Monday, July 5, 2021

Recent Questions - Ask Different

Recent Questions - Ask Different

Books on iPad no longer downloading purchased books

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 11:02 PM PDT

I have 1,076 iBooks purchased from the iStore in my iCloud. I have, starting just this holiday morning, the ability to read 0 iBooks on my iPad in the Books app. Is there any other app which I can download that can access iBooks?

What happens is that I click on a book to download it and it informs me instantaneously that the book will be found in my library when it is done downloading. Then, as the screen shows a large version of the book with a light grey progress bar beneath it, either nothing happens or approx. 5% of the bar goes dark gray (in another view, a tiny bit of the "downloading indicator" circle turns dark. That is all. No books have yet to become available in My Library or anywhere else.

After consulting with Apple Support I have tried the following things to remedy this problem:

  • App was uninstalled and reinstalled
  • iPad was shut down and restarted
  • the newest update was installed
  • the Apple systems web page was consulted to see if the Books problem was Apple's problem (which it was not)
  • I logged out and back in to Books
  • the date/time was confirmed as correct
  • my wi-fi was tested and works fine

That is all I can think if right now. I read every day for 4 or 5 hours on my iPad. It is a huge part of my life and I was reading just last night. Now not one of any of the 10s of random books I tried to download will. Can anyone help?

If there is no other app that will download them and this is somehow a hardware problem that cannot be solved, can they be read by another 'mobile' device as I cannot see myself spending 3 hours reading from a 2015 MacBook screen all day. If it helps I also have a kindle and Samsung tablet.

Syncing calls and text from an old phone device to iphone live

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 08:06 PM PDT

So I've got two sims: one which has a good data plan, and one which has a good texts/calls plan (i.e. on the first sim, I can't use calling or SMS, only imessage, messenger, whatsapp etc.). For my purposes, these two sims are not going to change i.e. don't tell me to get another sim.

The problem essentially is that both sims are physical, and my iPhone 12 Pro Max only supports one physical and one esim. Neither of my sims have esim capabilities. I also have this old iPhone lying around, and basically I was wondering, if I put one sim - the calling sim - into an old phone, then can I sync all my calls and texts live to my iPhone 12 Pro Max?

Playing audio from two Bluetooth speakers at the same time

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 07:41 PM PDT

Is there a way to use two separate Bluetooth speakers at the same time, without using AirPlay or a separate application? I have two sound bars in my home that use Bluetooth and I would like to use them at the same time to create a stereo effect around my house, but I can't figure out how to do so.

Does the dell U3421WE monitor's 90W power delivery (USB-C reverse charging) hurt my MacBook Pro's battery?

Posted: 05 Jul 2021 12:18 AM PDT

I've recently got a big screen "dell U3421WE". It works great as I can finally save a charger and charging cable. It's all because this display can provide you the power. In the official specs it says:

your monitor serves as a productivity hub that delivers stable Etherneti and up to 90W of power delivery—all in a clutter-free setup.

But it's weird that since using this feature and removing my original charger. I noticed that my battery has never reached 100%. For instance:

enter image description here

I have never removed the USB-C cable between my display and MBP, so it's always charging.

Is there anything wrong? Should I put back the original 96W Apple charger?

Updates:

I noticed that my display's power is 90W and the Mac's official charger is 96W. Is that a problem I should take care of?

Paths like /usr/bin, /usr/sbin are still being added to $PATH even without /etc/paths

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 05:53 PM PDT

By default, my $PATH environment variable looks like this:

/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin:/usr/local/zfs/bin:/Users/nate/.nix-profile/bin:/run/current-system/sw/bin:/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin

I use Nix, and I wanted my nix-profile/bin to be ahead of /usr/bin. I was testing some solutions, and I wanted to see what would happen if I renamed /etc/paths so that they are no longer included.

Starting a new shell, I now get this:

/Users/nate/.nix-profile/bin:/run/current-system/sw/bin:/nix/var/nix/profiles/default/bin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/sbin:/bin:/sbin

This convieniently seems to have solved my problem, as the problematic paths are now after my nix-related ones (albeit in a different order), but I'm curious as to what exactly is adding these to my $PATH, if not /etc/paths?

Using command line to activate Switch Control

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 10:18 PM PDT

To activate Switch Control in Settings, I click the checkbox located in Accessibility -> Switch Control -> Enable Switch Control (at least in Catalina). If I want a program to open Switch Control and automate that process, I have to navigate through the System Preferences app (which I could do with AppleScript). It would be nice if there were a command I could run in the terminal to directly open the Switch Control Panel application. I couldn't find one in my research.

What I tried:

I followed the instructions in this answer. If it had worked as I wanted it to, I could have changed the "Switch Control" setting by editing its corresponding .plist file (sudo defaults write). When I tried this approach with the example provided in the answer (changing "Display Login Window as:" from "List of users" to "Name and password") it worked well. It didn't work when I tested it by changing the "Enable Switch Control" setting.

Following the instructions, I made a copy of the preferences folder and the enclosed plist setting files:

$ sudo cp -r /Library/Preferences before

After changing the Switch Control setting and exiting System Preferences, I made a new copy:

$ sudo cp -r /Library/Preferences after

Next, to see which files changed, I tried:

$ sudo diff -ur before after

which doesn't return any "Binary files differ" messages.

I then tried to use the Activity Monitor to find out what programs run when "Enable Switch Control" is on. I found a running application named Assistive Control (AssistiveControl in Activity Monitor).

I ran $ ps aux and I found this under the COMMAND column:

/System/Library/Input Methods/Assistive Control.app/Contents/MacOS/Assistive Control launchd -s

When I try running the command with Switch Control off in System Preferences, it doesn't do anything. When I try the command when Switch Control is on, I get this error: invalid mode 'kCFRunLoopCommonModes' provided to CFRunLoopRunSpecific - break on _CFRunLoopError_RunCalledWithInvalidMode to debug. This message will only appear once per execution.

How can I use the command line to activate Switch Control?

It would be great if someone could help me out or give me suggestions.

Force USB detection without unplugging and plugging again: is there a Terminal command for this?

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 05:30 PM PDT

I would like to know how to force a Mac to recheck the USB connections without needing to physically unplug and plug them again. Is there a Terminal command for this?

Context: I have a USB audio connection (an amplifier with a DAC) directly connected to my Mac (description below). With everything on, once I plug the USB to the Mac the audio output is correctly detected and it appears in the menu bar under the sound icon. Also, as expected, when I power off the amplifier the USB audio output is no longer available (it disappears from the sound menu).

The problem appears when I power on the amplifier again, since my Mac does not recognize the USB sound output. To make it work, I need to physically unplug and plug again the USB with the amplifier turned on.

Thus, if there was some system command (either through Terminal or by other means) to force the Mac to recheck the USB connections that would be time saving for me.

Configuration: The issue occurs on two Macs, both of them with Big Sur 11.4. One is a Mac Pro 2013 and the other a Macbook Pro 2018 13". I also had the same problem with Catalina.

Migration Assistant thinks disk is 2x as large as it really is?

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 02:51 PM PDT

I have a new 16GB/1TB Macbook Air and I'm trying to copy across my files etc from my old 16GB/1TB Macbook Pro, using Migration Assistant.

There is about 420GB of the 1TB available on the Macbook Pro:

enter image description here

Unfortunately, Migration Assistant on the Air is failing because it says there isn't enough space on the Macbook Air to copy everything across.

It thinks my main disk is 1.12TB:

enter image description here

How can this be?

I am running up-to-date OSX 11.4 on both machines, and have run First Aid on all the disks on both machines.

Compressor Export causes Mac to freeze up, crash

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 10:53 PM PDT

When I export a movie from Final Cut Pro to compressor, it begins running just fine. However, it will eventually cause my Mac mini (2018) to start getting graphical glitches (parts of the window or dock will flicker in and out) and eventually the computer will lock up, then shut down. I have 32GB of RAM, of which only 16GB are used, so I don't think it's running out of RAM. I've ran Apple Diagnostics numerous times and it doesn't detect it, nor do I have issues with anything else graphically intensive. My CPU doesn't go above 150℉ [65℃], and the GPU doesn't go above 180℉ [82 ℃].

Does anyone know what might be causing this? I'm getting tired of losing progress on projects (apparently final cut doesn't immediately save) as well as the additional time it takes to render something many times before it actually succeeds.

Booting ailing 2018 MBP using Target Disk Mode from a 2011 iMac running High Sierra - Additional help needed please

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 02:45 PM PDT

I've numbered each point – as there are a lot – in the hope it makes it easier to reply or ask me for further info. Thanks!

  1. The Problem
  2. What I've Tried So Far...
  3. Next Steps?
  4. Screenshots

The Problem

  1. 2018 MBP Will not boot using Internet Recovery, nor any other type of Recovery thus far.
  2. Get variety of errors - 1008f, 2300f, 2100f.
  3. 2018 MBP is running Big Sur (possibly a recent beta version, icr)
  4. Have updated 2011 iMac to High Sierra 10.13.6. It's moving slowly, but it's definitely moving. It's a 3.4 GHz Intel Core i7, 8 GB 1333 MHz DDR3, plenty of free disk space - 1.76TB.
  5. I have most important stuff on the MBP backed up, but concerned some medical things may not have been backed up in recent times, as I was been nursing a parent and my eye has been off the ball somewhat...
  6. I really want to access the Data on the MBP if I possibly can.
  7. I fear the Logic Board might be on it's way, but hope I can salvage something.

What I've Tried Already

  1. Updated iMac to HS, to create bootable installer of High Sierra using Terminal commands. It's Extended Volume, not AFPS. Can make another in AFPS if it will remotely help.
  2. MBP did not boot to it. Still brings up Network prompt which ultimately seems to cause the fail each time.
  3. MBP appears to process connecting the MBP to WiFi Network each time, but then produces variety of error codes at the end, even when using bootable installer and Option key. 12 Have even put entire High Sierra OS on external drive, endeavouring to effectively use external drive as a Mac Mini with ailing MBP just the screen. Nope. Still wants to connect to to Network (this is for the Firmware, afaik?)
  4. Have today connected MBP to iMac using Thunderbolt 3 cable and USB-C to Thunderbolt adaptor.
  5. Endeavouring to boot using Target Disk Mode.
  6. Can see MBP Macintosh HD - Data in Disk Utility, but cannot perform First Aid, nor Mount it. IMAGE BELOW
  7. Also have a Drive titled Update in externals, which seems to show the Data and ?(Big Sur beta update?) maybe? (I haven't called it Update, and I'm not quite sure what it is) IMAGE BELOW
  8. Tried Terminal commands to Verify Data, getting a variety of Permission Denied errors. IMAGE BELOW
  9. Tried \\ diskutil verifyDisk disk2 \\ which gives: Unable to verify this whole disk: A GUID Partition Table (GPT) partitioning scheme is required (-69773)
  10. Tried \\ diskutil verifyDisk disk2s1 \\ (that's the volume(?) with the data on) which gives: "A whole disk must be specified"
  11. <mutters 'make your bloody mind up...'>
  12. Downloaded iBoysoft to try and recover data.
  13. It can see the Data, but there's a padlock on the Drive and it's asking: "Please enter the password of your encrypted APFS partition" IMAGE BELOW
  14. Wondering if this is a FireVault thing? I'm not sure if it's switched on, on the MBP or not. If it is, I have absolutely no idea what the encrypted partition password is, nor where I'd find such information.
  15. Apparently, I can run iBoysoft Data Recovery in macOS Recovery mode.
  16. I'm not sure if this will be complicated because I am also using Target Disk Mode, rather than running iBoysoft directly on the affected MBP, because I can't. A search of the iBoysoft FAQs fails to offer an answer to this query.

Next Steps

  1. Is there any point in creating another Bootable Installer, this time as APFS, rather than Extended Volume?
  2. Where can I find the encrypted APFS password info? (I'm not convinced I have one, but it may have switched on by default?) I am a devil for recording passwords so if I was aware this existed, I absolutely would have made a note of it. What would it look like format-wise?
  3. And where would I enter it for the Disk Utility or Terminal to be able to access 'MBP Macintosh HD - Data'?
  4. Would entering the command prompt \\ sudo Fsck_APFS /dev/disk2s1 \\ do anything helpful?
  5. I have a 2019 MBP running Big Sur which thoughtfully simultaneously fell over. This happened while I was awaiting delivery of the super-fast Thunderbolt 3 cable to do the data transfer. It has refused to switch on since, so I am pretty much stuck with the 2011 iMac as rescuer for now. (And yes, I've tried all the usual suspects NVRAM, SMC on the dead second MBP etc)

I am an absolute novice at all of this, so please speak s l o w l y to me in simple terms. This is my first post and I'm doing my best...

Screenshots

Update disk is mounted, but Macintosh HD - Data from MBP is unmounted and I cannot mount it

Macintosh HD - Data from MBP is unmounted and I cannot mount it

First Aid didn't work on the MBP Macintosh HD - Data

Terminal distil repairVolume failed due to Permissions

APFS Volume Data

The specific Volume I need to access

What iBoysoft is asking for, and mention of Recovery - see #27

How to disable macOS Monterrey's new Safari tab style

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 09:25 PM PDT

How to disable macOS Monterrey's new Safari tab style and return to the previous style?

What Safari tabs look like in macOS Monterrey

mont

What Safari tabs look like in macOS Big Sur

bigs

Mac OS Catalina: Detect when an USB device is connected

Posted: 05 Jul 2021 12:05 AM PDT

I need to know when a new USB device is connected along with the details of the connected USB.
I am planning to run a script continuously which will alert me when a specific device is connected.
I read online but couldn't find any such documentation.

Logging into a macOS system from a Linux system gives a locale-related warning

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 03:04 PM PDT

I'm logging into a Mac laptop from a Linux laptop over ssh - so I have an ssh daemon on the Mac side, and I'm using the /usr/bin/ssh client on the Linux side.

I consistently get:

-bash: warning: setlocale: LC_ALL: cannot change locale (en_US.utf8): No such file or directory

Logging in from the mac to the same mac, does not give the warning; it's only when I log in from a Linux system that I get that warning.

Putting the following in my Mac's .bash_profile does not help:

export LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8  export LANG=en_US.UTF-8

Running localedef on the Mac gives the following error:

bash-5.1# /usr/bin/localedef -i en_US -f UTF-8 en_US.UTF-8  Can't open UTF-8: No such file or directory

But I do appear to have an en_US.UTF-8 locale on the Mac:

bash-5.1# pwd  /usr/share/locale  bash-5.1# ls -ld en_US.UTF-8  drwxr-xr-x  8 root  wheel  256 Jan  1  2020 en_US.UTF-8

What do I need to do to log into the Mac from Linux without a warning and get my preferred locale set?

I'm using homebrew's /usr/local/bin/bash if that matters.

Thanks!

Can I distribute Xcode at my company internally through configuration management scripts?

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 05:06 PM PDT

My company is slower to upgrade our developers' workstations and as such we often lag behind in Mac OS and Xcode versions. As such, developers often have trouble installing and configuring the correct versions for internal development.

I'm wondering if I can legally store specific versions of Xcode in an internal drive and have my configuration scripts vend it to developers so that they always receive the company-approved versions? I've tried diving into forums and Google but maybe I'm not searching the right thing.

RAID 5 options on macOS Big Sur?

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 02:04 PM PDT

I'm given to understand that Disk Utility in macOS Big Sur does not support RAID options other than RAID 0 and RAID 1. I've got a multi-drive enclosure that I'd like to setup for RAID 5. Are there any other options for doing this? I could do RAID 1 for multiple 2-drive pairs, but would prefer to have a single, large RAID 5 volume. Any ideas?

How do I have both custom show tv art and custom episode thumbnails?

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 07:00 PM PDT

I have a homemade tv show that I want to add to the Apple TV app on my Mac. I've imported the show, added all the metadata I want to, and I want to add thumbnails for each individual episode, as well as a different image for the show as a whole, just like every other show in the app. When

I set the individual thumbnails, and it looks good, and then I add the show artwork, and it overrides the episode artwork. So I try it the other way around: add the show artwork, then the episode artwork. When I do that, the show artwork is replaced by episode 1's thumbnail. How do I have both custom show art and custom episode thumbnails?

Big Sur 11.0.1

2016 Macbook SSD not able to format

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 08:08 PM PDT

Laptop was working fine, then one day I turned it on and it booted up to the Question mark folder. In Disk Utility I tried to erase it just reinstall Catalina. When I try to erase it, it gets stuck on Creating Partition Map and then restarts to the Question Mark folder again. Tried resetting PRAM and SMC. Also tried diskutil in terminal as well as Disk Utility GUI,

enter image description here

enter image description here

How to turn on caps lock with hyper key set up?

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 11:40 PM PDT

Many blog posts and articles instruct how you can turn your caps lock key into a 'hyper key' of Shift+Ctrl+Cmd+Alt using karabiner-elements. Here is one of the many.

The article that first introduced me to the idea also showed how to subsequently create a new command to turn on caps lock (e.g. Hyper+L would enable all caps). Now, however, after countless iterations of Google queries I can't find how to do this. I also can't find caps lock in the services menu of System Preference's keyboard settings. Thus my question:

⇒ How can I create a new keyboard shortcut for caps lock?

I am not asking how to remap the caps lock key. I am asking how to enable the caps lock function/behavior without using a caps lock key (remapped or not).

Macbook Pro 2009 15” Recovery mode non existant os x 10.5.8

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 09:08 PM PDT

I have a number of issues with a MB 2009 15" running Leopard.I wish to upgrade to El Capitan if possible. Do I alter the computer time and date so it corresponds with the download as I can remember from past experience on an imac i had to do just that..I used internet recovery but cmd r or cmd option alt r doesnt seem to show it rjust goes straight to the front login page, perhaps leopard doesnt have that function.I dont have the original leopard startup disks For this model only a 2009 mb 13" which probably wont work.if someone could give me a guide on what exactly I should do it would be most appreciated.. Secondly I have I have blue/white vertical bar on center left of the screen . It doesnt show up when I linit to an external monitor.. Thank you for your time.. Macbook Pro 2009 4 gb ram S

Pair an Apple watch with an iPhone for display in an Apple store?

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 06:00 PM PDT

I have an Apple Watch upgraded to WatchOS6 and I have only an old iPhone with iOS12 so this Apple Watch is blank and can't be associated to this iPhone (I'm using those devices for test - I'm not really an Apple user).

I would like to use this Apple Watch for its basic features and for some tests without the need to synchronize it with an iPhone.

1) Will I be able to associate this Apple Watch with an iPhone "for display" in a physical Apple retail store to pass the first WatchOS screen that asks to "associate to your iPhone"?

2) The idea is to associate without linking the watch to the cloud. Am I going to virtually brick the watch or will I be able to reset it from its own settings menu without the used iPhone of the Apple retail store?

What is 'beaconstore' and 'beaconstorekey' in the Mac keychain?

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 04:08 PM PDT

I noticed that after updating my Mac to the newest version of Catalina last night a new keychain entry titled 'beaconstore' has appeared, after inspecting the only other info I could find was that it was associated with something called 'beaconstorekey'. I have searched everywhere and cannot find much information surrounding this other than the lack of it in the keychain seems to cause issues with MDM software and managed devices. I have not (knowingly) installed any such software. After deleting the log from the keychain nothing seems to have been affected but I would appreciate any info on what this is and where it came from in the first place. Thanks.

Safari created a strong password but did not remember it

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 03:04 PM PDT

On a website I tried to change my login password. After typing it in once, Safari replaced it in both input fields with a generated strong password. In the menu on the bottom I tried to select "other password" (instead of the generated one), but it did not work. Also it seems the new password was submitted to the website as next time I could not log in with the old password.

The problem is, Safari did not remember the new password, so now I'm locked out of the website.

I can start a password reset process, but want first to look for other solutions. Is there any chance the password is stored somewhere?

I googled but only found "this happened to me too and I know no solution" stories.

This was on an iPad with iOS 12.1.1

Second login screen has me locked out

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 09:27 PM PDT

I am locked out of my MacBook Pro. When I turn it on, I get the usual login screen which shows my username and asks for my password. I type in my password and at first, all seems right in the world--there is a progress bar as if it were logging in. But then a second login screen comes up asking me to type in both my username and my password. I cannot get past this screen. Very confused and a little distressed. I am running macOS Sierra on a late-2013 15" MacBook Pro. What am I missing?

AppleScript: How to write to a specific line of a text file?

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 04:31 PM PDT

Sample contents of a .txt file on my Mac:

This is sentence A.  This is sentence B.  This is sentence C.  This is sentence D.  This is sentence E.

I want to implement a subroutine, like this: 

writeTextAtSpecificLine(("This is the newcomer sentence." & linefeed), 4)

so that, the text file would consequently look like this:

This is sentence A.  This is sentence B.  This is sentence C.  This is the newcomer sentence  This is sentence D.  This is sentence E.

I know that I can accomplish my desired result by making each line of the text file its own item in an AppleScript list object, like so:

set theIndividualLinesOfTextFileAsList to paragraphs of (read theFilepathOfTxtFile)

I could then split the list, based on the desired line number, and then add it all back together.

But, does a more efficient method exist?

My real .txt file is much longer than the sample content above.

Time Machine on a local drive, then make that drive a network drive (via Server.app) on a different computer

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 10:07 PM PDT

I have two macs running OS X 10.10.3. One has Server.app installed, is connected to the internet via ethernet, and also has a 2 TB disk attached via USB, with two partitions - "Backup" and "Storage". My other mac is a laptop used for schoolwork.

Using the Time Machine feature of Server.app, I was able to use the standard Time Machine interface to begin backing up my local mac onto the "Backup" volume on the server mac over the network.

However, I discovered that it takes 7 minutes to copy a 1 GB file over AFP, so backing up 300 GB on my local mac would take at least 35 hours.

So, I'm trying to figure out a way in which I could do the initial 300GB backup onto "Backup" over USB, and then connect that external hard drive to the server mac and continue doing backups over the network. That way, the incremental network backups would be much smaller than 300GB and could be done in a reasonable time period, e.g. overnight.

Any suggestions? I read the man page for tmutil but I'm not very comfortable with it just yet.

Does the iPad 2 location services work without WiFi?

Posted: 04 Jul 2021 10:34 PM PDT

I'm going on holiday and downloaded some offline maps app, I was just wondering if the location services (GPS?) work without any data i.e Wifi for 3G on the iPad 2?
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