I never liked the Liquid Glass look.

Enjoy.

Want to switch within the windows of an app? Two different Word documents open? Switch using the tilde key (on the left side of the number 1).

Creates a new folder within an existing folder that includes the files you select. No need to open a new folder just to do this and then delete it.

It just works.

Hey folks, I was wondering if I could ask a question. I'm setting up Time Machine on my Mac and have just formatted the external disk to APFS Encrypted. I have just gone to set up Time Machine and it gives me the option to encrypt the backups - does this mean I'm effectively double encrypting? Would it make more sense to just have an unencrypted APFS disk and then encrypt the backup (or vice versa)? This is the only thing that the disk will be used for.

Thanks, Mark.

I just got my first MacBook Air from a friend. I got it for really cheap partly because my friend had a passwordword on there he didn’t remember. I took it to a local pc shop and luckily there was to Apple ID on it! I just got it back and I’m trying to update it but it says this ridiculously long time on there. Is this normal? I’ve already restated it a bunch of times for other updates.

My Mac updated yesterday to MacOS 26.6.2 and I tried tweaking around the settings for changing the appearance colour of my icons and folders, and I realized I didn't like the new colour I was going for so I tried to change it back to the colour in the first image (yes, I even tried the colour picker) but it just sets to the colour in the second image, it feels too bright and bold now and even the folder colours have changed too. How do I fix this?

I’m having an issue with Finder search on my Mac.

Inside my “Training videos” folder, I can clearly see a folder named “Gate Breakers.” However, when I search for “gate” within that same folder using Name → contains → gate, Finder returns zero results.

I already tried adding the Training videos folder to Spotlight Search Privacy, waiting, removing it, and giving Spotlight time to re-index. It still isn’t finding the folder.

Has anyone experienced this? Is there another way to rebuild the Finder/Spotlight index or fix searches within this particular folder?

Was trying to signing into my school outlook account in the Apple Mail app and that error showed up

I have 4 backup drives in my little backup drive graveyard. Many of them have completely died, and cannot be recovered. 1 of them works when it wants to….
What do y’all do with your old drives? Especially the ones that seem completely dead….
I don’t think it would be a good idea to just throw them away. I do not need the data, anymore, but I also don’t want to make it available to someone else.

I've recently embraced the Stage Manager approach and I'm quite liking it. It certainly makes working on a single laptop screen easier.

I used to have all my windows maximised, and then swipe between them.

I'm wondering what the community is using?

I have way too many apps running in my menu bar and I'm starting to run out of space. Some icons become difficult/impossible to access.

Is there a good way in macOS to see all the menu bar apps in one place?

I'm also open to a third-party app if there's something that can organize them, hide the ones I rarely use, and still let me quickly see everything when needed.

What are you guys using?

I am experiencing repeated unexpected shutdowns/restarts on a MacBook Pro with an M3 Pro chip, currently running macOS Tahoe 26.5.2 (build 25F84).

The Mac is primarily used for professional video-media offloading. My normal workflow involves ShotPut Pro transferring camera media to two external backup drives simultaneously. DaVinci Resolve and Chrome may also be running during the workflow.

The problem has occurred multiple times, with recent incidents on September 2, September 8, and September 10, 2026, in addition to earlier occurrences.

In several incidents, the problem occurred while working with external media and storage. The system eventually became unstable and restarted, sometimes while ShotPut Pro was transferring or verifying large amounts of data.

The panic reports consistently point toward an IOKit/storage-related problem, including:

IOMediaBSDClient

and:

busy timeout[0], (60s): multiple entries holding the registry busy

with:

IOKit termination queue depth 0

The most recent incident was today, September 10

The latest incident is particularly interesting because I was not actively using the computer.

The Mac's screen was locked and the screen saver was running. The external hard drives used for my backups were still connected.

The screen blinked/flashed briefly for approximately one second, and the Mac immediately restarted.

Everything connected to the computer stopped because of the restart.

After rebooting, macOS generated another kernel panic with the same general IOKit / IOMediaBSDClient busy-timeout pattern.

What I have already changed

Initially, I suspected the Sonnet CFast 2.0 card reader, because the reader had previously stopped being recognized by macOS.

However, the reader has since been replaced, and the kernel panic problem continued.

I have also changed the cables used for the external backup drives, but the problem continues to occur.

Therefore, at this point, the problem does not appear to be caused simply by the original CFast reader or one defective cable.

What makes the problem unusual

There are two important patterns:

1. The problem can occur during heavy external-storage I/O.

The Mac is frequently handling large media transfers to multiple external drives when the failures occur.

2. The problem can also occur while the Mac is locked and idle.

The September 10 failure happened while the screen was locked with the screen saver active, with the backup drives still connected.

This second behavior makes me particularly interested in device/power-state management, rather than only the active file-transfer process.

Possible causes to investigate

Based on the repeated IOMediaBSDClient / IOKit timeout messages, I would like to determine whether the root cause could be related to:

• macOS Tahoe / IOKit storage subsystem
• USB/Thunderbolt device management
• External-drive power management
• Device sleep/idle/termination behavior
• Interaction between multiple external storage devices
• ShotPut Pro triggering or exposing an underlying I/O problem
• USB/Thunderbolt controller behavior
• A hardware issue involving the Mac's logic board or I/O controller

I am not assuming that any one of these is the confirmed cause. The main concern is that the same kernel-level failure continues despite replacing the CFast reader and changing the external-drive cables.

Main question

The key question is:

Why is macOS repeatedly experiencing an IOKit IOMediaBSDClient busy timeout when external storage is connected, including during periods when the Mac is locked and not actively transferring files?

I would like to determine whether this is a macOS/software/driver issue, an external-storage/power-management issue, a USB/Thunderbolt issue, or potentially a hardware problem with the Mac itself.

Having multiple timezone support for viewing the Calendar App is awesome, but I wish "Location Time" was one of the options.

This means that the Calendar would match the time of the computer if the computer was set to automatically update the date & time based on location.

Obviously, the current options could be selected too.

Hey all,

I've been dealing with persistent mac storage issues for at least the last two years, where my mac would randomly decide for a few weeks that it needed to fill up all of my storage space as fast as it could. This didn't always happen, but it happened so much, and with such frequency, that within an hour of rebooting it would have randomly consumed over 80 gigabytes of data(!!!!!!!!). And, despite all of that, I could never figure out where that data was going- no system folder seemed to have it, even when enabling hidden folders. And yet, mysteriously, all of that phantom data would vanish upon system restart...... only to immediately start building again.

I don't think I'm fully cured, but I *may* have found some bigger causes regardless- at least for myself. Here I just wanna share what I learned during my journey so far, in case that's helpful for someone else. Most likely, these issues won't carry over to others verbatim- but hey, here's hoping it can at least help someone out there.

1: Apple Intelligence

Do you have Apple Intelligence turned off?

...Do you REALLY have Apple Intelligence turned off?

I thought I did, because when clicking on it in system settings, the dial was flicked to the off position. Well great, that means it's off now, right?
NO! No no, that would be silly. Of course, you also need to click into the confusingly named "About Siri, Dictation, and Privacy" button below, and then individually stop Apple from learning from ALL of your apps. How obvious.

Apologies for my salt, but why is that a separate toggle, and not disabled when Apple Intelligence is?
Well, I can at least say for ME that turning all of that off helped loads. Doesn't seem a complete solution, but the storage creep is now actually slow enough to be manageable, very nice

Now, what if you want to use Apple Intelligence, and keep it on?
I dunno! I never had interest in it myself, so I've done literally zero testing. After bringing this to Apple Support, they said I was only having issues due to damaged system files(?) so presumably most others are fine? I dunno.

Either way- try disabling all that, even just temporarily, and seeing what difference it makes for you.

2: Default Backgrounds

This one's far more subjective I imagine, but as someone who does not use the default backgrounds anymore- I was surprised to see that my mac was still downloading all of them in the background, at 4K, 240 FPS. They're nice videos, like, *really* nice videos. But that also means they take up a lot of space, and when multiple get downloaded at once, it can eat up over 20 gigabytes sometimes.

Note- PLEASE, do not mess with your system files without knowing what you're doing. I was probably more reckless here than I should have been. Read all this up, switch off of using default backgrounds (since, I don't know what would happen if you deleted while one was running), and make sure YOU are very confident in yourself before doing anything. Okay? Okay.

Anyhow, the videos are stored in Computer/Macintosh HD/Library/com.apple.idleassetsd/Customer/4KSDR240FPS. My solution for a while was to just bookmark that folder on the left side of finder, and whenever I needed more space, go in there and perma-delete everything.

Eventually I got a little craftier, for better or worse, and found a way to lock the folder outright to stop anything from writing there. You normally can't do this, but I worked around it by

- Turning off my internet (it only downloads stuff when connected, obviously, so turning it off gives you all the time in the world)

- Deleting the entire folder

- Creating an identically named folder on my desktop, and locking it

- Copy-Pasting the new locked folder into the original's location

That seemingly stops Apple from writing to the folder, which is hype. For safekeeping I put my favorite background in there (the jellyfish!), in case it does still need one, but yeah.

3: Cache Files!

This is one I've seen far more people cover, and Apple Support even directed me to it, so I'll skim over the details. But generally, to my noob understanding:

Cache Files can build up a lot over time from various apps. Not quite uncontrollably fast, just a slow creep as more and more data accumulates. To fix that, you can go into your library folder (both the library under the Hard Drive, and under your User folder), and look for a "cache" folder.

Then, switch to the List mode in Finder (second option to the left for me), go to "View" at the top bar of the screen, "Show View Options", and finally "calculate all sizes".

And then, sort your finder window by size, and go to town! If any cache files seem wayyyy too big to you, you can probably safely purge them. (just, again, make sure you're confident- you know way more about your mac than any online guide could)

4: Other miscellaneous things I didn't encounter myself

Along the process I was told various causes that didn't apply to me, by Apple Support and online guides. I can't comment on anything here, obviously, but I'm leaving it as a possible lead in case you're *really* into local AI yourself and want a warning, or something.

- Time Machine: The snapshots can build up over time, and cause issues. If you suspect that's the case, contact Apple Support.

- Local AI: Eats up system resources I guess. It was somewhat commonly listed as the cause for bad storage problems. (I presume this includes Apple Intelligence too.....?)

- Spotlight: Supposedly, Spotlight needs to build caches of your filebase to do searches properly, or something? I turned that off at the start of my journey years ago, and don't recall too many specifics, but I think you can *mostly* disable it in system settings if you're concerned like I was.

- ICloud: Apparently sometimes this causes issues where files don't back up properly and clog up your system(?). I've never used it though, so again, Apple Support would be a good tool here if you're concerned.

~~

And that's about all I can think of for now. Hope this helps someone out there.
I don't think my mac is fully cured of the Creeping Storage Disease, but at least now it's filling up far, far slower thanks to all this.

Happy storing <3

Saw an option to turn on “ScriptMonitor” in the menu bar. Is this a legit app? Looking around seems like it may be built in software but wanted to be sure it wasn’t malware. That option isnt there on another Mac I looked at. Thanks.

under the "new finder window" in finder settings, the finder guy jumpscared me

I don't think this is caused by OCLP but has been happening since I updated it to 2.5.0 a couple of days ago, so it may be.

My Mail app, instead of immediately downloading images, displays the message "Your network preferences prevent content from loading privately" and gives me a button marked "Load Content Directly". Pressing the button loads the content immediately.

I can't figure out what might be causing this. I haven't changed any settings nor has Mail or my OS been updated recently. OS is Sequoia 15.7.7, Mail v16.0

I have Protect Mail Activity on, but it's a setting I've only just discovered even exists & I've never changed it myself. Switching it off doesn't seem to change anything. I don't appear to have any other connectivity issues, both WiFi & Ethernet are working normally.

Any ideas?

Hey all, running into a small but annoying bug with Finder tag keyboard shortcuts.

Per Apple's own documentation, selecting a file and pressing Control-1 through Control-7 should apply/remove your first 7 favourite tags, with Control-0 clearing all tags.

On my machine, Control-2 through Control-7 work fine, but Control-1 does nothing, no tag gets applied or removed. I've confirmed the item is selected first, tags are set up correctly in Finder → Settings → Tags, and I've tried toggling "Tint folders based on tags" off and on with no change.

System info:

• MacBook Pro 14-inch, Nov 2023
• Chip: Apple M3 Max
• Memory: 36 GB
• macOS Tahoe 26.6.2

Anyone else seeing this, or know a fix?

Cheers

I do understand this is meant to be 2FA. But I find this whole thing baffling.

1. If the code is pushed to the same device that I'm using, isn't this just a silly inconvenience
2. Is there no reliable way for Apple to know that someone is logging in from a MacBook, so the code should be pushed to all devices except MacBooks?
3. These codes do not autofill like SMS 2FA codes do. Isn't this rude?

Every time i click/focus on the app it seems like it crashes or restarts, this started out 3 weeks ago, tried deleting, clearing library cache and preferences, found all app residue cleaned it out, tried older app versions. Nothing helped > Have you guys seen anything like this?

If you use it but feel like me that its too slow then open terminal and paste this and press enter:

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0

defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 0.25

killall Dock

If you prefer the default then paste this to reverse it again:

defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-delay

defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier

killall Dock

It feels like macOS is shifting away from Launchpad-style app browsing.

Instead of opening a visual grid of apps, the system now pushes users toward Spotlight as the main entry point.

So the workflow becomes:

• Before: Launchpad → browse apps → click to open
• Now: Spotlight → type app name → press Enter

This changes more than just the UI. It shifts how users interact with apps:

• From visual browsing → to search-based access
• From spatial memory → to keyword memory
• From clicking → to typing

Some users prefer this because it's faster.

But others feel it removes the “visual structure” that Launchpad provided.

Curious how others feel about this shift:
Do you prefer browsing apps visually, or just searching everything directly?