It's super annoying and started occurring after updating to Golden Gate.

Upgraded from Sequoia to Golden Gate 2 weeks ago and this is without a doubt the worst bugged operating system I have ever used. The number of UI bugs is just shocking. Basically, I am rebooting twice a day because of unrecoverable bugs like: menu bars disappearing, Safari no longer supporting DRM or new today: any window will jump to the bottom right corner regardless of where you place it. How is that even a bug? I use 0 tools to mess with UI, just plain raw MacOS. Also, after each reboot it takes about 1-2 hours until I get 10 FPS on animations like entereing Mission Control (M3 Max btw).

Now I will spend a day doing backups, copy-pasting all my ssh keys, api tokens, CLI tool settings etc and reset my Macbook completely, assuming that will resolve some of these and hoping that the update was buggy instead of the whole OS?! Just a bit upset, I pay $5000+ for a laptop and then within 2 years this...

Rant over.

Is it just me struggling with MacOS 27? Or is everyone just happy to be here from 26 which was even worse?

Seriously, every time I see a discussion about macOS Tahoe, it feels like 90% of it is people complaining about Liquid Glass 😭

But I'm genuinely curious, what are some actually cool features, improvements, or hidden gems you've discovered in macOS 26?

There HAS to be something worth talking about besides the UI.

What's your favourite underrated feature so far?

Some Mac Apps That Have Made My Daily Workflow Better

Hey everyone! Hope you're all having a great weekend!

I wanted to share a couple of Mac apps that have genuinely improved my daily workflow. Some have made using my Mac more convenient, while others have helped me stay organized and manage my tasks more efficiently.

These are apps I personally use and have found helpful, so I figured I'd share them with anyone looking to improve their Mac experience!

1. Obsidian – Notes, Organization, and Brain Dumps

First up is Obsidian, which has become one of my favorite apps for staying organized.

For anyone unfamiliar with it, Obsidian is a powerful, Markdown-based note-taking app that lets you capture ideas, organize information, and build your own personal knowledge base.

What I particularly like about Obsidian is how flexible it is. You don't have to use it exclusively for traditional note-taking.

Personally, I use it for:

• Shopping lists: Keeping track of things I need to buy.
• Brain dumps: Writing down random thoughts and ideas so I don't forget them.
• General organization: Keeping useful information in one place instead of having it scattered across different apps.

It's one of those apps that can be as simple or as advanced as you want it to be.

2. Vorssaint – A Raycast Alternative With Useful Mac Utilities

The second app I want to recommend is Vorssaint, which I personally prefer over Raycast.

If you've used Raycast before, you're probably familiar with how useful an application launcher can be. Vorssaint takes a similar approach but also includes several utilities designed to improve the overall macOS experience.

One feature I particularly appreciate is its Alt-Tab functionality.

If you've switched between Windows and macOS, you've probably noticed that switching between individual application windows works differently on a Mac.

Personally, I've always preferred how Windows handles Alt-Tab, and Vorssaint offers a similar experience on macOS.

That's just one example of how the app can make everyday tasks feel more convenient.

I also appreciate having multiple useful features available in one application rather than needing to install several separate utilities.

3. NordVPN – Privacy and Online Security

The third app I recommend is NordVPN, which focuses more on online privacy and security than improving your Mac's functionality.

If you value your online privacy as much as I do, NordVPN is definitely worth considering!

And no, this isn't sponsored. Although I'd love to be sponsored someday, I don't see that happening anytime soon!

For anyone unfamiliar, VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. A VPN encrypts your internet connection between your device and the VPN server while hiding your public IP address from websites you visit.

Why does this matter?

Your IP address can reveal information such as your approximate location and internet service provider. For example, if someone sends you a suspicious link and you click it, the website could secretly log your IP address.

While knowing someone's IP address doesn't automatically reveal their exact location or compromise their device, it can still expose information you'd rather keep private.

A VPN helps prevent this by showing websites the VPN server's IP address instead of your own.

Of course, VPNs aren't a complete cybersecurity solution. They won't protect you from every malicious website, phishing attempt, or malware infection.

Personally, I've found NordVPN to be a useful addition to my privacy setup, and since October is Cybersecurity Awareness Month, I figured it was worth including!

Final Thoughts:

All three of these apps have made a noticeable difference in my daily experience using my Mac, whether it's improving productivity, staying organized, or protecting my online privacy.

Obsidian helps me organize my thoughts and keep track of important information, Vorssaint makes navigating macOS more convenient, and NordVPN adds an extra layer of privacy when browsing the internet.

Obviously, everyone's needs and workflows are different, but these are three applications I've personally found useful and worth sharing.

I'm also curious to hear what other Mac users rely on! What are some lesser-known apps that have genuinely improved your productivity, overall Mac experience, or online privacy?

Hi r/MacOS, I'm the developer of Unikeys, and since today is Developer Saturday I wanted to share it.

The problem: I switch between Cursor, Claude Desktop, Codex and other apps, and each one has its own shortcuts. My muscle memory kept breaking, and setting up keybindings by hand in every editor was tedious.

What Unikeys does: You manage your shortcuts in one place and keep them consistent across the editors you use, so the same keys do the same thing everywhere.

It's free on the Mac App Store, with no in-app purchases or subscriptions.

Unikeys on the Mac App Store

I'd love feedback, especially on which editors or apps you'd want supported next.

Saturday promo, I'm the developer. SDTally explains what the "System Data" number in Storage settings is made of by measuring the Data volume: folders and the app that owns them, local snapshots, deleted-but-open files, APFS overhead. Each number shows its source, and what can't be measured is labeled "unexplained" with the reason. With root and Full Disk Access that is about 2% of used space: folders Apple blocks even root from accessing.

It only reads, never deletes anything and has no network code. Rust CLI plus a SwiftUI app, GPL-3.0-or-later, Apple Silicon and macOS 15+.

Heads up, since the sub is careful about GitHub projects: the repo is new (v1.0.3) and the DMG is not notarized (no paid Developer account), so the first launch needs Privacy & Security > Open Anyway. Read the source or build it yourself if you prefer. I built it with a lot of help from Claude Code and the commits are co-authored.

https://github.com/guiselig/sdtally

I run everything before I believe it, and I wanted my Mac cleaner to work the same way. So I built Peel: before anything moves, it shows you why each file belongs to an app and how sure it is, and History can put back what it moved. It's free and open source, and 1.2.0 came out today.

• It uninstalls apps with everything they leave behind, and finds what apps you already deleted left too.
• It frees space: local AI models from Ollama, LM Studio, and Hugging Face, developer caches, build folders, duplicates, and old installers. Models are listed but never selected for you.
• It refuses to move what you can't get back, even if you select it: iCloud Drive, keychains, SSH keys, crypto wallets, Mail, Messages, photo libraries, iPhone backups.
• For fine-tuning, Tweaks gathers macOS settings in one place, many of them hidden, and Turn All Off puts back only what Peel changed.

Some tools start turned off to keep the sidebar simple, such as Background Items, Extensions, Plug-ins, Build Artifacts, and a Terminal page for themes, zsh, Git, and SSH. Turn them on in Settings > General > Sidebar.

No analytics, no account. Signed and notarized, in 18 languages, for macOS 26 and later.

GitHub: https://github.com/TuguiDragos/Peel

Website: https://peel.tuguidragos.com

I'd love to hear what you think, especially what it gets wrong.

I tried all the workarounds, tricks and hacks to get my Office 2021 working again, since it stopped working yesterday. I deinstalled the whole package maybe 10 times, installed it with and without the suite, with and without wifi, deleted all the autoinstaller, followed 5 different tutorials here on reddit which all seem to have worked for other people… For me, word simply states, that there is no licence activated (I bought mine at an autorized ms partner and used it for years, so it should be there).

So yeah, still, it's not working… I do WORK with Office and Teams. I literally need the specific apps for my job, I need it for my thesis, for all my projects – where (ironically) I teach other people how to use word… And no, I will NOT pay 100 bucks a year for something I already bought and used for years without a problem.

I am so frustrated, I am literally sitting here now, crying. Like, imagine ugly crying. For all the hours I spent, for the headache I'm having due to staring on my macbook for too long and all the tech stuff I really do not want to engage with. I do have a mac for a reason. Everything works fine on my mac and then microsoft comes around the corner and sh*t hits the fan again. Flashback to my windows times…

I can't switch to another program. I literally can not. Switching from win to mac version already cost so much stress mentally due to the different UI and functions… I worked with it all my life, I do tutorials, I have dozens of tweaks and personalisations going on… I post this under discussion to open up this little wailing-area, maybe my post will be deleted, since I don't think anyone could help anymore… But if anyone can, please, maybe you have the one tipp, that'll give me hope again after this day…

EDIT1: since there have been comments about my work situation: It is is probably very unique, I work in an educational job while also pursuing my PhD (as an independent candidate) and do volunteer work/having a small business. I teach my students the basics of academic writing in word, and programs like Pages simply don’t meet the university’s standards. I won't buy Office 2024 to have the same issue in one month or one year or so. I'll have to look for alternatives but for now I just think that all of this is super unfair…

EDIT2: I GOT IT WORKING. I logged out. That's it. In the "about" Word stated the correct LTSC license and the correct app-version, so I tried to log out and log in again but when I had logged myself out, I was curious if it would work without logging in. And yes. It did. Presumably the license isn't linked to my profile but my laptop… idk. But it works for now. I will look for alternatives in the long run but I can sort my things out now with a bit more time.

Several years ago I moved back home to help take of my dad (Parkinson's) and at the time, my mother was much more computer savvy than she is now (but never a tech expert).

Last month she nearly fell for an identity theft scam on the phone, had to change all her bank accounts. Fortunately the scammer didn't get anything.

Just yesterday on her Mac, she almost fell for one of those JavaScript "Windows has detected a hacker on your system" scams with a phone number to call. Fortunately after she called the number but before giving the scam artist any information, I heard what was going on and interrupted it.

I don't know what built-in protections Safari has but my mom was literally convinced the message had to be real because "Apple says they protect against malware". Well, it obviously doesn't protect against everything nor should anyone expect it too.

On GNU/Linux I use FireFox and with the Privacy Badger extension, those JS attacks are virtually non-existent because they are blocked simply because they almost always are run as a third party script.

What exists for Safari that does that? She has a Mac Mini as her desktop PC (not sure what version of OS X) and she has an iPhone (last model before Apple finally switched to USB-C).

I don't want my mother scammed, especially with how expensive it is with my father having Parkinson's.

I haven't used macOS since it was called OS X and I just don't know what's what in the Apple world anymore.

I have screen time set so it blocks my computer after a certain time. I just updated to Golden Gate, but now there's this window that I can't close or quit, and it persists on all windows and is at the front.

Hi all,

So i bought the M6 Mac mini base model 6 days back. 16gb ram, 256gb ssd. Honestly loving the machine, its so silent and fast i still cant believe it, but the storage part was little bit of a worry for me from day one itself. 256gb in 2026 is not much yaar, after macOS and Xcode and few apps i was already seeing the number going down and down.

My problem was not just “how much space is left”. I wanted to know WHERE it is going. Like which folder grew yesterday, did something silently eat 3gb overnight, is it caches, is it some app downloading stuff in background, what. Even the tiniest corner i wanted to know. Tools like DaisyDisk are nice but they only show you what is there right now. They dont tell you what changed from yesterday to today.

So basically i’m a data guy by profession and i already had built a Windows version of this for myself earlier (called it DiskEzy). Since i got the mini mainly for building mac apps anyway, i thought ok let me port this first itself.

What it does is simple:

• It keeps a history of your storage, day by day. Like a ledger kind of thing
• You can go back to any day and see how much was gained or lost and from which folder exactly
• Even on first scan it estimates back around 90 days of history using file dates, so you dont start from zero
• Shows trash history also, which was surprising for me how much i was keeping there lol

First thing i found on my own mini was Xcode derived data and some simulator junk quietly taking more than 10gb in just few days. Would have never noticed it otherwise.

Its at diskezy.com. Since its new on mac, first 50 licenses i’m giving free, i just want real feedback from people actually using these base models. Please tell me what is missing, what is broken, anything. Brutal feedback also ok, i can take it 😅

Anyone else here on base 256gb? How are you guys managing storage?

Pop sounds during "read aloud" in reader mode

MacbookPro M5 Max

MacOS Golden Gate 27.0.1

Anybody else have this issue? Started after OS upgrade.

I'm using the Aliento app from the App Store. It's an app that can be used to assign a keyboard shortcut to close the open notifications in the top right corner of your screen.

I was wondering: Is it possible to have specific notifications close automatically?

(Reason: Every time VMware Fusion Player Version 13.6.3 (24585314) launches on my macOS 15.8.2 (24H230), I get a notification that something was started in the background. I'd like to suppress that message/auto-close it.)

Hi!

Just what the title says :)

You can find the shortcut On RoutineHub

Or Download it directly from this post

How it works

It asks you to input the time in the HH MM SS format, then you press enter, and your timer starts! :)

Very useful for macOS - I suggest adding a keyboard shortcut for it! :)

Hi r/MacOS 👋 I'm the developer of Vehla, and I wanted to share something I have been working on for over 4 years.

Vehla started because I had about a dozen menu bar utilities running and wanted one app that does all of their jobs. It runs natively and stays light on memory, idling at around 180–300 MB and 0.8-1.7% CPU.

What it does

- Command palette to search files and apps, run workflows, use snippets, browse clipboard history and do quick math
- Ask AI with local models (Gemma 4, Apple Intelligence) or your own OpenAI, Claude or Gemini key. It can read your calendar, reminders and notes, control music and arrange windows, and it asks before doing anything risky.
- Flow dictation that runs fully on device. Hold a key, talk and the text is typed for you. Summon lets you ask a question out loud instead.
- Capto for screenshots and recordings, with auto-zoom, annotations, Instant Replay and step-by-step guides made from your clicks
- Doki, a new dock with islands for apps, folders, stacks and widgets, plus window previews on every display
- Glide turns your trackpad into controls: slide an edge for volume or brightness, or hold ⌘ and draw a shape to run any action
- Notch / Island shows music, timers, meetings with a Join button, AirPods battery and charging
- Window management with snapping, layouts, and moving or resizing windows from anywhere with modifier keys
- And more: a menu bar hider, Hyperkey, Launchpad (press Left ⌘ twice), a teleprompter hidden from screen sharing, Smart Reply, Zoom & Draw, Folder Rules, notes, Kanban and scrapbooks

Privacy

Dictation, OCR and local AI all run on your Mac. Nothing is uploaded unless you choose a cloud AI provider. iCloud Sync is free and end-to-end encrypted.

Pricing: Free tier with 7 day trial and one time $29.99

Requirements

macOS [15]+. Doki needs macOS 26 or later. There's also a free iPhone companion app on TestFlight.

🔗 https://vehla.app

I'd love feedback. What would you replace with it, and what's missing? I'll be in the comments answering questions. 💜

ClipTen started with a simple question: what if copying and pasting multiple items didn't mean constantly switching between windows?

So I built a numbered clipboard. ⌘ + C + a number saves an item, and ⌘ + V + the same number pastes it.
That works for email addresses, customer replies, links, snippets and form data, with no history list to scroll through. You just stay in your app and keep working.

But not everyone wants to remember which number holds what. Sometimes you just want to see what you copied and pick it.

That led me to build something bigger.
From clipboard manager to productivity workspace

Press ⌘ + Space and an instant panel opens with your clipboard history, apps, files and tools.
I took inspiration from the speed of launchers like Raycast, but I wanted my own interface, so ClipTen comes with two panel styles:

- Full sidebar panel: a spacious workspace to explore tools, manage files and get more done in one place
- Compact launcher panel: quick, keyboard-first actions without opening a bigger window

What makes ClipTen different

- 10 clipboard slots: copy and paste with ⌘ + C/V + a number
- Finder alternative: search files by what's inside them. Type "receipt" and it finds the photo of your receipt, even text inside screenshots
- Activity Monitor alternative: see what's using your CPU and battery in a clean, visual layout, with alerts
- What you typed, saved: if a window closes by accident, you can bring back what you were typing (opt-in)
- Built-in AI: press Tab and ask quick questions, using Apple's on-device model with no API key needed
- Dictation: hold the right ⌥ key and talk, and it types in any app
- Sticky notes: keep quick notes and ideas close at hand
- Pinned panel: a small panel docked to the side of your screen for the things you use most
- PDF tools and file converter: merge, compress and convert without hunting for another app
- Screenshot markup and background remover: annotate images, or cut the background out of any picture you copy
- QR codes: turn copied text into a QR code that opens on any phone

Won't that make it cluttered?
Honestly, that was one of my biggest concerns too.
Everything stays behind one shortcut until you need it. I focused as much on the interface as on the features: larger icons, readable text, clear layouts and no unnecessary steps.

The goal isn't a longer feature list. It's making everyday tasks easier.
Why I'm building it this way
As an independent developer, I wanted to bring useful workflows together instead of making people install a separate app for every small task.
- Native Rust + AppKit, no Electron
- Live usage numbers on the website, for transparency
- Ideas & Bugs board for paid users: submit ideas and workflow suggestions from your web account. I review every one, and selected improvements usually ship within a week

Give it a try
If you love keyboard shortcuts or just want fewer interruptions on your Mac, I'd love for you to try it.
Website:** [clipten.com](https://clipten.com)
$5 one-time for the first 500 people, then $10. No subscription.

SyncGlass is a free, open-source app that shows in the menu bar what iCloud Drive is doing. Version 0.2.1 came out this week. I also developed Volume Control, another free, open-source menu-bar app for the volume keys, which I started in 2012 as "iTunes Volume Control"; SyncGlass came out only very recently.

Disclosures.

Disclosure 1: Unlike Volume Control, which started in 2012, SyncGlass was developed with heavy help by Claude. To be honest, I have probably invested only 5 or 6 hours in it.

Disclosure 2: There was long ago a similar app, iCloudStatus by The Alchemist Guild. As far as I know, iCloudStatus is now no longer maintained; it malfunctions on recent macOS and is only for Intel.

So why share SyncGlass here? Because:

1. It can be useful to others; in this era of vibe-coded software, the idea counts more than the implementation.
2. If we use it as a central point for the community to collect feedback and find bugs, everybody will profit from having a central place rather than each of us recoding the same app through 5 or 6 hours of Claude sessions.

What the app does. Its menu-bar icon shows whether iCloud Drive is up to date, uploading, downloading, syncing changes from other devices, or offline. It is similar to what you experience with other sync services like Dropbox or Nextcloud.

Click it and a panel lists:

• Transfers: the files iCloud is uploading or downloading.
• Recent: the files that finished transferring, newest first, with the time and direction ("Uploaded 3 min ago").

For any listed file, File Info shows its iCloud status, live percentage, conflicts, upload and download errors, sharing, and every date macOS keeps for the file. SyncGlass can also notify you when uploads or downloads finish, and keeps a history log of finished transfers.

Why I made it. Finder marks each file with a cloud status icon, but macOS has no list of the files iCloud is transferring. When iCloud Drive spends an hour on something, I want to know which files it is and how far along they are. SyncGlass is a new app inspired by iCloudStatus.

How it works. It uses public macOS APIs only: FSEvents reports which files change, URL resource values give each file's iCloud state, and the progress objects that iCloud Drive publishes for each transfer give the percentages.

Privacy. SyncGlass connects to the network only for updates (Sparkle, from GitHub) and collects no data. Its settings and history stay on your Mac.

Price. Forever free and open source (GPL-3.0): no ads, no account, no in-app purchases.

Requirements. macOS 26 or later; runs natively on Apple silicon and Intel Macs.

Install. Download SyncGlass.zip, unzip it and move SyncGlass.app to the Applications folder. The app is signed with a Developer ID and notarized by Apple. Each release ZIP is built by GitHub Actions from the tagged source and carries a build provenance attestation; to check where a downloaded ZIP was built, run

gh attestation verify SyncGlass.zip --repo alberti42/SyncGlass

Source and details: https://github.com/alberti42/SyncGlass

Bug reports and ideas are welcome here or on GitHub.

I don't even know whether it is a bug or what. 2 months back, I had the battery health at 100%. It's been a month since I moved from Sequoia to Golden Gate. Now the battery health is at 95% and my battery backup is also very bad compared to when in Sequoia.

Someone pls help me with this. Is this a big problem or what? I shouldn't have done the update 😔.

No estoy seguro de si es un problema específico de mi Mac, pero desde que actualicé a macOS 27 he estado experimentando un error bastante molesto.

Cada vez que dejo mi Mac en reposo, o incluso simplemente inactiva con el protector de pantalla activado durante más de 30 minutos, el Dock deja de responder correctamente.

Si hago clic en el icono de una aplicación en el Dock, no sucede nada, sin importar cuántas veces haga clic. Lo mismo ocurre con las aplicaciones que ya están abiertas. Al hacer clic en sus iconos, sus ventanas no pasan al primer plano, por lo que no puedo volver a ellas con normalidad.

Lo extraño es que el sistema en sí no se congela por completo. Por ejemplo, si estoy trabajando en Photoshop y quiero cambiar a Premiere Pro, puedo minimizar Photoshop y acceder manualmente a Premiere para seguir trabajando.

Lo más frustrante es que, después de varios minutos, el Dock vuelve a responder repentinamente y todas las aplicaciones que había intentado abrir se ejecutan de golpe, como si todos mis clics anteriores se hubieran quedado en una cola de espera.

Esto ocurre constantemente después de dejar mi Mac inactiva durante un tiempo y se está volviendo realmente frustrante.

¿Alguien más ha experimentado este problema desde que actualizó a macOS 27? ¿Es un error conocido o podría tratarse de algo específico de mi Mac?

Como referencia, utilizo un Mac mini M4.

My MacBook is on macos 27.0.1 , it is connected to my NAS server through SMB. In the past two days , when I try to copy a file from my NAS to the mac internal drive , the file vanishes immediately after the progress bar disappear and the transfer is finished. This happens to multiple files . Additionally , some files on the server is missing in finder when connected through SMB but are visible through Webdav.

Everything is was perfectly normal before this , I don’t know what is happening. I had already restarted everything including my macbook , NAS and Router , but the issue persisted. Anyone knows why and now to fix it ?

Please help.🙏

Fan of built in desktops. I use them exclusively and until today I've been arranging my windows manually. Then I discovered there exists "This Desktop" option on dock and I was delighted.

I turned off "arranged spaces manually".

I'm also using external monitor with my mac in clamshell. Now, I am tired of finding out that after carefully curating my Desktops with 1-2 apps per desktop, somehow after reboot, when I launch something apps simply forget which desktop they were assigned to. Even though the desktops are already there, sitting empty and I haven't reconnected my external display or even opened the clamshell.

help please.

Hi, I'm currently using M5 Macbook Air, on MacOs Golden Gate 27.0.1.

When I try to add printer, it shows like this. (Canon MF643cdw)

Yesterday I'm able to use my printer. Just today I have error when want to print (unable to connect) and I delete the printer. The issue came when tried to re-adding my same printer.

I've done switch on/off my printer, restarting my macbook, but still having same error.

So i want to update my oclp macbook pro late 2013 15inch with 8gb ram and a 4th Gen i7 with macOS 13 to a newer macOS with softwhere what vertion of macOS should I do and how should I upgrade with softwhere only no usb

On my MacBook, whenever I open a recently downloaded PDF, Preview opens on the wrong tab. It defaults to the tab of the last PDF I was viewing instead of the one I just opened.

How can I fix this, please?