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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Find Detailed Wi-Fi Connection History from Command Line of Mac OS X

Jun 3, 2015 - 12 Comments

There are some situations where knowing exactly what wireless networks a Mac has connected to and when that connection was last established can be helpful. We’ll demonstrate how to uncover a comprehensive listing of specifics about previously joined wi-fi networks on a Mac, which will include the last connection date and time (to the second!), … Read More

How to Turn Off (or On) the Stand Up Reminder on Apple Watch

Jun 3, 2015 - 24 Comments
Apple Watch activity goal screen summary with standing reminder

Apple Watch has a variety of fitness tracking and motivational features that are aimed at improving the wearers activity and health, or at least their awareness of it. One of the most notable features for Apple Watch users is the “Stand Reminder”, which, much as it sounds, is a gentle reminder to stand up every … Read More

How to Change DNS from Command Line of Mac OS X

Jun 2, 2015 - 12 Comments
Terminal in macOS

Advanced Mac users may find it useful to know that DNS servers in Mac OS X can be set from the command line, without having to turn to the System Preferences Network control panel. While the GUI Network control panel is undeniably the easiest approach for most Mac users, the command line method offers benefits … Read More

How to Minimize (& Maximize) Emails in Mail App on iPhone

Jun 1, 2015 - 12 Comments
How to minimize an email message in iOS Mail app

If you spend a fair amount of time emailing from the iPhone, you’ve almost certainly come across a situation where you’ll be writing out an email, but need to get data or information from another email in your Mail inbox. That used to be a challenge, but modern versions of the Mail app in iOS … Read More

How to Stop Photos Opening Automatically on Mac OS X when iPhone or Camera Connects

May 31, 2015 - 113 Comments

The Mac Photos app defaults to automatically launch whenever an iPhone, digital camera, or SD memory media card connects to the computer. This behavior can be helpful and desired by some users, but for many others, automatically opening the Photos app can be frustrating if not annoying. Fortunately, you can quickly stop the Photos app … Read More

Assign a Name to Group Chats in Messages for Mac

May 29, 2015 - 15 Comments
Assign a name to group chat in Messages for Mac

When you’re engaged in a group conversation in Messages for Mac, you’ll notice the ‘To’ section lists the names of people participating in the group chat. While that’s certainly adequate for most situations, if you have a specific group chat going for a specific purpose, you can assign a name to any given group chat … Read More

How to Straighten Photos on iPhone & iPad

May 28, 2015 - 7 Comments
Photos iOS icon

Just about everyone has taken a picture that isn’t lined up quite straight, but iOS offers a nice simple way to quickly straighten any photo by tilting the image by a small degree. Whether an image is completely askew or just slightly tilted, you can can quickly correct the image and straighten it right within … Read More

How to Batch Rename Files on Mac OS X Easily from Finder

May 28, 2015 - 42 Comments
Batch Rename Files in Mac OS X Finder

Modern versions of Mac OS X include a built-in batch file renaming tool that allows Mac users to instantly rename large groups of files, folders, photos, or anything else residing on their file system in a single action. This bulk rename item utility is part of the Finder, meaning there are no add-ons, downloads, or … Read More

How to Quickly Type Emoji on Mac with a Keyboard Shortcut

May 27, 2015 - 35 Comments
Emoji quick type access panel in Mac OS X accessed by a keyboard shortcut

If you use Emoji characters often in Mac OS X, you’ll enjoy knowing there is a very fast keystroke to immediately access a special Mac Emoji character panel from anywhere text entry is possible in Mac OS. Additionally, you can navigate within this quick Emoji panel entirely with the keyboard, which makes typing Emoji on … Read More

How to Set Custom Quick Reply Messages on Apple Watch

May 26, 2015 - 6 Comments
Quick reply to messages on Apple Watch

Apple Watch offers quick and seamless communication methods, and one of the most used features for many users is the ability to instantly reply to inbound messages with quick pre-canned replies, emojis, or a dictated message. The quick replies in particular are very useful, and Apple Watch offers a variety of default replies for this … Read More

How to List All Applications on a Mac

May 25, 2015 - 26 Comments
All Applications on a Mac as seen from System Information of OS X

Need to know what applications are on any Mac? Mac OS offers a variety of ways to list apps that are installed on a Mac, and we’ll cover three different approaches to this: a basic listing of installed Mac apps which is sufficient for most user needs, an intermediate and more thorough listing of apps … Read More

Allow Free App Downloads Without Password Entry in iOS

May 24, 2015 - 44 Comments
Require a password for free downloads in iOS

You have likely noticed that downloading a free app from the iOS App Store triggers the ‘Enter Password’ dialog screen on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. While this is a valid precaution to prevent unauthorized users from installing apps onto an iOS device, it’s not always desired, particularly for shared iPads and iOS devices … Read More

How to Stop Using an iCloud Password to Unlock a Mac

May 23, 2015 - 15 Comments
Use iCloud (Apple ID) as a Mac Login

When a user sets up a new Mac, there is a helpful option to use an iCloud ID and Apple ID to login and unlock the Mac. Users can also choose at any time to have their iCloud ID as their login for OS X too. While this is undoubtedly a helpful feature and it … Read More

Find Movie Showtimes with Spotlight in Mac OS X

May 22, 2015 - 10 Comments

Want to see a movie tonight? Wondering what the showtime are of a movie playing nearby? You can quickly find local movie showtimes by using the Spotlight search feature in Mac OS X. Yes you read that right, the same Spotlight that works as an app launcher and file search engine, can also uncover movie … Read More

How to Clear a Chat Transcript in Messages for Mac OS X

May 22, 2015 - 2 Comments
Clear transcript and chat log from Messages in Mac OS X

Want to quickly delete a Messages conversation on Mac? The Mac Messages app maintains a transcript of conversations that have been carried out on the computer, thus when you open a message window to a particular sender, you’ll see the prior conversations, pictures, and other sent/received data in the same message thread. If you’d like … Read More

How to Repair Photos Library to Fix Common Issues with Photos App on Mac OS X

May 21, 2015 - 131 Comments
The Photos Library package file in Mac OS X

The Mac Photos app works well for most users, but occasionally a variety of hiccups can be encountered when interacting with photo libraries, ranging from crashes, to hanging on Photos app launch, a failed import, thumbnails missing from an image library, pictures missing from a library that was imported, or even a completely empty Photos … Read More

Why Wait for OS X 10.11? How to Use the San Francisco System Font on OS X Yosemite Now

May 20, 2015 - 58 Comments
San Francisco font

Apple is apparently planning on replacing Helvetica Neue, the current default system font in iOS and OS X, with the ‘San Francisco’ font used on Apple Watch, according to a new report from the well sourced 9to5mac. The font change to “San Francisco” will apparently arrive to OS X 10.11 and iOS 9, but if … Read More

How to Cancel Printing & Print Jobs in Mac OS X

May 18, 2015 - 6 Comments
Delete print jobs in Mac OS X

If you’ve ever printed anything from a computer, you’ve inevitably wound up trying to print something that you soon discovered wasn’t needed. Regardless, rather than letting the print job continue and waste ink and paper, the best thing to do is cancel the printers print job or jobs. There are a few ways to cancel … Read More

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