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Category: macOS

Apple Mac operating system

macOS previously Mac OS X
macOS is based on UNIX
Since 10.5 (Leopard) based on Intel platform

Enable 3rd Party SSD Trim in MacOS

Enabling TRIM for third-party SSDs is primarily done through the trimforce command in Terminal. Here’s a breakdown of the process and important considerations:

Understanding TRIM

  • TRIM is a command that allows the operating system to tell an SSD which data blocks are no longer in use and can be erased. This helps maintain the SSD’s performance over time.

Enabling TRIM

  • The trimforce command is the native way to enable TRIM in macOS High Sierra and later versions.

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MAC Terminal command to stop indexing external drive

sudo mdutil -i off /Volumes/YourExternalDriveName

Explanation:

  • sudo: This command requires administrator privileges to modify system settings.
  • mdutil: This is the command-line utility for managing the Metadata Server, which handles Spotlight indexing.
  • -i off: This option tells mdutil to turn off indexing.
  • /Volumes/YourExternalDriveName: This is the path to your external drive. You must replace “YourExternalDriveName” with the actual name of your drive as it appears in the Finder or in the /Volumes directory.

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Copy files with rsync on Mac

Use the power of rsync to ensure file creation dates are preserved whilst copying and the ability to restart if interrupted and automatically skip files which have already been copied

MacOS does come with a version of rsync pre-installed. However, this is normally an ancient version and needs the newer version installed to get the latest features, e.g. preserve creation times option or bug fixes. Here’s how you can typically achieve this on MacOS:

    • Install Homebrew (package manager for macOS) :
      • Open Terminal.

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Manually remove a printer on a Mac

Step-by-Step Instructions

  1. Open System Settings:
    • Click the Apple menu and choose System Settings.
  2. Access Printers & Scanners:
    • In the System Settings window, click on Printers & Scanners from the sidebar. You might need to scroll down to find it.
  3. Select the Printer:
    • Find the printer you want to delete in the list on the right side of the window.

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Mac Show Hidden Files

In Finder to display of Hidden files by type Cmd + Shift + . (dot)

To turn on globally type the following command in Terminal:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool true

To revert back to hidden append false:

defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool false

To make the Finder change effective type:

killall Finder

HP 7520 WiFi scanning not working Mac OS High Sierra

If when installing an HP 7520 WiFi printer with HP Easy Start you get a warning that the scanner does not support “Bonjour” then you may end up with a working printer but no scanner!

In most cases this happens because you have a dual band router advertising 2.4GHz and 5GHz on the same SSIDs. In short the HP 7420 only works with the 2.4GHz network.

One solution is to disable the 5GHz network or rename it and only connect the Mac and printer to  the 2.4GHz SSID network.

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MAC Cleanup

Check hard disk Integrity to rule out disk faults

Boot the computer up in single user terminal. On chime press Command + S and run file system checker and repair

/sbin/fsck -fy

Reboot as follows:

/sbin/mount -uw /
reboot

Repair Permissions

Open Disk Utility and choose your main hard drive from the sidebar (in most Macs there will only be one.) Now click on First Aid and Repair Permissions.

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Change Yosemite Mail Default Message Font Colour

This is a work around for setting the Message default font colour.

Create a signature with Mail -> Preferences -> Signature selecting the mail account and + button like the one below in blue or desired colour:

 Hello

Regards,

Joe Bloggs

Now when you send a new message this signature will appear. If you insert your message between Hello and Regards it will be blue.