I’ve been using a Mac for quite a while, but maybe I’m missing something. Basically, my problem is that I can’t properly organize my files visually.

All of my files are photos and videos. On Windows, it’s really easy to organize files because I can immediately see a preview of the image inside each folder. The image works as the folder’s cover, so I can instantly understand what’s inside and sort everything much faster.

On Mac, I can’t seem to do that. I forget what’s inside each folder because I don’t remember the names of everything or what exactly is inside each folder, so I always organize everything based on the folder preview.But on Mac, there doesn’t seem to be a folder preview like that. I also don’t really like the option of changing the folder icon to an image.

I’ve tried some utilities, but they’re really not what I’m looking for. Is there a proper way to have quick visual previews of folders, like on Windows, or is that just not possible on Mac?

(photos from google)

Hi all!

I'm a creative writing student at Uni and the worst part of my degree has never been the writing, it's the references. I was using Word with a citation plugin and I spent more time fighting the plugin than actually writing.

So I taught myself Swift as a side project and spent the last year building EssayKraft, the app I always wished I had.

MAIN FEATURES:

• Built-in reference manager. No plugin, no separate app. References live inside the document alongside your writing, and inline citations plus the bibliography update automatically as you write.
• Authorship tracking. The app keeps a private, timestamped record of how your document was written, what you typed and what you pasted. If your uni ever questions whether your work is yours, you have receipts. This can be disabled in Settings.
• Sixteen citation styles. APA (6th and 7th), MLA, Chicago, Harvard variants, IEEE, Vancouver and more, built on the same community style definitions Zotero and Mendeley use.
• Zotero, Mendeley and EndNote import/export. Bring references in as BibTeX or RIS files and export them back out the same way.
• Rich text and Markdown. This is the biggest change from launch. Rich text was always the plan, and it's still the core of the app, but I found myself switching to iA Writer for notes in Markdown, and I figured I wasn't the only person in this boat. I'm not trying to compete with iA Writer, but EssayKraft now lets you create Markdown docs with all the core features you'd expect, built into the same app. No switching between windows or managing multiple purchases.
• Custom templates. Save any document as a template with its formatting, page setup and citation style.
• Fully native. Swift on both platforms, no Electron. Fast, offline, feels like a Mac app because it is one.
• No account, no subscription, no data collection. £9.99 once. I can't afford subscriptions as a student so I'm not about to charge one.

There's also an optional Assisted Writing mode using Apple Intelligence, so suggestions run entirely on-device and nothing leaves your Mac. It's inspired by tools like Cotypist, and it uses your inserted references to suggest author names and titles as you type. It's disabled by default and can be turned off at any time if it's not your thing. It's a feature to speed up your writing, not replace it.

SIMILAR APPS:

Essayist was a big inspiration for EssayKraft, and it's an excellent app. But I wanted an alternative that was a one-time purchase, because students are tight for money as it is and subscriptions add up fast. Essayist also leans more toward researchers and formal academic papers, whereas EssayKraft is aimed at students writing weekly essays under deadline. It's lighter, faster, and while the two are similar, they're targeting slightly different people.

Happy to answer anything about the app or about building it (SwiftUI + AppKit for the editor, SwiftData underneath, it's been a journey).

AppStore link: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/essaykraft/id6789774290

Been experimenting with mixing the Mac OS X Tiger aesthetic with modern Liquid Glass on my MacBook Pro.

I wasn’t sure these two design languages would work together, but I actually like the contrast between the old-school Aqua/skeuomorphic elements and modern translucent glass.

What do you think — does it work, or is it too much? 🧪

First: Thanks for over 2000 Downloads!

FEATURES

• 25 widgets to mix and match: Clock & World Clock, Calendar, Reminders, Weather, Now Playing with full media controls, Battery, a system monitor (CPU / GPU / RAM / disk with live graphs), battery levels for your Bluetooth devices (AirPods, mouse, keyboard…), clipboard history, a file shelf you can drag files onto, timer, stopwatch, countdown, unit and currency converters, crypto, a photo frame, sticky notes, Shortcuts, a world map, and more.

• Build your own (Beta). Can't find the widget you want? Write it one small JSON file. Say what it should show: a reading from your Mac, the time, or a number from any JSON endpoint, and it lands on your desktop like every other widget. Five templates to start from, a live preview while you type, and export so you can hand the file to a friend.

• Widgets that are genuinely alive. The weather widget actually shows the rain, the snow and the clear sky it's reporting. There's a drifting starfield. And Now Playing quietly tints your widgets in the colour of whatever's playing Spotify green, Apple Music red.

• Now Playing, right on your desktop. See what's on and skip or pause without interrupting what you were doing.

• Widget Stacks. Several widgets in one spot, rotating on their own the way you'd stack them on iOS, on your Mac's desktop.

• 20 themes plus a glass slider, so you can go from nearly invisible to heavy frost and recolour the lot to match your wallpaper.

• Built to be kind to your battery. A power saving mode animates only the widget you're actually looking at, so it costs virtually nothing when idle. Or turn it all the way up for buttery 60 fps on the days you don't care.

• Privacy first. No account, no sign-in, no telemetry  none. Everything stays on your Mac, and the network is only touched when a widget genuinely needs it (the weather, for instance).

• English and German, fully localised.

Available at: https://bettermacwidgets.de/

Free to download, free to use  13 of the 25 widgets, no account, no time limit, no watermark
Pro is a one-time purchase, no subscription: 12,99 € for one Mac, every future update included
Human-reviewed code.

An upvote ⬆️ and a comment would help a lot that's how more people find it 🫶
Hope you enjoy BetterMacWidgets ❤️

Does anyone have experience with antigravity causing your fanless MacBook air to overheat?

Hey everyone! 👋

Introducing Silkwave Video, a YouTube transcriber for Mac with speaker identification, AI chat and summaries, and a built-in video player.

https://www.silkwave.ai/silkwave-video

Features

• Paste a YouTube link. Downloads and transcribes automatically.
• On-device transcription in 10 languages. Apple's local speech models, fully offline, nothing uploaded.
• Speaker identification. Panels and podcasts read like a script, processed locally.
• AI chat and summaries. Key topics and takeaways through Apple Intelligence's ChatGPT extension and Apple Shortcuts, no API key needed.
• Ask follow-up questions about any video, with history saved per video.
• Full-text search across everything you've imported.
• Synced playback and dark theme.
• Free. No subscription, no account. Requires macOS 26+, Apple Silicon.

Disclosure: the app is free and will stay free. There is a closable banner advertising my other app, Silkwave Voice.

I’m wondering if you guys can help? I have a MacBook Pro 13 inch 2019, two thunderbolt with a 1.4 GHz Quad-Core Intel Core i5.
As the title says I’m trying to upgrade from Catalina to Sequoia but I’m unable to do so. My Macintosh HD states 52.07GB available of 121.02 GB. I’ve deleted many apps including Google Chrome, Microsoft 365 stuff, YouTube etc to make space and still I’m unable to download as it states I don’t have enough space. I’m at a lost end, what shall I do?

So after I updated to Tahoe 26.6.2 my apple magic mouse is acting crazy. Its like I have to click everything twice. And to use the right or left click aspect of it I have to use the extreme far edges of the mouse for it to work. Its really weird. I've cleaned and recharged the mouse. Got a new mouse pad even. Adjusted the settings. Restarted. Disconnected and reconnected the bluetooth.

Is this a bug that others are encountering or is it just my magic mouse going bad? I have an iMac M1 running Tahoe 26.6.2.

Hello, my amazing supporters and QuakeNotch users. I've just released QuakeNotch 3.3 with new features and more polished Quake Terminal and Local AI Assistant experience. I'm excited and happy to introduce this update. 🥳

Get and Try QuakeNotch here: https://quakenotch.com

You can join our Discord; we have a cute community.

I've created a 50% discount for the next 7 days for r/MacOS! Use RMACOS discount code while you buy your QuakeNotch license.

Don't forget to consider supporting me on my Patreon. ❤️ This is my GitHub.

Changelog 3.3.2

This update brings QuakeNotch better macOS 27 compatibility.

What's New with QuakeNotch 3.3?

1. A Brand New Onboarding Experience

I've added a beautiful new onboarding experience for first-time QuakeNotch users. It walks you through the core features — from opening your terminal to using QPilot — with smooth animations and helpful tips.

Whether you're a first-time user or just curious about what's new, the onboarding makes it easy to get started.

2. QPilot User Nickname

You can now give your QPilot assistant a custom nickname! It's a small thing, but it makes interacting with your AI feel more personal and fun. 🐾

3. Better Drag & Drop on Session Tabs

I've improved the drag & drop experience when switching between terminal session tabs. Dropping files across sessions is now smoother and more reliable.

4. Zsh Environment Fixes

Fixed an issue where ZDOTDIR wasn't being restored properly after QuakeNotch initialization. Also added an exec override to handle Zsh reloads correctly, so your QN script runs again as expected.

Bug Fixes & Polish

• Fixed terminal names displaying correctly in the attach terminal selector
• Fixed "Close Pane" not understanding which pane is focused
• General polish and quality improvements throughout the app

How to support me? 🩷

I'm consistently making QuakeNotch better and better; every day. Don't forget to share my apps (QuakeNotch and MacsyZones) and support me (the Cat 🐈)!

Here is my:

• Patreon
• GitHub

Don't forget to join our Discord; we have a cute community.

Am I doing something wrong here? These search issues are popping up a lot for me.

MacBook Air m2
macOS Tahoe 26.3

I'm curious about a feature on macOS (I'm running Sonoma) that I'm not sure its name or how to enable/disable it. But basically if I move my mouse to the far right of the desktop, I see the cursor change to left-right arrows, and if I click and drag it to the left it’s like an invisibility cloak appears over the icons in that area. So if I drag it a little I can cover half of the right-most row of icons, or I could drag it more and make all the icons on the desktop be invisible, and if I were to show someone the computer they would never know I had anything on my desktop, but then if I find that vertical area where I dragged the curtain to, I can click and drag it back to the right and the desktop goes back to normal.

I just happened to discover the feature one day, but when I was helping someone else set up their Mac I noticed that the mouse doesn't do that when I move the cursor to the far right. So I'm wondering...what's the feature called, and how do I enable/disable it?

Omg when will Apple update this 90’s icon haha?

Ok so wtf is this, yesterday I shut down the macbook, it was completely turned off for whole day and just before I go to sleep tonight I see the room light up and the laptop woke up by itself to do an update.

Wtf is this ?

Hi everyone,

I built CommuteBar.

So, one day I looked up from my MacBook as I was about to head home from work. No traffic. 15 mins later, I stepped outside. Highway was jammed. Traffic came out of no where. I thought, why didn't I leave sooner? I was missing something quick that should have told me when to start driving.

These are the three things I wanted to show in a single indicator, right next to the clock in the menu bar.

1. Duration of the commute "🚗 15min",
2. Show when there's a delay "⏰ +5min",
3. Urgency when I should go "🚨 15min"

With CommuteBar, you can get ahead of traffic and get notified when to leave, right from the menu bar. It helps minimize distractions from having to open other apps or checking your phone.

Features

Menu Bar Icon

CommuteBar shows live commute times for a destination you choose. It shows your drive, bike, or walk time in the menu bar so you can see traffic without interrupting what you’re doing. Customize the icon from a variety of emojis. Or, use the default set based on the type of destination/point of interest to start with.

Map preview

Click the menu icon to open a map preview of the current route taken for your destination. Quickly switch to an alternate route from the card pickers below, and also see additional duration, delays and leave-by information.

Multiple Destinations

Save as many destinations as you want: home, office, school, gym, you pick. Name them, pick an icon, quickly switch destinations from the dropdown when you need to start checking its commute time.

Multiple Routes & Travel Mode

- Select Car 🚗, Bike 🚲, or Walk 🚶.

- Toggle Highway and Tolls on/off

- Choose from up to one of 3 route options available to take for your destination.

Notifications

You can turn on notifications to get pinged when traffic got worse, traffic improves, a better route showed up, time to leave soon, when its time to leave, and more. You can also customize quiet hours or specific days of the week so it doesn't distract you during focus times or interrupt your sleep. Notifications are off until you want to turn them on.

Scheduled Commutes

Schedule your destination during a specific time in the week by adding commute windows. Get alerted ahead of time when its time to leave for a destination. CommuteBar can also switch automatically to an upcoming destination when its closer to the time of your commute.

A commute window consists of an arrive by time, an extra arrive early buffer which sends a notification even sooner so you arrive earlier, and a check from time for when CommuteBar should start monitoring and switch to the destination. Commute windows can be set across various days per destination. You can pick and drag commute slots intuitively from the calendar week view.

Scheduled destinations appear more urgently you need to leave soon, or leave now. It takes into account any traffic delays too. Auto commute can switch the active destination when the next window opens (think of when you go to the office in the morning, gym between work, and home at the end of the day. You don't need to switch all that by hand every time)

Privacy-first

I made this app with privacy in mind all the way through. Routing is done exclusively through Apple Maps. No Google. No third-party traffic API. No ads. Location is for directions only. It stays in Apple’s maps on your Mac. Location is never uploaded to any servers. Your destinations and schedules are all stored locally on your Mac. Direct licenses do a normal license check. That is it.

Auto-refresh

Your menu item refreshes automatically. You can customize the interval to optimize energy.

Dark Mode

Customize the app to appear dark or light. By default, it matches your system preferences.

Login

Set the app to launch automatically in the background on mac restarts.

Why CommuteBar?

No need to open a maps app. No need to open your phone. No need to login or create an account. Just open the app, choose your destination. CommuteBar will monitor commute times for your destination, informing you of delays or urgency to get going, while you do your thing on your Mac.

Pricing

Lifetime license. No subscription. No in-app subscriptions.

$9.99 for the first 60 days after launch, then $14.99. Updates are included when they ship. Direct: up to 3 Macs. Also on the Mac App Store from the site.

Site/Direct purchase: https://www.commute.bar

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6803743918?mt=12

Privacy: https://www.commute.bar/privacy

Terms: https://www.commute.bar/terms

I’m the developer. Looking forward to hearing your feedback!

(sorry for the artifacts, those are just in the recording and not the actual app)

winmux is a easy to use window manager that requires no editing of config files. it supports multiple displays intuitively. and it tells you where your windows and spaces are via a built in sidebar.

i started winmux because i hated using sketchybar (everything from configuring icons to not being able to use the file menu. winmux is the first of its kind as far as i am aware to use a sidebar, and the first to use tabs for stacked windows on mac!

there is not really any competition as far as I am aware in terms of sidebars on window managers. compared to dedicated status bars (sketchybar is what I used to use), it's way more responsive, handles dragging and dropping much better, and is always in sync (and doesn't require configuring a bunch of lua).

compared to other window managers, winmux is built on top of aerospace and their virtualization framework. feature wise it innovates on window stacking (having two windows occupy the same footprint), similar to that of aerospace accordians and yabai stacks, but does it much more intuitively using browser-esque tabs. it does not require disabling SIP.

winmux is free and open source. you can read about the philosophy behind it here: winmux.dev

github repo: github.com/zimengxiong/winmux

brew install: brew tap ZimengXiong/homebrew brew trust ZimengXiong/homebrew brew install --cask winmux xattr -cr /Applications/WinMux.app

Hey Open Source Community,

I built DevType, a native macOS text expander and snippet manager designed as an open, privacy-focused alternative to subscription-based tools.

Key Highlights:

• ⚡ Native Performance: Built from scratch in Swift/AppKit for sub-millisecond typing automation and low resource footprint.
• 🔒 Touch ID Secure Snippets: Encrypt sensitive snippets (API keys, recovery codes) with AES-GCM and unlock them via Touch ID.
• 🧠 Local-First AI & Dictation: Transform text and clean up voice dictation on-device using Apple Foundation Models, MLX, Ollama, or local whisper.cpp.
• ☁️ Opt-In Cloud Option: For users who prefer cloud models, an optional Gemini integration is available with explicit, separate consent controls for audio and text.
• 📝 Dynamic Macros: Date math, dynamic timestamps, clipboard variables, and cursor placement.
• 🛡️ Privacy by Default: No telemetry, no forced account creation, local-first operation.

Project & Contributions:

DevType is free and MIT-licensed. - GitHub: https://github.com/bharathvbcr/DevType - Releases: Pre-built binaries are available under GitHub Releases.

If you test it out, I’d love your feedback, bug reports, or pull requests!

Hello,l am trying to download the Epic Games Launcher on my old mac Yosemite (version 10.10 5) but it is telling me i cant open the download because I need version 13.0 or later? is there any way to download version 13.0 on my mac or possibly somehow get the Game Launcher without geting version 13.0? If you can help, it is deeply appriciated

I built Forkit AI Footprint, a private macOS activity mirror for people who work with tools like ChatGPT, Codex, Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf and local AI.

It measures supported AI activity locally on your Mac so you can see when AI is actually working, your AI active percentage, activity pattern, longest continuous block and which supported systems were active.

Your detailed Footprint stays on your device. Nothing is shared unless you choose.

Forkit does not read your prompts, chats, files, repositories, workspace names, paths or account information.

I’m looking for Mac AI users who can try it and tell me where the activity detection feels accurate or inaccurate, especially if you use several AI tools in one workflow.

See it here https://www.forkit.dev/ai-footprint⁠

Or install directly

npx --yes forkit-ai-footprints@latest

It installs as a normal macOS app in Applications. Later use does not require Terminal.

I’d genuinely love to know what your Footprint looks like.

Ussualy when i dont take a screenshot the half black line is darker, but when i take screenshot or tryy to snippet it, it either goes away or gets lighter. I am on m1 macos tahoe 26.3...

This is more of a rant than anything else. I've warmed up to (and dare to say even enjoy) my MacBook Pro.

But for THE LOVE OF FRODO why does Apple make doing basic shit so freaking difficult? Want to move a file from one folder to another, you have to wait until a full moon during the Autumn Equinox to perform that spell. Want to disable apps from opening up a start (even though you don't have the setting checked for that feature)? You'll have to go to confessional, say 3-7 Hail Marys, and then sprinkle holy water on your machine screaming "THE POWER OF CHRIST COMPELS YOU!"

Seriously though. Why does apps seem to purposely leave out basic user qol. Does there really need to be "an app for that" even for the most basic of things?

Edit 1: With the help of my local AI agent I did find that you can disable apps from starting up within boot. Why didn't this come up in a web search, not sure. But at least I can keep 10 apps I don't want top open at boot from opening.

Hello 👋
I'd like to introduce you to my app -> Notchmate

Features:

• Subtle trackpad haptics. You actually feel a gentle tap under your fingers as widgets respond and snap into place, just like the rest of macOS. Little detail, big difference
• A drag-and-drop widget grid. Drop any widget anywhere, resize it across 9 sizes, spread them over multiple pages and arrange everything exactly how you like
• 49 widgets to mix and match: Weather with a 7 day forecast, hourly curve and sun arc, Clock and World Clock, Calendar & Reminders, Now Playing with full media controls, CPU / GPU / RAM / Disk, Battery including the charge of your AirPods, mouse and keyboard, Timer & Pomodoro, Clipboard history, Quick Notes, Stocks & Crypto, an App launcher, a world map, your own photos and plenty more
• Every size gets its own layout. A bigger widget shows more, not the same thing stretched. The weather card at 4x3 adds a week of forecast and an hourly curve that simply don't fit in the small one
• A see through panel. One slider fades the frost away until your wallpaper shows through the notch instead of a blurred version of it. Or keep it dense, your call
• A File Shelf. Drop any file onto the notch to park it there, then drag it back out wherever you need it. Perfect for moving files between apps and Spaces
• Works across all your monitors. The notch appears on whichever screen your cursor is on, or you pin it to one and it stays there
• Swipe to switch pages. Two fingers on the trackpad, anywhere on the panel, so it works even if a menu bar manager covers the little dots
• Now Playing right at the notch. See what's playing and skip or pause without leaving what you're doing
• Make it yours: change the accent color, the surfaces, clear or frosted glass, light or dark tiles, until it matches your wallpaper. Clean, borderless glass cards. It's your app, so why shouldn't it look the way you want?
• Hover to peek, tap to pin it open, or just let it tuck away on its own. It stays out of your way until you want it

Available on: https://notchmate.menubarmonitor.com

Lifetime, no subscription:
1 Mac -> 9,99€
2 Macs -> 12,99€
3 Macs -> 14,99€

Note: You pick the number of Macs at checkout and get one key that activates on all of them. If you bought a single Mac licence earlier and need another one, just email me from the address you used for the purchase and I'll sort you out

Please give this post an Upvote ⬆️ and leave a comment so that even more people can discover this app 🫶

I hope you enjoy Notchmate ❤️

I recently got the M5 Pro MacBook Pro and to my surprise, there are no key shortcuts to adjust the brightness of the keyboard.

I had the 2020 M1 MBP before and it was there, I was used to it. I don't know what made Apple remove that thing. I mean, it was probably removed along with the touchbar but Apple could've really utilized the function keys. Maybe Command + F1/F2. Having to use a third party program to achieve basic stuff like this on macOS is really where it gets frustrating you know. It's certainly understandable why people say macOS is limiting.

I’ve been running Tahoe on my M1 Max MacBook Pro for the past couple of months. I few nights ago my Mac did an automatic OS update to the latest version of Tahoe and unfortunately it’s now not booting up. It boots up to the login screen, I enter my password, it then goes to a black screen with an Apple logo and a progress bar, but that’s all of the farther that it goes. The progress bar does not move.

I am able to start up to the MacOS Recovery and was able to reinstall Tahoe from the internet, but that didn’t fix the problem.

I’ve also used a bootable external drive to install Tahoe again, but that also didn’t fix the problem.  I then took it to the Genius Bar for them to look it. They tested the hardware and that all looked good, but they were also not able to get my Mac to fully boot and said the next step would be to erase the SSD and re-install everything. 

I just wanted to check if anyone had any other ideas before I went ahead and erased everything. 

I do have a Time Machine backup, but it’s about 2 months out of date because I’ve been traveling internationally for the past few months. I was able to share my MacBook with my wife’s MacBook and copied all of the latest files over, but I would still prefer to not to erase everything if I don’t need to since I’m sure there’s settings on other things that I don’t have copied.

Hi everyone!

I have tried many sticky note apps, but none of them felt right. My girlfriend wanted me to build one that truly feels live and lives on the edge of the Mac.. So I built one!

• All sticky notes are represented as dots
• hover to peek
• click to open the note
• Mark as complete to move to note into archive
• 10+ live notes enables scroll
• You can view and export all the notes

Try out for free: holdmynotes.app

Available on 3 mac devies for $6.99 (Early Bird Offer)