Saturday, March 27, 2021

Recent Questions - Ask Different

Recent Questions - Ask Different

Cannot remove spotlight item with `defaults`

Posted: 27 Mar 2021 12:10 AM PDT

When unchecking "Show in Menu Bar" in System Preferences > Dock & Menu Bar > Spotlight, it removes the NSStatusItem Visible Item-0 from com.apple.Spotlight.plist. When enabling the setting, it sets this key to true.

It can be easily verified by using defaults read com.apple.Spotlight before and after unchecking the setting.

I'm trying to automate this in a macOS install script. The problem is that deleting the key with defaults delete or setting the value to false doesn't work. After doing killall Spotlight; killall SystemUIServer or rebooting the system, it sets back the value to 1.

My guess was that some other files are modified when changing the setting with the GUI, so I tried this:

defaults read > before  # Manually change the setting in system preferences  defaults read > after  diff before > after

which outputs:

60c60  <         "_DKThrottledActivityLast_DKKnowledgeStorageLogging_DKKnowledgeStorageDidInsertEventsNotification:/app/usageActivityDate" = "2021-03-27 06:57:35 +0000";  ---  >         "_DKThrottledActivityLast_DKKnowledgeStorageLogging_DKKnowledgeStorageDidInsertEventsNotification:/app/usageActivityDate" = "2021-03-27 06:57:49 +0000";  62c62  <         "_DKThrottledActivityLast_DKKnowledgeStorageLogging_DKKnowledgeStorageDidInsertLocalEventsNotification:/app/usageActivityDate" = "2021-03-27 06:57:35 +0000";  ---  >         "_DKThrottledActivityLast_DKKnowledgeStorageLogging_DKKnowledgeStorageDidInsertLocalEventsNotification:/app/usageActivityDate" = "2021-03-27 06:57:49 +0000";  5357,5359c5357,5358  <         "NSStatusItem Visible Item-0" = 1;  <         SPMessageTracingWindowHideCount = 149;  <         SPMessageTracingWindowShowCount = 149;  ---  >         SPMessageTracingWindowHideCount = 150;  >         SPMessageTracingWindowShowCount = 150;  5361c5360  <         "engagementCount-com.apple.Spotlight" = 87;  ---  >         "engagementCount-com.apple.Spotlight" = 88;  9998c9997  <                 Age = "42540.278567375";  ---  >                 Age = "42551.38625458333";  10050a10050  >                         352,

Maybe a file outside of the scope of defaults is modified?

Manually managed media from Mac does not have proper metadata on ios

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 10:58 PM PDT

I'm trying to copy music from macOS 10.15.7 Catalina to ipadOS 14. This is the first time I've had to manage media sync since iTunes has been deprecated and is it just me or is the new sync completely broken!

The mac's music library is a newly created one and wasn't upgraded from itunes and the ipad is brand new. All the metadata in the mac's music application appears correctly.

In the finder set ipad to "Manually Manage Music...". Drag in a couple of folders from the music library. Checking the music app on the ipad only shows 1 artist out of about 5. Albums show as individual songs and song names display the genre. Broken.

Wipe all the Manually Managed Music. Turn off Manually Manage Music. Turn on Sync Music to iPad and sync selected artists, albums, etc...

Select a few playlists and sync. Metadata on ipad now appears OK. But now, there only 1 list browser in the finders music sync (it used to have all 4 lists (artist, album, genre and playlist on the 1 view). Checking a genre to sync, say "rock", then going to the album or artist list doesn't have all the rock artists and albums checked. Broken.

So It seams that syncing via the finder is broken.

Open the Music Application on the Mac. The iPad appears in the list. Drag some songs from the son list to the iPad. It syncs. Check the iPad. The artists are there, the albums are there, the songs display the genre for the title. Broken.

How are you meant to reliably sync music now?

macbook pro keyboard keys look polished after a few months

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 11:55 PM PDT

Is this polished look due to grease from the fingers or simply friction? By polished, I mean that the surface looks shinier on some keys. I got an UPPERCASE Ghost Cover but it isn't as nice to type on. If I can prevent the polished look from happening by removing grease daily after I use the keyboard, I'd prefer that. But not sure if it'll happen regardless if it's due to friction.

Fusion 12.1 on Big Sur 11.2.3 Cant resolve: Could not connect 'Ethernet0' to virtual network

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 10:03 PM PDT

I am new to this page but excited to hear some answers from experts.

I am new to the VMware Fusion 12.1 Pro and I installed the latest build of Windows 10. Every time I run the emulator, I generate the error: Cant resolve: Could not connect 'Ethernet0' to virtual network.

So, after googling and hearing from other people that had the same issue, the resolution is to build a new NAT configuration or use Bridged on Autodetect. For the heck of it, I tried all of the other configurations but the results were the same.

Some suggested reboot, I did both the VM and the machine. It is a 2018 Macbook Pro 15 with 2.6ghz i7.

I tried to follow the steps here: https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-Fusion/12/com.vmware.fusion.using.doc/GUID-7D8E5A7D-FF0C-4975-A794-FF5A9AE83234.html

However, as soon as I get to the network preferences, all of the options are not clickable, it is in a sense "greyed out"

This is my work computer but I believe I am an admin, could the company have a security setting blocking? They gave me the license for VMFusion?

pic1 pic2 pic3

Can I get an alert when my iPhone 5S is unplugged?

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 07:39 PM PDT

My iPhone 5S gives a beep or buzz when I plug it in to a charger, but doesn't provide any notification, apart from the lightning bolt in the top right hand corner disappearing, when it gets unplugged.

I'd like to get such a notification because my phone has a tendency to stop charging if the cable has the slightest touch to it - this happens with many different cables.

My phone is not jailbroken, so https://www.idownloadblog.com/2013/02/23/unpower-jailbreak-tweak/ doesn't help. I'm on iOS 12.5.1

10.13 to Big Sur - HDD APFS System volume and HFS+ User Space

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 06:12 PM PDT

I want to install either 10.15 or Big Sur on a small APFS partiton on an internal HDD in a Mac Mini. I've clean installed OSX and many other OSses before and am quite comfortable installing OSes.

I'm on an older OS X version and some updated applications I use are now 10.15 or higher. There's only one OSX install on the drive and I don't want to dual-boot the system.

Since one APFS partition is now mandatory for the System Partition, I would like to meet the mandatory requirement. I don't see why the rest of the system cannot have one or more discrete HFS+ partitions for user data and applications.

Would the following Partition layout work?

HDD Volume Partition1 > OSX System Volume > 60 GB (I think Big Sur installer says 20 GB is minimum)

Parttition2 > HFS+

Partition 3 > HFS+

MacBook Pro mid 2012 logic board swapping

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 06:28 PM PDT

Question here is I have an MBP with this IDs: Model id : MacBookPro9,2 and apple model number : A1278. It is MacBook Pro mid 2012 with I5 right now. I am thinking if there is any chance that I can upgrade/swap this logic board for better one but not for that what is used in other mid 2012 with I7 as it is only dual-core. Is there any chance that I can fit some logic board with quad-core I7 processor? Somewhere I have read that some logic board from 2015 can fit into it and it is quad-core.

get working gdb on macOS Big Sur

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 04:40 PM PDT

How to get gdb working on macOS Big Sur?

brew install gdb doesn't work (nothing counts as an executable somehow), and all the tutorials I find online are years old

How to remove extended attributes from all files in a folder on mac

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 06:57 PM PDT

i'm trying to remove the extended attributes from some files (where froms) in a folder on my mac. I could not find a solution for that. Is there a way to remove the attributes from all files in a folder? Kind regards Bijo

Where are LibreOffice settings stored?

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 04:10 PM PDT

I checked new versions of LibreOffice (I have 6.3.6) and installed 7.0.5.

I elected to keep the old version as well until I check all my files.

I can run either version OK, but the new version lacks the customised menus etc that I use.

I checked and there is a single ~/Library/Application Support/LibreOffice

Where are the settings for different stored? Both versions seem to have the same paths.

Is there an iOS 13 patch to fix the WebKit exploit fixed in 14.4.2?

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 03:40 PM PDT

https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidphelan/2021/03/26/apple-releases-ios-1442-unexpected-update-with-urgent-security-fix/

Background information: iOS 14.4.2 fixes a bad WebKit flaw that's being actively exploited.

Is there an update to fix this exploit for iOS 13?

Confusing installation of SDK on Catalina?

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 03:30 PM PDT

On Catalina, I see the following SDK directories. Since it is Catalina, why the first directory does not have MacOSX10.15.sdk.

What is the different use of the two SDKs directories?

$ ls -l /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer/Platforms/MacOSX.platform/Developer/SDKs  total 0  drwxr-xr-x 5 root wheel 160 2020/11/30-06:27:36 DriverKit20.2.sdk  drwxr-xr-x 7 root wheel 224 2021/01/03-08:10:34 MacOSX.sdk  lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel  10 2021/01/03-08:05:47 MacOSX11.1.sdk -> MacOSX.sdk  
$ ls -l /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs  total 0  lrwxr-xr-x 1 root wheel  14 2021/02/08-07:00:10 MacOSX.sdk -> MacOSX11.1.sdk  drwxr-xr-x 7 root wheel 224 2019/11/12-16:05:26 MacOSX10.14.sdk  drwxr-xr-x 8 root wheel 256 2021/02/08-07:00:56 MacOSX10.15.sdk  drwxr-xr-x 7 root wheel 224 2021/02/08-07:00:36 MacOSX11.1.sdk

Create emacs-style keychains keybindings in hammerspoon?

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 03:04 PM PDT

I discovered Hammerspoon today, a keybinding and desktop automation tool reminiscent of i3wm or awesonewm for linux, but combined with something like xdotool.

I am an emacs user, and find emacs's (and similarly vim's) solution of using "prefix" keys to support more keybindings useful.

In emacs (and vim) you can support "prefix" keys, which once pressed select a different map of keybindings. So for example:

C-x followed by , followed by v could be bound to a single keybinding which is different from v.

Is there any way to acheive this in hammerspoon (short of writing my own library that toggles bindings on and off as I press keys)?

This script seems to implement a special case of this sort of logic in a handcode way

Checkin history of apple source code?

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 01:50 PM PDT

https://opensource.apple.com

I see apple source code can be browsed on line. Is there a git repo in which checkin history can be viewed?

Where is renameat2 on Catalina?

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 03:21 PM PDT

https://www.unix.com/man-page/osx/2/renameat/

I see osx has renameat2 as shown here. But I don't find it on Catalina. Could anybody where I can find the manpage of renameat2?

EDIT: man renameat gives me something like this. But renameat2 does not exist on the manpage.

RENAME(2)                   BSD System Calls Manual                  RENAME(2)    NAME       rename, renameat, renamex_np, renameatx_np -- change the name of a file    SYNOPSIS       #include <stdio.h>         int       rename(const char *old, const char *new);         int       renameat(int fromfd, const char *from, int tofd, const char *to);         int       renamex_np(const char *from, const char *to, unsigned int flags);         int       renameatx_np(int fromfd, const char *from, int tofd, const char *to, unsigned int flags);

The path of renameat's manpage is here.

$ man -w renameat  /Library/Developer/CommandLineTools/SDKs/MacOSX10.15.sdk/usr/share/man/man2/rename.2

How to get Pages 10.3.9, running on iOS 14.4, to show non-breaking hyphens as hyphens rather than as nothing?

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 02:22 PM PDT

When I create .doc files using Word 2003 on my laptop (Windows 10 Pro), they open fine using Pages 10.3.9 on my iPhone (iOS 14.4), except for one annoyance. This is that Pages simply won't show non-breaking hyphens at all. For example it renders the hyphenated word "one-part" as "onepart".

I like to avoid breaking lines on hyphens – not just hyphens that would otherwise be put into words purely in order to break them at the end of a line, but also hyphens that actually belong in a word wherever it might appear. In Word 2003 as I use it on my laptop this cannot be done by switching off hyphenation, because that prevents only words that would not normally be hyphenated from being hyphenated to break a line. It does not prevent words that normally contain a hyphen from breaking a line at that hyphen. So the only way I know of to get what I want in Word is to use non-breaking hyphens, either by typing Ctrl-Shift-Hyphen (aka Ctrl+_) when I need a hyphen (if I can remember) or by continually "Replacing All" hyphens with non-breaking hyphens (^~).

The annoyance is that when I open a .doc file with Pages on my iPhone, the non-breaking hyphens simply don't show up. They are present, in the sense that moving the cursor from in front of the "e" in what is shown as "onepart" to in front of the "a" will take three clicks of the right-arrow rather than two, but they don't actually appear as anything on the screen. Is there a way to make Pages show them as hyphens?

Spotlight crashing on `1` and only `1`

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 10:28 PM PDT

I have a really weird spotlight problem and it is driving me insane.

When I open the spotlight search and type 1 the search box disappears as if it crashed. For example, if I intended to search for 1password, typing 1 will cause the box to disappear. However, if I type pass it works fine and finds the "1Password" app.

As far as I can tell this is the only character that triggers the crash.

I already tried the "disable indexing of bookmarks and history" fix and it doesn't help.

Is there some way to delete the spotlight index? Maybe that will help?

Any other clues I should look for?

I am on BigSur, but this also happened on Catalina, I was hoping the upgrade would fix it... but it did not. :(

Edit: adding the crash report

Process:               Spotlight [71310]  Path:                  /System/Library/CoreServices/Spotlight.app/Contents/MacOS/Spotlight  Identifier:            com.apple.Spotlight  Version:               1.0 (2150.7.5)  Build Info:            SpotlightUI-2150007005000000~3  Code Type:             X86-64 (Native)  Parent Process:        ??? [1]  Responsible:           Spotlight [71310]  User ID:               502    Date/Time:             2021-03-22 23:30:10.116 -0700  OS Version:            macOS 11.2.1 (20D74)  Report Version:        12  Bridge OS Version:     3.0 (14Y908)  Anonymous UUID:        xxxx    Sleep/Wake UUID:       xxxx    Time Awake Since Boot: 740000 seconds  Time Since Wake:       55000 seconds    System Integrity Protection: enabled    Crashed Thread:        5  Dispatch queue: com.apple.root.user-interactive-qos.overcommit    Exception Type:        EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)  Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000  Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY    Application Specific Information:  dyld3 mode  *** Terminating app due to uncaught exception 'NSInvalidArgumentException', reason: '-[__NSArrayM _fastCharacterContents]: unrecognized selector sent to instance 0x600002bb9e90'  terminating with uncaught exception of type NSException  abort() called

Error in Virtual Box: Failed to open a session for the virtual machine

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 06:01 PM PDT

I want to install Ubuntu 20.10 on Virtual Box 6.1.18, when I create the virtual machine is okay so I press start but when I want to search the ISO file this error appears to me.

enter image description here

I saw different solutions in the terminal for Windows, but any for Mac helped me. Downgrade Virtual Box isn't an option because my professor requires this version.

2010 27" iMac - ambient sensor connection on cpu fan

Posted: 27 Mar 2021 12:02 AM PDT

2010 27" iMac - regarding the ambient sensor connection on cpu fan housing - What is the proper contact position of the sensor with relation to the bracket that secures/holds the sensor in place?

What's the easiest way to transfer photos from Google Photos to iCloud Photos?

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 02:02 PM PDT

I have more than 5 000 photos stored on Google Photos and I'd like to know what's the easiest way to move them on iCloud photos. Since the free storage ends on June I want to move everything on iCloud.

Here's what I've tried :

  • Selecting all of them on the Google Photos app and downloading them, but it randomly skips some pictures, and it stops after some hours of download. Since it downloads them in a random order I have to delete them all and start over.
  • Downloading them from Google Takeout and uploading them from icloud.com on a PC, but it only accepts JPEG files, so most of the pictures are not uploaded (the file format is .HEIC) and videos are skipped.

I have no other idea on how to do this, I hope anyone can help!

How to save picture viewed in iOS Safari to Files (iCloud)

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 01:02 PM PDT

Open safari, browse to a page with images, press and hold on the image, select "Share..."

There does not appear to be a way to 'share' the image to the Files app. Yet there is an option for "save to dropbox".

How can I easily achieve this?

Can print graphics, but no text to Canon printer

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 07:21 PM PDT

This has stumped me. Printing was working normally before.

I wrote a document in Pages with text, and one horizontal divider line. I printed it, and only the line printed. After that point, I could only print graphics to the printer, not text.

Printer is a Canon imageCLASS MF8080Cw over a network. Printing the same PDF document from Windows works.

I tried:

  • Print to PDF, then print PDF. Only the line printed.
  • Save to RTF and open in Textedit, then print. Line was not exported to RTF, printed a blank page. Also printed from Libre Office, blank page.
  • In Pages, changed text colour and font. No change.
  • Printed a text chat. Emojis and bubbles printed, no text.
  • Did a screen capture and printed that from preview. Image printed fine.
  • Rebooted and tried again. Removed printer from settings, re-added, and tried again. No change.
  • Printed a printer test page from the Canon print queue. Graphics part printed fine, no text.
  • Tried to print text from Keynote, no text printed.

This baffles me. It as if a bug in Pages just made fonts disappear somewhere before the document gets sent out the network. It seems like there should be some way to reset that, but I don't know enough to know where or how. Any suggestions?

tmutil command to install a new larger Time Machine disk, copying old backups to it

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 07:06 PM PDT

My old Time Machine backup drive (external USB) is now almost full. I have purchased a larger drive and want to switch to it for Time Machine, migrating all my old backups to the new drive's archive.

I presume that I start by copying the Time Machine archive from the old backup drive to the new one. Then it seems I need to use tmutil associatedisk but the man terminology is rather confusing. Can someone give me the right parameters? Assume my system drive is called BootDrive, the old TM disk is OldTMDisk, and the new TM disk is NewTMDisk.

The iMac runs OS 10.13 (High Sierra).

Can't seem to remove or alter website blocking restrictions on iPhone 6

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 04:01 PM PDT

having given my daughter an old iPhone 6 (latest ios12) to use around the house I'm struggling to unblock certain websites. The error messages are slightly different whether in Safari directly or an in-app browser -

In-app browser says 'You cannot browse this page at "...." because it is restricted'

Safari says 'Safari cannot open the page. The error was: "The URL was blocked by a content filter".'

She was previously using a 1st gen iPad mini (ios9) and has her own limited/child Apple ID. On the iPad she would attempt to visit a website and upon being notified it was blocked, you could click a link to enter the parental password and unblock that site. Since restoring onto the iPhone it seems some of those restrictions have been passed on, in that some sites are accessible but others aren't. The problem is that when seeing an inaccessible site on iOS12, there is no direct link to unblock it.

Screen time was not set up initially, however upon turning this on, and either setting content restrictions to completely disabled, or having it enabled but having web contact set to unrestricted, or having web content limited but with specific urls in the 'always allow' section, I'm seeing the same behaviour whatever I do.

Where else can I adjust these types of settings?

Edit: I've noticed in settings/safari that favourites are greyed out and set to 'allowed sites' I can view any site which is already listed in favourites but cannot find anywhere to edit the favourites.

App store is completely blank on MacOS catalina

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 03:02 PM PDT

The macOS app store completely hangs after opening i've googled for a while but nothing works enter image description here

How to export Safari history to either Firefox or Chrome?

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 11:07 PM PDT

The title pretty much explains. I've tried searching and couldn't find any reliable info. Almost all posts in the internet are asked many years ago.

Homepod is on same wifi network as my other devices but doesn't show up for airplay or personal requests

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 08:59 PM PDT

I'm having odd behaviour with my Homepod. It feels like a bug. It has internet (plays music fine) and is definitely on the same wifi network as my iPhone and my other mac computer (I've verified this in my router admin area, and it is not on a guest network or anything that might have network isolation). It shows up fine in the 'home' app of my iPhone. However it randomly disappears as an airplay option (from any other device), and if I try and a do something that requires my iPhone like add a reminder I get the 'Before I can help with Personal Requests, the iOS device associated with this HomePod needs to be on the same Wi-Fi network.' message.

Note I'm on the latest firmware and iOS as of today (12.x)

How can I prevent "Open With..." from accessing external drives?

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 09:42 PM PDT

Frequently, when I try to open the (10.9) Finder's "Open With..." menu, I experience a delay that appears to be due to connected FireWire drives. This delay is very long when the drives need to spin up, but is also perceptible when the drives have not spun down. For me, this delay makes no sense: I have no applications that I use stored on my external drives, and I have disabled Spotlight searches of these drives (using Spotlight's "Privacy" setting).

Is there some way to prevent the "Open With..." menu examining external drives?

Note that this is not a question about speeding up the OW menu in general (e.g., by pruning apps and file type associations), nor about keeping duplicate apps on external drives from appearing in the OW menu (I have none as my Spotlight settings noted above exclude them).

Does a free alternative to Proxifier or ProxyCap exist?

Posted: 26 Mar 2021 12:44 PM PDT

Currently, I'm not at home so I must use the hotel's hotspot. Unfortunately, the majority of ports are closed, except 80, 443 and 22, and I would like to connect to my FTP, or connect Steam to play my games, etc.

I tested ProxyCap and Proxifier which redirected all my traffic to my sock server at home, but trials versions has expired, and I don't want to pay for something that I use a few weeks in a year. I know I can set the proxies settings in my Mac settings, but all the applications don't use it (like Steam).

Does a free alternative of ProxyCap and Proxifier exist on MacOSX?
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