Was trying to figure out how to import a Word file into Ulysses and found an article that you can just drag and drop the file into the library.
Category: apple
Some Command line hacks to speed up TimeMachine backups
Made some big changes to my photos library and need my TimeMachine on Big Sur to backup faster over the network to my Drobo.
Searched and found a few tips. First one is this command to remove process throttling:
sudo sysctl debug.lowpri_throttle_enabled=0
This still was not enough so then I also tried the renice command:
sudo renice -n -20 -p 565
To get the process id I just used activity monitor and looked for “backupd” in the Activity monitor.
Now I see the “backupd” process jumping up to as much as 50% of the CPU. Since I am on an Apple Silicon M1 I wasn’t too worried about it slowing down.
Updating Series 3 Apple Watch to WatchOS 7 runs out of space
Every time there is a new update to WatchOS 7 my series 3 watch does not have enough space to update. Dr. Drang has written a rant and some tips on how to get this to work.
Syncing Google Drive on M1 Macs
As of this writing Google Drive’s native Mac application is not supported on M1 Macs because it is a kernel extension and those don’t run intel code on the M1 architecture.
Manipulating Files in the Finder on Google Drive when Drive is no longer a folder
As I have many Hazel rules that sort files into my Google Drive files, I have been trying to find a way to sync my files from my local folder.
I found that Transmit had support for Google Drive and I could log in to my Google Drive using that App. Then I remembered that Transmit had the feature to turn a cloud service into a local drive, however after further reading I found this no longer worked as they don’t support the Transmit Disk feature anymore.
After migrating from my Intel MacBook Pro to my M1, I tried to do some sleuthing to find where the Google Drive data was stored to see if the files were readable locally.
I found the files stored in:
~/Library/Application Support/Google/DriveFS
Unfortunately, the files were not stored as a human-readable folder structure and instead seemed to be in another database format:
Syncing from Google Drive to a Local Folder
This seemed to indicate my only option was to use Transmit to sync the Google Drive files back down to my local drive to recreate the local copy of the files. One of the drawbacks of using Transmit Sync is the inability to sync the Google Docs documents like sheets.
Syncing problems down to the Local Folder
After doing the sync down to the local folder did not sync everything. I found quite a few errors of syncing down event XLS files and with the Transmit report, it was hard to figure out why.
/SZP GM/Accounting/Payroll Report/SZ Party Payroll Report - 201807.xls - Could not download “SZ Party Payroll Report - 201807.xls”.
/SZP GM/Accounting/Canceled Platinum Business MasterCard 2017-2019/hsbc-6.pdf - Could not download “hsbc-6.pdf”.
Updating my Hazel Rules
Hazel lets you change the folder with the “Relocate Folder…” option…
WARNING This change all my rules to use the new folder and then started to move all my pdfs that were stuck in my downloads folder since my migration to my M1 Mac.
Uploading to Google Drive using Transmit
Now that Hazel had copied my PDFs I thought the next step was going to be to upload them to transmit. Just to be careful I used the “Simulate” command in Transmit to make sure that the upload was going to work? I got some confusing results as shown in this screenshot.
The files that Transmit considered to be changed were not just the PDFs that hazel filed. This si where I got gun shy to complete the upload and have published this blog post to send to Panic to see if they have any advice. Will update it after.
Automating sync
If I can get the
Panic has a video about how to set up a regular sync using automator.
Other Options
I saw a link to the program Insync which claims to be able to replace Google Drive file stream but I have not tried it.
Reference
Automating changes to Display arrangements on macOS
Now that I use Sidecar to turn my iPad Pro into a second screen I got a bit tired of going to the display preferences to change where my iPad was physically sitting each time. Since I am hot desking I have to put it on the left or the right and that changes almost daily.
Originally, I thought I would fix this would Keyboard Maestro but it can’t change the display layout and it is too hard to automate it to do the preferences.
I found a stack exchange thread with a link to displayplacer. This is a command line tool that can be installed by homebrew which will do the job of display preferences.
After following the instructions to install the tool you can capture your current screen configuration and then run a command to switch.
I created a Keyboard Maestro macro that monitors when the iPad is plugged in and then prompts me to turn on sidecar and choose the side of the desk where the iPad sits.
G4 Cube Memories
My first job out of college brought me to New York City to setup around 10 G4 cubes as web servers for an Ecommerce company. These beautiful machines fit well on the racks.
20 Macs for 2020 #13: Power Mac G4 Cube (#8) – Relay FM
There may have never been a Mac more aligned with Steve Jobs
— Read on www.relay.fm/20macs/13
How to copy multiple sheets to the Clipboard in Ulysses Mac
Was trying to copy a few sheets in the writing application Ulysses to the clipboard. I found what to do but it is confusing. You think the normal copy function would work by selecting multiple sheets:
But it results in the following when pasting…
ulysses://x-callback-url/open?id=W3qZJyl-Npi55m4SlsCwHA
ulysses://x-callback-url/open?id=w2dUH4mafDX5PXWm0mKeqQ
ulysses://x-callback-url/open?id=eRznbiOJJOuj7RUgQKSNkA
Instead I found that if you try to share the sheets as if you were publishing them you have an option to copy to the clipboard:
The “A” icon in the above screen shot is the option you should use to get the contents of multiple Ulysses sheets in to the clipboard. You can choose the format in the format section so that you don’t have to take the text as Markdown.
After clicking the icon in the share sheet just switch to another app and paste the text.
Reading old HFS formatted CDs using Parallels
When I found some old CDs from college I tried to read them in Mac OS X Catalina and was shown an error message. You can read the investigation I went through on the previous linked post.
My friend suggested I try to mount the CDs in a virtual machine so that that started me down a new rabbit hole.
To sum up Apple dropped support for reading HFS in Catalina.
I knew that Parallels could do Mac OS X virtual machines so I thought it would be simple to create.
Turned out to be more complex than I thought and took a lot of google searches so let me try to summarize here.
First Parallels can install but it needs the original installer. Lots of articles tell you to get the older operating installer from your purchase history but if you are on a brand new MacBook Pro 16 inch those old installers won’t show up because your computer doesn’t support them.
It turns out that Apple has a TechNote for most of the older operating systems. I chose the TechNote for macOS Sierra: How to upgrade to macOS Sierra. You will find a download link for an installer around step 4.
Once you have this on your drive there is still more to do.
In Parallels go to File > New.. to bring up the installation assistant. Originally I tried to find this disk image from the option “Install Windows or another OS from a DVD or image file” but that didn’t work.
Parallels had a support document on installing Mojave that for some reason I didn’t quite understand so one support email later I had clarity on what needed to be done.
You want to scroll all the way to the right on the below screen:
First you need to create a virtual machine based off of Catalina. This is just a temporary virtual machine that allows you to get to the older operating system installer.
Once you setup the Catalina virtual machine you have to install the “Parallels Tools” on the Catalina operating system. That takes place from the Actions menu. The VM will be restarted and you can then see shared folders between your real Mac and the VM.
Then it is best to quote directly from the tech support email because this is what gave me the lightbulb moment:
- Transfer the installmacosx.dmg to the new virtual machine that is created.
- Open installmacosx.dmg and run the .pkg file inside the virtual machine.
- Once the installation finishes, the app file will be generated in the virtual machine’s Applications folder.
- Move the .app file to the Documents folder of your Mac and run Parallels Desktop Installation Assistant. The installation .app will be recognized automatically and you will be able to proceed with creation of virtual machine.
To sum up the above you just want to use the temporary Catalina virtual Machine to run the installer. Once you get the OS installer application you can drag it back to your real Mac using the Parallels shared folders.
Now you create a new virtual machine all over again but this time you can choose the “Install Windows or another OS from a DVD or image file” and it will find the installer.
Now just go through the process of installing a Mac virtual machine.
Once I just made sure that the CD reader was linked to the Virtual Machine, I was able to copy my files to a folder and enjoy some old college memories of long forgotten documents.
How to Access your other computer’s home folder when connecting to target disk mode in Mac OS X Catalina
Just bought a new MacBook Pro 16 inch and when I was trying to transfer files over from my previous Catalina MacBook Pro, I wanted to create a direct connection. There is a way to put your computer into Target disk mode if you have a thunderbolt 3 USB-C cable.
I held down the “T” key when I started up the old computer and then plugged in the Thunderbolt 3 USB-C cable.
You can also use the startup disk control panel to enable this.
No Permission to access my Documents folder
Though I was able to navigate to my home folder and documents folder on the other computer, I was denied access.
Tried reaching the internet for an answer but nothing came up so thought I would write this post on how to get yourself access to these folders.
My first instinct was to use the Get Info command on the folder. When I did that the obvious thing was to change the “everyone” name access to “Read & Write”.
This didn’t work nothing changed. Wanted to jump to the command line to fix this but after going for a walk I realized I hadn’t tried clicking the the plus button below the Sharing and Permissions section.
Once I authenticated as an admin user and then click the “+” button, a dialog box came up to ask me to assign a user.
Just select the user on your current computer. Another line will be created in the Sharing and Permissions section.
A new line will be created with your username of your computer and you can change the kind of access from read only to write access.
Now if you look at the screen shot above you will see the “Do Not Enter” visual is removed from the icon and if you double click on the folder you can open it no problem. Your access control lists (ACL) are all setup and you may copy any files you want.
MacOS X Mojave text replacement shortcuts not working
I had a problem with my MacBook not expanding my text replacement shortcuts. In looking at the settings everything was turned on and should have been working. It had a simple solution to fix I just had to add a new text replacement and this fixed it.