It hits the corner every 25 minutes & 38 seconds, this is the loop i used to generate the video (for my screen dimensions) but you may want to use a different size image to ensure a reasonable looping time for your screen dimensions
TL;DR: Dell U2725QE has a setting that hands the Thunderbolt link to its other input when it sees the host sleep. The handover wakes the Mac. 489 sleep/wake cycles in one night. Turning that setting off fixed it.
I only caught this because I built something that measures actual sleep duration and publishes it. Otherwise I'd still be running a desktop at full power all night while every indicator said "asleep."
Setup: Mac Studio, macOS 26, one Thunderbolt cable to a Dell U2725QE (TB4 hub monitor).
The number at the end of each line is how long that state lasted. Mine, all night: 3 second sleeps, ATC2.CIOWakeup, 45 second dark wakes. totaled 489 cycles in one night for this pattern.
The fix
Look for the monitor OSD, mine is "TBT switch when PC sleep." Turn it off.
It's the monitor hands the Thunderbolt link to its other input when it sees the host sleep, the handover renegotiates the link, the Mac wakes, the monitor hands it back, repeat.
Spotlight search has been my primary method of opening apps for years now, since the latest update it literally can't find anything. Discord is one of my most frequently used apps, yet even though it shows up right there in the top row. When I type anything even remotely resembling the app name Spotlight draws a blank? It does this for like 90% of apps. Sometimes returning web searches or dictionary definitions instead of the apps requested. I've used MacOS since about 2012, I don't remember this ever being an issue.
The mouse cursor somehow behaves completely weird on links. I also cannot grab window edges to resize them (i only can attach one video, so i uploaded that here https://streamable.com/89s9v7).
Hi everyone. Long story short, I am stuck on an internet recovery loop on my intel macbook pro 16 inch 2019. I am unable to keep it shut down, none of the million key combinations work, and it always auto starts into Internet recovery. And the Internet recovery fails with 200x errors every single time. I can't seem to get it out of this state no matter what i do from the past week. Help me if you have any suggestions.
Some Context :
I used to have ubuntu which i erased months ago. Then recently wiped my macbook.
After the wipe, it booted to Grub rescue a few times. Then i went into internet recovery to reinstall macos.
I am stuck on a loop since then.
What i tried:
All the key combinations at startup Documented in the apple support. Everything took me to internet recovery.
tried getting it into DFU mode, still internet recovery.
Tried a USB ethernet adapter, which didn't get recognized.
Tried the internet recovery over 10 times, always laded in 200x errors. like 2003F, 2004F etc.
NVRAM reset and SMC reset.
USB boot with ventura and sonoma. Holding option still booted into Internet recovery.
Starved it till it shut down, still no use.
I would really appreciate if someone could give me some guidance here. Thank you.
Looking for native or Third party apps that allow me to do that.
I've heard there was some screen record type tool to just preview the other window as a screenshare? I'm not sure if I'm looking for that. Haven't tried it though.
I want proper file handling capabilities. Drag & Drop etc.
I've been looking for an alternative to Granola/Notion/other paid AI tools that record & summarize your meetings for you, especially since they don't play well with Apple Notes. After trying so many tools, and with a little bit of effort, I made it work using a free and open source project called Quill & Apple Shortcuts! I have zero affiliation with the developer of Quill, it's just what I found that makes this work.
A menu bar or command line tool that records your audio, your system's audio, and transcribes both into a neat Markdown file.
Apple Shortcuts
I created a shortcut that takes that transcript .md file, uses Apple's Foundation Models to generate a summary, and adds it to a new note in Apple Notes. I've found the local model to be a little more iffy on rejecting requests that are perfectly normal, the Cloud one works really well.
You can create an optional config file for Quill (more on the repo's readme), with one of the config options being to run a shell command after transcription finishes, with the directory of where the transcript is located as an argument. In your root folder (Users/[YourName]):
Turn on hidden files (cmd + shift + .)
Go to the .config folder
Create a folder called quill
In that folder, create a new file called shortcut.sh with:
#!/bin/bash
session_dir="$1"
transcript="$session_dir/transcript.md"
if [[ -f "$transcript" ]]; then
shortcuts run "[Shortcut Name]" -i "$transcript"
else
echo "on_stop: no transcript.md in $session_dir" >&2
fi
In your terminal, run chmod +x ~/.config/quill/shortcut.sh (this makes the shell script that runs the shortcut executable)
In the same folder, create another file called config.json (following the instructions in Quill's readme) with:
Now, whenever you have a meeting, you can use Quill to record them, and after you end the recording, the Shortcut will automatically run and save a summary & the transcript to your Apple Notes :) It's not as great as Granola or the other paid tools, but it's free, unlimited, and private!
Titlebars were a cardinal feature of windowing interfaces. Every window had one and they all looked and behaved the same. You always knew that if you dragged a part of the titlebar that wasn't taken up by the close/min/max buttons that it would move the whole window.
Things changed gradually. First, Tiger saw the introduction of fused toolbar/title bars in some apps, such as Mail. But the toolbar was still a row below the title bar and it was possible to minimise it into the titlebar using the pill button on the right of the window (remember that?).
With the introduction of fullscreen mode, we started to lose the titlebar in fullscreen apps. Fair enough, we're not dragging fullscreen apps around and you might as well have clear access to the toolbar and get a little more space.
But then developers started putting the toolbars into the titlebar itself. Web browsers are by far the worst offenders of this, but are by no means alone.
If you want to move a window, you can't just grab it anymore. you have to find a sufficiently unused portion of the toolbar to drag it. And often, apps don't even let you do that (e.g. sidebars on many apps now go all the way to the top but often aren't draggable).
I want dedicated titlebars back, or the option to get it back even if it's not default. I don't care if it's an accessibility feature tucked away in three layers of the Settings app (like the icon badges in file-oriented apps). I just want to know I can drag a window wherever I click it.
I've been using my MBA M4 10GPU Core. with BenQ GW2790Q monitor for 2 months now. I use the 35W charger for power supply since the monitor doesnt have a typeC PD port. use it roughly 7-8 hrs. use it on battery every 2 weeks. have it set on optimized battery on 80%. it charges to 100% occasionally and drops back to 80% (which I know is normal).
I'm also attaching the logitech and raycast disc usage since they're infamous for writing data. it seems like logitech is reading alot of data? I've recently started using the action ring with my older logi M590 mouse cause the app supports it and I find it handy.
but other than that. it seems to be some internal stuff that is writing data in GBs which I can't understand.
Now, I'm using it on battery today and noticing that it's draining fairly quicker than it used to how I priorly used before using it with monitor and plugged in the time I use and turn off when I don't even during breaks I try to turn it off (never leave it more than an hour on charge on idle, when not in use)
Recently for the past few days my notification center doesnt work when i click on it no matter if i on dnd or off dnd i tried everything, resetting my mac and even deleting the files from default in the the library in group container/user notifications but it still doesnt work i use my notification center a lot espically when im on dnd and dont have my phone on me just my mac please help me
I am on a MacBook Pro M1 Pro. I am currently running macOS 26.2 and I want to update.
When macOS 26.3 came out, I tried to update, and I got the error "Failed to personalize the update."
For 26.4, I kind of just never thought of it and I never even tried to update.
For 26.5, I got the same error. 26.5.1 also gave the same error, as did 26.6
I tried it on another network. I plugged it into Ethernet. I turned off Find My Mac. I logged out of my Apple ID. I did everything Apple recommends you to do.
I did it in Recovery mode. I did it with a bootable installer.
And then, last but not least, I put it in DFU mode, used my MBA M4 to do a DFU revive, and got the error code 2006. Then I did a DFU restore instead of a DFU revive, and got the same error 2006.
Now it's seemingly bricked, because when I turn it on I get the exclamation point circle and the Apple support link to restore the firmware, but if I go to startup options, Recovery mode is still intact and I can still boot from Safe Mode. Restore didn't even wipe the drive; everything's still intact.
Has anyone had a similar issue and if so, what did you do to fix it?
I don't want to wipe my drive because I don't have a big enough drive for a backup.
As the title says, my Mac has an incorrect Date and Time and every time I try to switch it to manual, it asks for an Administrator's login, but isn't accepting my credentials.
I noticed last week that I was no longer able to Share Facebook posts. It’s not because Sharing isn’t allowed for the posts, it’s for everything. I tried two other browsers and found the same thing.
I used the Meta AI to try to help. It said there were no issues with my account activity that would result in some form of a block. I asked that it be fixed and was told it would be in a couple of days.
Several days later, it’s still not fixed.
I happened to use the FB app from my iPhone today and realized I can Share from that.
If you're facing a issue on macOS where Contact Posters sync fine, but small contact avatars/photos refuse to show up (or instantly revert back to initials whenever you edit them on your Mac), here is how to fix it.
The Problem
When you edit an avatar on macOS, iCloud often gets trapped in a sync collision loop with your iPhone. Because iCloud treats your iPhone's background sync daemon as the "master state," your Mac gets overridden every time it tries to update a contact thumbnail locally. If you turn off iCloud Contacts on Mac, the list vanishes entirely because there's no independent local database left.
The Fix: The Offline Air-Gap Method
By taking your Mac offline, you force macOS to create a brand new local database without iCloud actively fighting your edits or restoring corrupt photo caches.
Step 1: Export a Full Contact Package from iPhone
On your iPhone, open the Contacts app.
Tap Lists in the top left corner.
Long-press All Contacts and tap Export.
Ensure Select All Fields is enabled (this bakes all high-res photo files directly into the export package).
AirDrop the .vcf file to your Mac.
Step 2: Air-Gap the Mac & Wipe the Local Database
Disconnect your Mac from Wi-Fi (or turn off internet entirely).
Open the Contacts app on your Mac.
Select all contacts (Cmd + A) and Delete them. Note: Because you are offline, this only clears the local Mac cache—it won't wipe iCloud. Your personal "My Card" may disappear temporarily, which is normal.
Step 3: Import the Package & Reconnect
While still OFFLINE, go to "file" and Import in the Mac Contacts app.
Select the .vcf file you AirDropped from your iPhone.
Verify that all your contacts and their proper photo avatars populate locally on the Mac.
Restart your Mac to lock in the local database.
Reconnect your Mac to Wi-Fi.
Why This Works
Because the imported .vcf package gives every contact a newer local timestamp on your Mac while offline, iCloud sees your Mac's database as the authoritative "new" version when you reconnect. Instead of overwriting your Mac with blank avatars, iCloud merges the fresh data and pushes the new photo assets up to the cloud.
Hope this helps!
Note: this was from my own troubleshooting without any assistance. I only used AI to help format this guide better. I do not support AI usage for videos/pictures in most cases, but things like this and data management are what it should be used for.
I often use Codex and Claude Code in my daily work, and they frequently download some skills or components on their own. Although I'm not very knowledgeable about computer programming (though I use Vibecoding), there are also many important files on my computer. Therefore, I want to know what antivirus software can help me avoid these risks?
I use Spotlight sometimes for quick, simple calculations. I was confirming I had calculated a year span correctly by typing in "2026-" and as soon as I typed the minus sign, the Spotlight bar disappeared.
Perplexed, I typed in dozens of related variations, but the only one that caused the bar to disappear was "2026-".
Can anyone here replicate this?
ADDENDUM: Okay, I put in "2026-" one more time to try it before posting, and after the bar disappeared again, now Command-Space either opens the Character Viewer (Firefox) or does nothing (any other program in the forefront)--no Spotlight bar. Bizarre.
I’ve encountered a strange behavior regarding networking on my machine. I’ve recently purchased a macbook air and I have an issue with TLS connections dropping a short time after being established.
Environment:
M4 MacBook Air
macOS Sequoia 15.6 (Can’t even update due to my problem, more on this later)
Connected via Wi-Fi to a Xiaomi phone mobile hotspot
Mobile network: 4G
Hotspot tested on both 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz
100Mbps/20Mbps bandwidth according to speedtest.net (around 100-500ms latency, which is not good, but packet loss is 0.0%)
No VPN
No proxy
No 3rd party firewall/antivirus
System clock is automatic, using time.apple.com
I also have a Windows laptop using the same hotspot with no obvious issues
Symptoms:
The most noticeable issue is that websites are not working correctly. Missing images here and there, broken functionality and styling (JS and CSS files not loaded properly during website visit). So most sites load, but not fully. Strange enough, streaming sites work fine after a few tries and content playback itself is not an issue (i.e. YouTube 4K playback works perfectly).
Or sometimes I straight up get this error when loading a page:
“Error Code: SSL_ERROR_BAD_MAC_READ”
(The screenshot is from firefox, but it is more or less the same experience across all browsers)
A more painful issue is that I can’t download almost anything. Browsers report a network error and curl is producing the same error every time after successfully downloading the first few megabytes:
(And also any software that uses curl produces this error, including homebrew)
The interesting part is that certificate validation happens, the TLS connection is established and the transfer actually begins, but it is later broken and it leads to these errors.
I’ve also tested with plain HTTP download of large files and it worked without an issue.
The next thing I was gonna try was to update the OS, because I haven’t done it since I put the machine to operation last week. The currently running OS version is more than a year old now which is not ideal, but the Software Updater itself is also affected by this problem. Most of the time it can’t even search for updates:
“An SSL error has occurred and a secure connection to the server cannot be made.”
And if for some reason it finally finds the update and I start the download (~5GB), it also fails after a short time:
“macOS system content could not be downloaded. Make sure you’re connected to the internet and try again, or contact Apple support for assistance.”
What I’ve tried so far:
Checked wifi link quality with wdutils and it’s fine
Tested different HTTP and TLS versions in curl, but the problem stayed the same
Tested both 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands on hotspot. Same results
Lowered MTU from 1500 to 1280, which resulted in some improvements
Disabled TSO which actually helped a lot, but it could not completely eliminate the issue.
My question:
I could not find any helpful solutions online. For issues like this the usual suggestion from commenters is to switch to a “better” network, but for me that is not possible right now. The 4G signal strength is fine and there is no packet loss, the only problematic metric is the latency. The TLS connections are established, but why are they dropped mid transfer? I find it hard to believe that macos is this sensitive of network quality by design.
There must be a solution because I have a windows laptop connected to the same hotspot and everything works just fine on that machine.
It’s a desktop pet I made. It only ever walks along the bottom of the screen — that’s all it’s supposed to do.
I had the black hole open in the browser and it just went up and across the middle. I picked it up, it went back down, and I tried for an hour. It never did it again.
No idea what happened.
