Tips

How to prevent sleep in OS X

System sleep in OS X systems is convenient to have for saving power without interrupting your workflow, especially for laptop systems. This is easy enough to set up in the OS X system preferences; however, there may be times when despite having sleep enabled you might have an important task running and wish to prevent the system from going to sleep.

In past versions of OS X, the system would not enter sleep if applications were running and writing files to disk or running lengthy computational tasks, but this has changed in the latest releases of OS X, where programs must invoke a power assertion … Read more

How to edit OS X system files with TextEdit

Underneath its slick interface, OS X has a number of hidden configuration files that contain the settings for default and standard behaviors. While in most cases these files being hidden is good for system stability and security, sometimes you may need to access one for troubleshooting purposes or to apply small customizations to the system.

Often these files can be accessed with simple one-line Terminal commands, as is commonly seen with the "defaults" command for editing program or service property lists; however, at other times you might need to make more extensive edits to a settings file. When … Read more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week readers wrote in with questions regarding an odd APSD-related firewall error in OS X, the utility and risks of having Java runtimes installed, options for maintaining Mountain Lion on corporate networks, and MacBook battery charging. We welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: Best practices to prolong battery life MacFixIt reader Jonathan asks:

I recently bought a MacBook Air, first-time Mac buyer, and I love it! Anyways, … Read more

How to prevent a volume from mounting at boot in OS X

OS X will automatically attempt to mount an attached volume when the system is started, and if successful the volume will appear in the Finder either in the sidebar or on your desktop if you have these options enabled. However, there may be instances such as in multi-boot environments when you might want a specific volume to remain unmounted.

With multiple boot volumes in a system, when loaded in one operating system it is relatively easy to access and edit important files on the boot disk of other operating systems. Therefore, keeping the unused boot drive unmounted may be a … Read more

Q&A: MacFixIt Answers

MacFixIt Answers is a feature in which we answer questions e-mailed in by our readers.

This week readers wrote in with questions regarding an odd apsd-related firewall error in OS X, the utility and risks of having Java Runtimes installed, options for maintaining Mountain Lion on corporate networks, and running MacBooks on a dead battery that will not charge. We welcome views from readers, so if you have any suggestions or alternative approaches to these problems, please post them in the comments!

Question: apsd firewall error in OS X MacFixIt reader Clem asks:

When I log into my system I … Read more

How to use TextWrangler as a remote file editor

If you regularly access remote servers using the secure shell (SSH) command in your Mac's Terminal, often you will do so to simply edit a configuration file or two. This is normally done using a Terminal-based text editor such as vi, nano, or emacs; however, even though these programs can be fairly powerful options, often they simply lack in both ease and capability when compared to GUI-based editors like the TextWrangler, a popular and free editor from BareBones software.

Unfortunately being a full GUI application, TextWrangler will not run in the Terminal so you cannot use a remote copy … Read more

How to set up a subwoofer

August 29, 2012: This is an update of my subwoofer setup article from 2008.

Merely buying a great subwoofer is no guarantee that you'll wind up with great bass. There are too many ways to squander its performance potential, and that's why putting in the extra effort to achieve proper subwoofer setup is crucial. This two-part guide will help you get the best room-shaking bass from your subwoofer.

Part I: Placement and positioning

Part II: Connectivity and fine-tuning

Subwoofer Setup Part I:Placement and positioning While a subwoofer's deep bass is nondirectional, it would be unwise to … Read more

How to share files via e-mail in OS X

One common method of sharing files is to e-mail them as attachments. This can be done in OS X Mail by clicking the Attach toolbar button (or by pressing Shift-Command-A) in a new message and then selecting the files to attach. However, as OS X has developed, Apple has added options that have made this far more convenient, though each has its benefits and drawbacks.

Drag and drop There is a basic drag-and-drop attachment-handling option, where you can select a file or group of files in the Finder and drag them to an e-mail message you are composing. This option … Read more

How to use multiple disks with Time Machine in Mountain Lion

Having a full system backup solution for any PC is a highly recommended setup, but a preferred setup is to have redundant backups either in the same location or better yet, in multiple locations. While Apple has offered its Time Machine service as a fairly robust backup solution for OS X users, the service has been limited to a single backup drive and did not support any redundancy options. In Mountain Lion this has changed and you can now use multiple drives with Time Machine for the same system.

In prior versions of OS X, users had to either use … Read more