Tips & Tricks

Tips and tricks for all things Apple! Whether you want to learn tips for a Mac, iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, or much more, you will find many tricks, tips, tutorials, and excellent walkthroughs for Apple devices and software here.

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Fixing Wi-Fi Issues in OS X El Capitan

Oct 16, 2015 - 273 Comments
Fix Wi-Fi Problems in OS X EL Capitan

Though Apple has largely resolved the wi-fi issues that persisted in some Macs with prior OS X releases, some users with OS X El Capitan may encounter wireless networking issues after updating to the latest OS X release. Typically the wi-fi problems are in the form of dropping connections or strangely slow speeds, and the … Read More

How to Use Picture In Picture Video Mode on iPad

Oct 15, 2015 - 8 Comments
Picture in Picture mode button iOS

Picture In Picture mode allows iPad users to open a floating video player or FaceTime chat that persists in a small overlay while doing other activities in iOS. For example, you could be working in Pages or drawing in Notes while watching your favorite sports team in a hovering player window with PiP, it works … Read More

How to Change the Default System Font in OS X El Capitan to Lucida Grande

Oct 15, 2015 - 31 Comments
Mac Finder, where you can copy the path of a file name easily

The Lucida Grande font is known for its crisp and obvious readability which makes it a great user interface font, and it rightfully served as the Mac OS X default system font for many years. Then along came Yosemite, where the Mac system font was changed to the generally unpopular Helvetica Neue. Apple has since … Read More

Accessing “Expert Mode” Screen Color Calibrator in Mac OS X (Mojave, Sierra & El Capitan)

Oct 14, 2015 - 50 Comments
Expert Mode Display color calibrator in OS X

Mac users are likely familiar with the process of using display calibration to get the best color and picture quality for a specific monitor or screen used with a computer, and to get the most out of the calibrator tool you’ll want to run the utility in Expert Mode. While Expert Mode used to be … Read More

How to Make Crash Reporter Appear as a Notification in Mac OS

Oct 13, 2015 - 16 Comments
Crash Reporter as a notification in Mac OS X

Advanced Mac users who are either in development or another field which experiences frequent app crashing may find the persistent Crash Reporter windows with the ‘App quit unexpectedly’ message to be a nuisance, interfering with their workflow in Mac OS X. While one longstanding option is to disable the Crash Reporter dialog completely in MacOS … Read More

How to Use “Secure Empty Trash” Equivalent in OS X El Capitan

Oct 12, 2015 - 49 Comments
Secure Empty Trash equivalent in OS X

Many Mac users have noticed that the Secure Empty Trash feature has been removed in OS X El Capitan (10.11 or later), the reason the feature was removed is basically because it did not work all the time, but more on that in a moment. First, let’s cover how you can perform the equivalent of … Read More

How to Downgrade from OS X El Capitan & Revert to Prior Mac OS X Version

Oct 9, 2015 - 41 Comments
How to Downgrade OS X El Capitan

Most Mac users are happy with OS X El Capitan, but for some situations, the new version of OS X 10.11 is unusable for one reason or another. Perhaps it’s running worse than before, slow, or unstable, or maybe some important piece of software is not compatible with El Capitan, like some versions of Office. … Read More

How to Disable Shake to Find Cursor on Mac OS

Oct 8, 2015 - 12 Comments
Shake to Find Cursor in Mac OS X

One of the new feature additions in newer Mac OS releases is the ability to quickly locate a mouse cursor on screen by shaking the mouse or trackpad cursor around, which causes the cursor to enlarge briefly, making it very easy to find on single or multiple display setups. This is a useful feature particularly … Read More

Fix for Split View Not Working in Mac OS X

Oct 8, 2015 - 17 Comments
Split View in OS X

Some Mac users who have been trying to use Split View in Mac OS X have discovered the feature isn’t working for them, and they are not able to place two full screen apps side-by-side into Split View. The inability to use Split View is typically because the user has upgraded Mac OS X from … Read More

How to Use the Drawing Tools in Notes for iPhone & iPad

Oct 7, 2015 - 75 Comments
Notes icon in iOS

The Notes app in iOS now allows you to draw, sketch, and color, using your finger or a stylus on the touchscreen. This is a really fun feature that is quite well done, and you’ll find the Notes drawing ability is particularly great on the larger screened iPhone and iPad models, but it works well … Read More

Fix an Unresponsive Touch Screen on iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus

Oct 6, 2015 - 150 Comments
How to fix an unresponsive touch screen on iPhone

Some iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus users have noticed their devices touch screen becomes unresponsive. The unresponsive frozen touchscreen seems to happen at random, and also commonly when the device is freshly unlocked from the locked screen, either with a pass code or through Touch ID. The unresponsive touch issue is not subtle, as … Read More

How to Show iCloud Drive Icon on Home Screen of iPhone & iPad

Oct 5, 2015 - 26 Comments
iCloud drive syncs between iOS and OS X seamlessly

iCloud Drive is a wonderfully useful feature that allows files to not only be stored in iCloud, but also be easily accessible to retrieve or edit from any other Mac or iOS device using the same Apple ID. While iOS has long been able to save files to iCloud, the latest versions of iOS now … Read More

How to Disable System Integrity Protection (rootless) in Mac OS X

Oct 5, 2015 - 80 Comments
Enable or Disable System Integrity Protection Rootless in Mac OS X

Apple has enabled a new default security oriented featured called System Integrity Protection, often called rootless or SIP, in Mac OS from versions 10.11 onward. The SIP / rootless feature is aimed at preventing Mac OS X compromise by malicious code, whether intentionally or accidentally, and essentially what SIP does is lock down specific system … Read More

How to Disable or Enable Live Photos on iPhone Camera

Oct 4, 2015 - 32 Comments
Turn Live Photos On, on iPhone Camera

Live Photos are a notable camera feature of the new iPhone, which basically allow a typically still photo to transform into a short movie clip instead, with live action from a second before and after the picture was taken with the iPhone Camera. This is definitely an interesting feature of the new iPhone Cameras and … Read More

5 Great New Spotlight Search Tricks in Mac OS X

Oct 3, 2015 - 46 Comments
Spotlight icon

Spotlight search has long been one of the greatest features on the Mac (and iOS for that matter), and now with the latest versions of MacOS (or Mac OS X) the near instant search engine that spans Apple platforms has some new capabilities that make it even more powerful and worthwhile. From being able to … Read More

How to Hide OS X El Capitan from Mac App Store

Oct 2, 2015 - 46 Comments
The OS X El Capitan Installer

Not all Mac users want to update to OS X El Capitan, and if you’re in the group who wants to stay put with OS X Mavericks, Yosemite*, Mountain Lion, or even Snow Leopard on their Mac, that’s perfectly OK*, you probably have a reason to stay with the earlier Mac OS X releases. But, … Read More

How to Clean Install OS X El Capitan on a Mac

Oct 1, 2015 - 85 Comments
How to Clean Install OS X El Capitan on a Mac

Some Mac users may like to perform what is known as a clean install with OS X El Capitan. Basically, a clean install involves erasing the Mac drive and starting fresh with a new installation of OS X 10.11, and users who opt for clean installs usually rely on their own personal backups to restore … Read More

How to Use Split View in Full Screen with Mac OS

Oct 1, 2015 - 35 Comments
Click and hold the green button

Split View is a new feature in Mac OS X which allows you to take two apps into full screen together, placing them split side-by-side. For example, you could take a Safari window into full screen mode and then split the fullscreen with another app, like Pages. Split View sizes the windows automatically for any … Read More

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