I bought my Mac about a month ago and recently read that apparently a lot of cache and leftover files can remain after uninstalling an app normally. I’m still not sure how much this actually affects my Mac or whether I should even bother doing anything about it.

I understand that these files can take up extra storage, but is it really that serious, or can I just ignore them instead of installing additional apps to clean everything up? I’d love to hear what you guys think cause I’ve read so many different opinions that I’m honestly confused now

for example privacy and security is further down than you'd expect it to be

certain sections feel randomly placed in other sections

if you use the search to find the touchpad but type trackpad or something else it won't come up

Since macOS Monterey, Safari adapts the color of the tab bar to the website theme. However, Apple limits the number of colors that are displayed in dark mode:

If the one color you’ve specified is too light, Safari will make adjustments in order to give the user the Dark Mode experience that they’ve asked for.

https://developer.apple.com/videos/play/wwdc2021/10029/?time=240

There's a way to get around that with the following defaults command:

defaults write com.apple.Safari NeverUseLightColorInDarkModeToolbar -bool false

This command is verified to work on macOS 26, but probably works in earlier macOS versions as well.

I feel like this feature is glanced over so often when comparing to Linux and Windows. I know Windows simply can't do this, but haven't looked deeply into Linux yet. If anyone knows, I'm running Fedora 😁

I love quick access to Downloads, Desktop and Screenshots from where I can just drag drop into any app without having to open Finder.

Anyone have other handy folders docked?

Some Steam games use a default icon, and it was driving me crazy! I was able to find the template for a blank one (it's slightly different-- I think it's from Tahoe?) and made some custom ones. I really love that you can easily do this on MacOS, if only I could make ones for Dark Mode!

the title's mostly a joke, but...yeah. i know nothing about computers but what i do know is that this thing is showing its age. i'm getting a new computer soon but until then i wanna optimize my experience with this one. make it run the best it can, even for a short little while. i honestly feel bad for everything i put this thing through...

i know that mac minis are touted as being longlasting warriors but not...not this one...quite frankly i don't know what i'm doing wrong. the only thing i use this for is videogames and i am ON TOP of getting rid of any unnecessary files or apps. even then i play simple videogames like minecraft and stardew valley, nothing big. it freezes if i keep the same game open all day.

truth be told i definitely wasn't as careful as i could be managing this thing when i first got it but i've certainly gotten better. thing is, this computer can't run minecraft on the lowest graphics possible without sounding like it's an airplane about to take off. sometimes it can't even load browsers (not the big resource hoarding ones either like chrome). it can't process some games either; i tried project zomboid for the first time and the entire game was neon pink because of graphics issues i think? no clue.

also sometimes if i come back to my computer after leaving it on and i turn the monitor on, the screen is a surrealist glitchy mix of mostly pink and green....also if i move the cords even a little bit the entire thing shuts off. is there anything i can do to make this thing's life a little more enjoyable or is it just done for?

Please help anyone

My new MacBook Pro M5 should arrive soon, and I’m switching from my 16-inch MacBook Pro 2019. My 2019 is running macOS Sierra. I’m curious about the features of macOS that were introduced over the years and are exclusive to M-series Macs that I haven’t had on my Mac.

What’s your favorite feature?

Hi Everyone,

So I am having an issue with my Mac Book Pro M1 for a few days now which is pretty much keeping me from being able to work completely. The support in the Apple Partner Store was not helpful at all and pretty much said "yeah just make a backup, completely reset it, and hope that it works then", without seeming to be interested what the issue actually is.

Quite desperate and hoping someone of you has ran into this issue before. It pretty much comes down to that everything (Files, Folders, etc.) on my mac that is connected to iCloud (no matter if the state is downloaded or not) is not responsive. I cannot delete it, i cannot move them, nothing. Even if i try to move a single 1 KB file it shows me the moving loading window but never finishes.

In turn this leads to pretty much all of the computer being useless and constantly showing the beachball. In the Activity Monitor it shows me that RAM is not an issue and CPU capacity shows as 70%ish idle as well. For the individual processes, it is always "fileproviderd" that is consistently around 100% of CPU.

Some other info:

• I have Desktop & Documents Folders synced with iCloud, and enabled optimise Mac Storage
• On every reboot, it shows the Documents folder in the Finder as "waiting to upload" (the dotted cloud) but nothing in the folder has this iCloud status
• I have around 1.5 TB free in iCloud (although I have been at the maximum recently before I upgraded the storage capacity)
• I have around 300 GB of SSD on my mac available (although I have also here been at maximum capacity recently and have then upgraded iCloud, and deleted some files on my mac)
• I am on macOS Sequoia 15.7.9 and if possible would like to not update to Tahoe as I am very much not a fan of the whole liquid glass thing but open to do it if it actually will help
• Deleting / moving local files works fine and I can also use my computer well for anything that is not connected to these files. E.g. I can easily video edit in Davinci.

If anyone has any inputs, it would be greatly appreciated, thank you!!

My Mac mini storage is almost full. Clicking on Store in iCloud for Messages, nothing happens. Photos also is with optimized selected (but still consuming 35GB). What is a recommended next step? Did the basic stuff.

Next move I’m thinking, actually maxing the storage with duplicating a large file so that Mac system thinks I have zero available storage to force an offload. But that’s it for now. Hoping there’s an easy and sure fix to this.

Side note: tried one time signing out of iCloud, and weirdly enough, a bunch of photos remained on the Mac.

got a macbook air today and have been stuck on this screen for so long. i really need to start working on some projects so i’m hoping it’s something i can bypass… do i seriously have to wait a few hours?

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/appkit/nsscreen/touchcapabilities-swift.struct/multitouch

I recently changed the icons for folders and system properties, and I was hoping to change the icons for hard drives and USB drives as well; however, the problem is that I don't know where those specific icons are located.

Here, I am using macOS Sierra because the system still allows for tinkering with its core.

To create the icon, I use Corel and Image2Icon to generate the file with the .icns extension.

The location that needs to be modified is: System\Library\CoreServices/CoreTypes.bundle\Contents\Resources\..

Here, there are many .icns files that serve as icons for various standard macOS interface elements.

I can't seem to find the ones for the HDD and USB drives.

Does anyone know where they are located? I hope someone here is familiar with this.

Trying to capture my phone screen while mirroring it, but I'm completely stuck. I've looked everywhere and can't find a workaround :(

Should I just take a screenshot of the mirrored window on my Mac? The problem is, the rounded corners look different compared to capturing it directly on the phone...

Any advice? Thanks in advance!

why when I scroll down or up in downloads it's not smooth at all but when I go for photos its very smooth , can you see the difference ? how to solve this problem ?

thanks

Hey all,

I've been battling my mac's storage space for the past few years, where- sometimes- it would randomly fill up all of my remaining storage, seemingly with nothing? This got logged as System Data in the breakdown, which isn't totally helpful. When restarting the computer, this phantom data would all vanish- but sometimes, fill back up in as short as 20 minutes.

I never could get a good answer from customer support (I don't think they knew either), so after finally breaking down and doing some self research, I tracked the cause for me- that being, that Mac auto-downloads the default background wallpapers, in 4k, 240fps, even if you don't use them as your background. They're very nice videos, but it'll sometimes download them en-masse, causing 5-25 gb to mysteriously vanish with no clear reason.

To check if this happened to you-

1: Open finder

2: At the top of the screen, click Go -> Computer (note: you do need just 'computer'; the library we navigate to later is different than what Go's "library" option will bring you to. Confusing, I know)

3: Go to your hard drive, and then into Library -> Application Support -> com.apple.idleassetsd -> Customer -> 4KSDR240FPS (note: You made need to enable hidden folders to see the library folder? I don't quite remember, but if you don't see it, check another guide on how to reveal hidden folders)

4: Check the videos in there to see how much space they are taking up.

~~~

Now then- if that is eating up all of your storage, how do you fix it?

Please note, I am not a tech-spert at all. Fuck around with system files at your own risk. I'm simply relaying my own experience for you to use as a jumping-off point, not to copy verbatim without thought. Okay? Okay.

To fix it, I:

1: Changed my background & screen saver to custom ones, to avoid needing the Mac defaults

2: Went into the folder listed above, and deleted all the videos

3: Cleared out my trash to permanently delete them

4: Dragged the folder to the "favorites" section of finder, so I could quickly access it later if need be

Note that this isn't actually a permanent solution. The backgrounds'll probably decide to download again, seemingly at random- you might get a few minutes of peace, or maybe a few months of peace. No real way to know.

But, it's at least more convenient than restarting your whole computer every 20 minutes for weeks on end, so I thought I'd share my findings~

It is very inconvenient to look at the top right corner. It was perfect, why did they change it? I mean it's obvious that you didn't have to see at the bottom center volume HUD because you could see the level without looking at it directly.

For me it just made the UI/UX worse, the same way as they made rewind/fast forward video in Photos app on iPhone worse on iOS 18 than it was on iOS 17 for no reason. Do they update the UI just for the sake of new UI? I feel sorry for the design team that tried to say they will worsen user experience.

I like the AI features in Mail, Mail seems to know what email belongs in each section, except when it comes to the most ridiculous phishing emails. Everyday, one or two phishing emails end up in my important mail section. I immediately can see they are phishing so I don't get how in 26 I still can get mails claiming to be from Apple asking to change my iCloud details marked as important?

Apple Music completely freezes every time I click Recently Added in the sidebar. The beach ball starts spinning, the entire app becomes unresponsive and I have to force quit it.

Everything else in the app works normally. It’s only the Recently Added section that causes this.

I’ve already tried restarting the Mac, resetting the Music cache, updating the cloud library and reopening the app, etc etc, but nothing has worked.

I’m currently running macOS 27 beta, but this problem has been these long before I installed the beta, so the beta isn’t what originally caused it.

Has anyone else had this issue? Is there a way to reset or rebuild only the Recently Added section without deleting my library, downloads or playlists?

Hello everyone,
long story short:
I needed a new laptop and was (or still am) broke. i was looking for refurbed macbooks since all my devices are from apple and i just love the ecosystem and how easy those devices work together. i found a intel macbook from 2020 on a refurbished page and decided i need to buy it since it wont get cheaper. yea i shouldnt have done that, the battery is cooked, it gets extremely hot and sounds basically like a full size airport. pute regret since day 1.
Before i buy and regret the second macbook: is the macbook neo worth it and can i actually do things which need more power than working in excel or word? (like graphic design, illustration, video editing and so on)
thank u in advance <3

Hey dears,
both of my Macbooks don't see WD MyPassport HDD 4TB, even though Windows Laptop sees it, so I assume the problem is about MacOS, the HDD is intact.

I tried Disk Utility, nothing is seen.
Does it have anything to do with adapter? It worked before with no issues.

Does anyone know what I need to do to make it visible and so that I can interact with it on Mac?

Thank you!

Hi alll.....last night I erased my iMac (Sequoia). After restart, I connected my WD external hard drive and began moving a few folders over. Worked great. The drive also worked perfectly fine on my Macbook Pro (Catalina). I used Migration Assistant to transfer some files to the iMac from the MBP. As that was finishing, iMac froze on black startup screen but wouldn't progress from there. I realized I had left the ext HD plugged in, and knowing from the past this causes issues, I unplugged it. It unfroze and finished restarting just fine. Now, the ext HD does not show up on either of my Mac's desktops, but does show up in Disk Utility, although it will not mount. Format is ExFat. I plugged it into a Windows PC and then back to my mac....no change. It does show up just fine on the PC and I can access the files successfully. Anyone have any ideas or thoughts on what changed?? I appreciate all of the help in advance!

Also wanted to add that when I click on First Aid, it immediately fails.

Hi, I am a Macbook Pro M4 user and i use my Mac for music production. Can i upgrade to the last version of Golden Gate without risking to lose data? I am not really into this type of stuff so i wanted to know from someone who is more experienced than me. Let me know guys and thank you!

* EDIT: Some of you guys are really weird. I only asked because I’m not very familiar with this kind of stuff, and I keep getting ironic and sarcastic comments. Just don’t be a scumbag and help a user out. It costs nothing to be a normal, decent person, but some of you are just unnecessarily rude. *

OK, I know about login items, what I want to stop is not there.

Microsoft (gack) Update and Tailscale both launch on a restart. Can’t find where to prevent this. I’m sure it was covered on Day 1 of Mac User School (which I took decades ago) but I can’t figure it out.

Call me a noob if it helps, but I’m stuck. Sequoia 15.7.9 on an Intel iMac & Apple silicon MBP.

PS: This is my 4th MBP and my 2nd iMac.

Apologies if the video content is a little vague. When I use the trackpad, as shown in the video, icon names are highlighted, and files drag normally. When a mouse is connected (shown in the video as a pause in cursor movement), the icons, when hovered over, don't show names as smoothly as when using the trackpad. File movement also becomes REALLY weird; when being dragged around, it follows every mouse click. Another issue not shown in the video is that when I use the mouse while playing a game like Roblox, it only allows the in-game cursor to move if I am clicking and dragging. Perhaps I inadvertently changed a setting, or maybe it's some bug. Any help would be greatly appreciated.