Monday, October 18, 2021

Recent Questions - Ask Different

Recent Questions - Ask Different

Recent Questions - Ask Different

Stop Using iCloud for Photos

Posted: 18 Oct 2021 12:01 AM PDT

For a long time, I used Adobe Lightroom to store my photos. Then I got lazy, and a lot of the images I took with my iPhone, just got left on the phone. So I started to use iCloud, which meant that if I wanted to manipulate a photo on the Mac, I didn't have to import it.

Then came the announcement by Apple that they were going to start scanning photos. None of mine are in any way, shape or form illegal (unless you count photos of our cats and of my motorcycle), but I don't like the idea of a company looking at them.

So basically, I'd like to get all of my photos off of the iPhone (and off of iCloud), onto my Mac, so I can start to import them into LR. There are thousands of them, so it's going to be a long process, but sooner I start, sooner it's done.

Can someone tell me how I do this?

Thank you.

Cursor becomes hand when I try to take screenshot of selected area [closed]

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 11:46 PM PDT

When I try to take a screenshot using the built-in screenshot app of a MacBook M1 pro, the cursor becomes the hand cursor which completely blocks the functionality that the user tried to do. It's annoying to say the least. Why can't it just work as a normal computer? Why would the computer do something that a user never wants? The hand cursor completely blocks what I tried to do. It's annoying and painful being blocked and then resorting to simple guessing how to stop the expensive computer from wasting my time.

Why am I seeing Device Support Update notification?

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 10:52 PM PDT

I am on 10.15.7 and the device support update keeps showing up on my Notifications at 21:59, (I have Do Not Disturb active for the other 23:59 hours.) I have no interest in downloading 200MB for mobile devices that I am never going to have. I have Software Update set to not automatically keep my Mac up to date and not automatically check for updates in the Advanced, but it seems to ignore that. Is there any way I can dismiss this? Software Update

Default Drive/Volume icon... where can I find it?

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 09:18 PM PDT

So I went into /System/Libary/CoreServices and I find . '*.icns', and while I found many alternative drive icons, I could not find the default silver and orange drive icons! I need these to make a custom icon for a drive of mine. Does anybody know where this might be?

Edit: I went into /System/Library and just did a find there. The closest I could find was ./PreferencePanes/StartupDisk.prefPane/Contents/Resources/StartupDisk.icns but that's the startup disk icon not the removable media icon.

Which of Homebrew or Mac App Store to choose when a package is available via both?

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 11:37 PM PDT

I'm using the opportunity of a new MacBook Air to get to grips with automating the post-macOS-installation setup process, rather than going through the usual mind-numbing click-fest or crud-inheriting Migration Assistant.

I read a few articles to get started, and most suggested using Homebrew along with Mac App Store. I'm making fair progress with that, but my question is this:

When a particular package is available via both of those methods (and that seems to often be the case -- 1Password 7 is a current example), does it matter which one is used? (And if it does, what things should be considered when choosing?)

route dictation to a background window

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 08:53 PM PDT

Using MacOS Big Sur.

I am reviewing a document in the web, and it would be useful to be able to dictate my observations towards a text editor in other window. Is there some way to start the dictation system and keep it associated to a window even if I activate others?

How do I check multiple check boxes in finder for podcasts

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 08:06 PM PDT

I am using a MacBook Air 2017 with MacOS Catalina. Thus, there is a Podcasts app and no iTunes. The Finder is used to choose which saved podcast episodes per Podcast get synced to my iPod Nano 7th Generation. The choices are made by clicking on a check box for each Podcast episode. If I hold down the Command key and click on one check box, all check boxes for all Podcasts are marked for syncing. Where is this documented? Is there a way to mark all the check boxes for one Podcast and not all of the others?

I Can't edit a shared numbers spreadsheet

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 06:53 PM PDT

I can't edit a shared spreadsheet in numbers and an alert pops up to say new update available.

So one would think I need to update numbers right?

But no, I have the most current update, so after the app directs me to the app store to update, my only option is to open the app again.

I have restarted the app, and also restarted the computer but still get the same thing.

AAAARGH!

How to copy a iPhone(iOS13.6.1) to another iPhone(iOS12.4) without updating iOS of either side to latest iOS?

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 10:08 PM PDT

I have two iPhone 8,

  • src: iOS13.6.1. ( I will not update to latest iOS for some softwares only works in this version)

    backed up to my Macbook(Catalina 10.15.7).

  • dst: iOS12.4

    which is connected to my Macbook

I want to copy src to dst exactly, without updating iOS version of either side.

When I restore the dst iPhone with the backup of src iPhone, it failed with error like "the backup is not compatible, you need update the iOS".

It is a hassle to update the dst iPhone to 13.6.1 since it is not the latest version.

So I come to the "Recovery mode", I put the dst iPhone into "Recovery mode", then chose "Restore", however, this just meant restore to factory status.

I have tried to press the "Option" key while click the "Restore" button, it did show Finder and seemed allow me to choose file, but I could not choose the backup file of src iPhone (~/Library/Application Support/MobileSync/Backup/...), I have tried all dirs and files, just were not accepted by the "Restore", the "OK" button was always grey color.

Can anyone help me to achieve my goal: How to copy a iPhone(iOS13.6.1) to another iPhone(iOS12.4) without updating iOS of either side to latest iOS?

BigSur - Querying the dimensions of any visible window?

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 03:54 PM PDT

Is there a way in BigSur (version 11.6) to query the dimensions of any window that is showing on the screen?

When running under X Windows in linux, I can run the xwininfo command and click on any open window, and the window's attributes, including its dimensions, will be output. Is there a corresponding command for MacOS? Note that I am not running X Windows on my Mac.

Thank you very much in advance.

Turn off stand/walk/you did it notifications on watch

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 03:04 PM PDT

I have an Apple Watch and do not have an iPhone.

How do I turn off these annoying "you walked today" "you bla bla bla today" notifications?

These cause me to not take seriously the notification on my watch. And so this is also causing me to miss meetings during the day. Because watch is the little boy that called wolf with these annoying notifications.

Rename files in subfolders by adding "_ParentFolderName"

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 07:57 PM PDT

I have hundreds of Parent Folders, each containing a few subfolders. Each subfolder has a few .docx files and a few .pdf files.

I need to rename all my files inside the subfolder by adding "_" + ParentFolderName.

Before:

ParentFolder  ├── Folder1  │   ├── Filename1.docx  │   ├── Filename1.pdf  │   ├── Filename2.docx  │   └── Filename2.pdf  └── Folder2      ├── Filename1.docx      ├── Filename1.pdf      ├── Filename2.docx      └── Filename2.pdf

After:

ParentFolder  ├── Folder1  │   ├── Filename1_ParentFolder.docx  │   ├── Filename1_ParentFolder.pdf  │   ├── Filename2_ParentFolder.docx  │   └── Filename2_ParentFolder.pdf  └── Folder2      ├── Filename1_ParentFolder.docx      ├── Filename1_ParentFolder.pdf      ├── Filename2_ParentFolder.docx      └── Filename2_ParentFolder.pdf

Is there a way I can do a Quick Action on all my Parent Folders at the same time and rename all my files?

How can I delete thousands of Reading List items on iOS Safari at once?

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 01:24 PM PDT

I added a bunch of URLs to my reading list from my Mac and there is apparently some kind of bug as I now have thousands upon thousands of duplicate entries in my iPhone's (iOS 14.8) reading list.

How can I delete all of them at once?

I've copied all of the URLs back out of Mac Safari and removed them from the sidebar, yet the change seemingly isn't taking effect on my phone.

Edit: it now seems like cloudd and SafariBookmarksSyncAgent are eating up my CPU. Definitely having severe issues.

Customizing CERTAIN Function Keys on Mac

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 11:45 PM PDT

Is there a way to customize certain function row keys on Mac, without losing the functionality of others? I have a third-party display hooked up to my Mac mini and I want to use the standard F1 and F2 keys to control its brightness with a third-party app, but I can't find a way to do that without losing the correct functionality of all the other keys that I want to keep in place (like music controls, volume, etc). Is there a way to only customize certain function row keys while keeping all the other ones in tact, and if so, how to do this?

What causes my podcast episode to be renamed when Finder syncs to iPod Nano 7th generation

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 03:36 PM PDT

My Macbook Air 13 2017 is running MacOS Catalina, so there is the Podcasts app and no iTunes app. For one particular episode of the NPR Fresh Air podcast the title gets changed from "Inside the Thailand Cave Rescue" to "11" when Finder syncs with my wife's iPod Nano 7th Generation. What could cause this title change? Is there someway to recover the proper title?

This only happens to one episode out of 18 episodes of Fresh Air on that nano.

On my iPod Nano 7th Generation, four Fresh Air episodes suffer title changes and all four are called "11" on the nano screen. There are 23 episodes which don't suffer title changes. For example, episode "Anita Hill" becomes "11" on the nano. When the files are extracted from the nano using the "iMazing" program, that file is shown with the name "5080 11.mp3" (5080 seems to be the episode number--as viewed in the Podcasts app). An example of an episode whose title doesn't change is the one entitled "Carol Burnett". As extracted using "iMazing" the file name is "Carol Burnett.mp3".

I did another sync with Finder and three of the four episodes acquired proper titles. Further manipulations to see if I could recover the fourth proper title resulted in four episodes again with the title "11". Further manipulations after that resulted in losing all of the check marks in the Finder for the Fresh Air episodes. How did that happen? I didn't sync after that, because doing so would almost certainly remove all of the Fresh Air episodes on the nano. Checking further, check marks for other Podcasts were gone also.

Adding text between sublists in pages

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 02:23 PM PDT

I'm facing difficulty with nested lists in the Pages app. I'm able to do the following easily.

1. List Item 1                    [shift + return]  
   Some text                      [return] [tab]     1. Sub List Item 1             [return]     2. Sub List Item 2             [return] [shift + tab]  2. List Item 2                    [return]  3. List Item 3

What I want to do is add another sublist with some text in between.

1. List Item 1  
   Some text     1. Sub List Item 1     2. Sub List Item 2     Some text     1. Sub List Item 1     2. Sub List Item 2               2. List Item 2  3. List Item 3

Is this possible?

homebrew. Cant start service. get "Bootstrap failed: 5: Input/output error - Postgres - Mac

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 01:12 PM PDT

I am trying to re-install Postgres via home-brew on Mac. I uninstalled Postgres, updated home-brew and ran the install command for brew install postgres

when I run brew services start postgresql

I get the below error message:

Bootstrap failed: 5: Input/output error Error: Failure while executing; /bin/launchctl bootstrap gui/501 /Users/edac/Library/LaunchAgents/homebrew.mxcl.postgresql.plist exited with 5.

When I try to start a server through the Postgres app I receive this message:

Required PostgreSQL version not installed    The data directory was initialized with PostgreSQL 13.    This copy of Postgres.app includes the following PostgreSQL versions: 14.    Please try downloading a different release of Postgres.app.

originally when I installed Postgres all I did was run the home-brew cli and install the app and I was good to go. Not sure what's gone wrong.

Add note to phone number without using contacts in iOS

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 09:03 PM PDT

Can the iPhone accomplish what I'm describing below?

On my Android when I view recent calls I can:

  • Tap phone number
  • Tap i
  • Tap add note
  • Type a note such as "May order 1000 widgets".

Now the next time the caller phones I will see in the caller display:

555-555-5555. May order 1000 widgets

I find this very useful. I can decide to answer or let it go to voicemail.

Is this possible in iOS?

MacBook burning and overheating

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 04:09 PM PDT

I have recently asked about this and everyone says it's fine. (Macbook went over 95C)

When I was using my MacBook for about an hour (running at 55-70C) my keys were burning my hands so bad. My MacBook does get colder with Turbo Boost off so I did that and it is better but my hands are on fire right now. What should I do? (My CPU is the one overheating.)

This also happened in the middle of it.

enter image description here

MacBook:

  • Apple - MacBook Pro - 13" Display with Touch Bar
  • Intel Core i5
  • 16GB Memory
  • 512GB SSD
  • Space Gray

External keyboard and mouse not working for Mac

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 10:32 PM PDT

My Problem

Many keystrokes on my keyboard are missed when using an external keyboard and my mouse severely lags (not just on the external monitor).

What I've learnt trying to debug this issue.

I've found that this certainly starts to happen after I use the built-in keyboard/trackpad. It also seems to happen after sustained use (after about an hour or two). However, I don't know whether this is because I've used the internal keyboard and forgotten.

My setup:

  • MacBook Pro with M1 chip, running BigSur 11.5.2
  • External Monitor (LG 4K, 27inch) + MacBook screen
  • MS sculpt mouse and keyboard (technically bluetooth but that is handled by the dongle so BT isn't an issue.

Some other notes:

  • The keyboard and mouse definitely work. They worked very well for the past 2 years on my Linux box.
  • As the MBP only has 2 USB C ports I've had to connect the keyboard and mouse and monitor through 2 usb extenders. I haven't had any problems before with these dongles so I believe these also work.
  • The keyboard and mouse dongle is USB type A and the ports are type C so I can't directly plug the dongle into the MBP.

This question seems to be fairly similar: Intermittent lag from external keyboard and mouse

However, it does not have an answer and I have found that this does seem to happen particularly after I use the internal keyboard and mouse.

MacBook unable to visit websites while connected to Wifi

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 11:04 PM PDT

A month ago I made a wrong manipulation in the Network settings of my computer and since then I cannot browse any websites nor use the Mail app when I connect to my office's WiFi or at the local café. There, I need to connect to my phone's 4G in order to browse and check my emails normally, which obviously consumes a lot of data. Another way to be able connect there is to use a VPN. But without the VPN activated, I'm unable to connect.

When I am at home, it connects normally. So there is somewhere some incompatibility with other networks. Is it a DNS or proxy problem ? How can I solve this ?

Please help !

Is there an SVG version of the Finder icon from macOS Big Sur?

Posted: 18 Oct 2021 01:07 AM PDT

In a project I'm working on, we have icons to represent different platforms. Since we support both macOS and iOS, we don't want to use the Apple logo for either because it's ambiguous between those two platforms. Currently we are using the Finder icon from macOS Big Sur.

However, we are looking to replace the platform icons with SVG files (preferably lightweight ones), so that they will look great at any resolution, while being smaller in file size. Is there any way I could get an SVG version of this icon without re-creating it?

Retrieving music from an old account

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 08:08 PM PDT

I bought music from iTunes with my credit card, but it was my son's iTunes account. We shared a pc at that time. Can I retrieve my music and put it into my iTunes account?

Windows resize to maximum for no reason

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 10:03 PM PDT

On High Sierra, from time to time, my current window maximizes itself without any keyboard or mouse dragging. Mostly it is in browsers. I use both Chrome and Firefox. I hate this and want it to stop. If I want a window to resize, I will do it myself. Any suggestions? Have not been able to find similar issues.

How to solve high CPU usage after Time Machine recovery

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 09:07 PM PDT

I reinstalled macOS and restored my data using Time Machine. After using the restored OS for a while, I discovered that kernel_task's CPU usage is really high. I mainly use my Mac for music production, using Ableton as a DAW, and this prevented me from being able to open my simplest projects.

What I've tried so far:

  • Searched the web and found out that there is a bug with Intel's Turbo Boost so I downloaded and installed Turbo Boost Switcher.
  • Checked my hardware using the Mac tools and also scanned my disk partition.
  • Reset SMC.
  • Installed many versions of Ableton.
  • Installed Fans and gfxcardstatus.

None of the above helped.

I'm using a MacBook Pro (Retina, 15", mid-2015) with a 2.5 GHz Intel Core i7 and 16 GB RAM with High Sierra 10.13.16.

Is there a way to troubleshoot the problem in a better way? I don't think that there is hardware damage involved. How can I solve this issue?

Is there a way to stop DVD player and other apps from defaulting to full screen?

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 05:34 PM PDT

Whenever DVD Player launches (iMac running Mojave), it goes full screen, with no way to stop it. This also happens when entering a meeting with either Zoom, or GoToMeeting, or both.

I have precisely zero interest in running anything full-screen on this Mac; if I want to run something full screen, I'll use one of my PC-DOS 2000 boxes.

Using truetone with external monitor in clamshell mode

Posted: 18 Oct 2021 12:01 AM PDT

I have MBP 2019 that I want to use in clamshell mode with an external display. But I'd like to be able to use true tone.

Now, I am aware that it needs sensors in the Macbook.

I've been thinking more in line of:

  1. Open macbook pro, let true tone adjust color.
  2. Run some terminal command to 'freeze' the settings.
  3. Close the lid.

Does anyone know how to achieve this?

Do Terminal processes stop if Mac sleeps?

Posted: 17 Oct 2021 04:52 PM PDT

I'm running some Python machine learning programs through Terminal that take hours at a time to finish. If I leave my computer unattended it hibernates - the screen goes off and I have to type in my password again.

When this happens, does my script get cancelled, paused, or continue the same? I would hate to think that my script could be 99% finished, and then gets aborted because my computer went to sleep.
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