Ever want to know what type of Mac you're on without access to the OS? Anywhere you can access the command line you can pull the Macs model Identifier. 

• Enter: sysctl hw.model
  
• Hit enter.
  
• Enjoy.

Ran into this problem on a few macs. The scenario is that you've uninstalled teamviewer on macOS catalina and now your mac won't boot. Instead it give you an error that reads: "Unrecoverable Error. SecurityAgent was unable to create requested mechanism TeamViewerAuthPlugin:Start.

Basically it's a file that the OS is looking for to boot and it can't find it. Solution? Put it back. How?

UPDATE! 2/10/20
There is a simpler fix than the one detailed below. We'll lay it out here:
FIX - AuthDB Removal:

• Start your Mac in macOS Recovery by holding down Cmd-R.
• Open Disk Utility and check the left sidebar for the name of your disk. For Macs running Catalina it is the Disk that does not end in "- Data". It's usually "Macintosh HD."
• Click to select the disk in the sidebar.
• Click the "Mount" button in the upper right. If you see the word "unmount" skip this step.
• Quit Disk Utility.
• From the top menu bar click Utilities > Terminal.
• Enter the command: rm "/Volumes/<your disk>/var/db/auth.db" 

**Replace <your disk> with the name of your hard disk from the earlier step.​ Eg. rm "/Volumes/Macintosh HD/var/db/auth.db"​
**Include the quotes if your disk name contains spaces.

• Restart.

OLD FIX - Replace the Plugin.
The Fix Option 1 - Target Disk Mode:

• Requires a Thunderbolt cable to connect two macs together. 
• Get another mac that is not the broken one, duh. 
• Download the file you need to replace here.
• Unzip the file.
• Boot the broken mac to target disk mode by holding the T key during boot, until you see the thunderbolt Icon on the screen.
• Connect both macs together via thunderbolt, the broken mac's hard drive will show up as an external HD.
• In the Finder, from the root of the broken mac's hard drive navigate to: /Library/Security/SecurityAgentPlugins/
• Paste in the file you downloaded above.
• Restart the broken mac. 
• Done. Hooray. 

The Fix Option 2 - USB Thumb Stick & Terminal Command:

• Download the file you need to replace here.
• Unzip the file.
• Copy the file to a USB Thumb Drive. 
• Name the USB drive: fixit
• Connect the USB to your broken mac.
• Boot your broken Mac while holding Command+R until you see the Apple logo.
• In the upper menu click utilities, then select terminal. 
• Type the following command and hit return: ls /Volumes/
• This command lists the attached volumes. Make a note of the drive name for the internal hard drive.
• Enter the terminal command and hit return: cp -r /Volumes/fixit/TeamViewerAuthPlugin.bundle /Volumes/Macintosh\ HD/Library/Security/SecurityAgentPlugins/

NOTE ** YOU MAY NEED TO REPLACE THE NAME OF "MACINTOSH\ HD" IF YOUR HARD DRIVE NAME DIFFERS. ALSO, IF THERE ARE SPACES IN YOUR HARD DRIVE NAME, THE SPACE IS REPRESENTED AS A "\ " A BACKSLASH WITH A SPACE. EG. "MY HARD DRIVE" IT WOULD BE REPRESENTED IN THE TERMINAL COMMAND AS "MY\ HARD\ DRIVE" 

• Click the apple in the upper left and select restart. 
• Done. Hoory. 

​You're welcome. 

I came across a really persistent version of weknow.ac malware on a mac. Here's what you need to do to remove it:

• Run Malwarebytes first to remove any crud. CLICK HERE for the Free Version. 
• Then, open the system preferences. 
• Go to "Profiles."
• Click the profile in the list to the left titled "Admin Prefs" and click the minus "-" button at the bottom to remove.
  
• Then open the terminal. 
  
• Enter: sudo profiles -D 
• Enter your password when asked.
• Say "Y" to approve if asked. 
• Restart your Mac.

That should remove the annoying weknowac search page in Safari. If you have the same problem in Chrome, click here for the directions to remove it.

Are you getting those annoying Mojave update notifications constantly? Stop them forever. 

• Open the terminal and enter: softwareupdate --ignore macOSInstallerNotification_GM
• Hit return

They are gone. Enjoy. You're welcome. ​

The most persistent malware we've seen is the Smart Search weknow.ac. This malware has the usual launch agent, browser extension, install files, but this one also changes the chrome profile. This is some pretty serious stuff that get's deep at the heart of Google Chrome, so even when you remove the files, the malware search page persists. Don't worry! We'll fix this together. 
​
How do you know if you have this particular Malware:

1. Your search engine on your browsers says "safe search."
2. You cannot change your browser homepage, it simply returns to the safe search.

Remove is pretty simple. Go screw yourselves malware jerks. Here's what you do:

• Run the latest trial version of Malwarebytes to easily remove all the instances on the Mac (then uninstall Malwarebytes by clicking help>uninstall ~~ you don't need to buy the subscription).
• In Google Chrome, go to
  • preferences.
  • click "advanced" at the bottom.
  • click "restore setting to their original defaults" (at the bottom).
• Next, open terminal. Enter each line, hit return, and repeat with the next line (enter password if needed):
  • defaults write com.google.Chrome HomepageIsNewTabPage -bool false
  • defaults write com.google.Chrome NewTabPageLocation -string "https://www.google.com/"
  • defaults write com.google.Chrome HomepageLocation -string "https://www.google.com/"
  • defaults delete com.google.Chrome DefaultSearchProviderSearchURL
  • defaults delete com.google.Chrome DefaultSearchProviderNewTabURL
  • defaults delete com.google.Chrome DefaultSearchProviderName
• Next quit and restart Google Chrome. 

The end. You're welcome. ​ Oh, here's the directions to remove it from Safari too.

Apple Mail has been a finicky bit of software since its inception. Some love it, some hate it. One problem we've seen recently in V10 with High Sierra is that emails display [the usually] hidden HTML code. This can be frustrating. Some have 'solved' it using Apple Mail's built-in "rebuild" option, but the problem seems to return pretty quick.  Here's how you can solve this issue and other weird mail issues too.

1. Open System Preferences > Internet Accounts> iCloud > UNCHECK "Mail"
2. Inside Apple Mail > System preferences>  disabled Junk mail filtering. 
3. Inside Apple Mail > Export your local mail to keep a copy safe: Highlight the mailbox in the list on the left and click "Mailbox," then in the upper menu click "Export Mailbox," then choose a place to save the folder. Repeat this for all the mailboxes you want to keep safe. 
4. Quit Mail.
5. Delete folder: ~/Library/Mail/
6. Delete ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.mail
7. Launch Apple Mail
8. Re-Enable iCloud Mail, reverse step 1.
9. Import each mailbox that was deleted in step 4. Inside Apple Mail Click "File" then "import mailbox." Select the folder of all your mailboxes that you saved and import. 
10. Re-enabled rules and junk mail filter (if you want).

You're welcome. 
​

The java on your mac can easily become outdated. Apple doesn't love java, so the auto tools to "update" it often don't work. Here's how you can check which version you're currently on, and how to remove it. 

Note: the current version of Java JDK is V10. (8/23/18) found here.
Check the current version:

• First open the terminal on your mac. 
• Enter this java -version
• It will spit out some info, look for:
  • java version "1.6.0_65" . <--version 6
    Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_65-b14-468-11M4833)
    Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 20.65-b04-468, mixed mode)

Uninstall Java:

• In the Terminal window Copy and Paste the commands below:
  sudo rm -fr /Library/Internet\ Plug-Ins/JavaAppletPlugin.plugin 
  sudo rm -fr /Library/PreferencePanes/JavaControlPanel.prefPane 
  sudo rm -fr ~/Library/Application\ Support/Oracle/Java

I like the stable Java Version 8. Found here.

You're welcome. ​

Super fast one. You lost your notes in the notes app. You have a backup (hopefully), here's where you go to retrieve them:

/Users/[youruserfolder]/Library/Group Containers/group.com.apple.notes

Simply copy the folder "group.com.apple.notes" from your backup to the same location on your Mac.
Boom, notes are back.
​You're welcome. ​

Sometimes Dropbox wont install/load if there was a previous version installed, or if you changed the name of the home folder on your Mac. Get it up and running again.

• Open terminal in your utilities folder. 
• Paste and hit enter: mv ~/.dropbox ~/.Trash/dropbox.old
• Paste and hit enter: mv ~/.dropbox-master ~/.Trash/dropbox-master.old
• Open your root library folder and delete the folder "DropboxHelperTools"
• Restart your Mac.
• Download the latest Dropbox here, and install.

You're welcome. ​

Maybe you wanna start using 1password or lastpass, but you have all your passwords saved in google chrome. Export them, duh, it's easy.
​ 

• Open google chrome.
• in the URL bar type: chrome://flags
• in the next window you'll see a search bar, type: password
• a few results will come up, look for "password export" and "enable" it with pull down menu to the right. 
• restart chrome. 
• in the URL bar type: chrome://settings/passwords
• in the next window look for the heading "Passwords" and click the three vertical dots, select "export."
• in the next warning window select "export passwords."

A CSV file will be downloaded that contains all your passwords. You can import that to most password applications. 
DON'T LET ANYONE GET YOUR PASSWORD CSV FILE. DELETE IT ASAP. 

You're welcome. ​

There are lots of long blogs about how to do this. Some are written for the beta version of High Sierra and are wrong. Here's the quick and dirty on trashing your APFS disk in High Sierra and go back to HFS. 

Why?
APFS is brand new disk partition type that Apple introduced in High Sierra. Although it has some benefits, I don't care for it. Anything that apple releases that is brand new, be wary, there are usually issues with it. Also, if you're a mac tech reading this, upgrading OSes or converting from HFS to APFS to solve performance problems is not a solution. If you need help understanding why, email me. 

***WARNING: THIS WILL DELETE THE CONTENTS OF YOUR HARD DRIVE. MAKE A BACKUP***

FIX:

• boot into the recovery partition by holding command-R during boot.
• click utilities in the top menu. 
• select terminal.
• type and hit enter: diskutil list
• you'll see the list of all the drives. look for "APFS" then the disk identifier to the right, something like "disk0"
• type then hit enter: diskutil apfs deleteContainer disk-identifier-here

That's it. You can now re-install, re-store, re-image to your HFS disk however you like. You're welcome. ​

if you've goofed around and tried to change your user name though the advanced settings in your mac, you may have ended up with your user switching back to a standard account. if you only started with one account, then you've left yourself with no admin account. Aaaand you can't change anything. Here's is what you do:

• reboot your mac
• hold command-S before you hear the chime
• you'll see a bunch of verbose text fly past. when it's done...
• enter: mount -uw /
• hit return
• enter:  rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
• hit return
• hit control-D on the keyboard to restart.

Your mac will now boot and start the setup wizard again. Go ahead and create a new admin user. 

​You're welcome. ​

Here's a quick one. 

The Situation: you have a million screenshots on your desktop. You curse mess and want to take control. Great! Set a folder to keep all the screenshots automatically, rather than turning your desktop into unwieldy monster.

The Fix: 

• make a folder on your mac where you want to save your screenshots. Name it whatever you want. 
• open the terminal.
• paste in this command: defaults write com.apple.screencapture location
• don't hit enter yet. after the the word "location" enter a space then drag and drop the new folder you created for the screenshots into the terminal window. That will auto fill the path to the folder, and should look something like this (if the folder is on the desktop titled "Screenshots"): 

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location /Users/yourusername/Desktop/Screenshots​

• now hit enter!
• next, enter this command and hit enter to reset the system to activate it: killall SystemUIServer

That's it! Now when you take a screenshot it will be saved to the folder you created rather than the desktop. You've tamed the beast. Pat yourself on the back. You're welcome. 
​

The MacOS setup assistant will only run once. If you've created a user and you're unhappy with it, or you want to migrate another user over you might want to reset the OS so the SetupAssistant runs again on next boot. The setup assistant differs from the Migration Assistant by allowing you to choose a specific restore point from a time machine, rather than just the last backup. This is great if you need to go back to a stable OS before you had problems. Here's how:

• Launch Terminal from the Utilities folder
• copy in: sudo rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
• Enter your password.
• Restart your mac.

If you lost your admin access, you can do this process through the Safe Boot (thanks commenter*):
1. Boot into Single user mode (cmd+S)
run the following commands:
mount -uw /
rm /var/db/.AppleSetupDone
reboot
On next reboot the system will start the Setup Assistant again. You're welcome. ​

I'll keep this short and sweet. Malwarebytes has for many years been the go to tool for Mac users to easily find and remove malware from you Mac, FOR FREE. Recently they released version 3.0 which is now a subscription based model and only runs in a trial mode. They clearly went the route of building a user base with a free tool then switched it on us. 

Welp, here's the last FREE version of Malwarebytes for Mac that will remove malware for FREE! Of course, don't accept the upgrade if prompted to do so. Enjoy. You're welcome. ​

This is going to be a quick fix. I've encountered a few clients that have a rare problem where they try to log into their iCloud (via system preferences) or log into the App Store and they are greeted with an error stating "This action cannot be completed. Try again." 

You have bad system permissions. Why? Looks like it's associated with an OS update. 

Fix:
Open terminal and paste in each line separately (3 lines), hit enter after each one, then enter your password. Line two and three wont prompt for your password after you've entered it into the first line. 

1. sudo mkdir -p /Users/Shared
2. sudo chown root:wheel /Users/Shared
3. sudo chmod -R 1777 /Users/Shared

Restart your mac. iCloud and App Store will work. You're welcome. ​

What is this? "Cannot open migrated library The content of the iPhoto Library "iPhoto Library" has already been migrated to Photos. Open Photos to view your library or use a compatible version of iPhoto to open this iPhoto Library."  I'm not going to show you how to open this library in iPhoto, there are many other guides online, I'm going to show you how to run the migration to Photos again. Why?

• Your initial migration was halted, stalled, failed. (Power outage, liquid spill, OS crash, cat drama, whatever).
• Photos has missing photos, empty photos, videos that don't play. 
• You want to move the library to another mac and convert to Photos again.

If for any reason you're trying to rerun the migration here's what you do:

• Right click the iPhoto Library you want to re-migrate.
• Click "get info." 
• Open the arrow for "Name & Extension."
• Remove the word "migrated" from the file name.
• Close the window.
• Open the library again and Photos will start the migration over again. 

Why didn't these simple instruction exist on the internet? IDK. You're welcome. ​

So many of you are wondering how you can mount a DMG (disk image) clone which will allow you to use migration assistant to pull data from it. Here I'll show you the easiest and best way to do this.

Background:
As of Mavericks (10.9 and the current OSs) Apple did something stupid, they removed DMG support for migration assistant. Actually they didnt remove support, they changed the way migration assistant logged out of the current user, which in turn unmounted all DMGs. Major bummer for the tech savvy people out there. So then came a way to use the sudo command in the terminal to mount the DMG as the root user, thus keeping it mounted even after the logout. BUT, if you've ever tried to mount a large DMG, the OS will run a checksum (verification) which can take FOREVER (hours even).  

The FIX:

• open terminal on the mac you want to run migration assistant on
• type the following command: sudo hdiutil attach -noverify /Path/To/Image.dmg

​​** replace the red text with the path of the DMG file you wish to mount. you can simply drag and drop the DMG file in the terminal window and it will auto complete the path. 

Why is this awesome? Because the option "-noverify" skips the OS verification and the DMG mounts instantly.
You're welcome. ​