Mac OS

Mac OS, Mac OS X, or macOS, is the operating system that resides on Apple’s desktop and portable computer lineup. Built upon a Unix core, it is easy to use yet highly advanced, extremely stable, and an excellent OS for productivity and creation. Browse through our articles or use the search feature to look for something specific that is pertinent to the Mac operating system.

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How to Get a Hardware Escape Key on MacBook Pro with Touch Bar

Feb 20, 2017 - 26 Comments
Escape key on MacBook Pro touch bar

The new MacBook Pro with Touch Bar model includes a Touch Bar screen in lieu of the standard hardware function keys and escape key. Removing the Escape key may not be a big deal to some Mac users, but for many pro users having no hardware escape key could be considered a major frustration or … Read More

How to Mute Sound in Embedded Videos in Messages

Feb 17, 2017 - 1 Comment
Mute the audio from embedded videos in messages

Want to mute a video that is blasting noise within an embedded Message? You can do that with a nice subtle trick. This works to silence embedded video sound in both the iOS and Mac Messages apps, both of which allow you to play embedded videos in Messages conversations without launching into a web browser.

How to Close Other Tabs in Safari on Mac

Feb 16, 2017 - 4 Comments
Close Other Tabs in Safari on Mac

If you’re a browser tab hoarder in Safari, you may find it helpful to close out of all other tabs while maintaining a specifically chosen active tab to be open. This offers a fast way for Mac Safari users to close out of tabs that are no longer needed, but without closing all other opened … Read More

How to Recover a Lost QuickTime Recording on Mac

Feb 16, 2017 - 25 Comments
QuickTime

Have you ever been recording a video or audio with QuickTime Player on the Mac only to have the application crash before you were able to save or edit the movie file? If so, you likely assume the video or audio file that was being recorded or was saved is now missing, but that is … Read More

The Best Video Players for Mac

Feb 15, 2017 - 34 Comments
Best Video Players for Mac

Ever wondered what the best video player for Mac is? While there are droves of app options available to watch movies and video on Mac, rather than going on a wild video player fishing expedition we’ve helped to narrow down some of the best free video player choices for you.

How to Automatically Empty Trash in Mac OS After 30 Days

Feb 10, 2017 - 7 Comments
Auto remove items from Trash after 30 days in Mac OS

For those Mac users who often dump items into the Trash but forget to empty it on a regular basis, you can enable a new feature in MacOS which allows the Trash to automatically empty itself after 30 days. This can be a particularly nice feature if your Trash can is constantly bloated and taking … Read More

How to View FileVault Progress When Encrypting a Mac Disk

Feb 8, 2017 - 3 Comments
Check Filevault encryption progress

Using Filevault on a Mac encrypts the entire hard drive and helps protect personal data from theft or unauthorized snooping. It’s a great security feature that many users enable when they’re first setting up their Mac, but some users may enable it or disable it later as well. There’s certainly nothing wrong with that, but … Read More

How to List Every Terminal Command on Mac OS

Feb 6, 2017 - 22 Comments
Showing all terminal commands on Mac

Have you ever wanted to know what every single possible terminal command was on a Mac? You can list every terminal command available by turning to the command line. What you’ll see is a significant list of terminal commands with over 1400 possible commands to investigate and use, many of which are either helpful or … Read More

Play Videos Embedded in Messages for Mac and iOS

Feb 3, 2017 - 2 Comments
Play embedded video messages

Embedded video playing in Messages is one of the more subtly helpful and interesting features available on modern versions of iOS and Mac OS. Essentially what this means is that when you or someone else sends a video link through the Messages app, say a YouTube or Vimeo link, the thumbnail of the video that … Read More

How to Sort ls Command by Date

Feb 2, 2017 - 3 Comments
ls sort command output by date and time

The ‘ls’ command lists all files and folders in a directory at the command line, but by default ls returns a list in alphabetical order. With a simple command flag, you can have ls sort by date instead, showing the most recently modified items at the top of the ls command results. This trick applies … Read More

How to Verify Time Machine Backups

Feb 1, 2017 - 34 Comments
Verify Time Machine backups on Mac

Some Mac users may wish to verify the integrity of their Time Machine backups before using a snapshot or backup to restore a Mac using Time Machine. This verification offers a simple way to know if the Time Machine backup data stored on an server or Time Capsule has been modified or corrupted, and can … Read More

How to Reset a macOS Sierra Password

Jan 31, 2017 - 34 Comments
Resetting a macOS Sierra password

Need to reset the password on macOS Sierra? Maybe you forgot your primary admin user account password or maybe you’re working on someone elses Mac and you need to gain access to it. We’ll show you the easiest way to reset the password on a macOS Sierra based computer.

How to Change a Live Photo to Still on Mac Photos

Jan 30, 2017 - 5 Comments

If you use the Mac Photos app for managing your pictures and you have a modern iPhone, you’ll likely have some (or many) Live Photos stored in your photo library. You can easily change any Live Photo on the Mac from the video picture form back into a still photo, and it’s fairly easy as … Read More

How to Send Read Receipts to Specific Contact in Messages for Mac

Jan 29, 2017 - 1 Comment
Send read receipts to specific contact in Mac Messages

Read Receipts in iMessage allow the sender of a message to know when a recipient has received it, and both the Mac OS and iOS Messages apps support this feature when communicating with other iMessage users. But many Mac users don’t want to send Read Receipts to everyone, and with the latest versions of Mac … Read More

How to Unlock Mac with Apple Watch

Jan 27, 2017 - 16 Comments
Unlock Mac with Apple Watch

Mac users with an Apple Watch can unlock their Mac by simply wearing their watch, thereby bypassing the need to enter a password at the boot and login screens. This great feature makes logging onto and unlocking a Mac remarkably easy and quite fast for Apple Watch wearers, but you’ll have to enable it first.

How to Play Live Photos in Photos for Mac

Jan 26, 2017 - 7 Comments

Wondering how to play Live Photos in the Photos app on Mac? Fortunately it’s quite simple, and there’s no use of 3D Touch or any funky tricks necessary. In fact, in some ways it’s actually easier to play a Live Photo picture video in Photos for Mac than it is when viewing Live Photos in … Read More

How to Record a Movie Directly Into iMovie on Mac

Jan 25, 2017 - 2 Comments
Stop recording the movie intoiMovie

Have you ever wanted to record a movie directly into iMovie on Mac? It’s easy to capture live video from a Mac built-in camera and have it instantly imported into iMovie, from there you can edit it with the iMovie tools, incorporate it into another video project, or export the recorded movie as a file … Read More

Using TextEdit Tabs on Mac

Jan 24, 2017 - 10 Comments
TextEdit tabs on Mac

If you use TextEdit on Mac for your simple word processing and quick plain text editing needs like a Notepad equivalent from the Windows world, you’ll likely appreciate that the latest versions of Mac OS support tabbed windows in TextEdit. This can dramatically reduce window clutter in the TextEdit app, just like tabs work elsewhere.

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