET, socket.SOCK_STREAM)
s.bind((TCP_IP, TCP_PORT))
s.listen(1)

conn, addr = s.accept()
print 'Connection address:', addr
while 1:
    data = conn.recv(BUFFER_SIZE)
    if not data: break
    print "received data:", data
    conn.send(data)  # echo
conn.close()

Source

Save it as server.py, and run it python server.py.

Then try to connect using the terminal

telnet 127.0.0.1 5005

Then just type anything and press return

The server print the data in the console and send it back to you.

That way, you'll know what you have to do to send data via telnet.

Try using send command after you've opened connection to the destination host.

send "some text"

For more information about send see man telnet


How can I figure out what's slowly eating my HD space? Every few days I get notices on my MacBook that it's running or run out of hard drive space. Curiously, restarting the computer will enable me to recover gigabytes of space (this past time, it was able to recover about 2.2GB). However, I can't identify anything in my personal activity that consumed that space.

It's possible that it's a rogue iTunes podcast or a huge software update that my Mac is automatically downloading - would either of these reclaim the space upon a restart?

One possibility that I can think of is that FileVault has some sort of disk leak, allocating but not freeing files. Does this make sense? Is there a tool that I can run to determine where this space is going? Assuming it is FileVault, should I try to disable it? What's the best way to turn of FileVault on a nearly full computer?

I've had a very similar issue, and so I decided to compile several methods for solving it. So, following, there are those options and some of them I got from the answers already provided here. I understand this is a little bit offtopic from the question, but it's in tune with the answers. This has many parts and those are all softwares I could try myself somehow.

It's generally a good idea to pay close attention for using the sudo options below so the software can have access to every file, which will likely include some big hidden ones.

Here's a brief list of apps for checking the disk usage:

GrandPerspective is only graphical, using the Treemap, it can measure files by logical or physical methods before scanning, show/hide package contents and change color scheme on the fly. It also is able to save the scanned data for archiving or comparing multiple windows.
Disk Inventory X also uses the Treemap graphical scheme but along side a list view of folders and files. The grahpics isn't as good as GrandPerspective neither the list as good as OmniDiskSweeper, but it does a good job mixing both. It has a Finder plugin and the most options between the 3 on preferences. It's the most complex, but not all complete.
OmniDiskSweeper is non-graphical and very similar to Finder's column view. You choose the folder or disk to analyse, it will order them by disk usage after taking its time to calculate. You can then just delete (move to trash) anything listed.

So each one has its advantages and highlights, I'm still not sure if there's one that comes on top. They're all free.

There is also a different approach, of apps for scanning specific expected places and files for space usage in non-optimal ways. They basically gather some known things about the system that can be bloating your disk all in one nice interface so you can see and decide what to delete.

CleanMyMac lists caches, logs, language files, universal binaries, development "junk", extensions and applications. It scans through the files and also uses some knowledge base it has. Great interface, simple to use. CleanMyMac has a free trial which will only clean up to 500 MB.
XSlimmer is very specific. It remove "unnecessary" code from "fat" binaries and Strip out unneeded languages, as it says on the website. Universal Binaries, that is, use a lot of space for storing files to run in several different architectures and languages. So, this strips all of them to shrink to only your computer needs. XSlimmer is currently discontinued.

Another approach is looking for duplicate files. There are many commercial options, some may be better than the listed below, I haven't tried them all. Anyway, I'm listing my choice of apps considering which ones I was able to try.

TidyUp is a very well known app in this subject. You can specify where to scan for what kind of duplicates. It offers basic and advanced modes, several different strategies and criterias.
MrClean is a free tool that just scans for folders for duplicates and trash them. Very simplistic but efficient if you're sure on what you're doing.
Chipmunk scans duplicates and let you choose which ones you want to trash. It offers a node-view of folders and you can select to "delete all files in a folder that have duplicates elsewhere, or vice versa" as well as hand-picking. It may take very long to scan all files, but it does a very decent job after that.
DupeCheck "drop a file on it and it will use your Spotlight index to see if you have a potential duplicate somewhere." That's about this nice open source app. Not a great tool for space cleaning at once, but over time it helps you keep your space clean.
DuplicateFileSearcher from the website: "is a free powerful software utility that will help you to find and delete duplicate files on your computer. It can also be used to calculate MD5 and SHA hashes. The software runs in Windows, Linux, Solaris and MacOS.". Enough said.

Next I'll briefly discuss on a similar approach by quoting relevant parts about two other things that can be done to look for missing disk space, without installing anything new, just using the command line (the Terminal).

This (long but good) one is from MacFixIt forums (go there for more options and details):

  In most cases, there really are files occupying part of the volume, but the files are invisible in normal use of the Finder.

  Using the Finder’s Go to Folder feature (in the Go menu), look at the sizes of the contents of these folders, by pasting in these pathnames:

/private/var/vm
/private/var/log
/Volumes

  The /private/var/vm directory contains the swapfiles used by virtual memory. New ones are made as more data is swapped from RAM to the hard drive. The entire process of creating them begins at each reboot or restart; do not attempt to remove them yourself. Check the total size of all the swapfiles, right after you boot, and as the disk fills up. In Panther, the first two swapfiles are 64 MB, then each new one is twice the size of the preceeding one (128 MB, 256 MB, 512 MB, 1 GB) up to a maximum size of 1 GB. In Tiger, the first two swapfiles are 64 MB, the next one is 128 MB, and any additional swapfiles are 256 MB.

  If you do not run the daily, weekly, and monthly maintenance scripts (either by using a utility, or by running the commands sudo periodic daily, sudo periodic weekly, and sudo periodic monthly in Terminal), the logs on the startup volume can become too large. If an error is occurring frequently and is being logged, you can have a very large file at /private/var/log/system.log.

  The files in /Volumes should be aliases to your mounted volumes. Do not remove these aliases, because anything you do to them happens to the contents of the corresponding volumes. If you are not confident that you can explore this folder without mishap, before you begin, properly unmount any volume other than the startup volume, if the missing disk space problem affects only that volume. External FireWire drives can be disconnected after proper unmounting.

  Sometimes, backup programs that cannot find an intended destination (or target) volume for a backup create a folder with the same name as the destination, and put the folder into the /Volumes directory. There are cases in which the entire startup volume has been backed up on itself, in a folder inside /Volumes. If the amount of missing space is about the size of your user folder, such a backup is likely to be the explanation. If you use Carbon Copy Cloner or another backup or cloning utility and have its preferences configured to create a backup on a schedule, and the intended destination volume is not mounted or is sleeping at the scheduled time, the backup is created in the /Volumes directory.

  To check the size of the normally invisible /Volumes directory on the active startup volume, open a new Finder window. Select the startup volume in the list at the left, then choose column view (the one at the right of the three views). From the Finder’s Go menu, choose Go to Folder, and paste in:

/Volumes

  The /Volumes directory becomes visible in the Finder; find its size by selecting it and typing Command I. My /Volumes directory is reported to be 12K.

This other one is from Mac OS X Hints forums (not much more to see there):

  You may want to run a du in terminal to see what is all going on. This could take a few minutes to run.

  An example would be to open up terminal.app then run these commands:

sudo du -h -d 1 -c /

  Input your password when it prompts for it then let it go, it will take a few minutes to run so be paitent.

du stands for Disk Usage. There's also df. I like including the -x to the above command:

sudo du -cxhd 1 /

Adding to the command line option, you could use an automator service for opening any app. With this you will get different (and more complete) results on GUI.

Or, if you're on a Power PC, using Rosetta or anything before Snow Leopard, you can mix any of the before mentioned apps with Pseudo. It's a little app to open things as admin. Picture it like a GUI for sudo.

Finally, there's a complete newbie guide on "The X Lab" that I just won't quote here for it's too long.

I use this little app that sits in the status bar and reports the amount of free disk:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/free-disk-space-monitor/id1134777725


MacBook Pro gives slight electric shock I just bought macbook pro 16 and I get mild shock when charging and when I touch surface.
Is this to be expected or do I need to have it serviced?

It's not a normal thing.
Sometimes I get a bit of shock when my Macbook Pro 2017 put in charge in a place that the grounding is not good. I usually wear rubber slippers or not touching a wall or floor.
Maybe something wrong with your electricity grounding. Try to charge another laptop in your place, or try to charge your Macbook Pro in other places.
If the problem exists wherever you try to charge your Macbook Pro, you can ask the place where you bought your Macbook.

Yes, as bizarre as it sounds, the "mild electric shock" you describe is considered normal, and harmless, according to Apple. (I can't seem to find the article they posted, it may not be there anymore but you can read the safety information for the details.)
In some cases (usually with varying environment factors, e.g. for people with especially sweaty hands, unusual levels of voltage on their outlet ground, in dry weather; but also possibly when there is a defect in the power adapter) they get a full electric shock, like one would get when getting on a metal elevator after pulling a sweater over their heads and rubbing their back against a polyurethane painted wall — the ones you can see the "zap" even though the lights are on.
It's actually not isolated to Apple products, any appliance that has a metallic chassis tied to ground can do this if is powered by means of a switching power adapter plugged into an AC outlet with no ground. It's the difference between the "0VDC" that the adapter "defines" and the "ground" voltage that your body can serve as a path to.
I don't know how to explain easily how your body is "grounded", since you could be standing in rubber soled shoes on hardwood floor, but for empirical demonstrations, try out caressing your laptop (that's what I did absentmindedly to get the "buzzing" feeling on my palm) while sitting on a bed with a wooden frame/bedposts, while standing on tile, while standing on carpet, and most significantly, while you're actually electrically grounded at some point.
The easiest way to do this in an up-to-date electrical-code compliant building is to touch a outlet, or switch cover screw with one of your fingers.
If you consider this a problem that you would like a solution to, you can get a three-pronged (grounded) extension cord for your power adapter/charger, that Apple used to include with all portable Macs, but now you gotta shell out $19 for. IMO they should have come up with a three-prong plug before making the move to stop including the cord in machines with 4-digit price tags, but it is what it is. :(
I wouldn't recommend getting one from amazon or eBay, unless you can get the OEM cable Apple sells used for a lot cheaper or something (it's $20 bucks to ground your system worth hundreds of times more) I'd grumble and complain but pay up in the end, unfair as it is.

EDIT: To answer the question, it depends on what the source of the "shock" is, and how bad it is. If it is so severe it could be described as painful (as in, after a few dozen shocks you feel the urge to hurl the laptop away from you) then this is not expected. Whether it should be serviced is a harder one to guess at without the adapter in hand, but the test would be:

Plugging the charger in to a different outlet, preferably in a different building/from a different breaker panel and seeing if the same issues are present.

Getting a grounded power cable, whether it is from an acquaintance with an older portable Mac, an Apple Retail store (they will gladly lend you one, and you can also test different power outlets there) or buying one. However, if the shock was as serious as I described above and the problem goes away using a three-pronged extension cord, there is likely a problem with the wiring in your house or a connected major appliance that you really should isolate and fix.


Disable zoom animation in Chrome when going to full screen video When switching back and forth between full-screen mode for YouTube videos in MacOX Mavericks, I find the zoom effect very annoying and jerky.  Is there a way to turn this off, so such videos can just snap in and out of full-screen without animation?

chrome://flags/#enable-simplified-fullscreen; Enable it and restart chrome

Yes, you can use Safari, there are no annoying effects while switching)


Hotkey to show hidden files and folders in File Open dialog? This question is very similar to Is it possible to always show hidden/dotfiles in Open/Save dialogs?. How to show hidden files and folders in finder? is also related. However, I don't want to always show them, and that's what defaults write ... AppleShowAllFiles ... does.

Rather, I want to switch it on when needed. I'm trying to open .bash_profile, so I need it now:

Linux and Gnome allow us to CTRL+H to toggle between showing and hiding hidden files. But Gnome hotkeys don't work on OS X (which is expected).

For completeness, .bash_profile does exist in the home directory:

$ ls ~/.bash_profile
/Users/jww/.bash_profile

A related question... As can be seen above, typing the filename in Finder (or is it Spotlight) search did not work. I tried to right click to get a context menu in the File Open dialog in hopes of checking a box like "show all files". And I tried the View menu looking for a "show all files" with the File Open dialog open.

Why is this hidden away somewhere? What purpose does it serve to not allow a user to easily open a file?

⌘ CMD+⇧ SHIFT+. reveals hidden files in Finder and Open/Save dialogs.

If you are using an AZERTY keyboard, you'll need to press fn too, so ⇧ SHIFT is taken into consideration as you already need it to make the ..

You can also press ⌘ CMD+⇧ SHIFT+G and type the path to the hidden folder, just like in Terminal (⇥ TAB autocompletion also works).

Editing hidden files can be dangerous if you don't know what you're doing.

DISCLAIMER/WARNING

Hidden files are hidden for a reason usually. Use the script below only if you're reasonably sure you know what you're doing. In other words: If you break your system by randomly deleting hidden files, it's your own fault.

Here's the script I use to toggle show/don't show hidden files inside Finder.

(The OSX native shortcut to toggle hidden files in Open/Save dialogues was mentioned by Mateusz Szlosek above already)

The difference between my script and others I've seen so far:

Most scripts don't do anything else after killing Finder. Usually, this means you have to navigate back to the folder you were in originally, since the automatic Finder relaunch doesn't reliably open your last active folder.

The script below instead reopens, and focuses on, your last active folder, i.e. the folder you were in when using the toggle, but now showing (or not showing) hidden files.

I assigned a shortcut to it (cmd+shift+.) and find working with hidden files in Finder a lot more convenient now.

Credit to Tetsujin who posted a script on this site a while ago that I adapted to add the 'reopen last folder' functionality.

on run {input, parameters}
    tell application "Finder"
        set var1 to POSIX path of (target of window 1 as alias)
    end tell
    set newHiddenVisiblesState to "YES"
    set oldHiddenVisiblesState to do shell script "defaults read com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles"
    if oldHiddenVisiblesState is in {"1", "YES"} then
        set newHiddenVisiblesState to "NO"
    end if
    do shell script "defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles " & newHiddenVisiblesState
    ---- Sleep hack mentioned below. 0.5s minimum, 1-2s safer. Ugly, but (probably) unavoidable.
    do shell script "killall Finder; sleep 0.5s"
    tell application "Finder"
        ---- Close other windows if Finder managed to relaunch already
        if application "Finder" is running then
            close every window
        end if
        open (var1 as POSIX file)
        activate
    end tell
end run

To use the script: Open a new workflow in Automator, drag in "Run AppleScript", copy&paste the code above, and save inside your services folder (usually, ~/Library/Services/, afaik).

Attaching a shortcut to execute a script should be covered somewhere else on this site. I limited the scope of my shortcut to Finder alone.

Style remark:

I have to resort to a bit of an ugly hack, using 'sleep' after killing Finder, before manually opening the original folder.

If I don't force this delay, there's a chance OSX relaunched Finder already and opened a folder (not necessarily the last active one, in my experience). Together with my own 'open' command, this can lead to the nasty effect of two (unkillable, even) Finder processes running, and Finder not working anymore at all. If this happens, logging out and back in again fixes it, but it's a waste of time obviously, so I use 'sleep'.

A sleep value of 0.5s works for me, but to be on the safe side, you can slightly increase it (adding a more noticeable delay to the process then).

If someone knows of a way to either suppress the Finder relaunch and unreliable opening of some window after sending the killall signal -- or some other way to get rid of the 'sleep' hack -- I'd be happy to hear it!


Downloading an old version of iPhoto onto Mac OSX Lion (10.7) I'm in a very frustrating situation. About a year ago I acquired a white Macbook (model A1181, 2007 version) running OS X Lion. I was using it happily until last week, when my hard drive suddenly failed. I installed a new drive into it, and got it going again, though I had to start from scratch. A lot of my stuff is saved in Google Drive, so for the most part I was ok, but one really annoying thing is that iPhoto was no longer on my computer, which I use quite a bit. I went to the App Store to re-download it, but it said you need OS X 10.10 to download iPhoto. And my computer doesn't support any OS past 10.7. So I'm kind of stuck. I don't know what to do, but I need iPhoto. It seems ridiculous to get a whole new computer for just a single app, and one that I had before my hard drive failed! Is there any place I can download an older version of iPhoto?

PS, I'm having the same issue trying to download 1Password and Pixelmator. I was able to get a 30-day trial of pixelmator online, which I'm using for now.

Here is a download link for an older version of iPhoto: https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1589?locale=en_EN (this is an update only; you still need the original, older iPhoto software to support this or it will not work.)

These are the release notes:

  What's New in Version 9.4

  Adds support for Shared Photo Streams on OS X Mountain Lion Comments
  can now be added to photos after publishing them to Facebook New card
  and calendar themes have been added A new File menu command can be
  used to open the current photo library in Aperture (if installed)
  Includes performance and stability improvements

  Post Date: Sep 19, 2012

  File Size: 757.61 MB

This link worked for me. I have an older Lion and cant upgrade either. Good Luck. http://support.apple.com/downloads/#iphoto


Why can't I fav, heart, or like some songs on Beats 1 radio? The heart button isn't tappable sometimes while listening to Beats 1 radio on Apple Music. Why is that?

Well, since Music just came out a couple of hours ago, there is probably a lot of people checking it out and lagging the servers. It could also be that you have an older device and Apple hasn't optimized Apple Music for your device yet so its lagging. I had the same problem and I have the iPhone 4s.


Can't restore iPhone in order to downgrade I just downloaded the iOS 11 beta from Apple's developer website, but I'm having such a headache downgrading back to iOS 10.3.2.

I installed their provisioning profile from their website, as instructed on their site.

To restore, I did the following:

I restarted my iPhone to recovery mode to restore it, only to be presented this message:

  the iPhone could not be updated. Declined to authorize this image on this device for this user

I rebooted it to find the provisioning profile in order to delete it, only to find that the management page in settings was not there and neither Xcode/Devices nor Apple Configurator 2 showed any profiles.

Now I'm stuck on iOS 11, and I can't figure out how to downgrade.

Do you have any ideas?

I might have idea but that’s risky - you need to JB your iphone, then use official JB uninstaller (this one in cydia) - it automatically makes factory reset and bypasses even configuration profiles (it just deletes all user’s files - settings, apps, etc. , same as factory reset) .


cant get my number to change from email to my phone number I am need ing to know how I can use my cell phone number to send and recieve messages instead of my email address.

When I go to my settings to change it my number is in grey and my email address is in black and I am needing to know how I can fix that?

Even though the line is greyed out, the checkbox next to your phone number in Settings > Messages indicates it is being used for sending and receiving messages. The email address(es) listed indicate that iMessage also looks for iMessages sent to those address(es), and will deliver them as if they were sent to your phone number (so long as each one has a checkmark next to it as well).

Go to Settings > Messages > Send & Receive. Select the info icon by your email and choose Remove This Email. Then turn on sms, turn off iMessage and after a minute turn imessage on again and the email should be gone.


Is it possible to connect a single Dropbox Mac app with two or more Dropbox accounts? Is it possible to connect a single Dropbox Mac app with two or more Dropbox accounts?

Assume I have corporate and private account. How can I use a single dropbox app for them?

You can't do it out of one copy of the app, but it seems that you can duplicate the app. You can see (somewhat complicated) instructions here:

http://maketecheasier.com/run-multiple-dropbox-accounts-in-mac-and-linux/2010/05/24

I haven't done this personally, but this looks like it should work.

You can simply do that using multiple OS X accounts, running the same copy of Dropbox in each of them.


How do I clear All OS X notifications with 1 click? I have notifications in the OSX Notification Center, as for most of my apps I am using the setting, "Show in Notification Centre: 10 Recent Items"
This is a good setting but rather than have a very full Notification Center, I would still like to clear it from time to time with 1 click.

I am using Yosemite 10.10.3

tell application "System Events"
    tell process "NotificationCenter"
        set numwins to (count windows)
        repeat with i from numwins to 1 by -1
            click button "Close" of window i
        end repeat
    end tell
end tell

Copy and Paste the above code into AppleScript Editor
Enable Script Editor in Accessibility

Just go into the activity monitor and force quit the notification center...


VNC connection to OS X Yosemite 10.10 not working with Firewall enabled. I've been connecting to my Mac with the iOS VNC app to monitor a process remotely, and noticed Firewall was turned off in Security & Privacy.

So of course I turned it back on, and tried to connect again with VNC. The connection fails with "The computer's network could not be contacted." With "Stealth Mode" disabled, VNC still will not connect.

The obvious solution here would be to approve VNC logins:

The same way SSH is enabled, but clicking the "+" brings up a drop-down menu to select an application.

Checked VNC's support site, but they have outdated information:
https://support.realvnc.com/knowledgebase/article/View/269/12/how-do-i-allow-connections-through-my-firewall

What am I missing here?

Enabling the firewall changed the SSH/VNC connection IP. I changed it to the correct IP in the iOS VNC app, and can now connect even with Stealth Mode enabled on the client Mac.

The Sharing Control Panel clued me in, as the IP shown wasn't the one entered in the VNC app:

This has helped me in fixing the issue on Hi Sierra.

https://support.apple.com/en-sg/HT201710


Can I upgrade my iPhone's iOS from 4.1 to 4.3? I am currently using an iPhone 3GS. My phone's iOS version is 4.1. I want to upgrade to 4.3 but the latest version is 6.0. How can I upgrade to 4.3 or 4.5 from 4.1?

Simple answer is no it will not work.

Apple stopped signing old versions long ago; you either have to stay on the iOS you have or update to the latest your device will support.

A 3GS will support iOS 6.1.6 available via iTunes or direct from http://ipswdownloader.com

Download the firmware iOS 4.3.5 from Apple:

http://appldnld.apple.com/iPhone4/041-1965.20110721.gxUB5/iPhone2,1_4.3.5_8L1_Restore.ipsw

and then perform the update with this file. You select to install from a local file by holding the Option key while pressing "restore iPhone" button in iTunes.

You can find a list of all available firmware files at various locations – use your favorite search engine to search for "iphone firmware files" and you'll find e.g. these lists:

http://iszene.com/thread-29469.html

http://www.iclarified.com/entry/index.php?enid=750


Sync multiple gmail contacts with Lion Address Book? I understand that Address Book, even on Lion, doesn't support syncing multiple gmail contacts. Is there a third-party app that I can use for this purpose? I'm looking for an app that gives me a combined view of all my address books, like iOS or Android contacts apps. I'm not okay giving my gmail passwords to a web site. Thanks.

Cobook seems to be what you are looking for.


MacBook Air display to external projector I have a new 2012 MacBook Air (just a week old).  Today I tried to connect to an external LCD projector, using a mini-DisplayPort-to-VGA adaptor, to project my slides.

Something went wrong and I was unable to project.  My Mac detected the external projector, and I was able to mirror my main display, but nothing showed up on the LCD projector, despite trying two different mini-DisplayPort-to-VGA dongles.  In the end, I was able to successfully project from a different, older Mac using one of those dongles, so I don't think the dongle is broken.

What should be the troubleshooting procedure, if this happens again?  Does the new 2012 Air require any sort of different procedure or equipment for mirroring your display onto an external projector?

In a pinch, this usually works:

Connect your computer to the projector and turn the projector on.
Restart your Mac.
It should now work.

Go to System Preferences >  Display > then click on Mirror.


Yosemite: Disabling inertia scrolling using scroll wheel for the mouse Is there a way to disable inertia scrolling (scrolling speeds up the faster you scroll the mouse wheel) for Yosemite for only the mouse? I understand the reason for inertia scrolling for the trackpad, but makes no sense on the mouse.

I've tried various fixes in regards to this issue:

Downloading Scroll Reverser based on this thread.
Tried this thread's fixes.

But none of them disable the inertia scrolling for mouse. I would still like the default Windows mouse-scrolling behavior where one scroll is the same distance no matter how fast you spin the scroll wheel.

EDIT: Apparently you can disable inertia scrolling by enabling/disabling it in Mouse Options under Accessibility, but mine does not have the dropdown like other people seem to have:

This is the thread in question about mouse option inertia scrolling.

In Terminal, run the following command to disable mouse scaling.

defaults write -g com.apple.mouse.scaling -1

Similarly, the following disables scroll wheel scaling.

defaults write -g com.apple.scrollwheel.scaling -1

THIS WORKS! Go to System Preferences > Mouse > Scroll direction: natural (UNCHECK)


Can we upgrade PowerPC Macs to OS X 10.7 now that 10.8 is out? I know that 10.8 is out now, but we have older Macs that will not work under 10.8, as they do not have Intel processors. Can we still buy and get 10.7, which I believe will support older CPUs?

If your attempting to upgrade a PowerPC Mac the most you can upgrade one of those is Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, since it was the last version of OS X to support PowerPC processors.

So the answer is no to upgrading to any OS beyond Mac OS X 10.5 if the Mac your trying to upgrade is has a PowerPC processor.

If you have an Intel Mac that support OS X Lion and you really want Lion or if Lion is the last version of OS X that your Mac can run, you will be able to contact Apple and arrange a way to purchase it via Apple's legacy products list as noted in the following MacWorld article: Apple pulls Lion from the Mac App Store

  ...while Lion is no longer available for sale from the Mac App Store, customers can still purchase it from the legacy products list via Apple phone sales.

So if you really want lion contact Apple at 1-800-MY-APPLE and let them know you want to order OS X Lion.

What good can the newest Mac OSX do if it can not be installed on a DuoCore Power PC with 16 GB of RAM. Apple is full of it....I won't spend a single dime on Apple products. I got robbed by Apple about $3000.00 a few years ago. I actually found an iPhone 4s and gave it away.


iPhone 6s noticeably slower (geekbench) I have got an iPhone 6S on October of 2015.

Sometime in 2016, I downloaded Geekbench 3, to benchmark the device.

My baseline results are: (5 runs)

Single: ~2500 (2450-2550)
Multi: ~4400

Now, I feel like my iPhone is becoming slower, so I did the benchmark again. (11 months later)

My new results are: (5 runs)

Single: ~1500 (1200-1800)
Multi: ~2100

And it seems that it is somewhat dependent on the battery percentage (low battery => low result. but even 100% battery is ~1700)

I understand these are synthetic benchmarks, and are not fully representing the device's performance, but it seems odd, and I want to know if my device is defective? Do I have a case for a phone replacement? Or, am I reading too much into it, and devices just decay over time?

Note: I'm not sure if this is relevant, but my device is part of the apple recall for battery replacement, but because the apple re-seller in my country does not supply phone replacement, I did not change it.

It would appear to be an intentional change in how the phones perform as the battery ages, to prevent early shutdown in exchange for slower performance.

From Geekbench - iPhone Performance and Battery Age

  Performance and Battery Age So what’s going on here?

  First, it appears the problem is widespread, and will only get worse
  as phones (and their batteries) continue to age.

  Second, the problem is due, in part, to a change in iOS. The
  difference between 10.2.0 and 10.2.1 is too abrupt to be just a
  function of battery condition. I believe (as do others) that Apple
  introduced a change to limit performance when battery condition
  decreases past a certain point. Why did Apple do this? kadupse on
  Reddit offers the following explanation:

  "Many iPhone 6s devices were shutting down unexpectedly, even after
  the battery replacement program (Which many people weren’t entitled to
  use). Because degraded batteries last much less and end up with a
  lower voltage Apple’s solution was to scale down CPU performance, it
  doesn’t solve anything and is a bad experience… but it’s better than
  having your device shutdown at 40% when you need it the most."

  Apple acknowledged the sudden shutdown issue that affected the iPhone
  6 and iPhone 6s earlier this year. However, does the same issue affect
  the iPhone 7? Apple appears to have added a similar change to iOS
  11.2.0 for the iPhone 7.

  If the performance drop is due to the “sudden shutdown” fix, users
  will experience reduced performance without notification. Users expect
  either full performance, or reduced performance with a notification
  that their phone is in low-power mode. This fix creates a third,
  unexpected state. While this state is created to mask a deficiency in
  battery power, users may believe that the slow down is due to CPU
  performance, instead of battery performance, which is triggering an
  Apple introduced CPU slow-down. This fix will also cause users to
  think, “my phone is slow so I should replace it” not, “my phone is
  slow so I should replace its battery”. This will likely feed into the
  “planned obsolecense” narritive.

Your answer is on this post on the geekbench blog. Pretty nasty of Apple to do this secretly. https://www.geekbench.com/blog/2017/12/iphone-performance-and-battery-age/


How to disable App Nap in 10.13.6? I'm trying to disable App Nap for Chrome, but I can't find the checkbox anymore. Anyone know how to disable App Nap for a specific app in 10.13.6?

Not all ap's have the App nap capability.

If you do not see it in the Get Info window it does not have it.

However you can enable it system wide with following in Terminal.

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSAppSleepDisabled -bool YES


Script to change System Preference function key settings no longer working in Big Sur OS11 I have a simple script that I've used for years to toggle the function key (fn) off and on. The checkbox is located at System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Tab > 3rd checkbox down. Unfortunately, with OS11, it stopped working. I've now tweaked the script, but it generates an error message every other time I run it.
I'm a novice, so there may be a more elegant way to do this than the script below--it's simply what I've been using.
tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "keyboardTab" of pane "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
end tell
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "System Preferences"
        click checkbox "Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys" of tab group 1 of window 1
    end tell
end tell
quit application "System Preferences"

This is the Invalid Index error I get:

Weirdly, the script works when I remove the <quit application "system preferences"> line and run the script from Script Editor with System Preferences open (so I can watch what happens). When I close System Preferences and add back in the last line, <quit application "system preferences">, here's the error I get within Script Editor:
error "System Events got an error: Can’t get tab group 1 of window 1 of process "System Preferences". Invalid index." number -1719 from tab group 1 of window 1 of process "System Preferences"
Any help or advice is greatly appreciated!

This AppleScript code works for me on Big Sur.
tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "keyboardTab" of pane "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
end tell
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "System Preferences"
        repeat until checkbox "Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys on external keyboards" of tab group 1 of window "Keyboard" exists
            delay 0.1
        end repeat
        click checkbox "Use F1, F2, etc. keys as standard function keys on external keyboards" of tab group 1 of window "Keyboard"
    end tell
end tell
quit application "System Preferences"

If that version throws errors… here is an alternate version that also works for me.
tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "keyboardTab" of pane "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
end tell
tell application "System Events" to tell process "System Preferences"
    repeat until checkbox 3 of tab group 1 of window "Keyboard" exists
        delay 0.1
    end repeat
    click checkbox 3 of tab group 1 of window "Keyboard"
end tell
quit application "System Preferences"

Depending on your mac, the name of the checkbox might be different (it did not work for me on my Macbook Air). I used index in the suggested solution instead so it should work on all Macs until Apple moves the checkbox in the panel.
Also for your information, the solution stopped working because of a racing condition. You could add added a delay in your initial solution and it would have worked.
Here is a script with index :
tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "keyboardTab" of pane "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
end tell
tell application "System Events"
    tell process "System Preferences"
        repeat until checkbox 3 of tab group 1 of window 1 exists
            delay 0.1
        end repeat
        click checkbox 3 of tab group 1 of window 1
    end tell
end tell
quit application "System Preferences"


Cannot open OpenOffice because the developer is not certified Since the update to Mac OS 10.11.6 the security preferences are not working properly. I'm trying to open OpenOffice and, even though I have disabled limitations, it is refusing to open and keeps telling me that the settings need changing.

After failing to open the app, go to System Preferences -> Security. It should refer to blocking openOffice and give you an option to open it.

instead of clicking on the app select open then it opens


apple configurator 1.7 downgrade ios from 10 to 10 I am using apple configurator 1.7.2. Accidentally someone upgrade IOS to version 11 as image for every no ipod touch. Is any way I can go back to version 10? I need it for run older application which not support version 11 yet. Thanks for any help

Solved. After calling apple support this option is not allow in apple configurator.


Using caps lock indicator for other purpose Can I use the caps lock indicator light for another purpose; like indicating that the current keyboard layout is Greek?

It looks like Karabiner + Seil can get you that.

The starting point: is the “Change CapsLock Key” on this page: https://pqrs.org/osx/karabiner/list.html.en.


Can I use an iTunes gift card to sign up for the developer program? I want to develop apps for Apple devices but I can't get them there as I do not have a credit card. So, can I use an iTunes gift card to sign up for the developer program or, do I really need to use credit card?

I always use iTunes gift cards to pay for the developer fees. Usually manage to get them with some rebate (20% often) which makes the developer account 20% cheaper.

The long version: Your developer account is connected to an AppleID, and the developer fees are charged to the iTunes account for your AppleID. If you added a giftcard or giftcards to your iTunes account, the money is taken out of your account. If you have a credit or debit card connected to your account, it is taken off that credit card. Just like any app purchases or music / video / book purchases.

No,  you can't use a gift card. You might want to try a prepaid credit card. You can get them at most places that sell gift cards.


OSX : Cancel the shutdown sequence Let's suppose a case where I accidentally start the shutdown sequence of OSX (wrong shortcut, wrong menu item click in the Apple Menu, App asking for a reboot etc.)

Is there a way to cancel the shutdown sequence (during the time OSX kills opened apps) ?

You can just launch any app while the Mac is shutting down and that'll terminate the process.

Just piggy-backing off @gravicle. When you enter the shutdown command in the terminal it should give you a (pid) number... Just sudo kill the (pid) number. Enjoy


Recover deleted Encrypted OS X Extended volume I accidentally formatted an external 1TB HD to FAT file system using Disk Utility in Mac OS. The disk used to be HFS+ encrypted. Encryption was done when I created the OS X Extended partition, not using File Vault.

Any chance to recover any data at all? Can I somehow recover the partition information and rebuild the table?

Under certain circumstances a deleted external HFS+ encrypted volume can be recovered after the disk has been formatted to a FAT32 volume:

The whole disk has been encrypted (to one volume).
The whole disk has been formatted to one FAT32 volume. The GUID partition table has not been replaced by an MBR. The disk still has an MBR (instead of a PMBR) though.

Some internal invisible CoreStorage data structures mustn't be overwritten.

the CoreStorage volume header structure at the (previous) volume block 0 (= disk block 409640)
a second block at the (previous)  volume block 8 (= disk block 409648)
an encrypted metadata block starting at the 577456th last block and ending at the 573360th last block (size 4096 blocks)
several Disk Label metadata items in the last 16392 blocks of the (previous) volume

If nothing has been written to the FAT32 volume those parts shouldn't be overwritten.

To recover the encrypted volume you have to use Terminal and do some math.

Detach any external drive except the mal-formatted one
Open Terminal and enter:

diskutil list

to get an overview and the disk identifier of the external disk. Below I assume the disk identifier is disk1
Make a backup of the whole disk with sudo dd if=/dev/disk1 of=/Volumes/BackupVolume_Name/disk1.bin just in case something goes wrong or for a future with advanced recovery tools.
Now get the partition table of the disk with:

sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk1

You should get a similar result as this one:

      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         MBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640       2008
     411648  133804032      2  GPT part - EBD0A0A2-B9E5-4433-87C0-68B6B72699C7
  134215680       2015
  134217695         32         Sec GPT table
  134217727          1         Sec GPT header

The first partition is the EFI volume, the second the FAT32 volume of the external disk. Your partition 2 is much larger than the one in the example though.

Even if you get a different output with no GUID partition table but only an MBR

      start       size index   contents
          0          1         MBR
          1          1
          2  134217726     1   MBR part 11

you can continue: encrypting a disk with FileVault requires a GUID partition table - so your disk previously had one. The probability to recover a FAT volume on a disk with a MBR seems to be much lower though. Apparently parts (namely some metadata and volume headers) may be overwritten by FAT32 file system stuff.

The same disk containing an encrypted external HFS+ volume should look like this:

      start       size  index  contents
          0          1         PMBR
          1          1         Pri GPT header
          2         32         Pri GPT table
         34          6
         40     409600      1  GPT part - C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B
     409640  133545904      2  GPT part - 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  133955544     262144      3  GPT part - 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC
  134217688          7
  134217695         32         Sec GPT table
  134217727          1         Sec GPT header

The first partition is the EFI partition with a fixed size and start block, the third one is an Apple_Boot partition with a fixed size and start block relative to the last block of the disk and the remaining disk space allocated to the encrypted Core Storage Logical Group. All partitions are aligned to the physical block size of the disk (4096 Bytes).
To restore the old partition table you have to unmount the disk, delete the actual partition table and do some math to create a new one:

diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk1
sudo gpt destroy /dev/disk1
diskutil umountDisk /dev/disk1
sudo gpt create -f /dev/disk1
gpt add -b 40 -i 1 -s 409600 -t C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B disk1

Now get the last block number of your disk (in my example that's 134217727) and substract 262183: LastBlockNumber-262183 is the start block of the 3rd partition (Apple_Boot). Add this partition with:

gpt add -b LastBlockNumber-262183 -i 3 -s 262144 -t 426F6F74-0000-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk1

Check the size of the unallocated disk space between partition 1 and partition 3 with:

sudo gpt -r show /dev/disk1

The size of unallocated disk space (UnAlloc) between index 1 and index 3 is probably the size of the old encrypted volume. The size has to be divisible by 8 - please check this! Add this as a partition with:

gpt add -b 409640 -i 2 -s UnAlloc -t 53746F72-6167-11AA-AA11-00306543ECAC disk1 #with UnAlloc= size of unallocated disk space found above

After entering the last command you should be asked for password of the encrypted disk. if not then try:

diskutil cs list

to get a list of CoreStorage items. Try to mount the encrypted volume with:

diskutil cs unlockVolume LVUUID

with LVUUID: the UUID of the encrypted Logical Volume (usually the last one listed). If your main volume is also encrypted choose the proper LVUUID!

If the volume mounts successfully save the most important files and folders to an external volume because mounting the encrypted volume doesn' t necessarily mean that the volume isn't corrupted.

Unmount the volume and run diskutil verifyDisk /dev/disk1 and diskutil repairDisk /dev/disk1. The last command may completely corrupt the disk!

This might still fail. The encrypted volume may still be recoverable though. But then I need more information, because special (invisible) non-file system items have to been read directly from disk with a HexEditor and then restored/replaced.

To break hard drive encryption either the disk should be formatted or the encryption algorithm be broken using Terminal. Both the cases will result in creation of new file structure on Mac hard drive and resulting in data losses.

Any chance to recover any data at all?

I guess the only chance is left with data recovery software. I found this post How to encrypt, decrypt and recover Mac hard drive?. It might help you.

Can I somehow recover the partition information and rebuild the table?

Is your hard drive table damaged after disk formatting? Reformat it to HFS so that new partition table is generated.


What adapter(s) do I need to connect a Retina MacBook Pro Thunderbolt output to a 2560x1440 NEC monitor? I've got a 13" Retina MacBook Pro and an NEC PA241W 2560x1440 monitor.  What adapters do I need to connect them at full resolution?

Mini Display Port to Display Port.

http://www.colorwiki.com/wiki/NEC_PA241W_Review#VIDEO_CONNECTIONS

Thunderbolt is in effect Display Port plus more functionality.


"Instagram could not be downloaded at this time. No matter how I try I am not able to download the app. Pls Help So I currently have an iPad 3 and I download Instagram regularly using the iPhone only option option in the AppStore. I've downloaded it many times before but this time I keep getting the same message over and over
(Other apps I have been able to install as usual it's just this one)
I've tried a VPN,I've tried a reboot, I've tried changing the date/time
If there are any solutions to this please do help.

That particular site could be temporarily out of service. I'd wait about 15 or 20 minutes and try again.  If that doesn't work I'd check using your iPhone if you have one. If you've downloaded Instagram once it should remember you and if you try a 2nd time the Get button on the link will become an Open button. See the image below from my iPad.


MySQL server wont start For some reason, MySQL won't start anymore. Suddenly happened out of the blue.

This is what is written in

  /var/log/system.log

right after I try to open MySQL.

Feb  8 16:07:31 mys-MacBook-Air.local System Preferences[2795]: about to perform command
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_authenticate(): Got user: mybak
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_authenticate(): Got ruser: (null)
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_authenticate(): Got service: authorization
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in od_principal_for_user(): No authentication authority returned
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in od_principal_for_user(): failed: 7
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_authenticate(): Failed to determine Kerberos principal name.
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_authenticate(): Done cleanup3
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_authenticate(): Kerberos 5 refuses you
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_authenticate(): pam_sm_authenticate: ntlm
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_acct_mgmt(): OpenDirectory - Membership cache TTL set to 1800.
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in od_record_check_pwpolicy(): retval: 0
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in od_record_attribute_create_cfstring(): returned 2 attributes for dsAttrTypeStandard:AuthenticationAuthority
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_setcred(): Establishing credentials
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_setcred(): Got user: mybak
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_setcred(): Context initialised
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_setcred(): Got euid, egid: 0 0
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_setcred(): Done getpwnam()
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_setcred(): Done setegid() & seteuid()
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_setcred(): pam_sm_setcred: krb5 user mybak doesn't have a principal
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_setcred(): Done cleanup3
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_setcred(): Done seteuid() & setegid()
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_setcred(): Done cleanup4
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_setcred(): pam_sm_setcred: ntlm
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local authorizationhost[4202]: in pam_sm_setcred(): pam_sm_setcred: no domain found skipping
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local com.apple.SecurityServer[15]: UID 501 authenticated as user mybak (UID 501) for right 'com.mysql.administrator.server'
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local com.apple.SecurityServer[15]: Succeeded authorizing right 'com.mysql.administrator.server' by client '/Users/mybak/Library/PreferencePanes/MySQL.pre\
fPane/Contents/Resources/mahelper' [4200] for authorization created by '/Applications/System Preferences.app' [2795] (100003,0)
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local coreservicesd[26]: Application App:"System Preferences" [ 0x0/0xc40c4]  @ 0x0x7fe49cb90aa0 tried to be brought forward, but isn't in fPermittedFrontASN\
s ( ( ASN:0x0-0xe40e4:) ), so denying.
Feb  8 16:07:36 mys-MacBook-Air.local WindowServer[176]: [cps/setfront] Failed setting the front application to System Preferences, psn 0x0-0xc40c4, securitySessionID=0x186a4, err=-13066
Feb  8 16:07:39 mys-MacBook-Air.local System Preferences[2795]: status= 0

Further googling these lines did not return any clues.

You can try and disable pam authentication under your ssh server and see if that helps


Unlock Mac from Terminal or Automator In my attempt to start iPlayer and BBC News every morning, I have scheduled Automator to open a page. It does work, however my Mac stays locked, therefore I need to get out of my bed and enter the password and then set iPlayer to run fullscreen.

The second can be probably overcome by setting to click at x,y coordinates. However, I wasn't able to find anything on how to authenticate the user. Perhaps I should send sequence of key presses?

I am running 10.8.

Thanks.

It is not possible anymore in OSX 10.8 the only option I can think of is to disable your password from the lock screen manually in:

  System Prefs > Security > General > Require password

But you have to have fileVault disabled as well maybe below then does work for 10.8?

Edit: I've tested the code below in OSX 10.8 and below doesn't work for 10.8 :(

So make sure this runs before the rest ( and maybe even add a location check to disable authentication when you are at home or connected to your wifi network )

In applescript:

tell application "System Events"
    set require password to wake of security preferences to false
end tell

or

do shell script "defaults write com.apple.screensaver -int 0"

To enable the settings again use true or 1.

I use TokenLock to unlock my screen when my iPhone is within bluetooth range.


What's a good Mac app for making timelines (Gantt charts)? What's a good native Mac app for making timelines on Macs? I'm looking for an easy-to-use program that I can use to create timelines easily without delving into graphics programs like Illustrator. (Which I can use, but would be quite time consuming.)

Revised because of edited question...

OmniPlan can create very nice looking Gantt charts and timelines out of project plan data. It is a full-on project planning tool, which might be overkill. But the output is quite lovely.

http://teamgantt.com   …   used by Oracle, Twitter, Sony. LeProf


Problem with displaying file path in Finder's Get Info -> Where I occasionally need to check some file's location and copy it to the clipboard. I used to use Finder -> Cmd-I then I used to copy the content of "Where" section.

Ever since updating to macOs Mojave, the format of the path displayed in the "Where" section has changed. Instead of "/" forward slash character now I see "triangle" character.

How to solve this?

Thanks!

You can select the file and press Option + Command + C to copy the pathname to the clipboard.

https://apple.stackexchange.com/a/252179/192890

You can also use Control + Option + right click in macOS Mojave (copy as pathname will replace copy file in get info modal). Little change but I just found it. Still works on networked drives too.

Even though the Info window shows triangles, selecting and copying the text will copy the path with slashes.

That said, this answer is probably a better solution.


How to dim non-jailbroken iPhone below dimmest factory setting? At night, in the dark, even at its dimmest setting, my iPhone 4S is still bright enough to annoy my wife.  I've searched all over for an app or setting tweak that would let me go "dimmer than dim".  But no app seems able to do that and the only tweaks I've seen are for jailbroken phones (mine is not).

Does anyone know how I can make the screen dimmer?

If you find the minimum brightness still too bright for night-time reading, Apple has finally added a screen filter in iOS 8.  Typically Android offered a way to reduce the minimum brightness via apps when the screen was still too bright for nighttime reading even when set to zero but now you can enable this in iOS:

Go to Settings → General → Accessibility → Zoom.
Enable Zoom.
Triple-tap on the screen to bring up zoom options.
Choose filter: low light.
Go back to Settings → General → Accessibility → Zoom and change the zoom region to full screen.
Turn Zoom off.
Go to Settings → General → Accessibility → Accessibility Shortcut and set it to Zoom.

Now when you push your home button 3 times quickly it will dim the entire screen for night-time reading.

I would think that, since videos are mainly what you're doing, night browser is your best bet. It lets you go very dark and do anything safari can do (including go to YouTube and play your vids in QuickTime player). For just navigating around, if you go into your accessibility settings, you can make it so that a triple-tap of the home button inverts colours-it's a very easy shortcut.


Why do I have /Volumes/Storage Drive? In Terminal, I noticed I have /Volumes/Storage Drive. On my mac, I have no drive named Storage Drive. Furthermore, no Storage Drive appears in Finder or Disk Utility. When I cd inside Storage Drive and ls -a, it is empty.

What is this /Volumes/Storage Drive? Why is it not appearing in Finder or Disk Utility? Can I safely get rid of it?

The output of df does not show the /Volumes/Storage Drive:

jerzy@jerzys-mbp $ df
Filesystem                                                 512-blocks      Used  Available Capacity  iused      ifree %iused  Mounted on
/dev/disk0s2                                                467182912 392156184   74514728    85% 49083521    9314341   84%   /
devfs                                                             419       419          0   100%      725          0  100%   /dev
/dev/disk1s2                                               1464477344 296803024 1167674320    21% 37100376  145959290   20%   /Volumes/Storage
map -hosts                                                          0         0          0   100%        0          0  100%   /net
map auto_home                                                       0         0          0   100%        0          0  100%   /home
localhost:/-ZOSLTsDfGt2NKFW5Q-SUw                           467182912 467182912          0   100%        0          0  100%   /Volumes/MobileBackups
//jerzy@Jerzy%E2%80%99s%20Mac%20mini._smb._tcp.local/jerzy  975093952  72910968  902182984     8%        0 18446744073709551615    0%   /Volumes/jerzy

Here is the output of diskutil list:

jerzy@jerzys-mbp:/Volumes|⇒  diskutil list
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *240.1 GB   disk0
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Primary                 239.2 GB   disk0s2
   3:                 Apple_Boot Recovery HD             650.0 MB   disk0s3
/dev/disk1
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *750.2 GB   disk1
   1:                        EFI EFI                     209.7 MB   disk1s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Storage                 749.8 GB   disk1s2
/dev/disk2
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:     Apple_partition_scheme                        *16.0 MB    disk2
   1:        Apple_partition_map                         32.3 KB    disk2s1
   2:                  Apple_HFS Flash Player            16.0 MB    disk2s2

If it helps to know this: I have a 250GB SSD (mounted to /), and a 750GB HDD (mounted to /Storage).

Chances are, it's just a folder created randomly by some app or another at some point to use as a mount point and it was never deleted. It should be perfectly safe to rm -rf it, especially if it is empty.

Note: If you rm -rf in /Volumes, make sure you specify which directory  to operate on (i.e. DON'T JUST rm -rf /Volumes!) otherwise you will delete everything on every mounted disk, including your root drive (granted, it will throw permissions errors before doing anything to your OS first but still). Try to delete things in Finder if you’re not sure of your rm skills or if you don’t have a backup or time now to restore from that backup.

Adobe did this perhaps, while updating Flash Player or playing online games which using Flash.


Where can I find the phone number of the SIM card that I have in an iPad? Is there a way, directly on the iPad, to find out which phone number is associated to the MicroSIM which it is using?

I can't find it in the menus, currently.

Is there an easy way to find it directly, like on an iPhone?

Settings → General → About → Celluar Data Number

dial #100# and the number will be shown.
If it doesn't work the first time try again. It works on cell phones.


How to switch or close the new split Terminal pane? I stumbled across the CMD-D hot key which splits the Terminal into 2 panes.  But I can't find documentation anywhere on how to close the new pane or even switch the focus to it so I can use it. What are the other commands?

The idea behind splitting is that it allows you to keep a certain part of the shell buffer displayed while continuing to enter new commands. So only the lowest split does allow keyboard input. To position the view on the shell buffer use the scroll bar.

You can un-split by pressing Shift-Cmd-D.

In the most current version of Iterm2, navigate to Preferences > Profiles > Keys.

Select the + sign and add new key shortcut. Then scroll to the bottom and select Send Escape Sequence. Do this twice and after you select escape sequence simply put a b in the text box for left and an f for right.

More information found here:

https://code.google.com/p/iterm2/issues/detail?id=1052


Upgraded 10.9.1 to 10.9.2 now SD cards not recognized On early 2011 MacBook Pro 15inch -- I use the SD card slot a lot. Suddenly after the upgrade to 10.9.2 (for security reasons), now inserting an SD card gets no reaction, instead of showing an icon on the desktop for the new mounted volume.

try another brand of sd card, I had this problem with sandisk cards but al others would work perfectly.
You can also try wiggling it around a bit after a while it would read my cards if I did that.
Just don't break the card ;)

same problem' was working, now not. 2 brands of card tried. wiggled without success. am I going to have to resort to the abandoned PC in the corner? this is deffo a 10.9.2 problem.


Is it possible to close windows from App Exposé I have too many Finder windows open. It's a mess!
First, I need to take stock of everything I have open, so I activate App Exposé (aka Mission Control Application Windows) via ⌘↓. App Exposé shows me I have my Trash open in five different windows. I definitely want to close those!
Unfortunately, while App Exposé makes it easy to see what windows I have open, actually closing them is tedious! I need to individually click each window (which brings it to the front, but deactivates App Exposé), click the red close button (or use ⌘W), then re-activate App Exposé and repeat!
Is there a quicker way to close windows from App Exposé?

Since you can't close the windows thru Mission Control you can just use the Finder to close the windows.  The Finder windows that are open can be easily closed by clicking on the finder in the dock. That will bring all Finder windows to the front, one after another. Then all you have to do is click on the red dot in the left upper corner of each window.


My Mac Pro 1,1 won't boot from any type of usb stick I tried to install several unsupported versions of OS X on my Mac Pro 1,1 but no matter which method I use, after choosing the usb device in the boot manager the mac would just boot into os x lion as normally. I even tried sudo bless and using another usb port but it still won't work.
Can anybody help me with?

tober

I think whichever way you force the newer firmware, you're going to have to have the installer on HD or DVD. I've never been able to boot a pre-09 Mac from USB & I've tried pretty much everything the interwebz has to offer in that regard - though my oldest Mac Pro was an Early 08 so I've never needed to force it quite so hard, as I don't need to push the firmware upgrade too.

Here is a guide on how to get Yosemite onto a 1,1 They reckon it can be done from USB, but I'd say YMMV & be prepared to have to run it from a spare hard drive instead.
I'm not certain if the investment in a newer Graphics card is compulsory for functionality, or whether it's just to get the machine to be as fast as possible after the upgrade, same as the CPU swap at the end.
I've an old GT 120 I have knocking around that I occasionally use for troubleshooting & it has no problems on 3,1 4,1 or 5,1 machines.

The longevity of this particular method will depend on how long mega.nz has the patched files, I guess - & also whether you have any particular reason to trust or distrust a non-Apple source. On the latter I really cannot comment, though I can see no reason anyone would go to all this effort in order to be able to botnet the few remaining Mac Pro 1,1s out there ;-)

http://www.pro-tools-expert.com/home-page/2015/3/2/how-to-resurrect-a-2006-mac-pro-11-so-it-can-run-osx-yosemit.html

Precis:-

  Things that you will need:

  A Mac Pro 1,1 or 2,1 Cheese grater desktop with OSX Lion 10.7.5 system drive
  8GB USB drive
  A graphics card better than a GT120, I used a Radeon HD 5770, original mac version with its appropriate power cable. There are flashed PC cards out there, but they won’t display a boot screen. I like a boot screen, so I purchased a proper Apple card (2nd hand)
  A download of a pre patched version of OSX Yosemite 10.10 https://mega.co.nz/#!SoAgnKqI!GUinePUGF3jAAu3oUym-GHBC9doWRTU1p6nnkXkJFdQ
  Either boot.efi file downloadable here. Black is a white Apple on a black background and Grey is the traditional Apple boot screen:
  Black:      https://mega.co.nz/#!G9oimYaK!38dBEPUwPb2y8Inh0w-REL6MH-9K90vZjpMSzazNy-E
  Grey:       https://mega.co.nz/#!j1hWFSIS!4zFpN9f3L6zV_D5wXJ1KMT40KkLlXKQ901-eQaRaLTA
  I chose the black screen as I dual boot into OSX Lion 10.8.5 or Yosemite 10.10.2. The black screen tells me instantly that I’m booting into Yosemite.
  A spare hard drive, mechanical or SSD for the new system drive. You could partition your old Lion drive, but I prefer to build on drive that’s minty fresh. If I stuff anything up, I can always boot back to my untouched Lion system drive. Contingency plan…
  A download of Yosemite 10.10.1 or 10.10.2 Combo updaters http://support.apple.com/kb/dl1786?locale=en_US
  [That would now be 10.10.5 - see http://www.apple.com/us/search/combo-update?src=globalnav_support]
  A download of Diskmaker X http://liondiskmaker.com/

  Open up Lion Diskmaker X and follow the instructions to create a bootable USB “special” Yosemite installer from the big Yosemite image you download before. This is the patched version of Yosemite.

  Don’t install the Apple App store version as this does not have ze patch…

  http://www.cultofmac.com/313198/how-to-make-a-bootable-os-x-yosemite-drive/

  Install Yosemite from USB drive to your new “Yosemite HD” system drive. Bay 4, remember?? Hold down the Mac option key to choose your boot drive after start up chime.
  Install the boot.efi patch, I used the black version. Restart the mac, hold down the mac option key to choose your boot drive after start up chime You should now be able to boot into either OSX Lion or Yosemite 10.10 flat. Woo Hoo!
  Install the Combo updater

Edit
All the mega links are already gone, I'm hunting for replacements & will post as I find them.
I've asked a dev friend of mine who has a post-Lion 1,1 if she has a source. Will add to info if we can findone]

New bootloader here - https://github.com/Piker-Alpha/macosxbootloader

Versions of OS X after Lion (OS X 10.7) are no longer supported on the early Mac Pro versions, as the 32-bit bootloaders on these legacy systems don't support the newer, 64-bit only OS X releases. This is for comparability reasons, as newer software will definitely require more resources than your Mac can provide (I expect RAM to be the major limiting factor).

I don't recommend the upgrade, as your computer will certainly run better with older software designed an optimized for it. If you're truly set on it though, instructions can be found here. Note that I've not tried this method, it looks fairly safe but be aware you may permanently brick your Mac.

I'll add I'm extremely happy with my MacBook 1,1 which I upgraded to 2 GiB of RAM and an SSD, which makes it perfectly quick enough for every day use, hardware will make your computer faster, newer software will only really slow it down.


Can I install dual-boot OS on the external USB drive? I have a MF839 MacBook with Mojave and I want to install Linux as my dual-boot system on the external USB drive.

I have one USB with 8GB and one with 64GB. On 8GB I will burn my .iso file with Debian-based Linux and then I am going to select my 64GB drive as place to install Linux.

Will it work?

It is not a question of whether this will work, but rather that this is not a wise idea. Basically, ordinary flash drives are not designed to withstand the amount of reads and writes that an operating system will require. Certain versions of linux provide a solution referred to a persistence. This is where the operation system creates a temporary drive in volatile RAM which can used be for read and writing. When you shutdown the operating system, the contents of this RAM drive is written to the flash drive. When you restart the operating system, the saved data is read from the flash drive into a new RAM drive.

  To be clear, most of the operating system is considered read only and resides on the flash drive. Only the files that may may change often reside on the RAM drive.

There are many utilities that can create a flash drive version of linux with persistence. However, the few I have tried would not boot on a Mac.

There are plenty of Linux distributions that are meant to run as "Live Operating Systems" on an external flash or optical disk (like BlackArch, Kali, and TailsOS for the infosec community).  Performance is degraded, sure, when running an OS like that...however, you could simply make a new partition on your internal HDD from within Disk Utility, and install a Linux distro on that.  I installed Lubuntu that way on my MacBook, and it works just swell.  Easy steps:

Create a new partition your internal drive in Disk Utility (make it 32gb or whatever you deem acceptable, per your own requirements and/or system limitations, although an absolutely bare minimum of 8gb is needed for most Linux distros)
Download balenaEtcher (https://www.balena.io/etcher/) to flash the installation media to an external USB drive
Download whichever Linux distribution you'd like install as dual boot
Use Etcher to burn your installer to the USB
Reboot your Macbook while holding the 'option' button until you're presented with boot options, then select the USB drive as your boot disk (probably named EFI Boot, maybe something else, but something that's not the Macintosh HD option)
Follow the Linux installation instructions, making TOTALLY certain you target the newly-created partition as the destination disk (so, whichever partition is roughly the size of the one you had just created in Disk Utility in step one)

Note: The installation media you created can, in many cases, be used for Live OS operation.  That all depends on which Linux distro you select -- Ubuntu does, and so does it's descendants, Lubuntu and Xubuntu, all of which are descendants of Debian.  I'm sure there are plenty others.


Block cookies from specific domain I would like to configure Safari to block cookies from specific domains, but looking at the settings I couldn't find any option. Then I searched for extensions that could implement this feature, having no success with that either.

Is there any way to block specific cookies?

SweetP Productions Cookie was created for this purpose. Cookies can be configured individually. One can keep cookies from selected domains and remove the remainder via configurable methods such as browser quit, timer, at login, et al. Removal can be accomplished via a secure standard: US DoD 5220.22-M.

Cookie also can be configured to delete cache, history, favicons, previews, form values, downloads, and more.

You can use a connection manager like Little Snitch to block access to domains of your choice.  It's not from within Safari, but it'll work perfectly - even system-wide.  However, Little Snitch and its competitors aren't free, but they do have trials.


Is there a way to share a wi-fi connection over wi-fi? The problem is that here is a router (at a cottage), which only allows 2 connections. but we need wi-fi for 8 devices. so the plan is to create another wi-fi spot to share our connection. is there a tool or tutorial for that?

In order for a Mac to create a local Wi-Fi network, it needs to have a wired Internet source. So what you need to do is:

Connect an Ethernet cable from the router (the wired source) to a Mac.
On that Mac, choose System Preferences > Sharing.
Select Internet Sharing.
Choose Ethernet from the “Share your connection from” pop-up menu.
Select AirPort in the “To computers using” list, then click AirPort Options and give your network a name and password.
Connect the other computers to the new Wi-Fi network you just created.

If needed, there are more details on this Apple help page: Sharing your Internet connection.

Yes you can use Internet sharing with a single WiFi connection. Just enable it from the System Preferences. (The previous poster is wrong. I did this at my Mom's house to allow iPad and iPhone use and it worked fine.)


iMac Doesn't see Ethernet Cable I have a strange problem with my iMac (mid. 2011 21,5) -  I can't connect to the network using Ethernet because OS X tells me that it's disconnected when it's plugged in. Sometimes it can see the connection, but  the Internet won't work.

Now, I also have this problem with Wi-Fi, it connects to a network but after random time Internet connection stops working. All other computers and phones are working with Ethernet and Wi-Fi; only the iMac isn't.

I tried to do all tests and resets but nothing, today I formatted it returning from Yosemite to Snow Leopard but the problem is still there. Any solution?

Just for grins and giggles...

Did you verify that your cable and network port are good?

First thing to try is moving your connection from whatever port on the switch it is on to another.  Sometimes a port on the switch just may be bad.

You will also want to verify the cable.  If you have access to another computer or a laptop, remove the patch cable from your iMac and plug it into the laptop.  If the problem persists, then you will need to solve that issue before doing more diagnostics on your iMac.

Once you have verified that the connection from the switch to your iMac is good, then I would proceed with diagnosing the hardware, then the software on the iMac.

Reinstalling OS X fixed the problem for me (using El Capitan).


How do I get Messages to appear in the Notification Center? I've configured Notifications to display Messages in the Notification Center, but no messages ever appear there.

Is there another setting that I'm missing? Are only certain kinds of messages displayed in the Notification Center?

This appears to have been a (temporary) bug that sometimes happened shortly after an app is first configured for Notification Center. The settings indicated in the original question should be sufficient to get messages to appear in Notification Center.

Yes, actually there are two things to check:

First "View in Lock Screen" must be ON
And Messages must be under "In Notification Center"

If you do these, your messages will be displayed in both Notification Center and the Lock Screen.