Saturday, June 12, 2021

Recent Questions - Ask Different

Recent Questions - Ask Different

Navigate to next tab in finder window using keyboard

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 05:45 AM PDT

How to navigate to the next already open tab in finder window using keyboard ?

mac osx 11.4

On Ubuntu just do control + pageup/pagedown

Preview select freehand pen tool

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 04:20 AM PDT

Since a recent preview update there is no freehand pen tool in the markup toolbar anymore

enter image description here

There is only the shapes/arrows/best-guess pen tool.

I can force it to be freehand by two clicks after drawing every single line:

enter image description here

Preview used to be my go-to for drawing diagrams or annotating screenshots quickly.

Is there a way to select freehand drawing tool by default in Preview? Or reveal it in toolbar? Or not require me to click after drawing a line?

Or, what is now the most painless and fastest way to freehand draw in macOS?

How to reset the force quit window's dimensions

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 03:39 AM PDT

my force quit window accidentally resized itself so it's wide. It's not taking up the whole screen but apparantally this is the least wide it can get.

This it what it looks like right now

enter image description here

It can't get any less wider than that, and I've seen it with my own eyes that the force quit window was smaller before.

It may look like a small deal, but it really amplifies when you put yourself in my shoes.

I use macos high sierra.

Zoom, Gallery mode - force to always show users with video first, and then users without videos

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 05:22 AM PDT

Most times Zoom (on iPad) in Gallery mode shows all users with videos first, and then users without videos.

But sometimes Zoom shuffles users with videos with users without videos.
This is very uncomfortable for me.
I seeking for a way to force Zoom always show all users with videos, and then all users without videos.
Searching Google didnt give any results, and inspecting Zoom settings also didnt give result.

Can you tell me please is there a way to force described behaviour in Zoom?

Photos using a space of ~2GB but there is nothing in the photos app

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 04:21 AM PDT

I am looking to understand the disk space cleanup tool on a Macbook with Big Sur. I was trying to clean up the unnecessary space from my mac and found out that the Photos is using a space of approximately 2GB. I looked up the Photos app but I could not find anything there.

I read the answers to this question:Deleted photos from MacBook but storage space not reclaimed but none of it helped.

Here are the relevant screenshots. S1 Storage

Photos app Photos App

What would allow me to release this 2 GB?

NetBoot Server - How to store the netboot images on a shared disk?

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 02:22 AM PDT

I'm a long time user of apple's NetBoot system. Although this system is totally dead on new machines, I still use it from time to time when I'm working on old systems. My home server is a 2012 Mac mini formerly running 10.11. On that OS, I ran everything normally without any problem.

For other reasons, I've had to upgrade that mini. It is now running 10.15. So I set up a 10.11 virtual machine and installed the Server.app on that. This all works just fine with one catch:

I do not want to store all 200+ GB of netboot images inside the virtual machine's disk image. I want to store those images natively on the file system of the host machine, the 10.15 machine.

According to the NetBoot docs, you are supposed to be able to choose to store NetBoot Images, NetBoot User Data, or both, on any of your physical hard drives OR NFS shares.

So ultimately what i'm trying to do is a lot simpler than it sounds. I'm trying to run the netboot server on the 10.11 virtual machine, using images stored on the 10.15 machine. The fact that one is virtual doesn't really matter. What I'm going for should work the same even if these were two separate physical Mac minis, one with 10.11 and one with 10.15.

I thought all I needed to do was share a folder on 10.15 over NFS, connect to it from 10.11, and it would show up and be ready to use. But alas, that did not work.

The more I searched, the more it seems there are actually many ways to share and mount an NFS share, and I can't find any documents specifying exactly HOW the NetBoot service or the Server.app wants the share setup.

Like everything Apple server related, the docs are SLIM and so is the number of users who use it.

To be clear on my progress, I am able to share a folder on the 10.15 machine over NFS, and I can connect to it on the 10.11 machine. But it never shows up in Server.app as a possible storage location for the NetBoot (NetInstall) Service. This is Server 5.2 on 10.11.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated. If I can't get it going this way, I'm going to have to move all of the images INSIDE the virtual machine which will be a real big mess I would rather avoid! Thanks!

Allowing all calls on Do Not Disturb

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 02:17 AM PDT

I have an iPhone for work and I want to set Do Not Disturb to block all notifications except calls. I do not prioritize reading emails and messages outside of normal working hours, but if the phone rings, I will answer it.

I want all calls to ring, not just vibrate, and I do not want to set Emergency Bypass for contacts as I occasionally get calls from external contractors who I don't know. How do I set this up?

On Android, this is easy.

Set arbitrary length mp3 as ringtone

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 06:23 AM PDT

Is it possible to circumvent the 40s limitation for iPhone ringtones?

If yes, how? Please suggest free or open source tools if possible.

syntax error near unexpected token newline [closed]

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 01:10 AM PDT

Syntax error near unexpected token 'newline'

I am trying to install GitLab server into mu ubuntu server but I got the following error

Macbook Touchbar only showing "Desktop" button?

Posted: 11 Jun 2021 10:53 PM PDT

In System Settings | Keyboard | ControlBar I configured the TouchBar to contain the VolumeSet (mute/down/up), Brightness Pair (lower/higher), and Sleep. But in actuality what is displayed is only the "Desktop" button. Why would that happen? Why is the touchbar out of sync with the Systems Settings configuration ?

I have a 2021 Macbook pro with Big Sur.

How to view in slow motion on Apple TV 4K

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 12:44 AM PDT

Is there some way to switch to slow motion (slo-mo) while watching the Apple TV 4K?

I have the second generation Siri Remote with Siri button placed on the side edge.

very specific emails stopped arriving to my me.com address

Posted: 11 Jun 2021 07:47 PM PDT

I have had an account with a specific financial institution for several years now. The email on file is a me.com address.

Any time I wish to do a financial transaction through their online service, they use 2FA via email to confirm that I genuinely requested the transaction. This has always worked, never been an issue.

A couple of months ago, these emails stopped arriving. They don't go to spam, they just don't arrive. I have no such issue with any other communication from them such as marketing emails, etc. The problem is strictly with these specific emails. On their end, they think everything has gone just fine and that the emails were sent. I have no issues with any other emails sent to this address from anyone at all.

I'm wondering if me.com has started flagging them for some reason as spam, and is blocking them before they ever reach me at all. Is there some way I can validate/invalidate this idea?

I don't want to initiate a change of email address as I would have to go through their entire KYC/AML checks again (I'm in the USA) and it's a big pain, hoping I can just find the issue with the emails and solve that directly.

XQuartz keeps crashin with one xmate-session, but not for others nor for xmate on other debian

Posted: 11 Jun 2021 05:51 PM PDT

I am ssh-ing into a Debian virtual machine that has xfce4 and mate installed. In the past, they both worked fine. Now, when I use Mate using Mac's terminal + XQuartz, it keeps crashing while looking for the best screen resolution.

When I do exactly the same with xfce4, on the same account of the same debian VM, everything works fine.

When I use MobaXterm on Windows to access this VM via ssh and using Mate, it works fine as well.

Also, when I use Mate with another Debian VM that I haven't tweeked much, it works fine even with XQuartz.

So it is currently only the interaction of my given Quartz on Mac + my given Mate settings on the Debian VM that makes it crash.

How can I go back to original settings of XQuartz when using Mate with this VM ?

I tried deinstalling and reinstalling, but that's not much better.

Thanks.

SMTP other outgoing servers user names are not my email address?

Posted: 11 Jun 2021 05:18 PM PDT

On the iphone email client under account settings it shows a primary SMTP outgoing server and then underneath it has 5 other servers in case the primary is unsucessfull, my question is how are these other servers configured? Manually or does iphone set them up automatically? I have no recollection of setting these other servers up and only one of the user name emails is mine, the other 3 are emails in my contacts and one is completely unknown to me. I'm assuming any outgoing server should only have my email as the username? They are all toggled off and I understand I can delete them but I would really like to know how they got there, thanks to all........

enter image description here

iOS equivalent to Gboard filling Google-managed passwords

Posted: 11 Jun 2021 03:27 PM PDT

How can I get the passwords which are managed by my Google Chrome, when logging to non-web apps on iPhone?

On Android I know users can use it from Gboard.

I don't want to use Gboard keyboard on iPhone.

MBP 16 becomes slow after a while when connected to external monitor

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 05:49 AM PDT

I've noticed recently that my 2019 MBP 16' (running latest version of Big Sur) becomes very slow and sluggish after being connected to an external monitor for a certain amount of time (the time varies, sometimes it's 1 hour, 2 hours, 30 mins, etc). For some reason CPU usage goes to 80-90% across all cores when this happens, although the temperature remains steady at ~60C (so I don't think it's CPU throttling or anything like that). Opening Activity Monitor shows that kernel_task consumes most of that CPU, which I understand it to be part of the OS, although I don't know why it suddenly spikes. I've monitored GPU temps when this happens, and they also seem to be somewhere in the 60s C most of the time. I don't think that's hot enough for throttling, although I don't know for sure.

The issue persists whether I use an USB-C to HDMI dock, or a USB-C to DP cable. Disconnecting the external monitor for a few minutes resolves the issue, but it inevitably happens again once I reconnect it.

I've tried a few things like resetting the SMC (at least I think I have; the OS gives you no confirmation), or connected the power cable and monitor on different sides, but to no avail.

Any solutions to this problem? I'm using a Dell monitor, in case that matters.

How can I get back my full screen back without line

Posted: 11 Jun 2021 06:08 PM PDT

When I rebooted my MBA M1, I see the screen with divider, like a horizontal split screen, with the top pane showing a zoom version of whatever I'm doing in the bigger screen. The line is not movable. Please help!

clueless what to do with this

Possible to create a blockquote in Apple Notes?

Posted: 11 Jun 2021 04:03 PM PDT

I'm using Apple Notes for lots of things lately (especially after discovering the Safari note taking workflow described here). Often I want to indicate a section is a quote, much like I can with Markdown, here in Stack Exchange, in GitHub, Slack, etc.

Like this

Is there any way to do a blockquote in Apple Notes?

What version of Apple TV is required for a HomePod mini stereo pair to work?

Posted: 11 Jun 2021 08:07 PM PDT

I have two HomePod minis configured as a stereo pair, that is not recognized by my Apple TV. Instead I see each individual HomePod in the audio settings for the TV and can only select and play through one at a time. I have a very old Apple TV (a replacement is on order) and also a very old AirPort Extreme Base Station (also about to be replaced).

What version of Apple TV is required for a HomePod mini stereo pair to work?

Apps suddenly can't be opened?

Posted: 11 Jun 2021 10:06 PM PDT

I had Terminal and TextEdit open, a couple of Finder windows, and possibly another app or two.

This was a few hours after updating to macOS 11.1 (20C69) in case that is the cause.

In Terminal, I did su - Admin to change permissions on a directory with sudo. I forgot to exit before trying to open a new file with TextEdit, so of course I got an error (one account can't open windows in another app's GUI).

Exited Admin and tried again. Got the same error! Quit TextEdit and re-launched—same error!

Restarted laptop and logged in again. Now, Terminal and Safari can't be launched (possibly others). Pop-up appears and vanishes quickly. After several tries, I finally managed to read the first line: "Application (app) interrupted restart."

Switched user to Admin to send this question. Safari & Terminal both functioning on this account.

In the Admin account, interestingly, when tried to use sudo, I was rejected. Did id and found that that the shell (in Terminal launched by admin account) was running my non-admin account!!! Had to su to kill processes (see my answer).

Cause and/or solution?

How to sort photos inside a shared album in the Photos app in macOS, iOS, or iPadOS?

Posted: 11 Jun 2021 05:01 PM PDT

How to sort photos inside a shared album in the Photos app in macOS, iOS, or iPadOS?

Sort files by hidden value in finder (Big Sur)

Posted: 11 Jun 2021 06:00 PM PDT

As simple as that : is there a way to sort files in my finder by hidden value (say all hidden files and directories will be on the bottom of my finder)

How to show open tabs on other devices on Mac Safari?

Posted: 11 Jun 2021 09:05 PM PDT

I want to show open tabs on other devices that share the same Apple and iCloud account, but for some reasons there is no open tab on Mac Safari when I click the top-right icon (the icon of two tabs overriding).

On my iPhone and iPad I can access the tabs opened on my Mac, but the other direction is not true. How can I open the tabs opened on iOS devices on Mac or maybe is it just a bug?

UPDATE

I found out that sometimes the tabs appear properly whereas other times they don't.

UPDATE 2

This might be a bug, but I think 60~80% of the time the tabs don't appear. I upgraded to macOS 11.1 but the problem still persists. Any workaround would be appreciated.

Can the spacing of menu bar apps be modified in Big Sur?

Posted: 11 Jun 2021 05:50 PM PDT

It's much too wide, which is a problem if you use a lot of menu bar apps.

MacBook Pro 16 2019 + External Monitor. Battery Life

Posted: 11 Jun 2021 07:08 PM PDT

I've recently bought a MBP Pro 16' 2019. I'm using right now a Thunderbolt 2 adapter so I can connect it to an old iMac 21' and using as an external monitor.

My question is: It is safe for battery life keep it connected all the time?

Right now, I'm only working from Home (Pandemic) and I'm afraid of leaving it at power source all the time.

I don't mind when it hits 80% of battery charge, unplug and plug again when it's 30%. But just to clarify if it's correct.

Also, I'm planning on buying an LG Monitor with Thunderbolt 3, that has an 85W plug connector to provide energy to the MBP. Should I use it? The official charger is 96W.

syspolicyd producing huge amount of read on disk

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 01:37 AM PDT

syspolicyd is producing about 2-3TB of read on my SSD every 24 hours (since I leave my device on 24*7). This behavior began after the macOS 10.15.4 update, and has produced about 150TB read. Killing the process, restarting the computer does not help with the case. I am wondering what is this process doing to read data repeatedly, if anyone else has the same problem, and what is a potential solution. Thanks.

Device: Macbook Pro 16 (2019), macOS 10.15.4
Update: problem persists with 10.15.5; problem persists after disabling SIP

External drive does not mount after plug off without eject

Posted: 11 Jun 2021 08:28 PM PDT

I accidentally unplugged my hard drive without properly ejecting it, and now the drive does not mount when plugged in.

What can I do to make it work again?

I can see the disk in lsusb and diskutil list.

So far, I've tried:

  • sudo diskutil unmountDisk force /dev/disk2
  • sudo diskutil unmount force /dev/disk2
  • Reboot with disk.
  • Reboot without disk.

It seems that the disk is working because it's vibrating very slowly, but I can't see it in Finder.

In OS X, is it better to put apps in /Applications or in ~/Applications?

Posted: 12 Jun 2021 04:41 AM PDT

I've noticed that pkg installers and obviously apps installed from the App Store) put apps in the /Applications file, yet Steam usually puts them in ~/Applications. Both work, and both are writable by the user, but are there circumstances under which one should be done over the other?
I am the only user of this computer, and shared folders aside, I've disabled guest access.

(this is coming from a Linux user, so having a root folder be writable seems wrong, unless my permissions are wrong from the start)
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