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.

Search Tips & Tricks

Get a 3D Dock Again in OS X Yosemite (or a Transparent Dock too)

Oct 29, 2014 - 58 Comments
Transparent Dock in OS X Yosemite

The Dock is just one of a variety of aspects of the Mac OS X interface that was overhauled and flattened in Yosemite. Gone are the days of the 3D Dock, the new Yosemite Dock defaults to looking like a flatter version, much like the iOS Dock. If you long for the Dock with some … Read More

2 Possible Fixes for Mail SMTP Sending Errors in Mac OS X

Oct 28, 2014 - 232 Comments
Fix SMTP Mail sending problems

Some Mac users who updated MacOS have found Mail app to experience errors or problems when trying to send email. Typically this is in the form of an SMTP server connection error, a mailbox that’s seemingly stuck offline, a repeated request for a password from Mail app (a fairly common issue which we’ve fixed before), … Read More

Set Up Apple Pay on iPhone

Oct 28, 2014 - 8 Comments
Set up Apple Pay on the iPhone

Apple Pay is a contactless payment platform that is newly available to iPhone 6 users. It works well and is incredibly simple; once you’ve added a card to Apple Pay, you just need to wave your iPhone over an Apple Pay compatible NFC payment terminal to pay for whatever you’re buying. The iPhones built-in TouchID … Read More

Maximize & Zoom Windows in Mac OS X the Old Fashioned Way

Oct 28, 2014 - 42 Comments
Double-click to maximize a window in Mac OS X

Among some of the seemingly smaller changes made in newer versions of Mac OS from OS X Yosemite onward is an adjustment to how a windows green Maximize button behaves. In older versions of Mac OS X, clicking on the green maximize button would expand and enlarge the window to a larger size, but in … Read More

Fonts Look Blurry in OS X Yosemite? Change Font Smoothing Settings

Oct 27, 2014 - 46 Comments
Default font smoothing in OS X Yosemite

Some users of OS X Yosemite have found the Macs new system font, Helvetica Neue, looks blurry and is generally harder to read than Lucida Grande, the system font it replaced. The blurred fonts are sometimes able to be reproduced in screenshots but usually they show up looking normal, which makes demonstrating this issue a … Read More

Spotlight Search Results Blank, or Spotlight Not Working in iOS 8? Here’s a Really Silly Temporary Fix

Oct 26, 2014 - 129 Comments
Search the web with Spotlight in iOS

Spotlight gained many new features and improvements with the latest version of iOS, but along with those changes came a curious bug that seems to randomly prevent Spotlight from working at all on an iPhone or iPad with empty search results.

Fix Wi-Fi Problems in OS X Yosemite

Oct 25, 2014 - 368 Comments
OS X Yosemite

Some Mac users who upgraded to OS X Yosemite have discovered a variety of wireless network connectivity issues, ranging from dropping wi-fi connections, to an inability to connect to the outside world despite being connected to a wifi router, even suddenly and strangely slow internet speeds. These network issues seem to occur most often on … Read More

6 Easy Tips to Speed Up OS X Yosemite on Your Mac

Oct 24, 2014 - 124 Comments

OS X Yosemite runs great on most new Macs, but some older models may experience some sluggishness or stuttering from time to time. The reason for that feeling of reduced performance can be due to a variety of issues, and most of them are really easy to resolve with surprisingly little effort.

Enable Dark Menu Mode with a Keyboard Shortcut in Mac OS X

Oct 24, 2014 - 7 Comments
iMac

Dark Mode impacts the appearance of the Dock and Menu Bar in Mac OS X, turning both from their grey on white defaults to a higher contrast white text against black background dark alternative. The effect is sort of iOS-like, but it also makes a great addition to the Increase Contrast feature on a Mac … Read More

Enable Continuity & Handoff on Unsupported Macs with Continuity Activation Tool

Oct 23, 2014 - 30 Comments
Handoff is part of Continuity in iOS and OS X

Continuity and Handoff are two great features of OS X Yosemite and iOS 8 that allow an iPhone or iPad to ‘handoff’ an application, like a half-written email, over to the Mac to be completed in the Mac Mail app. It’s one of the major reasons for iOS and Mac users to upgrade to OS … Read More

How to Show a Sidebar in iTunes 12

Oct 23, 2014 - 190 Comments

The iTunes sidebar has been a part of the media players functionality since the earliest days of the app, allowing users to quickly navigate around iTunes and their media, and also easily transfer things like music and movies to their iPhones, iPads, and iPods. The latest version of iTunes 12 has a different take on … Read More

How to Increase Interface Contrast in macOS Monterey, Big Sur, Catalina, Mojave, Sierra, El Capitan, Yosemite

Oct 22, 2014 - 44 Comments

The revised interface in modern MacOS versions including macOS Monterey, macOS Big Sur, MacOS Catalina, macOS Mojave, High Sierra, Sierra, OS X El Capitan, and OS X Yosemite makes heavy use of transparencies, flatness, white space, smaller and narrow fonts, and a dramatic lack of contrast with neutral shades of grey used for most text … Read More

How to Downgrade OS X Yosemite Back to OS X Mavericks

Oct 22, 2014 - 139 Comments

For Mac users who have updated to OS X Yosemite and found it to be unbearable for whatever reason, you’ll be pleased to discover that downgrading back to OS X Mavericks may be a possibility for you. This is not specifically recommended, but if you’re absolutely set on reverting from Yosemite to the prior version … Read More

How to Install Java in OS X Yosemite

Oct 21, 2014 - 54 Comments
Java SE 7u7

Mac users who require Java and who have installed OS X Yosemite may have discovered that a prior version of Java is no longer functioning under OS X 10.10, and that older installers don’t work to install Java in Yosemite. Additionally, a fresh install of Yosemite does not include Java at all. If your Mac … Read More

Did iOS 8.1 Reduce Your Battery Life? This May Help

Oct 21, 2014 - 80 Comments
iPhone with a dead battery? Find it anyway

Though the iOS 8.1 update includes many bug fixes that resolve some of the frustrating annoyances that popped up in earlier versions, a handful of users have experienced something else with iOS 8.1; quickly reducing battery life. No, we’re not talking about shaving a few minutes off how long your iPad or iPhone lasts, we’re … Read More

How to Show the Full Website URL in Safari for Mac OS

Oct 20, 2014 - 71 Comments
Show full website URL in Safari for OS X

The newest versions of Safari in macOS High Sierra, Mac OS Sierra, OS X El Capitan & OS X Yosemite defaults to only displaying the domain name of the website you are visiting, rather than the complete URL that many users have long been accustomed to seeing. Some users won’t notice the change, but for … Read More

How to Delete an iCloud Account from an iPhone / iPad

Oct 19, 2014 - 157 Comments
Delete an iCloud Account from iOS

For those of us who juggle between multiple iCloud accounts (which is really not recommended), you may need to remove an iCloud account associated with an iPhone or iPad some times. This is typically for situations where you need to swap in a different account, create a new iCloud login for some reason, or just … Read More

How to Clean Install OS X Yosemite

Oct 18, 2014 - 142 Comments

Most Mac users who are upgrading to OS X Yosemite should go through the standard process via the Mac App Store and start the installation from there, it’s by far the easiest approach and it generally goes flawlessly. Some users like to perform what is known as a clean installation of Mac OS X though, … Read More

Subscribe to OSXDaily

Subscribe to RSS Subscribe to Twitter Feed Follow on Facebook Subscribe to eMail Updates

Tips & Tricks

News

iPhone / iPad

Mac

Troubleshooting

Shop on Amazon to help support this site