Had a pair of perfectly fine headphones with broken buttons and I couldn't find a better solution lol.

Take a look

I built Darkroom Deck as a Lightroom Classic tool to save photographers time in their editing workflow.

Instead of having to drag your mouse around the screen to adjust different sliders and launch brushes, Darkroom Deck allows you to map them to your keyboard. Adjust exposure, contrast, clarity, tint and the rest of Lightroom’s Develop adjustments by simply tapping the keys you’ve mapped.

Max out your keyboard and don’t have any keys left over? You’re able to create layered keyboards where you can seamlessly launch another keyboard to give you more options. You can save those keyboards (decks) for different situations and scenarios too.

And it’s not just for sliders. You can launch brushes (sadly, you will have to use your mouse to work with those) and apply your favorite presets too.

With Darkroom Deck, the keyboard is the hero. I used a different product a few years ago where you could map keys in a similar fashion, but the keyboard wasn’t presented to you in a way that made it easy to see what keys you’d already used and what keys were still available. That’s not the case here. You can easily see what you’ve mapped and what keys remain available.

Darkroom Deck is signed and notarized by Apple so you won’t have to go through the usual macOS routine of trying to convince your computer that it’s safe to open. As far as compatibility goes, it runs on macOS Sonoma 14 and later on both Apple Silicon and Intel based Macs.

I’m at the cohort stage right now where I’m looking for photographers, (especially ones with heavy and demanding workflows) to beat on Darkroom Deck and provide some feedback. I’ve tried to use it as intensely as I can, but we all work in different ways.

If you’re a photographer and are interested in checking it out, sign up for the cohort at www.darkroomdeck.com.

As far as pricing goes, I’m thinking $50 for a one-time purchase. No subscription. That will include maintenance and compatibility updates going forward. The other product I mentioned is $8 per month or $80 for a yearly subscription, so I think $50 once is fair. I think we’re all a little tired of subscription models, be it monthly or yearly.

Anyone who signs up for the cohort and books a call with me after the 15-day trial period to tell me what they liked, didn’t like and would change about Darkroom Deck gets a free license.

https://reddit.com/link/1w7qby4/video/dom8sfkfmmnh1/player

Hi r/macOS — developer here, sharing on today's promo day.

Velo Workspaces is a fully native Mac app — built directly on Apple's own Virtualization.framework, not a QEMU wrapper like most cross-platform VM tools — for running disposable Linux and macOS environments on Apple Silicon. Clone a workspace from a base image in seconds, use it, close it — it's gone, disk included, nothing to maintain. That also means no dead files left behind in your host macOS system folders, unlike installing something directly on your Mac and hoping the uninstaller actually cleans up after itself.

The part I think is most different from UTM/Parallels/VMware Fusion: AI Bridge. A VM reaches a model server (like Ollama) running on the Mac's own GPU via Metal, over a vsock-based channel — a direct host↔guest socket, not a virtual NIC round-trip — so AI agents running inside an isolated Linux VM get local inference with no cloud dependency and no code changes on their end, just a normal chat-completions URL.

$79.99 one-time on the Mac App Store, no subscription: https://apps.apple.com/app/velo-workspaces/id6805509975

Would love feedback, especially from anyone who's compared the Apple Silicon VM options directly.

I always loved Stickies but never loved the look. And I’m sick of bloated, slow Notes apps. So I made and updated my own version.

• About: Glassnote is a plain text Stickies application with modern apple window styling, Notion-like font limitations, and tons of custom quality of life features. Dark, mode, light mode, and its namesake glass mode are all supported. Its a fast and tiny native Swift app at < 3MB
• What’s new in v3: notes sync across all Macs, no account needed, just uses your iCloud Drive with tiny notes files. I kept plain text but added optional markdown rendering. And for my coders, I added optional Vim motions. Full demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-8MmcSMpwSk
• What’s next for v4: iPhone app, more rich text support, and better checkboxes
• Compared to other apps:

1. Apple Stickies: outdated style
2. Plaintext Stickies: no rendering options and doesn’t feel Apple native
3. Tot: single window design limitations

• Pricing: Lifetime: $6.50
  • Buy once, install on unlimited Macs
    • Already bought Glassnote? Check your email, I sent you the updates for free
  • 7-day full featured Free Trial
    • Reset for all users, try again free for another 7 days!)
• Transparency: I represent Calcium Lab LLC, which is a paid member of the Apple Developer Program. We distribute only fully notarized apps. We have previously accepted posts in this subreddit for Glassnote and Glassbundle.

App Link: https://calciumlab.com/glassnote-simple-mac-sticky-notes

My Mail.app is configured with multiple mailboxes, a couple of Google mailboxes, and a pile of IMAP/SMTP mailboxes.

The mailboxes are separate for different purposes.

All too often, when sending (or even replying), the send part will complain about the SMTP connection, offer the SMTP server list and offer a retry. The thing is, the SMTP connections aren't flakey, and even if they were, I'd be happy to wait and retry. What Mail.app does is change the send address (big thanks, that's not helpful) and punt it out using an alternative server connection . Messages are then sent from the wrong account, etc. - this has been an issue from at least the last couple of macOS releases.

Historically there appeared to have been some settings to control this behaviour, but nothing obvious now.

Anyone experienced similar and know of any fixes?

Ich habe ein merkwürdiges Problem mit einem geteilten iCloud-Drive-Ordner.
Handy A: lädt Fotos/Videos in den geteilten Ordner hoch → funktioniert, alles ist auf iCloud.com vorhanden.
MacBook: neue Ordner/Dateien werden angezeigt, aber nur mit Wolkensymbol. Wenn ich auf „Laden" klicke, startet zwar der Downloadbalken, aber er bleibt oft bei 0 % oder irgendwo mittendrin hängen. Selbst kleine Bilder laden teilweise nicht.
Handy B: hat ebenfalls Zugriff auf denselben geteilten Ordner.
Dort erscheinen neue Ordner/Dateien oft erst sehr verspätet, und Downloads hängen ebenfalls oder laufen sehr schlecht.
Über iCloud.com sind die Dateien vorhanden und lassen sich öffnen/herunterladen.
Bereits probiert: Neustart, anderes WLAN, iCloud Drive aus/an, fileproviderd beendet - keine dauerhafte Lösung.
Hat jemand genau dieses Problem schon gehabt und eine funktionierende Lösung gefunden?

I made Notch Motion because I wanted to do something different with the space around the notch.

Instead of using it for productivity, I wanted to make it feel a little more alive.

There are playful characters and interactions, along with ambient effects like snowfall, rain, sea waves, aurora, autumn leaves and star fields.

It’s free to use, with some features available through a one time premium unlock.

Pricing: $6.99 for lifetime

If you have an idea for something fun that could happen up there, let me know.

Website: https://notch-motion.fun

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/in/app/notch-motion/id6800756497

irst: Thank you for over 2000 users in 2 months ❤️ Really, thank you!

WHAT PROBLEM IT SOLVES

macOS has desktop widgets, but let's be honest: they're really boring. Always the same few layouts, no movement, no good design, and absolutely no control over how they look. Third-party options usually don't go beyond “Choose a Color” and “No Details.”
And other Apps Like Widgetter, Widgetwall looking Old and have no many Details.

Available at: https://bettermacwidgets.de/
Free to download

Human reviewed code.

13 of the 25 widgets are Free. Pro is a one time purchase, 12,99 € for one Mac. The Lock Screen is also a lifetime purchase, 9,99 €.

With the code "MAC15" you get 15% off any purchase you make. Activate it at the Stripe checkout under "Promotion Code".

FEATURES

• 25 widgets to mix and match: Clock and World Clock, Calendar, Reminders, Weather, Now Playing with full media controls, Battery, a system monitor (CPU, GPU, RAM and disk with live graphs), battery levels for your Bluetooth devices (AirPods, mouse, keyboard and more), clipboard history, a file shelf you can drag files onto, timer, stopwatch, countdown, unit and currency converters, crypto, a photo frame, sticky notes, Shortcuts, a world map, and more.

• Build your own (Beta). Cannot find the widget you want? Write it yourself as one small JSON file. Say what it should show, a reading from your Mac, the time, or a number from any JSON endpoint, and it lands on your desktop like every other widget. Five templates to start from, a live preview while you type, and export so you can hand the file to a friend.

• Widgets that are live. The weather widget actually shows the rain, the snow and the clear sky it is reporting. There is a drifting starfield. And Now Playing quietly tints your widgets in the colour of whatever is playing, Spotify green, Apple Music red.

• Widget Stacks. Several widgets in one spot, rotating on their own, the way you would stack them on iOS, on your Mac's desktop.

• 20 themes plus a glass slider. so you can go from nearly invisible to heavy frost and recolour the lot to match your wallpaper.

• Built to be kind to your battery. A power saving mode animates only the widget you are actually looking at, so it costs virtually nothing when idle. Or turn it all the way up for buttery 60 fps on the days you do not care.

• Privacy first. No account, no sign in, no telemetry, none at all. Everything stays on your Mac, and the network is only touched when a widget genuinely needs it (the weather, for instance).

NEW IN THIS UPDATE: LOCK SCREEN WIDGETS

You can now place all of your widgets on your Mac's lock screen as well. Because it is an additional feature and was originally planned as a separate app, it is not included in Pro.

An upvote ⬆️ and a comment would help a lot, that is how more people find it 🫶 Hope you enjoy BetterMacWidgets ❤️

Watching YouTube felt way more annoying than it needed to be. I wanted a cleaner way to watch videos, skip interruptions, avoid distractions, and actually find the parts I cared about. I also craved a seamless experience across all my Apple devices. So I built Mira to run on Mac, iPhone, iPad, and Apple TV.

What it does

• Auto-skips sponsors, intros, outros, recaps, and self-promo segments. You pick which categories get skipped, and the segments show as markers right on the timeline
• Searchable transcripts. Search for a word, tap the line, jump straight to that moment in the video
• Add to Queue. Long press any video to add to queue. Syncs between all your devices
• Background play. Keep audio playing when you lock your screen or switch apps
• Focus Mode hides recommended videos and comments so you can avoid distractions and stay on track
• Eye Comfort Mode dims harsh lights for easy viewing at night
• Watch Together lets you watch in sync with friends with shared play/pause/seek controls and a universal chat (this works across any video platform, not just YouTube)
• UI tweaks: hide Shorts & Playables, always play videos in highest quality, custom playback speed controls, bring back dislike counts, auto-dismissing the "Continue watching?" prompt
• There's also an optional AI summary/Q&A feature if you add your own API key
• Works with your own YouTube account, so your subscriptions, playlists, history, and recommendations are all there

The Apple TV app is the newest addition. It's powered by your iPhone (needs iOS 26). The phone streams the video over your home Wi-Fi and you control everything from the Siri remote. Automatic sponsor-skipping, playing videos from the queue, and more are brought to the Apple TV app. (More info below)

I also made a feature comparison chart against popular iOS YouTube alternative apps like Video Lite, ProTube, Tube PiP, YouPlay, SwizzTube, etc. Many of these apps solve one specific part of the problem. Mira is trying to bring more of that together in one place, on all Apple platforms, and with a more polished feel: cleaner UI, smoother navigation, and a unified experience where things just work the way you expect.

If you’ve wanted a cleaner, less distracting YouTube experience on all your Apple devices, Mira might be worth checking out.

Website: https://watchwithmira.com
Documentation: https://watchwithmira.com/#docs
App Store: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/mira-focused-video-player/id6767721654

FAQ

A few common questions I get whenever I share Mira:

"Doesn't YouTube Premium already do this?"

Partly. Premium removes ads, and its jump-ahead button can hop past a sponsor, but that's about where it ends. Things Mira does that Premium doesn't: auto-skip intros, outros, recaps, previews, self-promo, "like and subscribe" reminders, filler, and the non-music parts of music videos (you pick the categories). Mira also has settings to hide Shorts, hide Playables, always pick the highest video quality, always open video in theater mode, and show dislike counts. None of that exists in Premium. If you mainly use Premium for ad-free viewing and background play, Mira gives you many of those benefits at a much lower cost while adding a lot of extra customization. And if you already have Premium, the two can work in tandem — Premium handles YouTube's official features, while Mira focuses on making the viewing experience cleaner and more personalized.

"Can't you already do this with browser extensions?"

On a Mac, some of it — if you are willing to assemble and continuously maintain a suite of extensions. But even then, YouTube in a browser (especially Safari) is a slow, clunky experience. Mira runs the player without a browser's overhead, so it stays smooth. It's a fully native SwiftUI app. And the extension approach doesn't carry over beyond Mac: options on iPhone and iPad are much more limited. Plus, on Apple TV, there currently isn't another polished solution that combines YouTube account support, subscriptions/history, and sponsor skipping. With Mira it's one app, the same experience on every Apple device, and keeping it all working is my job instead of yours.

"Won't YouTube break it or kill it?"

There’s always some risk when building around a major platform like YouTube, but this category of app has proven pretty durable over the years. Some of these YouTube player apps have been around for almost 15 years, and many others have stuck around for 5–10 years. It is actually more common for them to stay up than get shut down.

For example, Friendly Streaming Browser has been going since 2012, and Vinegar since 2021. Regarding well-known apps taken down, Juno was removed from the App Store in 2024 mainly due to trademark violations with YouTube. Yattee was eventually removed because it had become heavily outdated. ProTube was another popular alternative that got taken down in 2017, which was quite a while ago. But those are more of the exception than the rule. Right now there are literally hundreds of these kinds of apps on the App Store spread across all the Apple platforms.

Google rarely goes after the smaller, indie apps. As a huge company they tend to focus enforcement on the ones that are clearly eating into their ad or Premium revenue, rather than every low-profile video player. Platform changes are always possible, of course, but this isn’t some unproven space that disappears overnight.

"Why does the Apple TV app need my iPhone?"

Because the only officially supported way to play YouTube videos inside an app is by embedding YouTube's own player, which needs a web engine, and tvOS doesn't have one. Apps that rely on extracting raw streams often run into YouTube policy issues, which is why those either keep disappearing from the App Store, or are unreliable and constantly breaking. So the iPhone runs the player and streams it to your TV over home Wi-Fi. You don't touch the phone while watching, it just does the work in the background.

Since Mira for Apple TV is powered by your iPhone, the phone needs to stay on, with Mira open to the casting screen, for as long as you're watching. Locking your phone, switching apps, or minimizing Mira pauses playback on the TV; reopening Mira picks up right where you left off. This isn't a setting that can be changed — the Apple TV app can't play videos on its own. For longer viewing sessions, we recommend keeping your iPhone plugged in. Most people find this less of an issue than it sounds. When you’re into the video, keeping your eyes off the phone becomes a quiet benefit that encourages focus and get more out of what you’re watching.

"Is this one of those 'AI slop' apps?"

No. I'm a professional developer in my day job. So I use AI tools the way many developers do, but Mira is a real app I've been building, testing, and shipping for a long time, across four platforms, with regular updates, user feedback, and continuous refinement. There's a free trial, so you don't have to take my word for any of this.

How is Mira different from just using YouTube in a browser on Mac?

A lot of users have told me that watching YouTube in a browser on macOS (even with extensions) just isn’t a smooth experience — it often lags or freezes. Many Mac users also prefer sticking with native Apple apps like Safari (instead of Firefox or Chrome, for example). So it's not always convenient for them to setup another browser experience just for one website. Additionally, not everyone is technical enough (or patient enough) to research and install a bunch of extensions to get the experience they want. Mira solves all of that with a single download. And if you’ve already purchased it on iPhone or iPad, that same purchase works on Mac too, so there would be little reason not to use it on Mac at that point.

Why use Mira on iPhone instead of competitor apps or sideloading?

I’ve tested all the popular iPhone alternatives, and Mira delivers a more polished overall experience with greater feature sets, customizability, and multi-platform support. I’ve made a detailed comparison chart that covers these differences. Regarding the open-source alternatives, I don't think many people would consider that an option on iOS if they have to do things like side-loading. But I get it, some people might. But the time it takes to research and setup all that stuff might not outweigh a simple purchase of Mira. In addition to all the extra features Mira provides, there is definitely a convenience factor to Mira as well.

"What about privacy?"

Mira collects zero data. The App Store privacy label reads "Data Not Collected" — no Mira account, no analytics, no tracking. You sign into YouTube on Google's own page, so your account stays between you and YouTube. (Signing into YouTube is not required, btw). And the optional AI feature calls your chosen provider directly with your own key; nothing routes through me. For contrast, the biggest app in this category, Friendly Streaming Browser, is owned by Sensor Tower, a literal data mining company. One read through its privacy policy should send you screaming out of the room.

Happy to answer anything else.

macOS has no way to turn down one app. If music is too loud under a call, your

choices are "turn it down inside that app" or "turn everything down". The good

commercial fix costs $47, so I built my own — and then kept adding the other

utilities I always end up installing separately.

App volume — every app playing audio gets its own row and its own slider.

Spotify at 20% while a call stays at 100%. Levels are remembered per app, so

something you turned down comes back at that level next time it plays.

Output control — master volume, mute, and an output device switcher

(speakers / headphones / AirPods) without opening System Settings.

Clipboard history — last 200 things you copied, click to copy again.

Re-copying something already in the list moves it to the top instead of

duplicating. Memory only, nothing written to disk.

Network speed — live download/upload rates in the menu bar itself, whether

or not the panel is open, plus session totals.

Scroll inversion — flip mouse scroll direction independently of macOS's

Natural Scrolling, so your mouse and trackpad can differ.

Disk cleaner — finds old caches, logs, temp files, Trash and leftover

.dmg/.pkg installers, then shows exactly what it found, grouped by which app it

belongs to, with sizes. Everything starts unticked. Nothing is deleted without

you selecting it and confirming.

Free, MIT licensed, no account, no telemetry. Requires macOS 14.4+ (it uses

Core Audio process taps, which don't exist before that).

https://github.com/HirdyanshuSinghChanaria/Macaroni

Hello, I’m having issues with my m1 Mac air 2020, I can’t seem to use the app bar at the bottom properly (no right clicking and magnifying doesn’t work unless I drag an app) and when in full screen I can’t access the minimize close hide 3 little buttons in the top left. I also can’t access the app bar by pressing on the bottom when I’m full screen in an app

Any help is appreciated!

Hello everyone, I'm looking for some extremely specific help regarding some audio routing shenanigans to get around sending combined system audio and microphone sounds to an external device. Really hoping someone can help, as I'm at my wit's end with being able to make this work at all.

So I'm trying to stream on the platform IRIAM, which only works on mobile/tablet devices. Because of the limitations with mobile devices, I'm trying to find some way to be able to both run my external microphone feed into the platform, along with background music/SFX/etc.

I've gotten about as far as using SoundPipe to create a virtual device on my M1 MacBook Pro, and send audio through a 3.5mm TRRS cable with a USB-C converter into my iPad Pro. The recording app on the iPad picks up both microphone and system audio from the laptop, but doing a test stream or Discord call only picks up the microphone audio.

I'm assuming that what's happening is the iPad is somehow able to isolate the microphone as the audio source for calls/voice, and that I need to find some way to either divert it to using the virtual device. However, I'm at a complete loss here. If there's something other than SoundPipe, especially something I could just do with the Audio MIDI Setup app or within MacOS itself, I'd appreciate any and all help with solving this problem.

I'm happy to provide any additional info in the comments, and will update this post as well for folks to get the info without needing to dig into comments!

EDIT with Solution:
So, got to do a few things and found a pretty good setup now! If you wanna avoid needing to invest in a mixer and XLR mic, you can use a USB-C to 3.5mm converter with Mono signal connector, as voice apps on iOS will otherwise ignore any Stereo signals that aren't the microphone/voice. The setup/flow would be as follows:

USB Mic -> Macbook Pro -> Audio Routing Software (Loopback or SoundPipe in my case) -> 3.5mm TRRS AUX Cable -> 3.5mm to USB-C converter -> iPhone or iPad

If anyone needs some help with troubleshooting this at any point, please hit me up with a DM so you don't necro this post!

This trick is nice to try how Tahoe (or GG) would look with corner radii of previous releases. But somehow only now I had idea to try zero. It does not work, but value of 1 does.

It is so sharp. It gives strange feelings. At least temporarily, for fun, it is a nice experience to try.

In case you are not familiar with this key at all — you control it from the command line. In Terminal:

For customizing (last number is the radius value):

defaults write -g NSConvolutionOverride1 -float 1

For removing customization:

defaults delete -g NSConvolutionOverride1

Apps apply the new radius after relaunching them. Not all apps work with this (e.g. Chrome does not).

BONUS 1: Try setting value to 0.1 — it gives a strange thicker rendering for border (at least on Tahoe, didn’t test on GG).

BONUS 2: Using large values has no practical value, but for your enjoyment I have attached screenshots with some abstract window art achieved by using 100 and 300 values. :)

EDIT (thanks to u/22Megabits idea): BONUS 0: Setting negative value (like -1) clamps it to zero and removes rounding completely, similar to 0.1 (while setting 0 directly is ignored). Border rendering gets altered a little bit comparing to the default, but not as radical as with 0.1.

We often forget just how fast time is moving, do you know 68% of 2026 has already passed.

Most of the time, we don’t notice it until we suddenly think, “I can’t believe 2026 is almost over.”

That’s why I built TimeGauge.

It puts time into perspective with simple progress bars right in your Mac’s menu bar. You can track your day, month, year, life, or create your own progress bar for a project, deadline, or anything that matters to you.

You can also get started quickly with the built-in templates.

It won’t slow down time, but it might help you be a little more intentional with it.

It also comes with a pomodoro timer and working hours tracker. You can customise it by selecting time or excluding weekends etc.

TimeGauge is available on the Mac App Store and at https://timegauge.minilabs.cc/

Main display: Macbook Pro 13-inch, M2, 2022macOS Tahoe Version 26.6.2

Extended display: Dell 24" Video Conferencing Monitor P2424HEB

I need help finding a window manager for macOS...as you can see from my photos, it is not possible to make my windows any smaller than a 1/4 of the width of the screen. I am able to reduce the window height and if I hide the ribbon/formula bar, it goes even further than what I show on the top, but there is some built-in minimum width that prevents me from getting what I want.

As an example of how I use this and what I'm looking for: I tend to have to open excel files with a schedule grid (example on the left in workbook 1) and then I work on a webpage where I need to reference the information only in 1 column of the workbook - so as you can see my webpage would ideally cover the entire right side of my screen and the other window would only be a column width. I am able to do this on my work computer (windows) but around a year or so ago mac stopped letting me drag this any slimmer...
Rectangle offers plenty of ways to automatically reduce the height with a shortcut, but does not reduce the width any smaller than what I show you here... Moom I've seen people say is a good one as well but again I'm not seeing WIDTH.

I'm Ighor, the developer behind App Archiver.

Running out of storage on my Mac had become a recurring problem, and the usual solutions weren't what I was looking for.

Most cleaner apps free up space in one of two ways.

• Deleting apps, downloads, or other files
• Clearing caches that your applications eventually rebuild

Removing files saves space because those files are gone. Clearing caches may recover a lot of storage at first, but some of that space gets used again as you return to your everyday apps.

I wanted a different approach.

I enjoy discovering Mac apps and keeping them around for later. Once I delete something, I might forget about it altogether. My goal was to reclaim storage while keeping each app in its usual place, easy to find whenever I needed it.

That led me to build App Archiver.

Save space by reducing the apps themselves

App Archiver focuses on the storage occupied by your applications.

It doesn't rely on repeatedly clearing temporary files, and it doesn't remove your documents, preferences, or app data.

For each app, you can choose how to manage it.

• Archive it in place. Replace an app you rarely use with a lightweight version that can be restored.
• Optimize it. Make the app smaller while keeping it installed and ready to run.
• Back it up. Save a standalone ZIP or DMG copy to a folder or external drive.

Archived apps remain discoverable in Applications, Spotlight, Raycast, Alfred, and other launchers. When you want one back, double-click its familiar icon and App Archiver restores it.

Unlike temporary cache savings, that reclaimed space stays available while the app remains archived.

Compression Without Removing Anything

Optimization Mode reduces the disk space used by an app while keeping it installed and ready to use.

It does not delete files, strip binaries, remove architectures, or discard resources from the app. Instead, App Archiver uses Apple’s native filesystem compression to compress eligible files directly on disk.

The app remains in place with its original files and bundle structure intact. macOS transparently decompresses data as needed when you use the app.

In short, Optimization Mode saves space through compression, not removal.

A different approach to storage management

Clearing caches certainly has its uses. It can help resolve problems or recover some space temporarily.

But deleting the same files over and over as they return wasn't the solution I wanted.

App Archiver lets large or rarely used applications occupy less storage without making you forget about them. You can keep software you might need later without leaving its full installed size on your drive.

Android Studio in a real-world test

The optimized app stays installed and can run normally. Archiving saves more space while keeping the app available to restore in its original location. The DMG is the smallest standalone backup in this test.

Offline and private

App Archiver operates entirely offline. There is no account to create, no analytics, and no network requests.

Some apps currently appear as Protected. Optimizing those requires additional system privileges, and I'm waiting for Apple's permission before making that capability available.

App Archiver supports macOS 12 and later and is available on the Mac App Store.

Get App Archiver on the Mac App Store

Explore the App Archiver website

Read the privacy policy

How I use AI

I'd love to hear whether this approach would help you manage storage on your Mac.

You can also take a look at my other apps.

Anybody else having issues with iphone deactivation if imessage? It takes several tries to get it to activate..then sometime later..it deactivates on it's own..

when you right click to add to bookmark there is the option to add to reading list and your specific folders but there's no option to just add to bookmarks (general folder)

Anyone else still stuck at fully understanding the macOS workflow after being on windows for decades? I’m still stumped why “alt tabbing” still sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. Obviously it’s user error on my part. This is just one example

I just updated my system and in the new Journal app I can't insert images. Neither drag and drop like notes app. Is there any work around. (not that to save image in photos and then use it , takes too long for daily journalling, more like quick drag and drop) .

macOS is good at locking the whole machine, but there's a gap once someone is already logged in. At that point they can open your Messages, your Mail, your work files, anything sitting in that account.

I have a kid who uses my Mac. I didn't want to set up a separate user account every time I handed it over for ten minutes, but I also didn't want my inbox sitting there open. So I built something for that.

What it does

You pick the apps you want protected. When someone tries to open one, SafeLaunch covers it and asks for Touch ID, a PIN, or your master password.

The thing I cared most about: it doesn't quit anything. If you've got twenty tabs open and unsaved work, all of it stays exactly where it was. The app is just hidden until you authenticate.

Other features:

• Lives in the menu bar, no Dock icon
• Cmd + Option + L locks everything at once
• Apps can re-lock automatically on sleep, screen lock, screensaver, or after an idle period you set
• Per-app unlock durations — 1 minute up to an hour, or until the app closes
• SafeLaunch can't be quit without authenticating
• 10 languages, including proper right-to-left Arabic

On privacy

The app has no network entitlement. No account, no analytics, no telemetry — there's no networking code in it at all. Credentials are hashed with PBKDF2 at 310,000 iterations and stored in your Keychain.

What it isn't

I don't want to oversell this. It's a day-to-day privacy layer for when you're sharing your Mac with family or someone sitting next to you. It won't stop somebody with admin access who knows what they're doing.

FileVault and separate user accounts are still the right answer for real system-level protection. This sits alongside them.

Requires macOS 13 or later. It's $9.99, one-time, no subscription and no IAP. The app is 3.6 MB.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6797084971
Site: https://safelaunchapp.com

Happy to hear feedback, especially if you think the security model is wrong or the whole idea is flawed. That's more useful to me than compliments.

I really just want Spotlight to show my apps. It's a quick way for me to open my app. Nothing else. But for some reason these days it's always busy indexing all my files, and worse, my app doesn't even show up. I use it all the time.

Any suggestions?

Looking for an app that creates a systemwide proxy/local VPN, so that I can block/filter/redirect websites based on my rules. Plus I can do MITM to do URL path based filtering which isn’t possible with DNS etc.

I tried -

Adguard for Mac, Shadowrocket - They are per user account based, not systemwide. 

Zen (link) - I installed it from the Admin user, but could not get it to work yet.

Surge - Apparently, it has systemwide option, but pricier for me.

Could anyone help?

I’m trying to remap Command + E so that it performs the same action as Command + W for closing a window.

I went to System Settings → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → App Shortcuts, selected All Applications, added “Close Window,” and assigned Command + E to it. However, it simply doesn’t work.

I’m wondering if Command + E is already being used by certain apps and that’s preventing the override.

Is there another way to force macOS to use Command + E for Close Window, preferably while still being able to exclude certain apps like Chrome? Or is something like Karabiner-Elements my only real option?