A list of articles to help you solve problems on Macs running Sierra, High Sierra, and Mojave (10.12-10.14). For older articles about previous versions of OS X, see this article.
- How to change Mac username
- Breaking
- Booting the Mac
- Setting up a new or repurposed Mac
- Preparing to part with your Mac
- Signposts
- Essentials
- Mojave, macOS 10.14
- Startup modes
- Finding information and tools
- Security
- Online
- General
- High Sierra – macOS 10.13
- iCloud
- Permissions and Extended Attributes
- Versioning and revisions
- Scheduled Events
- Installers
- Apple’s New File System, APFS
- Time Machine
- Keychains
- Help Services
- Console, Consolation, log, and reading logs
- Swift 3 snippets and tips
- Scripting macOS using Swift
- Sierra, macOS 10.12
- Advanced troubleshooting tools
- Building a cheap, large, fast external SSD
- More troubleshooting
- Storage
- Inside OS X / macOS
- Network and internet issues
- Data and its protection
- Accessibility
- Colour Management for the Non-Professional
- Data formats and conversion
- Hardware upgrade and disposal
- Hypertext – Storyspace and Tinderbox
- SDR (Software-defined radio)
- Polyglot programmer
- Words on Macs
- Other security news
- External links
Breaking
- Inside Mojave’s Aliases and Bookmarks
- AppKit, TextKit, Core Data – signs of disease
- Copies, clones, links and aliases: summary in tables
- How Mojave messes up printing
- A lexicon of Mac power adaptors, from MagSafe to USB-C
- Last year’s hardware, next year’s promises
- Out with the old, in with the new
- AMFI: checking file integrity on your Mac
- How to build an APFS bootable clone in Terminal
- How can Mojave let you open an app with signature errors?
- App signatures are always checked on launch, but serious errors may be ignored
- Weed control in the walled garden
- How thoroughly does Gatekeeper check existing apps?
- Mojave happily runs apps with revoked signatures, and more
- Disk Utility 18.0 (Mojave): Not exactly the truth
- Cleaning up sensitive files: How to sanitise storage
- Housekeeping for speed and profit
- What is Apple up to?
- The uninterruptible power of a cat: replacing my UPS
- Where do Apple’s recent security updates leave macOS?
- Should appearance mode change text views?
- Prepare your Mac for service/repair, and restore it later
- Preparing your Mac for disposal
- When the App Store says to redownload all your apps
- How to fix a Secure Note (or anything else) which won’t display in Dark Mode
- Which word processors support Rich Text in Dark Mode?
- Crippling Rich Text with Dark Mode
- Rendering Rich Text in Dark Mode
- Apple has released Mojave 10.14.2, security updates for High Sierra and Sierra, and a Gatekeeper update
- What has changed in the Mojave 10.14.2 update?
- Known bugs in macOS Mojave 10.14.2: an incomplete summary
- What has happened to the App Store in 10.14.2?
- Where will all those coders go?
- TextEdit 1.14: Not the Dark Mode you’d expect
- Panics, Pegasus, and Recovery
- Using and hacking styles in TextEdit and DelightEd
- Which EFI firmware should your Mac be using? (version 3)
- No Entry: access controls in Mojave
- Mojave may make Macs molasses
- Fusion Drives in APFS
- How Time Machine makes backups
- What to do when you can’t get an app the right privacy settings in Mojave
- How privacy protection is enforced through the Attribution Chain
- Watching Mojave’s privacy protection at work
- How to use the unified log to see what’s going wrong
- Is a Dark Web achievable?
- Beyond mere appearance: Dark Mode, the semantics of colour, and text without print
- Has that app been notarized, and what are the benefits to the user?
- How Mojave changes the unified log
- Preparing to upgrade to Mojave: a checklist
- Preparing to upgrade to Mojave: Scripting, commands, and development
- Managing Mojave’s privacy protection: Privacy controls
- Helper tools, Mojave’s privacy, and High Sierra: intricate relationships
- Security, privacy, and why XProtect won’t stop apps reading your email
- Working with Mojave’s Privacy Protection
- Accessibility, privacy, and fun with Automator
- Privacy + Scripting = Problems
- What can that app do? Entitlements, authorisation, and privacy
- Mojave’s privacy protection, command tools, and scripts
- Mojave’s privacy protection: informing users
- Back to My Mac dies with Mojave
- Four serious security errors which are easily made on a Mac: how to fix them
- Should you try repairing permissions in High Sierra or later?
- APFS comes to Fusion Drives, but there’s no sign of Time Machine 2
Booting the Mac
- Diagnosing a Mac which can’t complete booting
- Booting the Mac: Visual Summary
- Booting the Mac: Will my Mac boot from this disk? A visual guide
- Before boot.efi: the Mac’s initial self-test routines
- Booting the Mac: loading boot.efi and Secure Boot
- Booting the Mac: EFI ‘firmware’
- Booting the Mac: the kernel and extensions
- Booting the Mac: macOS 10.14 Mojave, and shutdown
- What’s stored in NVRAM?
- Booting the Mac: bless, and what makes a volume bootable
Setting up a new or repurposed Mac
- 1 Destinations
- 2 Migration Assistant
- 3 Manual migration
- 4 Test, tweak, Time Machine
- 5 Examples
- 6 Fitting a quart into a pint pot
- 7 Choices diagrammed
Preparing to part with your Mac
- Prepare your Mac for service/repair, and restore it later
- Cleaning up sensitive files: How to sanitise storage
- Preparing your Mac for disposal
Signposts
- Quantum mechanics and Mojave – performance measurement, Signposts, and the log
- Taking macOS to the end of time: nanoseconds count
- Signposts for performance: 1 introduction
- Signposts for performance: 2 Instruments
- Updates all round to Blowhole, RouteMap, and the Signpost Kit
- Working around a bug recently introduced into Mojave: When Signposts point the wrong way
- App signatures are always checked on launch, but serious errors may be ignored
- What happens when you open a quarantined app?
- Open a document: how it works, and where it can go wrong, 1: identification
- Open a document: how it works, and where it can go wrong, 2: Security check
- Open a document: how it works, and where it can go wrong, 3: Launch
- Consolation 3: log browser of choice for macOS 10.12-10.14
- macOS Unified log: 1 why, what and how
- macOS Unified log: 2 content and extraction
- macOS Unified log: 3 finding your way
- Unified but not uniform: how the log has changed
- Is the unified log private, or a vulnerability?
- How to browse the log on an iOS device
- Compatibility of my apps with Mojave: details and advice
Essentials – also see Downloads item above for free apps available here
- A Mac Troubleshooting Summary
- Conventions and Standards for Mac Articles
- New, updated and useful links to Apple support articles
- Essential Reading: *OS Internals, Vol I, User Space, by Jonathan Levin
- Pick your Panacea: how to select a generic fix
- How to use the unified log to see what’s going wrong
- Welcome to your new Mac: living with the T2 chip
- DeepTools 1 released: preserve document versions wherever they go
- Copies, clones, links and aliases: summary in tables
- Aliases, hard links, symlinks, and copies in Mojave’s APFS
- Links and aliases beyond local files: advanced file system techniques
- Aliases, links, clones, and Bookmarks
- Workthrough: Using the macOS version system to recover lost content
- Telling which apps are 32-bit: 32-bitCheck does it better
- Don’t trust update aggregators
- Going for iCloud Drive, or the whole way with Desktop & Documents Folders?
- Bailiff 1.0 now available: take control of iCloud Drive
- Cirrus version 1.0 release: the iCloud tool is ready for general use
- Inside iCloud Drive: Optimize Storage, and its bugs
- iCloud Drive can strip (meta)data from your documents
- How iCloud marks the place of documents stored remotely
- Hazel catches a silent Adobe update red-handed
- Safari offline reader is rapidly becoming functionless
- Improving Spotlight search: SearchKey and SearchKeyLite 1 released
- Search Perfect: hitting it off with SearchKey 1.0b1
- Why are there problems backing up Photos Libraries?
- Apple has released Time Capsule and AirPort updates for KRACK vulnerabilities
- More information about your keychains in KeychainCheck 2.0a3
- Checking keychain access using Woodpile: a tutorial
- Now you can filter with regular expressions in Woodpile
- Why did my Mac stop making Time Machine backups? An investigation with Woodpile 0.6a1
- Diagnosing a macOS problem of a month ago
- What’s your Mac been up to for the last 3 months? Inside macOS’s hidden activity records
- New insights into process performance: log load analysis
- You can still sync apps and ringtones with iTunes 12.6.3
- Is Consolation 3 now of release quality? Here’s version 3.0b13
- Using T2M2 to diagnose and treat Time Machine problems
- Startup and shutdown key combinations for macOS Sierra
- Why can’t I download and install macOS Sierra any more?
- What to do when a macOS update goes wrong
- I can’t log in: what to do when you forget your password, or its doesn’t work
- My Mac starts up in the wrong language or keyboard
- How to tell whether a problem is in your Home folder
- Fixing problems with preference files
- Diving even deeper into preferences
- Sticky preferences: why trashing or editing them may not change anything
- Repairing permissions diagrammed
- Updated tools for checking and correcting Home folder permissions
- Should you try repairing permissions in High Sierra or later?
- The mystery of repairing permissions
- Something odd you can’t fix? Sierra re-introduces repairing permissions
- Permissions repair tools updated for compatibility with High Sierra
- Should you repair permissions on your Home folder, and how?
- When an app or its installer won’t run after download
- Solving update problems with softwareupdate
- What to do when a disk image won’t mount
- Disk Utility: An ever-changing tool
- Was that a crash, freeze, panic, or spinning beachball? A diagnostic guide
- Kernel panics, and how to know when they occur
- Why the spinning beachball?
- Before boot.efi: the Mac’s initial self-test routines
- Booting the Mac: loading boot.efi and Secure Boot
- Booting the Mac: EFI ‘firmware’
- Firmware, the SMC, NVRAM and T2 chip: reset and maintain
- Recovering from failed T2 firmware updates and related problems
- Startup tones, EFI, and fixing failed firmware updates
- How High Sierra checks your EFI firmware
- Which EFI firmware should your Mac be using? (version 3)
- Which EFI firmware should your Mac be using? (version 2)
- Restoring order to EFI firmware
- There’s trouble in that firmware: EFI chaos
- Why are my Mac’s fans running at full blast?
- Diagnosing a Mac which can’t complete booting
- The universal panacea for macOS problems: install the Combo updater
- Hasn’t macOS changed? How it doesn’t work like it used to
- When should you re-install macOS?
- Reinstalling macOS changed with 10.12.4
- My Bluetooth keyboard doesn’t work properly
- Dystextia: a platform for exploring Unicode encoding problems, obfuscating text, and spoofing
- Diving deeper into drive health: SMART utilities compared
- Code signing: confusing and weak?
- Losing your Ethernet port unverifies your Mac
- Java and macOS: what you should know
- Did that app quit, or is it just napping?
- Return of the zombie app: is it a feature or bug?
- How to prevent zombies
- What is ‘macOS Installer Notification’, and why did I get it?
- Who’s in control of your Mac? Notifications
- Are you being pestered to upgrade to High Sierra?
- Revealing the Finder’s hidden depths
- A tale of two Disk Utilities: Sierra and High Sierra
- Running at startup: when to use a Login Item or a LaunchAgent/LaunchDaemon
- Watching folders – 1 for users
- Document Versioning
- Making macOS versions more usable
- Inside QuickLook previews with qlmanage
- What’s that? Using magic on your Mac to identify files
- When is an update?
- Mail Drop, iCloud, and large files
- How to check that a file really is a faithful copy
- How to check that a file really is a faithful copy: Take 2, archives
- Redact and obscure: how to release or publish without leaks
- Redacting a PDF using Adobe Acrobat
- It’s not about the speed, not entirely: Mac mini, iMac Pro, iPad Pro and benchmarks
- Can you upgrade or repair a Mac with a T2 chip?
- Cleaning up sensitive files: How to sanitise storage
- A lexicon of Mac power adaptors, from MagSafe to USB-C
Mojave, macOS 10.14
- How Mojave messes up printing
- Disk Utility 18.0 (Mojave): Not exactly the truth
- How can Mojave let you open an app with signature errors?
- Mojave happily runs apps with revoked signatures, and more
- How thoroughly does Gatekeeper check existing apps?
- Copies, clones, links and aliases: summary in tables
- Aliases, hard links, symlinks, and copies in Mojave’s APFS
- Links and aliases beyond local files: advanced file system techniques
- Should appearance mode change text views?
- Where do Apple’s recent security updates leave macOS?
- Why does macOS keep downloading the incompatible app list?
- Housekeeping for speed and profit
- Apple has released Mojave 10.14.2, security updates for High Sierra and Sierra, and a Gatekeeper update
- What has changed in the Mojave 10.14.2 update?
- Known bugs in macOS Mojave 10.14.2: an incomplete summary
- When the App Store says to redownload all your apps
- What has happened to the App Store in 10.14.2?
- Which word processors support Rich Text in Dark Mode?
- How to fix a Secure Note (or anything else) which won’t display in Dark Mode
- Crippling Rich Text with Dark Mode
- Rendering Rich Text in Dark Mode
- TextEdit 1.14: Not the Dark Mode you’d expect
- Mojave’s App Store is disconcerting (and how to do dates in software)
- What are those huge files doing in Mojave’s Desktop Pictures?
- Apple has released Mojave 10.14.1 update, and Security Updates for Sierra and High Sierra (updated)
- Panics, Pegasus, and Recovery
- What has changed in macOS Mojave 10.14.1?
- Known bugs in macOS Mojave 10.14.1: an incomplete summary
- Is Mojave’s privacy protection still vulnerable in 10.14.1?
- What does the TCC Compatibility database do?
- Which EFI firmware should your Mac be using? (version 3)
- What firmware version is that?
- Versions in iCloud are still a mess, made worse by Handoff
- Mojave’s many software updates
- Busting 7 myths (lies) about Mojave
- Are we ready to drop 32-bit code yet?
- Mojave fixes QuickLook cache vulnerability
- A fraught few hours: migrating to my new iMac Pro
- How to install a printer in macOS Mojave
- Checking Time Machine in Mojave (and High Sierra) using T2M2 1.4
- AirPrint or you’re on your own: macOS printing changes
- DelightEd edges forward towards full release – my free Rich Text editor with special Dark Mode features
- macOS Mojave ships
- The big upgrade
- New and updated Apple Support Notes for Mojave
- No Entry: access controls in Mojave
- Who put that in my Full Disk Access list? ssh and Mojave’s privacy protection
- LockRattler 4.12 now supports TCC data on Mojave
- Mojave may make Macs molasses
- What to do when you can’t get an app the right privacy settings in Mojave
- Watching Mojave’s privacy protection at work
- How privacy protection is enforced through the Attribution Chain
- Silent Mojave night: security settings files in macOS Mojave
- Don’t believe System Information’s Legacy Software
- How Time Machine makes backups
- Launching apps in Mojave: how it has changed
- Fusion Drives in APFS
- Editing iCloud documents is far from seamless
- Document versions are now preserved by iCloud, unreliably
- Safari 12.0 can’t open a local Home page
- Safari 12.0 bug in macOS Mojave: smearing in image previews
- Booting the Mac: macOS 10.14 Mojave, and shutdown
- Mojave glitches in SystHist and T2M2
- Making documents look good in both appearance modes
- Is a Dark Web achievable?
- Dark Delight: getting the best from Dark Mode
- Beyond mere appearance: Dark Mode, the semantics of colour, and text without print
- Mojave’s Dictionary: where Light and Dark Modes collide
- Make Mojave custom dictionaries work better
- Bend your mind with Rich Text in Dark Mode: I’m DelightEd
- Dark Mode bugs in Mojave
- Which apps for Mojave?
- Making Sense of Text: How good is Mojave’s linguistic support?
- Making more of Mojave’s language support: Nalaprop 1.0b6
- New version of Taccy extends its coverage of info about apps and privacy
- Has that app been notarized, and what are the benefits to the user?
- How Mojave changes the unified log
- Safari 12: a good step forward, but mind the extensions
- Preparing to upgrade to Mojave: a checklist
- Should you upgrade to Mojave early?
- Preparing to upgrade to Mojave: Scripting, commands, and development
- Managing Mojave’s privacy protection: Privacy controls
- Three updates: LockRattler, Bailiff, and Aquiliner
- Helper tools, Mojave’s privacy, and High Sierra: intricate relationships
- Security, privacy, and why XProtect won’t stop apps reading your email
- Working with Mojave’s Privacy Protection
- Accessibility, privacy, and fun with Automator
- Privacy + Scripting = Problems
- What can that app do? Entitlements, authorisation, and privacy
- Growing the Apple crop – Mojave, privacy protection, and why problems are only surfacing now
- Mojave’s privacy protection is complex and will crash innocent apps
- Mojave’s privacy protection, command tools, and scripts
- Mojave’s privacy protection: informing users
- Apple warns us to prepare for Mojave
- Apple’s Cloud of Unknowing – Support Notes and Back to My Mac
- Back to My Mac dies with Mojave
- Mojave’s privacy protection and command tools: a collision in which the user is the loser
- Running apps with Mojave’s privacy protection
- Welcome to macOS 10.14 Mojave public beta
- Mojave’s privacy protection can be thoroughly confusing
- Working around a bug recently introduced into Mojave: When Signposts point the wrong way
- Quantum mechanics and Mojave – performance measurement, Signposts, and the log
- Notarization: a big step forward for users and developers
- How to stop Dark Mode becoming Chequer Mode
- Marzipan isn’t icing on the cake
- Precize 1.4 is notarized and fully ready for Mojave
- SystHist 1.3 now details macOS 10.14 Mojave system updates
- Blowhole version 5 now writes Signposts from the command line
- Extended attribute editor xattred and iCloud toolkit Cirrus updated
- New versions of Consolation 3, 32-bitCheck, and SystHist: mainly for Mojave
- PermissionScanner 1.3 is notarized and fully ready for Mojave
- More app updates: Bailiff, DeepTools, PermissionScanner, SearchKey, and SearchKey Lite
- Two command tools updated for Mojave: alisma and unormal
- Consolation 3: log browser of choice for macOS 10.12-10.14
- LockRattler 4.10 is a recommended update for all users
- Is this the longest-running bug in macOS?
- Can’t install the Mojave beta on an external drive? Try this
- Compatibility of my apps with Mojave: details and advice
- APFS comes to Fusion Drives, but there’s no sign of Time Machine 2
- APFS will finally be supported on Fusion Drives – in macOS 10.14 Mojave
- The unified log in macOS Mojave: Signposts and Instruments
- Is Dark Mode overdesigned?
- Consolation now supports Mojave’s Signposts in High Sierra and more
- Is it time to buy an eGPU?
- WWDC and macOS 10.14
- Is Apple about to drop QuickTime, DVD and iWork support, and Compressor?
- 32-bitCheck 1.3 has an improved interface
- Telling which apps are 32-bit: 32-bitCheck does it better
Startup modes
- Playing Safe: what does Safe mode do?
- My Mac only runs properly in Safe mode
- Recovery mode and its tools
- Important changes to Recovery mode
- Check your Mac with hardware diagnostics or AHT
- I can’t log in: what to do when you forget your password, or its doesn’t work
- Telling which apps are 32-bit: 32-bitCheck does it better
Finding information and tools
- New, updated and useful links to Apple support articles
- Essential Reading: *OS Internals, Vol I, User Space, by Jonathan Levin
- Hidden caches in macOS: where your private data gets stored
- All About This Mac: where to find that UUID, MAC address, etc.
- Where is that app? – a brief index to bundled tools in Sierra
- Which version was that? How to check which version you’re using
- 32-bitCheck 1.3 has an improved interface
- Telling which apps are 32-bit: 32-bitCheck does it better
- A tale of two Disk Utilities: Sierra and High Sierra
- Disk Utility: An ever-changing tool
- Preference settings: where to find them in macOS Sierra (v2)
- Preference settings: where to find them in El Capitan
- Customising it all: global defaults in macOS Sierra and High Sierra
- What are all those hidden folders then?
- Mac shutdown and sleep cause codes
- Booting the Mac: Visual Summary
- Sleep, Wake, and Startup: Hardware and ACPI
- Self-starting Macs, startup chimes, and other secrets of NVRAM
- What’s stored in NVRAM?
- Which EFI firmware should your Mac be using? (version 3)
- Which EFI firmware should your Mac be using? (version 2)
- Restoring order to EFI firmware
- There’s trouble in that firmware: EFI chaos
- Booting the Mac: bless, and what makes a volume bootable
- Just what do XProtect and MRT protect your Mac from?
- Solving update problems with softwareupdate
- Running repairs: Sierra’s handy tools, from Disk Utility to Storage Management
- Interchangeability of Finder, Terminal, and AppleScript
- Identifying file types: UTIs, filename extensions, and another free app
- Spotlight and iCloud Drive in Sierra
- Show me your metadata: extended attributes in macOS Sierra
- Panics, Pegasus, and Recovery
- What’s a UUID?
- Reliability of macOS Sierra: diagnostics
- Getting going with HEIF/HEIC and HEVC image and movie formats
- Why can’t I connect to that website? Simple tests with Network Utility
- What to do when iCloud Drive is slow to update
- Solving problems with iCloud Drive
- Inside iCloud Drive: Optimize Storage, and its bugs
- Apple’s free mobile Wi-Fi scanner
- Tools to work with keychain problems
- Revealing the Finder’s hidden depths
- What got installed? How to learn exactly what a package contains/ed
- SystHist version 1 released: discover all the Apple updates on your Mac
- Spotlight: using metadata to improve local searches
- Improving Spotlight search: SearchKey and SearchKeyLite 1 released
- Search Perfect: hitting it off with SearchKey 1.0b1
- Where did that metadata come from?
- At your service: Services menus
- UTIutility 1.0b2 now looks even deeper into UTIs and file type designators
- File types, the UTI, and even more metadata
- How big is that file? How Finder and Terminal file sizes can mislead
- Do Sierra or High Sierra report incorrect free disk space?
- Don’t trust update aggregators
- Disks, partitions, volumes, containers
- What to do when a disk image won’t mount
- Aliases, links, clones, and Bookmarks
- Quick copying makes Precize 1.1 more efficient
- Using macOS Bookmarks as enduring references: Precize and Preciziun
- How macOS tracks your files: inside the inode
- Open Recent, inodes, and Bookmarks: How macOS remembers files
- Bookmarks, APFS, and enduring file references
- What’s that? Using magic on your Mac to identify files
- Can macOS tell how large a file really is?
- Document Versioning
- DeepTools 1 released: preserve document versions wherever they go
- Workthrough: Using the macOS version system to recover lost content
- Making macOS versions more usable
- Permissions in the Finder and command line
- Owners and groups in the Finder and command line
- Find files fast with locate
- Free conversion of text files with textutil
- Did you cancel a software update by mistake?
- Mixing Terminal with GUI apps
- Inside QuickLook previews with qlmanage
- Comparing files: FileMerge, opendiff, and BBEdit
- Looking directly at iCloud’s files and folders with Cirrus 1.0b4
- Going for iCloud Drive, or the whole way with Desktop & Documents Folders?
- Running at startup: when to use a Login Item or a LaunchAgent/LaunchDaemon
- The Joy of ssh: remote control and quick copying
- Should you use shutdown or reboot in the command line?
- User account Advanced Options: shortcut to hell
- When is an update?
- Is it time to buy an eGPU?
- How much is that external SSD cable?
- Pick a Mac, any Mac so long as it has…
- When you can’t get macOS to forget
- Should you buy a Mac with a T2 chip? Costs, benefits, and problems
- AirPrint or you’re on your own: macOS printing changes
- Look it up in Dictionary
- The App Store by numbers, and Wikipedia wherever you want
- What to do when T2M2 or another log-based app returns an error
- Using and hacking styles in TextEdit and DelightEd
Security
- AMFI: checking file integrity on your Mac
- How can Mojave let you open an app with signature errors?
- App signatures are always checked on launch, but serious errors may be ignored
- How thoroughly does Gatekeeper check existing apps?
- Mojave happily runs apps with revoked signatures, and more
- Why does macOS keep downloading the incompatible app list?
- Cleaning up sensitive files: How to sanitise storage
- Where do Apple’s recent security updates leave macOS?
- What does the TCC Compatibility database do?
- Notarization, security and older macOS
- RIP XProtect and MRT?
- Is Mojave’s privacy protection still vulnerable in 10.14.1?
- New Mac malware: CoinTicker for cryptocurrency traders
- Can you keep a secret?
- Mojave fixes QuickLook cache vulnerability
- Launching apps in Mojave: how it has changed
- Has that app been notarized, and what are the benefits to the user?
- How XProtect now leaves Safari 12 open to Flash and other exploits
- Updates to macOS security software data: what has happened?
- The Price of Free Software: Trend Micro’s apps exfiltrate your browser history
- App Store Eavesdroppers
- XProtect: Missing presumed dead?
- Security, privacy, and why XProtect won’t stop apps reading your email
- Mojave’s privacy protection and command tools: a collision in which the user is the loser
- Running apps with Mojave’s privacy protection
- Notarization: a big step forward for users and developers
- Four serious security errors which are easily made on a Mac: how to fix them
- Is XProtect dead, or about to be replaced?
- What happens when you open a quarantined app?
- Recent High Sierra and Security Updates patched a serious Bluetooth bug
- Redact and obscure: how to release or publish without leaks
- LockRattler 4.10 is a recommended update for all users
- New Apple support articles about MacBook Pro 2018 model with the T2 chip
- Open a document: how it works, and where it can go wrong, 2: Security check
- Hidden caches in macOS: where your private data gets stored
- Control your QuickLook cache with Aquiline Check 1.0b2, and Aquiliner for your menubar
- Scrub goes into its first beta: improved privacy for sensitive documents
- Just taking a Quick Look – privacy vulnerability
- What does the MRT 1.35 update remove?
- macOS High Sierra 10.13. update, Sierra and El Capitan Security Updates 2018-003 now available
- The UUID conspiracy
- More cryptomining malware, and a threat to routers and NAS
- Do you use email encryption at all? macOS 10.13.4 update may help
- Do you use PGP/GPG and S/MIME email encryption? They’re vulnerable
- POPSS, vulnerability by documentation
- Apple adds a third fix in Security Update 2018-001 for High Sierra
- What do Security Updates actually fix?
- APFS encryption, ghost guest users, and odd UUIDs
- Insights through a vulnerability
- Encryption passphrases are still left in logs: how Apple abuses its unified log
- macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 fixes APFS encryption password disclosure bug
- macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 still leaks encryption passwords in plain text
- Should Apple have warned users of a vulnerability?
- Another gaping security hole in High Sierra APFS disk encryption
- Is the unified log private, or a vulnerability?
- Talking the same language
- A bug in signature-checking weakens most anti-malware tools
- Avast and AVG anti-virus are returning false positives
- What to do when a secure connection fails
- Hazel catches a silent Adobe update red-handed
- Supply and demand
- New Mac malware, OSX.CreativeUpdate, distributed by MacUpdate site
- Don’t trust update aggregators
- Restoring order to EFI firmware
- Well-kept secrets, macOS malware protection
- Further spurious ‘security’ updates, and who is com.apple.mac.install?
- How your Mac can download an old ‘security’ update by accident
- Biometric security and AI: dangerous partners
- macOS code signing and Gatekeeper ignore extended attributes
- A silent silent security update
- Just what do XProtect and MRT protect your Mac from?
- New macOS malware: MaMi
- Apple has updated Safari 11.0.2, High Sierra 10.13.2, and iOS 11.2.2
- The ‘app’ you can’t trash: how SIP is broken in High Sierra
- WD My Cloud drives need urgent firmware update
- A short trip with rootless: what you can and cannot do
- Apple has released Time Capsule and AirPort updates for KRACK vulnerabilities
- Off to a good start, then – Meltdown, Spectre, and more
- How can you tell what Apple software has been installed/updated?
- The correct and current version of MRT can be either 1.26 or 1.27
- Apple has released Security Update 2017-001 for macOS High Sierra
- Major vulnerability in High Sierra 10.13.1: anyone can gain elevated privileges
- Beware the bogus Symantec blog which will infect you with Proton D
- What is ‘macOS Installer Notification’, and why did I get it?
- What happened at Eltima, and how can you stay safe?
- FileVault: Making your Mac more secure
- Mac malware gets more professional: DOK.C fakes the App Store
- Did you download HandBrake recently? You might have got malware instead
- Malware: OSX/Dok isn’t done yet
- New macOS Malware: OSX/Dok
- Apple pushes silent update to XProtect and MRT for OSX/Dok malware
- More new malware: OSX.Dok.B or OSX.Bella, but we’re already protected
- More new Mac malware expected soon: OSX.Snake?
- Key security tools for Sierra and El Capitan
- Malware has got the upper hand
- Securing your router: keeping intruders out
- How secure is your VPN?
- What to do when your account might have been compromised
- Unicode spoofing: when an аррӏе isn’t an apple at all
- Just got a new Mac? You should check that its security protection is enabled
- Silent Sierra night: security settings files in macOS Sierra (version 2)
- Silent High Sierra night: security settings files in macOS High Sierra
- What should you do when LockRattler returns a worrying error?
- Inside the OS X blacklist: XProtect
- Sierra’s System Integrity Protection (SIP): beyond root
- What malware does XProtect you against?
- Blocked kernel extensions – analysis of those blocked by XProtect
- LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons: Closing the vulnerability
- Logging in and out in Sierra’s log
- Quarantined: more about the quarantine extended attribute
- Code signing: confusing and weak?
- The High Sierra 10.13 problem with security data files may now be fixed
- Invisible security is no security
- Java and macOS: what you should know
- Eltima’s Elmedia Player has been infected with malware
- Behind the Scenes: Open Directory and Kerberos
Online
- What to do when a secure connection fails
- Preparing or downloading? iCloud’s odd interface
- Don’t trust update aggregators
- Safari offline reader is rapidly becoming functionless
- Review: MarsEdit 4, the blogger’s world
- A break in the clouds: what to do when a cloud service plays up – including links to service status for iCloud, Adobe CC, etc.
- A storm in the digest: why services will be going down
- Prepare for IPv6: it’s on its way
- Never download a Flash installer from anywhere except its official site
- News feeds for this blog: getting less eclectic
- Why can’t I connect to that website? Simple tests with Network Utility
- iCloud Drive can strip (meta)data from your documents
- iCloud Drive has user modes, and tags transferred apps
- How iCloud marks the place of documents stored remotely
- Inside iCloud Drive: In the log in Sierra and High Sierra
- Mail Drop, iCloud, and large files
General
- Pick your Panacea: how to select a generic fix
- Is this the end of the line for Mac servers?
- iOS 11.2.5 may harm the Watch-iPhone relationship
- How your Mac can download an old ‘security’ update by accident
- Are you being pestered to upgrade to High Sierra?
- What is ‘macOS Installer Notification’, and why did I get it?
- iCloud Drive can strip (meta)data from your documents
- What to do when told to pay VAT due on a completed purchase
- My Pointer/Cursor Keeps Disappearing: what can I do?
- Parental Controls: Safeguarding the vulnerable
- Don’t die in the bath: mains power and mortality
- Why you shouldn’t use cleaning or housekeeping apps
- AppleCare and warranty cover for Macs
- Apple Support in 140 characters – Apple Support on Twitter
- Prepare your Mac for service/repair, and restore it later
- Shutting down and restarting your Mac
- Power Management in detail: using pmset
- Forgetting Facebook and annulling notifications
- Controlling privacy in macOS Sierra
- Living with the UK’s Investigatory Powers Act
- FileVault: Making your Mac more secure
- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to FileVault
- What to do when the App Store doesn’t work properly
- Teaching an old Finder new tricks: batch rename and Quick Look
- Regex: searching with regular expressions
- When Recent Items vanish: a possible bug in Sierra 10.12.6?
- Recent Items, Launch Services, and SharedFileLists
- Launch Services database problems: correcting and rebuilding
- Show me your metadata: extended attributes in macOS Sierra
- A Mac on the Edge of Europe – working in remote locations
- Reliability of macOS Sierra: diagnostics
- Losing your Ethernet port unverifies your Mac
- Did that app quit, or is it just napping?
- Return of the zombie app: is it a feature or bug?
- How to prevent zombies
- Who’s in control of your Mac? Notifications
- Undead apps, and opting out of App Nap
- Where did that metadata come from?
- Hazel and SearchKeyLite bring order to your documents
- Getting better document thumbnails and previews
- Common packages: documents which are folders in drag
- Aliases, links, clones, and Bookmarks
- Running at startup: when to use a Login Item or a LaunchAgent/LaunchDaemon
- Don’t believe the box: Thunderbolt 3 to 2/1 isn’t so simple
High Sierra – macOS 10.13
- Apple has released Mojave 10.14.1 update, and Security Updates for Sierra and High Sierra (updated)
- Safari 12: a good step forward, but mind the extensions
- Apple has released a second Supplemental Update for the MacBook Pro 2018 with Touch Bar
- The mystery of the Supplemental Update for the 2018 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar
- Should you try repairing permissions in High Sierra or later?
- macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 update, Sierra and El Capitan Security Updates 2018-004 now available
- What changed in the High Sierra 10.13.6 and Sierra 2018-004 updates?
- What is installed on a 2018 MacBook Pro by the Supplemental Update?
- In memoriam High Sierra
- The log command in High Sierra 10.13.5: Signposts are already supported
- Is this the longest-running bug in macOS?
- What’s in the High Sierra 10.13.5 update?
- When is an update?
- Messages in iCloud comes to macOS, and is puzzling
- macOS High Sierra 10.13. update, Sierra and El Capitan Security Updates 2018-003 now available
- How High Sierra checks your EFI firmware
- 32-bitCheck 1.3 has an improved interface
- Telling which apps are 32-bit: 32-bitCheck does it better
- High Sierra’s new improved Help system diagrammed
- How High Sierra has changed Help
- APFS, File Reference URLs, inodes and Finder Syncs
- Do you use email encryption at all? macOS 10.13.4 update may help
- Apple adds a third fix in Security Update 2018-001 for High Sierra
- macOS 10.13.4 Security Update 2018-001 and Safari 11.1 (updated)
- macOS High Sierra 10.13.4, Sierra and El Cap Security Update 2018-002, and Safari 11.1 released (updated)
- What’s in the High Sierra 10.13.4 update?
- APFS encryption, ghost guest users, and odd UUIDs
- Encryption passphrases are still left in logs: how Apple abuses its unified log
- macOS High Sierra 10.13.4 fixes APFS encryption password disclosure bug
- Insights through a vulnerability
- macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 still leaks encryption passwords in plain text
- Should Apple have warned users of a vulnerability?
- How a New MacBook Pro borked an older iMac’s Bluetooth
- Is APFS fully supported yet?
- Another gaping security hole in High Sierra APFS disk encryption
- High Sierra has changed Help, and broken HelpHelp
- Do Sierra or High Sierra report incorrect free disk space?
- Inside iCloud Drive: Optimize Storage, and its bugs
- What is in the High Sierra 10.13.3 update?
- Restoring order to EFI firmware
- macOS updates now available for High Sierra (10.13.3), Sierra, and El Capitan (updated)
- Has High Sierra been a mess? Comparing its updates with Sierra and El Capitan
- The ‘app’ you can’t trash: how SIP is broken in High Sierra
- iCloud Drive can strip (meta)data from your documents
- Why are there problems backing up Photos Libraries?
- Safari offline reader is rapidly becoming functionless
- What’s really in the High Sierra 10.13.2 update
- Sierra and El Capitan security updates and High Sierra 10.13.2 are now available
- Apple has released Security Update 2017-001 for macOS High Sierra
- High Sierra’s security update can block file sharing
- Major vulnerability in High Sierra 10.13.1: anyone can gain elevated privileges
- Getting to the root of High Sierra’s problems
- Is High Sierra dual-bootable?
- What’s really in the High Sierra 10.13.1 update
- The extent of APFS’s problems
- Taking Stock: Using APFS in High Sierra 10.13.1
- A tale of two Disk Utilities: Sierra and High Sierra
- Extended attributes in High Sierra 10.13.2
- Getting going with HEIF/HEIC and HEVC image and movie formats
- In search of the missing HEIF
- Starting up in High Sierra 10.13.1: an initial log exploration
- The unified log in High Sierra 10.13.1
- Vanishing keychains
- Has anyone got the time? How High Sierra has changed time synchronisation
- Apple is nudging us to upgrade to flagging High Sierra
- The first 2 weeks of High Sierra in 8 screenshots
- The High Sierra 10.13 problem with security data files may now be fixed
- Invisible security is no security
- Can macOS 10.13 High Sierra write HEIF/HEIC image files?
- Time Machine and APFS
- High Sierra “Supplemental Update” now available (updated)
- What the High Sierra Supplemental Update actually updates
- High Sierra Supplemental Update can’t always update
- How not to release a macOS upgrade
- macOS High Sierra: Installation and Issues (updated)
- First small High Sierra installer was wrong one
- High Sierra upgrade: cautions and problems
- High Sierra 10.13: supported disk formats and file systems
- Making a Sierra – High Sierra dual-boot system, if you must
- Silent High Sierra night: security settings files in macOS High Sierra
- Apple’s new reality distortion field
- Disk Utility: An ever-changing tool
- How Disk Utility can crack High Sierra’s encrypted volumes (updated)
- High Sierra: security files, internals and some bugs
- When should you upgrade to High Sierra? – extensively revised with latest info from Apple
- High Sierra release is flawed for many users
- Preparing to upgrade to High Sierra
- High Sierra: Should you reformat your startup disk now?
- Last Week on My Mac: Deciding about High Sierra
- High Sierra: APFS “not supported” on Fusion Drives
- APFS and High Sierra in trouble
- High Sierra: How to make a bootable installer
- High Sierra automatically checks EFI firmware each week
- HEVC and HEIF: new video and still image formats
- High Sierra’s Small Print: installation, firmware updates, Content Caching, and more
- High Sierra, Sierra’s dispatching bug, and iTunes 12.7
- APFS: iOS 11 and High Sierra will fix normalisation problems
- The return of the volume
- What is ‘copy on write’, and how is it good?
- Apple File System: what it means, what it brings
- Why can’t I download and install macOS Sierra any more?
- Forensic analysis for APFS volumes
- Customising it all: global defaults in macOS Sierra and High Sierra
iCloud
- iCloud queues
- Versions in iCloud are still a mess, made worse by Handoff
- Can you rely on iWork apps sharing versions in iCloud Drive?
- Editing iCloud documents is far from seamless
- Document versions are now preserved by iCloud, unreliably
- Bailiff 1.0 now available: take control of iCloud Drive
- Cirrus version 1.0 release: the iCloud tool is ready for general use
- Inside iCloud with Cirrus 1.0b5: Paths and containers
- Going for iCloud Drive, or the whole way with Desktop & Documents Folders?
- Is the macOS command line doomed?
- Solving problems with iCloud Drive
- What to do when iCloud Drive is slow to update
- Mail Drop, iCloud, and large files
- Looking directly at iCloud’s files and folders with Cirrus 1.0b4
- The trouble with iCloud Drive
- Problems with iCloud shared data: how to tackle them
- New, updated and useful links to Apple support articles
- Consistency and iCloud
- Trying to make sense of iCloud: Progress with Cirrus
- Inside iCloud Drive: Optimize Storage, and its bugs
- Inside iCloud Drive: uploading a file
- Inside iCloud Drive: Pushed updates, that syncing feeling
- Inside iCloud Drive: Downloading
- Inside iCloud Drive: In the log in Sierra and High Sierra
- Test and check iCloud with Cirrus
- Diagnosing iCloud problems using brctl, sync budgets and throttles
- Preparing or downloading? iCloud’s odd interface
- A break in the clouds: what to do when a cloud service plays up – including links to service status for iCloud, Adobe CC, etc.
- iCloud Drive can strip (meta)data from your documents
- iCloud Drive has user modes, and tags transferred apps
- How iCloud marks the place of documents stored remotely
- Inside iCloud Drive: In the log in Sierra and High Sierra
- Lost in iCloud Translation? When PNGs suddenly become JPEGs
- iOS 11, or maybe 11.2.6, may change Photos’ handling of screenshots
Permissions and Extended Attributes
- Repairing permissions diagrammed
- An introduction to extended attributes, xattrs
- There’s something wrong with that file: could it be a xattr issue?
- Which file systems and Cloud services preserve extended attributes?
- macOS code signing and Gatekeeper ignore extended attributes
- Documenting the hidden – xattr documentation project
- Extended attributes: surprisingly common, and information-rich
- Where are all those extended attributes?
- Extended attributes in High Sierra 10.13.2
- Drag and drop files to open them in xattred 1.0b6
- Off to a good start, then – Meltdown, Spectre, iCloud filtering xattrs, and more
- Where did that metadata come from?
- A short trip with rootless: what you can and cannot do
- The mystery of repairing permissions
- Fixing problems with preference files
- Diving even deeper into preferences
- Sticky preferences: why trashing or editing them may not change anything
- Customising it all: global defaults in macOS Sierra and High Sierra
- Something odd you can’t fix? Sierra re-introduces repairing permissions
- Permissions repair tools updated for compatibility with High Sierra
- Should you repair permissions on your Home folder, and how?
- Show me your metadata: extended attributes in macOS Sierra
- Quarantined: more about the quarantine extended attribute
- Finder Info: how Sierra and High Sierra remember Classic Mac OS
- Inside Finder Tags
- xattr: org.openmetainfo: and org.openmetainfo.time: families, third-party metadata
- Hazel and SearchKeyLite bring order to your documents
- How macOS tracks your files: inside the inode
- Can macOS tell how large a file really is?
Versioning and revisions
- Versions in iCloud are still a mess, made worse by Handoff
- Editing iCloud documents is far from seamless
- Making macOS versions more usable
- DeepTools 1 released: preserve document versions wherever they go
- Revisionist version 1 is now released, with an extensive Help book and more
- Workthrough: Using the macOS version system to recover lost content
- Document Versioning
- Busting myths about macOS versions and versioning
- The Current Version: fixing macOS versioning
- Trusting management
- Tools for working with document versions/revisions
- Documents and versioning
Scheduled Events
- The awesome power of the Duet
- Reliability of macOS Sierra: scheduled and background activities
- An Incomplete List of Sierra’s Dispatched Services
- How macOS manages tasks on cores: a draft
- How macOS runs background activities: 1 From within an app
- How macOS runs background activities: 2 Time Machine backups
- How macOS runs background activities: 3 When things go wrong
- How macOS runs background activities: 4 Using XPC Activity
- Exploring Sierra 10.12.5 startup in the log 2 Dispatch
- Exploring Sierra 10.12.5 sleep and wake in the log, 2 DAS and CTS
- Sierra 10.12.6 doesn’t fix the Time Machine bug, but changes it
- Watching a Mac losing its grip: background services are vital
- App Nap, Battery Endurance, and Grand Central Dispatch
- DispatchView and DispatchRider updated for High Sierra
- Two ways to run background tasks: comparing launchd and GCD
- Watching Grand Central Dispatch at Work
- How timely are scheduled events in Sierra?
- Instrumenting macOS Sierra to investigate irregular backups and log problems
- Blowhole command tool 3: new version should be compatible with High Sierra
- Looking inside WebKit and the macOS dispatching systems using log data
- Running at startup: when to use a Login Item or a LaunchAgent/LaunchDaemon
Installers
- Installing and removing software in Sierra
- Making an Installer package the easier way
- macOS Sierra will break many installers and updaters – Gatekeeper gets better, but also more intrusive
- Bundle, package, library, or folder?
Apple’s New File System, APFS
- Inside Mojave’s Aliases and Bookmarks
- Copies, clones, links and aliases: summary in tables
- Aliases, hard links, symlinks, and copies in Mojave’s APFS
- Links and aliases beyond local files: advanced file system techniques
- How to build an APFS bootable clone in Terminal
- Apple finally releases APFS reference documentation
- Two command tools updated for Mojave: alisma and unormal
- APFS comes to Fusion Drives, but there’s no sign of Time Machine 2
- APFS will finally be supported on Fusion Drives – in macOS 10.14 Mojave
- Disks, partitions, volumes, containers
- Is APFS fully supported yet?
- APFS encryption, ghost guest users, and odd UUIDs
- APFS, File Reference URLs, inodes and Finder Syncs
- macOS High Sierra 10.13.3 still leaks encryption passwords in plain text
- Another gaping security hole in High Sierra APFS disk encryption
- Enduring file references in macOS
- Accessing Finder aliases from the command line: alisma
- Aliases, links, clones, and Bookmarks
- Open Recent, inodes, and Bookmarks: How macOS remembers files
- Bookmarks, APFS, and enduring file references
- Inspect the deepest details of your files with Precize 1.0b6
- Using macOS Bookmarks as enduring references: Precize and Preciziun
- Preview any file from a macOS Bookmark, and an oddity in Quick Look
- The extent of APFS’s problems
- Taking Stock: Using APFS in High Sierra 10.13.1
- Time Machine and APFS
- Starting up in High Sierra 10.13.1: an initial log exploration
- APFS and High Sierra in trouble
- High Sierra: APFS “not supported” on Fusion Drives
- Forensic analysis for APFS volumes
- APFS: iOS 11 and High Sierra will fix normalisation problems
- High Sierra and filenames: Apple is relenting
- macOS High Sierra 10.13 and APFS
- The return of the volume
- What is ‘copy on write’, and how is it good?
- Next Week on My Mac: All the fun of WWDC – macOS 10.13 and APFS
- Apple File System: what it means, what it brings
- APFS and macOS 10.13: many apps and tools will need to be revised
- How to make your own APFS volume
- How to normalise strings, and a new command tool to help
- APFS is currently unusable with most non-English languages
- File problems in iOS 10.3 and macOS 10.13: What’s in a name?
- Untangling file names and normalisation with Apfelstrudel
- Unicode spoofing: when an аррӏе isn’t an apple at all
- Why we can’t keep stringing along with Unicode
- Dystextia: a platform for exploring Unicode encoding problems, obfuscating text, and spoofing
- Dystextia, Apfelstrudel, Rosettavert and unorml updated for High Sierra
- What’s a UUID?
- Watching macOS file systems: FSEvents and volume journals
Time Machine
- How Time Machine makes backups
- Time Machine backups of APFS volumes
- What can you do inside your Time Machine backups?
- Checking Time Machine in Mojave (and High Sierra) using T2M2 1.4
- What to do when T2M2 or another log-based app returns an error
- Run The Time Machine Mechanic from a regular user account
- Why are there problems backing up Photos Libraries?
- Sierra’s Time Machine irregular backup bug: prevention and treatment
- How iCloud Drive can break Time Machine backups
- How to speed up Time Machine backups
- Time Machine and APFS
- This is what happens when Sierra’s backups become irregular
- Sierra 10.12.6 doesn’t fix the Time Machine bug, but changes it
- Why did my Mac stop making Time Machine backups? An investigation with Woodpile 0.6a1
- Fixing Sierra’s Time Machine + bug: does macOS get overtired?
- Mobile Time Machine and its transformation in High Sierra
- New version of The Time Machine Mechanic (T2M2)
- Using T2M2 to diagnose and treat Time Machine problems
- Looking in the log: predicates, filters, regex, and find
- Taking Charge of Time Machine Backups: backing up on demand
- Why have my Time Machine backups stopped or become irregular?
- Troubleshooting Time Machine: stuck preparing backup, and the deep event scan
- Watching macOS file systems: FSEvents and volume journals
- Advanced Time Machine backups: multiple sources, multiple destinations
- Removing all your old backups: a tortuous tale of permissions and links
- Diagnosing and treating Time Machine problems in Terminal
- Watching a Mac losing its grip: background services are vital
- How macOS runs background activities: 2 Time Machine backups
- How macOS runs background activities: 3 When things go wrong
- How to check that Time Machine is working properly
- iCloud, Spotlight, and Time Machine
- Has Apple fixed the bug which made Time Machine backups irregular?
- The Time Bomb Ticking in Sierra: Grand Central Dispatch is broken
- How Time Machine backups are launched in Sierra
- Time Machine problems in macOS Sierra
- Irregular Time Machine backups: is this a launchd bug?
- FlexiTime Machine: how Sierra changes backups
- Has Sierra’s Time Machine changed to backup on demand?
Keychains
- More information about your keychains in KeychainCheck 2.0a3
- Tools to work with keychain problems
- Inside the iCloud keychain, and its problems
- Checking keychain access using Woodpile: a tutorial
- Vanishing keychains
- Fixing iCloud Keychains, and backing them up
- Why do I have to keep entering my keychain password in Sierra?
- How to repair your keychain by making a fresh one
- Tackling keychain problems in Terminal
- How does your keychain work?
- KeychainCheck 1.3: new version should run on El Capitan, Sierra, and High Sierra
- I can’t log in: what to do when you forget your password, or its doesn’t work
- Starting up in Sierra: a fuller account for troubleshooting
- More keychains than meets the eye
Help Services
- Finishing off
- How High Sierra has changed Help
- High Sierra’s new improved Help system diagrammed
- High Sierra has changed Help, and broken HelpHelp
- HelpHelp updated for High Sierra compatibility
- Help Help: 2 What has happened to Help?
- Help Help: 3 What the docs don’t tell you
Console, Consolation, log, and reading logs
- eForensics Magazine publishes first full description of macOS unified log
- How to use the unified log to see what’s going wrong
- What to do when T2M2 or another log-based app returns an error
- How Mojave changes the unified log
- Where next with the log?
- Consolation 3: log browser of choice for macOS 10.12-10.14
- macOS Unified log: 1 why, what and how
- macOS Unified log: 2 content and extraction
- macOS Unified log: 3 finding your way
- Unified but not uniform: how the log has changed
- Is the unified log private, or a vulnerability?
- Quantum mechanics and Mojave – performance measurement, Signposts, and the log
- Taking macOS to the end of time: nanoseconds count
- Signposts for performance: 1 introduction
- Signposts for performance: 2 Instruments
- Updates all round to Blowhole, RouteMap, and the Signpost Kit
- Signposts for performance: alpha release of RouteMap
- Blowhole, RouteMap, and a Signpost Kit
- Working around a bug recently introduced into Mojave: When Signposts point the wrong way
- Watching Mojave’s privacy protection at work
- What happens when you open a quarantined app?
- Open a document: how it works, and where it can go wrong, 1: identification
- Open a document: how it works, and where it can go wrong, 2: Security check
- Open a document: how it works, and where it can go wrong, 3: Launch
- How to browse the log on an iOS device
- Should you use shutdown or reboot in the command line?
- The unified log in macOS Mojave: Signposts and Instruments
- The log command in High Sierra 10.13.5: Signposts are already supported
- WWDC and macOS 10.14
- Consolation now supports Mojave’s Signposts in High Sierra and more
- How a New MacBook Pro borked an older iMac’s Bluetooth
- Encryption passphrases are still left in logs: how Apple abuses its unified log
- Inside iCloud Drive: In the log in Sierra and High Sierra
- Bug-hunting in Consolation and Woodpile: success in obscurity
- Does Woodpile crash on you when trying to start? This should fix it
- Now you can filter with regular expressions in Woodpile
- The unified log in High Sierra 10.13.1
- Starting up in High Sierra 10.13.1: an initial log exploration
- See when your Mac starts or wakes up, using Woodpile
- Checking keychain access using Woodpile: a tutorial
- Vanishing keychains
- Why did my Mac stop making Time Machine backups? An investigation with Woodpile 0.6a1
- This is what happens when Sierra’s backups become irregular
- Browsing your log with Woodpile: Clarity and detail
- Diagnosing a macOS problem of a month ago
- Inside the macOS log: logd and the files that it manages
- What’s your Mac been up to for the last 3 months? Inside macOS’s hidden activity records
- Woodpile gets informative ToolTips in its bar chart
- First steps to a new type of log browser: Woodpile 0.1a1
- New insights into process performance: log load analysis
- Looking inside WebKit and the macOS dispatching systems using log data
- High Sierra: security files, internals and some bugs
- Why can’t I find anything useful in Sierra’s logs?
- Getting more out of Sierra’s logs
- Brilliant but
- How the new tools in Consolation 3 help to explore Sierra’s startup
- Looking in the log: predicates, filters, regex, and find
- Regex: searching with regular expressions
- Display of dense text information – colour styles in Consolation 3
- How to read Sierra’s unified log as a normal user
- Sierra’s unified log evolves: more persistent, and a valuable log log
- MakeLogarchive can now catalogue any well-formed logarchive
- Browsing the unified log in difficult circumstances
- Apple’s new reality distortion field
- Reliability of macOS Sierra: diagnostics
- Next Weeks on My Mac: Where to go with the log?
- Consolation 3, and Mac Geek Gab
- Useful filter terms for Sierra’s logs
- Bugs in the documentation of the log command, and in its handling of predicates
- New and existing bugs in the unified log in Sierra 10.12.4
- How far back does Sierra’s new log go?
- Sierra’s log is now locked away from normal users
- Blowhole command tool 3: new version should be compatible with High Sierra
- Bugs in the logs: Sierra’s new logging system is a game of chance
- Drift in the timing of log entries in Sierra
- Sierra Log Tutorial: Getting started, Time Machine errors, and restarts – basic level
- Starting up in Sierra: a fuller account for troubleshooting
- Exploring Sierra 10.12.5 startup in the log 1
- Exploring Sierra 10.12.5 startup in the log 2 Dispatch
- Exploring Sierra 10.12.5 sleep and wake in the log 1
- Exploring Sierra 10.12.5 sleep and wake in the log, 2 DAS and CTS
- Sleep, Wake, and Startup: Hardware and ACPI
- When Recent Items vanish: a possible bug in Sierra 10.12.6?
- Recent Items, Launch Services, and SharedFileLists
- Logging in and out in Sierra’s log
- What’s a UUID?
- Sierra Log Tutorial: Exploring a startup – medium level
- A phrasebook for LogLogger4 and log
- Using the logs in Sierra: some practical tips
- Bugs in the logs: Sierra’s new logs are far from perfect
- log: a primer on predicates
- Welcome to macOS Sierra’s new Console: it’s buried in Terminal
- Sierra’s Console: promising but incomplete
- Reading logs: shutdown and startup
- Reading logs: waking from sleep and backing up
- Getting El Capitan to run clean – using Console and guesswork to stop repeated service crashing
- Lost in the log
- Error numbers: the final hurdle – how to find out what they mean
- Log race – understanding and using Console’s logs
- Using Consolation’s log extracts
- R as a platform for data conversion: JSON to Excel for log extracts
- The Time Bomb Ticking in Sierra: Grand Central Dispatch is broken
- Waking your Mac from sleep: log highlights
- Mac shutdown and sleep cause codes
- Transforming the log to a user tool
- Adding Timing Features to an App: Tinderbox and Storyspace
- Masterly account of Sierra’s new log system
- Watching a Mac losing its grip: background services are vital
- Further spurious ‘security’ updates, and who is com.apple.mac.install?
Swift 3 snippets and tips
- macOS coding beyond the books: basic menu control
- Making documents look good in both appearance modes
- Notarization: a big step forward for users and developers
- Mojave’s privacy protection: informing users
- A new Xcode project for scripting in Swift 4.0: ScriptBase
- Swift Snippets 0: Introduction and Contents
- 1: Strings, Attributed Text, Arrays
- 2: Interface, NSDocument, Files
- 3: Preference Files, Property Lists, JSON
- 4: Numbers, Dates, Unified log, Objective-C
- 5: Bundles, Process, Background activity, Shell commands
- Easy access to xattrs from Swift 4: Martin R’s URL extension
- Help Help: 1 Help Crafter – help authoring tools (HAT) for Sierra
- Help Help: 2 What has happened to Help?
- Making an Installer package the easier way
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: An app scaffold
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: A preference sheet
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: Preferences with and without UserDefaults
- Quarantined: more about the quarantine extended attribute
- Exploring and using extended attributes with xattred
- Xcode 9: A big step forward, and some important steps back
- Code signing: confusing and weak?
- Accessing Finder aliases in your own code: a walk through alisma’s source
- A simpler way to control an app’s Login Item
- In the Dark Mode: a tortuous journey without a map
- Working around a bug recently introduced into Mojave: When Signposts point the wrong way
- Taking macOS to the end of time: nanoseconds count
- What can that app do? Entitlements, authorisation, and privacy
Scripting macOS using Swift
- Where will all those coders go?
- Performing keyhole surgery on Info.plist
- Preparing to upgrade to Mojave: Scripting, commands, and development
- Privacy + Scripting = Problems
- Is the macOS command line doomed?
- Inside iCloud with Cirrus 1.0b5: Paths and containers
- A new Xcode project for scripting in Swift 4.0: ScriptBase
- Last Week on my Mac: More work needed – Swift’s potential as a scripting language
- Programming playgrounds: Swift on an iPad?
- Withering automation (23 July 2017)
- Goodbye AppleScript
- Resources to help the non-novice learn and use Swift on macOS
- Scripting in Swift: Scriptarian, take 1.2.1
- Scriptarian: Swift scripting for macOS?
- Xcode Swift playgrounds 1: freezing and failing
- Xcode Swift playgrounds 2: Scripting files
- Xcode Swift playgrounds 3: shell scripts, droplets, and actions
- Xcode Swift playgrounds 4: running scripts without Xcode
- Building a better console replacement: an exercise in Xcode 1
- Building a better console replacement: an exercise in Xcode 2 – more lessons in Swift learned the hard way
- Making a better app to check your Mac’s security systems
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: the signature shuffle
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: cheating with AppleScript
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: alerts and file save
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: max factoring
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: Swift Documentation Markup
- LockRattler 3, LogLogger 5d, and signature silliness
- If you’re still running El Capitan, Apple doesn’t care about you – Xcode 8 and El Capitan support
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: quirky commands
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: Radio buttons and more
- Developing Consolation in Swift 3: mostly a breeze
- A Swift breeze blowing (5 February 2017)
- Instrumenting macOS Sierra to investigate irregular backups and log problems
- Blowhole advanced: writing a command tool in Swift 3, and more
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: turning Consolation into a full-blown app
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: Preferences
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: JSON and the Golden NSDictionary
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: Implementing JSON to CSV conversion
- Help Help: 1 Help Crafter – help authoring tools (HAT) for Sierra
- Help Help: 2 What has happened to Help?
- Help Help: 3 What the docs don’t tell you
- Making an Installer package the easier way
- Exporting HTML from Tinderbox 7: Using CSS for a Help Book
- Using HTML from Tinderbox 7 to make a Help Book
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: Reading Plists, building popups, and more
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: Sorting with a closure
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: Finding apps, and calls that don’t fail
- Xcode 8.3: better in parts, more confusing in others
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: Keychains lost in translation
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: An app scaffold
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: Who’s afraid of the big, bad buffer?
- Normalising strings in Swift: scripting Apfelstrudel and beyond
- How to normalise strings, and a new command tool to help
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: opening docs and converting text
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: huge popups, and strings too smart
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: Encoding conversion without tears
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: Running background activities
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: Reading and writing property lists
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: An app in a couple of hours
- More Scripting in Swift: Styling Attributed Text
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: Dates, Steppers, and parsing log entries
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: Sets, Lies, and Videotape
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: Of characters and closures
- More fun scripting in Swift with Xcode: files and deep traversal
- Diving even deeper into preferences
- Sticky preferences: why trashing or editing them may not change anything
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: A preference sheet
- Scripting in Swift: Any perils – type safety and checking
- More Fun Scripting with Swift in Xcode: String search
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: Preferences with and without UserDefaults
- More Fun Scripting with Swift in Xcode: extended attributes
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: Direct access to xattrs, calling C, and converting Data to Strings
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: When xattrs are not like files
- More Scripting in Swift: Shuffling files and writing a property list
- More Scripting in Swift: Looking it up in a dictionary
- Beyond Scripting with Swift: Bar charts and ToolTips
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: Sharing and syncing data throughout an app
- More fun scripting in Swift: working around an Xcode 9 bug
- Bug-hunting in Consolation and Woodpile: success in obscurity
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: Decoding a property list
- Scripting in Swift: Casting, Any, and implicit mutability
- Scripting in Swift: Key characters, or what character can’t be key
- How iCloud marks the place of documents stored remotely
- Scripting in Swift: Checking free disk space
- Watching folders – 1 for users
- A Swift 4 ‘droplet’ scripting prototype, Dropsy
- Going for iCloud Drive, or the whole way with Desktop & Documents Folders?
- Putting a browser window in your app
- Adding new menu commands to perform a quick copy
- Beyond scripting in Swift: the popup menu that won’t validate
- One small change which might break a lot of older apps
Sierra, macOS 10.12
- Apple has released Mojave 10.14.1 update, and Security Updates for Sierra and High Sierra (updated)
- macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 update, Sierra and El Capitan Security Updates 2018-004 now available
- What changed in the High Sierra 10.13.6 and Sierra 2018-004 updates?
- What’s new in Sierra Security Update 2018-003?
- macOS High Sierra 10.13. update, Sierra and El Capitan Security Updates 2018-003 now available
- macOS High Sierra 10.13.4, Sierra and El Cap Security Update 2018-002, and Safari 11.1 released (updated)
- What’s in Sierra Security Update 2018-002?
- How a New MacBook Pro borked an older iMac’s Bluetooth
- Do Sierra or High Sierra report incorrect free disk space?
- Inside iCloud Drive: Optimize Storage, and its bugs
- Restoring order to EFI firmware
- What is in the Sierra Security Update 2018-001?
- macOS updates now available for High Sierra (10.13.3), Sierra, and El Capitan (updated)
- Further spurious ‘security’ updates, and who is com.apple.mac.install?
- How your Mac can download an old ‘security’ update by accident
- Sierra and El Capitan security updates and High Sierra 10.13.2 are now available
- Known bugs in macOS Sierra 10.12.6: an incomplete summary
- A tale of two Disk Utilities: Sierra and High Sierra
- macOS Sierra 10.12.6 update is now available
- What has been updated in Sierra 10.12.6?
- Why doesn’t Mail size fonts correctly?
- When Recent Items vanish: a possible bug in Sierra 10.12.6?
- How iCloud Drive can break Time Machine backups
- Known bugs in macOS Sierra 10.12.5: an incomplete summary
- macOS Sierra 10.12.5 update released (updated)
- Reported problems in macOS Sierra: an incomplete list – badly designed features, third-party apps, etc.
- Something odd you can’t fix? Sierra re-introduces repairing permissions
- Reinstalling macOS changed with 10.12.4
- Contacts in Sierra 10.12.5 can unexpectedly quit
- Fetch a translator: Apple says it has ‘fixed’ the App Store app
- Hasn’t macOS changed? How it doesn’t work like it used to
- Sierra’s Time Machine irregular backup bug: prevention and treatment
- The mysteries of sleep: what’s making my hard drive sleep?
- Known bugs in macOS Sierra 10.12.4: an incomplete summary
- What’s in the Sierra 10.12.4 update?
- macOS Sierra 10.12.4 update now available, and El Cap and Yosemite security updates
- macOS Sierra bug not fixed: Time Machine backups still stop working
- New and existing bugs in the unified log in Sierra 10.12.4
- Thunderbolt devices and security: why the CIA mightn’t like 10.12.4
- macOS 10.12.3 changes Power Management settings again
- (When) should you upgrade to macOS Sierra?
- macOS Sierra: installation
- When Sierra won’t install
- macOS Sierra 10.12.3 update is now available
- Known bugs in macOS Sierra 10.12.3: an incomplete summary
- About This Mac: Storage revisited
- How reliable is About This Mac’s Storage tab?
- Known bugs in macOS Sierra 10.12.2: an incomplete summary
- macOS Sierra 10.12.2 and security updates
- Sierra 10.12.2 is an urgent update if you use FileVault
- 2017 in Macs – software and hardware expectations for the year, including info on Sierra updates and planning for macOS 10.13
- macOS Sierra and Dropbox: have the problems resolved yet?
- Couldn’t stay awake any longer: Energy Saver ignored
- The App Store 2.2 is still quite broken
- Sierra’s limping camel: the App Store, as dysfunctional as ever
- Bugs in macOS Sierra Finder: window maximise doesn’t
- File system funnies in Sierra: folders that aren’t, and altered aliases
- All about the macOS Sierra 10.12.1 update
- Sierra’s Bluetooth drivers are still fairly broken
- Protecting Sierra: SIP and its vulnerability
- Known bugs in macOS Sierra 10.12.1: an incomplete summary
- Known bugs in macOS Sierra 10.12: an incomplete summary – bugs in Sierra rather than third-party app issues
- Getting Office 2011 and old apps to work fully in Sierra
- Do home-brew ‘fusion drives’ work with Sierra?
- Entering Recovery Mode in macOS Sierra: you may need a wired keyboard
- App Store chaos + Power Coma + Time Machine blackout = Friday
- A Bluetooth storm on the Magic Trackpad 2
- Adobe and Canon in the firing line
- Sierra, wide colourspaces, and browser engines
- Obscured by clouds: how Sierra breaks copy/move
- Dropbox, Sierra, and iCloud: your data is at risk
- Useful Apple support links for macOS Sierra
- Preparing for macOS Sierra: what you need to do
- Sparklingly secure – checking old apps for the Sparkle vulnerability
- An easy way to check your apps for the Sparkle vulnerability
- Behind the scenes: a summary of changes in macOS Sierra
- Why Wide Colour? A guide to its gains
- Should Macs start a Night Shift?
Advanced troubleshooting tools
- The ultimate diagnostic tool: sysdiagnose
- Activity Monitor, ps and top: probing processes
- More useful information gleaned from sysdiagnose
- Running tools within sysdiagnose individually
- iCloud: some explainers, and how to diagnose its problems
- Checking your drives with DriveDx
Building a cheap, large, fast external SSD
More troubleshooting
- Pick your Panacea: how to select a generic fix
- Reviving the hopeless Mac: what to try before visiting the Genius Bar
- My Mac don’t work – troubleshooting tools and techniques
- Generic troubleshooting: how to fix something that doesn’t work
- After the crash: replaying the journal to prevent disk errors
- What to do when your Mac starts up all wrong
- Restoring firmware after interrupted firmware update
- The Eclectic Light flickers: my iMac might be dead
- My network connection is not unplugged: a KEXT, a MAC, and an almost dead Mac
- Starting up in Sierra: a fuller account for troubleshooting
- Service with a Smile – advanced troubleshooting of services and the startup process
- Thanks for the Memory
- Crash crash – Crash Reporter and ReportCrash, the crash handlers
- Recovering from a hard crash – when your startup drive is missing or damaged
- Why the spinning beachball?
Storage
- Why a Fusion Drive won’t last as long as an SSD
- Which Hard Disk? Selecting modern hard drives
- Cause of Death – how disks become corrupted and crash
- A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to FileVault
- How long will the SSD (in my Fusion Drive) last?
- Monitoring SSD wear and ageing
- Choosing drives: which type, manufacturer, and capacity?
- Which hard drive? 160,000 years experience analysed
- Q&A – Dead Mac recovery – recovering files from a dead Mac
- S.M.A.R.T.ypants – hard drive failure detection
- Checking your drives with DriveDx
- How to check and repair your drives in El Capitan
- From disaster back to normal: rebuilding the RAID
- From a broken Promise to an even bigger Promise
- Keeping your Promise: upgrading a Promise Pegasus R4 RAID
- Which disks can you install in an external RAID drive such as a Promise Pegasus?
- Updating the firmware of a Promise Pegasus R4 RAID
- How it took 2 days to upgrade my RAID, thanks to a bug in Disk Utility, and tired old HFS+
- How can you tell whether it is a hard drive or an SSD?
Inside OS X / macOS
- Asleep on the job – problems with sleep and wakening
- What happens when you run an app?
- How to uninstall complex software
- How to uninstall OS X Server 5
- Jack of all tasks: launchd, and how to run periodic tasks
- Permissions: the heart of access control
- Personal Preference – preferences from resources to XML
- Diving even deeper into preferences
- Preference lists, a running sore in OS X
- Preference settings: where to find them in macOS Sierra (v2)
- Preference settings: where to find them in El Capitan
- Bundle, package, library, or folder?
- Common packages: documents which are folders in drag
- Comfortable Computing – sitting and working in comfort and safety
- Click, Tap, or Stroke? – alternative input devices including touchscreens, trackpads, and graphics tablets
- What to do when your Magic Trackpad 2 fails
- Is your iPad Pro a pain in the neck?
- Printing without tears
- Under The Spotlight: local search
- iCloud, Spotlight, and Time Machine
- Obscured by clouds: how to lose your audiobooks – info on restoring previous purchases from the iTunes Store
- In the Dock – custom shortcuts
- Dusting down – cleaning a dusty Mac
- Someone’s been using my Mac – what to do when there’s been an intrusion
- Magsafe compatibility – which power supplies can be used with which laptops?
- How to uninstall an app
- How to rename batches of files
- How to unscramble a downloaded file
- Q&A: El Capitan keeps beachballing
- How to run an old version of OS X
- Which password? When to enter your user password, and when to use your Apple ID
- Q&A: Disappearing disk space
- The Font of All Knowledge – fonts for the non-specialist user
- Macs, hum, and unintended aerials
- An unwarranted login: things that go bump in the night
- The 501 orphan problem: why you shouldn’t delete the primary admin user
- Error numbers: the final hurdle – how to find out what they mean
- Wireless headphones and lip sync
- File system funnies in Sierra: folders that aren’t, and altered aliases
- So many times: the clocks in your Mac
- Should you repair permissions on your Home folder, and how?
- Has anyone got the time? How High Sierra has changed time synchronisation
- Undead apps, and opting out of App Nap
- Behind the Scenes: Open Directory and Kerberos
- What are all those hidden folders then?
Network and internet issues
- Network hardware – shifting packets
- Securing your router: keeping intruders out
- Securing your router: protecting your network
- Small Networks Without Big Headaches – setting up and diagnosing a small network
- Tackling network problems
- Why can’t I connect to that website? Simple tests with Network Utility
- airport: a hidden Wi-Fi tool in macOS Sierra
- Checking a Wi-Fi connection, in the UK
- What do you do when your broadband goes down?
- The medium of the message – email clients and types
- My email is broken – how to diagnose and fix mail problems
- eMail without tears or fears
- Protecting your Mac against malware and intrusion
- Checking signatures with WhatsYourSign
- Firewalls – Keeping Your Network Safe
- Human aspects of security: what the software vendors don’t always tell you
- When the backups stop – unravelling wireless backups
- Which advertising companies are tracking your online activity?
- Broken Clouds, or why you won’t find my embarrassing photos
- Using Google Advanced Search
- How to report phishing to Apple
- Share and share alike: sharing docs from your Mac
- How secure are your secure connections?
- Don’t get cached out: the perils of cached data
- If Twitter still seems all @#. to you… – a guide for beginners and experts alike
- Multiple Apple IDs, multiple users, and Family Sharing
- Scanning your Macs for security problems with Nessus
- Banned browser extensions – how XProtect keeps adware etc. away
- How fix a URL which breaks because of Unicode content
- Creaky old internet – ASCII still reigns in URLs
- USB 3 devices can cause problems with Bluetooth and Wi-Fi
Data and its protection
- There must be some mistake – preventing and detecting errors in data, in spreadsheets, databases, etc.
- Guaranteeing Data Integrity
- Layout to database 1 – Out of beauty comes forth structure – rescuing data from laid out pages
- Layout to database 2 – Building a Database by Script – scripting automated data input to FileMaker
- Keychain Cops – getting the most out of your keychain
- Backing Up, Time Machine, and the Cloud – Managing risks for the Individual
- Backing up your laptop: Time Machine local snapshots
- Protecting Vulnerable Data – how to protect personal and other sensitive information on your Mac
- Lost in the Cloud – Securing Protected Data in a Mobile World
- Steganographic Slips – how Word can release removed content
- High quality hash – using hash keys for one-way anonymisation
- Who was first: 1 robust timestamping of documents
- Who was first: 2 using OriginStamp via its RESTful interface
- Documents and versioning
- How secure are your secure connections?
- Where are your off-site backups?
- Tucking it away safely: archival media
- Using hibernation to secure a Mac with FileVault
- How’s your Personal Digital Archive?
- Redact and obscure: how to release or publish without leaks
- Redacting a PDF using Adobe Acrobat
Accessibility
- The Accessibility pane in El Capitan – a guided tour of what it has to offer all users
- VoiceOver, spoken and Braille guidance – assistance for those with impaired vision, in particular
- Entering text without a keyboard – Dictation and other tools to help those with RSI and other problems with keyboards.
- Wrise, a different word processor – superb app for those with reading and word problems, and many others too.
- Text ↔︎ Speech, text-to-speech, and speech-to-text
- KeyStrokes: the ultimate assistive keyboard
- Touchy feely: haptic input
- Making the most of your Magic Trackpad 2
- Digging deeper into Force Touch and the Magic Trackpad 2
- Unintended consequences of SIP
- New products for new species
- It’s about the interface, not the technology
- Wireless headphones and lip sync
- Watch the other hand: Apple’s evolving input devices
- How the new Touch Bar can open access for those with visual impairment
Colour Management for the Non-Professional
- 1 – introduction, why we need it
- 2 – rendering and rendering intents
- 3 – colour calibration
- 4 – changing and using colour profiles, and posting to the internet
- 5 – close control over colour, for giclée printing, etc.
- Fixing another X-Rite ColorMunki problem
- Should Macs start a Night Shift?
Data formats and conversion
- Free conversion of text files with textutil
- From text to documents – formats and tools for working with text documents
- Words of old – opening old Word documents
- XML – Lingua Franca or Lost Cause?
- Movie Formats and Conversion
- Help me access my PNG movies – when a file format is no longer supported in QuickLook
- Data compression – lossy and non-lossy
- Open Government UK
- Planning ahead: archiving for retrieval
- Dystextia, Apfelstrudel, Rosettavert and unorml updated for High Sierra
Hardware upgrade and disposal
- The uninterruptible power of a cat: replacing my UPS
- AppleCare and warranty cover for Macs
- Prepare your Mac for service/repair, and restore it later
- Upgrade or Replace? – hardware upgrades to improve performance
- Hard decisions – criteria for selecting hard drives
- Drive safely: testing hard drives the hard way
- Unsupported – how to re-use your old Macs safely
- How to run an old version of OS X
- Preparing your Mac for disposal
- Disposing of a dead hard drive
Hypertext – Storyspace and Tinderbox
- Storyspace and hypertext: index to articles (version 2)
- Storyspace: the original hypertext app
- Some selected readings on hypertext
- Getting started with Storyspace 3 – beginner’s tutorial, part 1
- Storyspace 3: using guards to structure reading – tutorial, part 2
- Storyspace 3: building an interactive timeline – tutorial, part 3
- Storyspace 3: digging a bit deeper with attributes, prototypes, and actions – tutorial, part 4
- Storyspace 3: structuring hypertext using rules instead of links – tutorial, part 5
- Storyspace 3: appearance attributes, covers badges, captions, and more
- Structure in non-fiction
- Storyspace 3: handling notes and references, how to implement notes and references in hypertext
- Storyspace 3: More on references, using References attributes properly, and backlinking without tears, to result in proper references
- Storyspace 3: timelines, outlines, and linked windows
- Storyspace 3: exploding poetry, and progress bars, and Summary Tables
- Telling the story: narrative across media, including spoken, written, movies, graphic novels, paintings, photos, and music
- Structure in narrative (non-fiction) text
- Making First Impressions: 1 Content and structure
- Making First Impressions: 2 Prototypes and containers
- Making First Impressions: 3 Joining up
- Making First Impressions: 4 Ready for early test
- Tools for making timelines
- Marking Time: introducing the timeline
- Marking Time: Timeline 3D
- Marking Time: Aeon Timeline
- Marking Time: Storyspace and Tinderbox
- Marking Time: other routes to timelines
- Marking Time: making good timelines
- The Story Story – narrative, VR, and computers
- Storyspace 3: Space and Time, more from the Map view
- Analysing narrative paintings of Icarus and Daedalus
- Storyspace 3.1: a world of difference
- From database to hypertext: exporting from FileMaker Pro to Storyspace
- Alternative methods of importing into Storyspace and Tinderbox
- Developing content for Storyspace and Tinderbox on your iPad using FileMaker Go
- Storyspace 3.1.2 and Tinderbox 6.6.0: details updated
- QuarkXPress 2016, Storyspace/Tinderbox, and HTML5
- Who remembers HyperCard, and a ban on encryption?
- Storyspace 3.2 and Storyspace Reader for OS X
- Hypertext for almost all
- Storyspace Reader: a tutorial, 1
- Storyspace Reader: a tutorial, 2
- Storyspace Reader: a tutorial, 3
- Dynamic stories: text substitution and stretchtext in Storyspace (and Tinderbox)
- An illustrated glossary of links in Storyspace 3
- Stretchtext: a hidden gem in real hypertext
- Porting from WordPress to Storyspace, 1: imports and prototypes
- Porting from WordPress to Storyspace, 2: links and stretchtext
- Porting from WordPress to Storyspace, 3: alt stories and references
- Porting from WordPress to Storyspace, 4: sidethreads and projections
- Porting from WordPress to Storyspace, 5: galleries and timelines
- Porting from WordPress to Storyspace, 6: glossary and index
- Analysing and telling changing narrative in Storyspace 1
- Analysing and telling changing narrative in Storyspace 2
- Analysing and telling changing narrative in Storyspace 3
- Analysing and telling changing narrative in Storyspace 4
- Analysing and telling changing narrative in Storyspace 5
- How fix a URL which breaks because of Unicode content
- The Salome Story: analysing and telling changing narrative on your Mac
- The Salome Story: first full release version for Storyspace and Tinderbox
- Parallel hypertext: Storyspace metamorphosed 1
- Parallel hypertext: Storyspace metamorphosed 2, including a full Latin and English version of Ovid’s Metamorphoses Book 1 in Tinderbox/Storyspace format
- Parallel hypertext: Storyspace metamorphosed 3, includes the illustrated version of Book 1 in Tinderbox/Storyspace format
- Parallel Text in Tinderbox 7: Porting Metamorphoses Book 1
- The Best of Both Worlds: making hypertext for both Tinderbox and Storyspace
- Adding Timing Features to an App: Tinderbox and Storyspace
- Exporting HTML from Tinderbox 7: Using CSS for a Help Book
- Using HTML from Tinderbox 7 to make a Help Book
- Improving HTML from Tinderbox to Make a Better Help Book
- Building a text database using Tinderbox
- Moving a blog to Tinderbox: Troubleshooting Macs
- Going back to the book – search engines and how best to present complex information
- Moving a blog to Tinderbox: Progress and tidying up
- Moving a blog to Tinderbox: Guiding decisions
- A Tinderbox Scrapbook for Source Code: exporting in WordPress markdown
- A Tinderbox Scrapbook for Source Code: plain text and public order
- Completing and using a Swift Scrapbook in Tinderbox
- LaTeXport: writing LaTeX documents using Tinderbox
- LaTeXport: loose ends
- LaTeXport: revenge of the templates, and on to Tufte Book
- Tennyson, Pre-Raphaelites, and Storyspace: a rewarding combination
- Adding ‘parallel’ text and a timeline to the Lady of Shalott, in Tinderbox and Storyspace
SDR (Software-defined radio)
- The quiet but pervasive revolution in communications – software-defined radio
- Getting started with SDR on a Mac
- Radio reinvented: how SDR works
- Getting started with an ELAD SDR: the FDM-S2 on a Mac – with audio samples
- Tuning antennas with a Sark-110 VIAA
- New book and learning resources
- Variable voltage: how 12 V batteries are not
- Variable voltage: a lighter alternative
- The ELAD FDM-DUO, an HF transceiver for all – first impressions and a round-up of portable HF transceivers
- The Code lives on: how Morse is still not dead
Polyglot programmer – lots of lesser-known languages
- AppleScript – 21 years old and still going it alone on OS X – also Automator and visual programming
- Some excellent programming environments for OS X
- Which languages support the GUI?
- Safe from prying eyes: a free script app for robust encryption – an AppleScript example worked through
- Visual programming with Marten (Prograph)
- Which languages generate standalone apps?
- Playgrounds and generators – code playgrounds and apps which generate code for you
- Script Debugger version 6
- RIP APLX, and welcome Dyalog APL for OS X
- Recognition by eponym, and maths on the meter
- Writing SparkleCheck in AppleScript: don’t read the manual
- Programming playgrounds: Swift on an iPad?
- Writing LogLogger2 in AppleScript: dialog and advanced shell scripting
- Try turning it off and back on again – rapid app development
- Goodbye AppleScript
- Resources to help the non-novice learn and use Swift on macOS
- Scriptarian: Swift scripting for macOS?
- Xcode Swift playgrounds 1: freezing and failing
- Xcode Swift playgrounds 2: Scripting files
- Xcode Swift playgrounds 3: shell scripts, droplets, and actions
- Xcode Swift playgrounds 4: running scripts without Xcode
- Building a better console replacement: an exercise in Xcode 1
- Building a better console replacement: an exercise in Xcode 2 – more lessons in Swift learned the hard way
- Making a better app to check your Mac’s security systems
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: the signature shuffle
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: cheating with AppleScript
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: alerts and file save
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: max factoring
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: Swift Documentation Markup
- If you’re still running El Capitan, Apple doesn’t care about you
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: quirky commands
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: Radio buttons and more
- Developing Consolation in Swift 3: mostly a breeze
- A Swift breeze blowing (5 February 2017)
- Blowhole advanced: writing a command tool in Swift 3, and more
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: turning Consolation into a full-blown app
- Help Help: 1 Help Crafter – help authoring tools (HAT) for Sierra
- Making an Installer package the easier way
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: Reading Plists, building popups, and more
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: Sorting with a closure
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: Finding apps, and calls that don’t fail
- Xcode 8.3: better in parts, more confusing in others
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: Keychains lost in translation
- More fun scripting with Swift and Xcode: An app scaffold
- Beyond Scripting in Swift: Who’s afraid of the big, bad buffer?
Words on Macs – text processing and problems on Macs
- Using and hacking styles in TextEdit and DelightEd
- Liquid | Author: well worth writers trying
- Making documents look good in both appearance modes
- Analysing your writing interactively and better word frequency lists: Nalaprop 1.0b8
- Making Sense of Text: How good is Mojave’s linguistic support?
- Beyond mere appearance: Dark Mode, the semantics of colour, and text without print
- Using Unicode better
- Redact and obscure: how to release or publish without leaks
- Redacting a PDF using Adobe Acrobat
- LaTeX and MathML equations come to iWork, as well as iBooks Author
- Comparing files: FileMerge, opendiff, and BBEdit
- Back to the future – (16 July 2017) markup languages and LaTeX
- LaTeXport: writing LaTeX documents using Tinderbox
- Compositor’s attempt on the Holy Grail of document processing
- 1 – Code-Breaking with Unicode – working with Unicode text in OS X
- 2 – Every Keystroke Counts – keyboard input and more
- 3 – From text to documents – formats and tools for working with text documents
- 4 – Command and control – version control and writing environments
- 5 – Spot the difference – compare and merge tools
- XML – Lingua Franca or Lost Cause?
- Beyond Unicode – lightweight fonts for language documentation
- Easier than the Georgian verb – text encoding problems solved
- Inside Dictionaries and Keyboards
- The Font of All Knowledge – fonts for the non-specialist user
- Terminology WordNet dictionary for OS X
- Under The Spotlight: local search
- Two centuries, two authors, two platforms – concordance tools for OS X
- Concordancers for OS X – updated
- Open Government UK
- Opening PageMaker documents
- Steganographic Slips – how Word can release removed content
- Mark my words – Flesch-Kincaid reading grades and Word
- Translation aids for OS X
- Support for Celtic and other languages in OS X
- Which font to help the dyslexic?
- Wrise, a different word processor – superb app for those with reading and word problems, and many others too.
- Weird characters in a newsletter
- Holding down keys: accents or repeat?
- I’m learning Google: no logic in translation
- Why we need consistent content-sensitive selection of text
- Building a text database using Tinderbox
- Introducing Rosettavert: first beta-release of a text encoding conversion tool
- Why we can’t keep stringing along with Unicode
- Dystextia: a platform for exploring Unicode encoding problems, obfuscating text, and spoofing
- Dystextia, Apfelstrudel, Rosettavert and unorml updated for High Sierra
- Regex: searching with regular expressions
Other security news
- How secure are your secure connections?
- OS X El Capitan is probably due an important security fix
- Losing their Sparkle: vulnerabilities in updaters
- Scareware targeting OS X
- How long would it take for Apple to break into your iPhone?
- Should you use a PIN or a password to secure your iPhone?
- MouseJack, Mac, and lessons
- Troubles on the BitTorrents – watch out for ransomware
- The adware has come
- Sunday scare: had I been hit by ransomware?
- Tools to calm your panic, and to protect
- No fear of ransomware
- SIP and ‘rootless’: El Cap going beyond permissions
- New Mac malware can open a backdoor into your system
- More Mac malware: OSX/Keydnap
- Last week on my Mac: a new surge in malware?
- Apple updates security and protection settings
- What malware does XProtect you against?
- Scanning your Macs for security problems with Nessus
- Is OS X getting too overextended for its own security?
- Banned browser extensions – how XProtect keeps adware etc. away
- Checking signatures with WhatsYourSign
- New Mac malware: Mac File Opener, or OSX.FakeFileOpener
- Where the law fails to protect
- Is crapware now the price of blocking tracking?
- Another malicious version of Transmission
- OS X Security Update 2016-001: it is really OS X 10.11.6.1
- New OS X malware: Mokes A, a powerful backdoor
- Sparklingly secure – checking old apps for the Sparkle vulnerability
- An easy way to check your apps for the Sparkle vulnerability
- Should you drop Dropbox?
- On the eve of Sierra: macOS security is now central
- OverSight: watching out for those watching you
- Never download a Flash installer from anywhere except its official site
- Shazam: it keeps listening even when turned off
- Protecting Sierra: SIP and its vulnerability
- TaskExplorer 1.5.0 – an essential update for every Mac user
- Chain letter ransomware: how to hurt enemies
- Making a better app to check your Mac’s security systems
- Sierra 10.12.2 is an urgent update if you use FileVault
- What to do when your account might have been compromised
- Learning in a Flash? Education, Rasperry Pi, and the product that won’t die
- What should you do when LockRattler returns a worrying error?
- Last Year on my Mac: For better or worse? – review of 2016, looking forward to 2017
- New Mac malware: Fruitfly, or OSX.Backdoor.Quimitchin
- Last Week on my Mac: Silence is not golden – why silent security updates are bad (22 January 2017)
- Apple pushes silent update to XProtect from XAgent and MacDownloader, but forgets Flash
- Apple pushes silent update to XProtect against Findzip or Filecoder.E
- Last Week on My Mac: Compromised, or conned? – security threats from hackers and the CIA, or maybe not
- Thunderbolt devices and security: why the CIA mightn’t like 10.12.4
- No normal user – why should we all be admin users? (16 April 2017)
- LaunchAgents and LaunchDaemons: Closing the vulnerability
External links
- iTunes Store policies and how-tos for past purchases (also see regional versions if outside the UK)
- Phishing and other security concerns – Apple’s advice and details of how to send phishing messages to [email protected] as attachments
- AFP548 – Mac sysadmin and server related
- Objective-See – security tools and information
- MacScripter – AppleScript, Automator Alan Wood’s
- Unicode resources
- Multilingual Mac – language support and issues