macOS

My 2013 trashcan recently had its SSD filled up to the max (likely from BOINC data.) So far diskutil cannot initialize or clone the drive. It gives error 69620. There’s certain data from the home folder I’d like to recover if I can.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can pull this data to another drive?

Currently I have an NVMe drive installing macOS to it, which should do much better with space (1tb to replace the stock 256gb) but I’m not sure if there’s a way to mount the full drive after installing the NVMe+adapter into the Mac. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I got a new Mac with an M3 SoC and ran fastfetch, add one does on a new computer. It listed swap as being disabled.

Activity Monitor shows 0 bytes in swap. top and htop show 0 of 0.

I got on a call with Apple Support and the best I could get out of them was that “new Macs don’t use swap,” which is absolutely not true. People are still reporting heavy swap usage on M3 Macs.

So… any ideas? It’s a very hard problem to research, since half the internet wants to disable swap to save their SSDs.

For what it’s worth, this machine has 16GB of RAM and I haven’t pushed it past that, but I’d expect it to behave quite catastrophically if I did.

I’m looking for any possible insights, really.

I have a Macbook Pro connected to an external display. I prefer to have my dock on the larger external display, but when I boot up (or when my Mac wakes from sleep) the dock is on the Macbook display. I have tried in vain to find a way to keep it on the external display, or at least more easily move it there, other than the standard "move the mouse pointer to the bottom of the screen twice" method. Can this be accomplished with Shortcuts or an Automator action?

I'm not sure what I did to summon this little window, or how do get rid of it. Can anyone enlighten me? Thanks.

I have a Macbook Pro, which has an external display connected via a USB-C dock, with the Macbook positioned to the right of the external display and the external display set as my primary display. I spilled some coffee on my Bluetooth keyboard over the weekend, and some of the keys weren't working, so I moved the Macbook so that I could use its keyboard. I found that I like this setup better, as the Macbook's screen is closer and easier for my aged eyes to see. The only problem is that my Dock remains on the Macbook display, no matter what I do, and I would prefer it on the larger, external monitor. I tried repositioning it in the settings, and I can get it to move to the external, but as soon as I move the Macbook back below the external, the Dock jumps back to the Macbook. Is there something I am missing?

I have my Mac desktop configured to snap icons to a grid. However, for a while I've noticed that moving an icon causes them to snap to the upper-right corner of the screen, ignoring where I actually want them and overlapping existing icons. The only way around this seems to be going into Display Settings, changing any parameter such as Grid Size, and then moving the icons again. Has anyone else been experiencing this?

Hi!

I recently updated from macOS Monterey to macOS Sonoma, and I'm experiencing a bug that's driving me crazy.

I like to browse in Private Browsing so I don't have to deal with browser history, but I also like to manage my tabs manually, so I have "Safari opens with:" set to "All windows from last session".

My problem is that Safari opens my old tabs and a new empty one (didn't happen in Monterey), which I have to close manually. It's getting annoying. Does anyone know if there's a fix for it, or do I have to live with it?

Thanks in advance.

Video on what happens

I recently got a MacBook Air M2 that i generally use with bluetooth connected keyboard (keychron k9p) and mouse (Mx master). However, if I connect a Bluetooth headset (tried both AirPods and one from Jabra) the sound is cutting in and out. If I disconnect mouse or keyboard all is fine. Is this a known limitation of the MacBook?

I find it kinda strange that they remove ports left and right and then do not make sure to enable alternative means of connecting peripherals. Are there other workarounds than getting a docking station or hub?

Apple's Macs are less targeted by malware than Windows PCs, but that doesn't mean they are immune. Increasingly, insidious types of Mac malware are being developed that have researchers concerned enough to issue public warnings, and that's the case again today.

As reported by Hacker News, Cado Security has identified a malware-as-a-service (MaaS) targeting macOS users named "Cthulhu Stealer." First spotted in late 2023, the malicious software is designed to steal sensitive information from infected Macs, such as saved passwords from iCloud Keychain, information from web browsers, and even details from Telegram accounts. 

What's particularly concerning is that it's being sold as a service on the dark web for $500 per month, potentially allowing multiple bad actors to use it against unsuspecting Mac owners.

Cato Security researcher Tara Gould reportsthat Cthulhu Stealer disguises itself as popular software to trick users into installing it. It might appear as CleanMyMac, Grand Theft Auto IV, or even Adobe GenP (a tool some users employ to bypass Adobe's subscription model). The malware comes packaged as a disk image (DMG) file.

If a user tries to open the fake app, macOS's built-in security feature, Gatekeeper, warns that the software is unsigned. But if a user chooses to bypass this warning, the malware immediately asks for the user's system password, mimicking a legitimate system prompt. This technique isn't new – other Mac malware like Atomic Stealer and MacStealer use similar tricks.

Once it has the necessary permissions, Cthulhu Stealer can access and steal a wide range of sensitive data. For crypto users, it specifically targets MetaMask digital wallet information. All of this stolen data is then sent to the attackers' servers.

Notably, reports suggest that whoever designed Cthulu Stealer is no longer active, apparently following disputes over payments and accusations of scamming their own customers, i.e. other cybercriminals who were using the malware.

While Cthulhu Stealer isn't the most sophisticated malware out there, it's still a significant threat to Mac users who might be tricked into installing it. General security pointers include only downloading software from trusted sources like the App Store or official developer websites, being wary of any app asking for your system password during installation, and keeping your Mac updated with the latest security patches from Apple.

In macOS Sequoia, expected to be released in mid-September, Apple plans to remove the ability to easily override Gatekeeper warnings by Control-clicking. Instead, users will need to go through System Settings to allow unsigned software to run, adding an extra step that might make users think twice before running potentially dangerous apps.

My father is 75 and not very capable on a computer. He's got an old MacBook Air at home behind a typical ISP router for which he has no access controls (so no port forwarding).

My immediate need is actually not his machine at all, but the Raspberry Pi I installed at his house before I left the country and forgot to enable cron on so it's not doing what I need yet. However, it would be really nice if I could also do one of the following as well:

• VNC (or something) into his computer whenever something "isn't working" rather than doing the talk-him-through-it dance over Skype.
• Install a new OS (the Mac is no longer supported by MacOS). I don't know how plausible this is though.

My current plan is to email him a shell script that should create a reverse SSH tunnel to a server in Montréal or something and then I can shell into his Mac through there. It's not ideal though since we're still talking shell scripts and he's easily frustrated.

I know that in Windows land there are all sorts of tools scammers use to take over a machine remotely. Does Mac allow for the same thing? Note that I only have Linux machines available to me on this side of the Atlantic.

I'm curious how many packages are there available for macOS compared to linux distributions.

I am trying to create a focus so that I can play Spotify, or similar with no notification sounds of any kind. I tried Do Not Disturb but Discord still pings. I created this focus, first with "allow some apps" and only allowing Spotify (but it does not appear in the list of available apps), so instead I switched to "Silence Some Apps" and added Discord, Messages, and Telegram. All of the apps still send notification sounds.

I had previously made a Focus that had Allow Some Apps, but no apps were added, this Focus still allowed notification sounds. I have tried sleep focus.

I followed the steps on the support page with no luck. How do I silence notifications on my Mac?

ETA: I even went into Notifications in the settings menu and turned off sounds for the apps I am trying to silence and am still getting sounds.

I have a MacBook Pro M2 (Touchbar) and since I have it, on every MacOS version, I couldn’t share my LAN connection over WiFi. I use a Thunderbolt 3 Dock but also tried a direct USB-C to LAN adapter.

When I enable Internet sharing and configure it with PSK wpa2/3 and a SSID, it opens a Hotspot with default values and without PSK. Also you can’t connect to it. Does anyone have the same problem?

Hi,

I'm trying to uninstall iterm2. I installed it via the installer from their webpage and tried to uninstall it by putting the application in the bin as usual. But it keeps reappearing. I also tried removing remaining files: "~/Library/Application Support/iTerm", "~/Library/Application Support/iTerm2", "~/Library/Application Support/com.apple.sharedfilelist/com.apple.LSSharedFileList.ApplicationRecentDocuments/com.googlecode.iterm2.sfl*", "~/Library/Caches/com.googlecode.iterm2", "~/Library/Cookies/com.googlecode.iterm2.binarycookies", "~/Library/Preferences/com.googlecode.iterm2.plist", "~/Library/Saved Application State/com.googlecode.iterm2.savedState",

Still, iterm will pop up as soon as I start my mac. What is this shit? How can I get rid of it?

Answer: "This shit" is my stupid brain. I forgot I reinstalled iterm after my employer introduced a managed software center. It was the only app I installed via msc myself and thus did not think of it at first.

I personally am a fan I find it to be like spaces except I can see them which makes switching between tasks smoother.

Helix is a new batteries included Modal editor inspired by Vim & written in Rust

Also see here for a video of the screenshot and a video of my configuration reload script.

I have 3 TVs connected to a 4x4 Matrix, when I use my Mac they are out of sync. It seems fine when using my Apple TV, or my Windows/Linux dual boot laptop. The issue does seem to be tied to the length of the HDMI cables. TV1 is connected to a 6' cable, TV2 is connected to a 15' cable, and TV3 a 30' cable. I am using the HDMI out on my MacBook Pro (2023 M2). Any ideas for a solution short of changing all of the cables to 30'?

I am trying to shell out of VBA in excel and I keep getting permissions issues. So far I have tried:

Full Disk Access

Accessibility

Developer Rights

chmod

Quarantine

Shell function

AppleScriptTask function (with full disks access and Accessiblity, and Developer Rights)

All of the pieces work independently. I can call it from the command line and as an apple script from osascript

The MOST frustrating thing its that once I got the permissions correct on Apple Script, then the excel AppleScriptTask function stopped working. The command that used to work now throws an Error 13 Type Mismatch. I have double checked, triple checked and had Chat GPT write the code. There is not type mismatch - and it worked fine before I fixed the permissions on Apple Script.

PLEASE HELP!!!!!!!!

This is killing me.

We have a snippet of code on a web page. Users copy the code to a text editor, make a small change, then copy the modified version and paste it into a terminal window.

And it fails to run.

I've confirmed this happens with both Textedit and Notes, and also that copying from the web page and pasting directly into a terminal works fine (although without the necessary code changes).

It's something in the text editor copy; and there's no way to either "copy as plaintext" or "paste without formatting" into a terminal.

Does anyone know how I can work around this?

EDIT Apparently some (but not all) spaces (octal 040) are being converted to octal "302 240". I can't figure out how to stop it!

The infotainment system in my truck uses metadata tags to organize all of the music. I’ve the past few years I have thought I was doing something wrong with the new music I was adding, but apparently the Music app’s edits of the data were not “sticking “.

I found a large number of music I had added but was not available to play in the Unknown folder.

Are there any free, or cheap Mac apps for editing the data?