Everyday Mac Tools Guides Blog Mac guides.
279 posts · Setting a Mac up, keeping it secure, backing it up, and working out what is wrong when it stops. Our apps appear only where they genuinely help.
Setting up and migrating Setting up a new Mac: the order that saves you a week later 7 min Migration Assistant: what it moves, what it quietly leaves 6 min Moving from Windows to a Mac: the first two hours 6 min Should you migrate or start clean on a new Mac? 6 min Signing in to a Mac: Apple Account, iCloud and what each unlocks 6 min Setting up a second Mac so both feel like the same machine 5 min Erasing a Mac properly before you sell or hand it on 6 min Unpairing everything: what to sign out of before a Mac leaves you 5 min What to do on day one with a work-issued Mac 5 min Setting up a Mac for someone who is not comfortable with computers 5 min Standard, admin and guest accounts: which one you should use daily 5 min Setting up a Mac for a child without turning it into a fight 6 min Restoring a Mac from a backup: what to expect and how long 5 min Transferring apps to a new Mac when you have lost the licences 5 min Setting up a Mac you will travel with 6 min The Mac settings worth changing in the first ten minutes 5 min Naming a Mac, and why it matters more than you think 5 min Setting up a Mac to share with a partner 5 min Moving your browser to a new Mac without losing anything 5 min What a clean install actually fixes, and what it does not 5 min Setting up a Mac mini as a machine you never sit in front of 6 min Getting a Mac ready to lend to someone for a week 5 min What carries over when you sign in to a borrowed Mac 5 min A Mac handover checklist for a new employee 5 min Hardware and buying How much RAM a Mac actually needs, by what you do 6 min Storage on a Mac: why the base model catches people out 5 min Buying a refurbished Mac: what is genuinely different 5 min MacBook Air or MacBook Pro: the question that actually decides it 5 min Thunderbolt, USB-C and USB4: telling the ports apart 5 min Why a USB-C cable can charge but not carry video 5 min Choosing a dock for a laptop that lives on a desk 5 min How many external displays your Mac can actually drive 5 min Choosing an external display for a Mac, and the scaling trap 5 min Why text looks blurry on an external monitor 5 min Battery health on a Mac: what the percentage means 5 min Charging habits that actually affect a MacBook battery 5 min Why a Mac gets hot, and when that is a problem 5 min Fan noise on a Mac: finding the cause before the fix 5 min External SSD or an internal upgrade: what is possible now 5 min Choosing a keyboard for a Mac, including non-Apple ones 5 min Using a Windows keyboard on a Mac without going mad 5 min Trackpad or mouse: what each is genuinely better at 5 min Webcams, and when the built-in one is not enough 5 min Microphones for calls, from free to worth it 5 min Headphones and a Mac: the Bluetooth quality question 5 min Apple silicon and Intel Macs: what still differs 6 min Reading a Mac's spec sheet without being misled 5 min When a Mac is genuinely too old to keep using 5 min Getting another two years out of an ageing Mac 5 min Cases, stands and the ergonomics of a laptop on a desk 5 min Surge protection, power bricks and travelling with a Mac charger 5 min What AppleCare covers, and whether it is worth it 5 min Security and privacy FileVault: what it protects you from and what it does not 5 min Does a Mac need antivirus? An honest answer 6 min Gatekeeper explained: why a Mac blocks an app you downloaded 5 min Passkeys on a Mac, and when they replace a password 5 min Two-factor authentication on an Apple Account, done properly 5 min What to do the hour after you think your Mac was compromised 6 min Your Mac was stolen. The order to do things in 5 min Find My on a Mac: what it can and cannot do 5 min The Mac firewall: whether to turn it on and what changes 5 min Phishing that targets Mac users specifically 5 min The fake support call, and why it works 5 min Reading a macOS permission prompt before you click Allow 5 min iPhone, iPad and continuity Signing in to iCloud on a Mac that is not yours 5 min Tuning macOS Make the Dock appear instantly on a Mac 5 min Show hidden files in Finder, and hide them again 6 min Change where a Mac saves screenshots 5 min Turn off the floating screenshot thumbnail on a Mac 5 min Take Mac window screenshots without the shadow 6 min Turn off or speed up window animations on a Mac 5 min A faster key repeat rate than System Settings allows 6 min Stop .DS_Store files appearing on external and network drives 6 min Add a Quit command to the Finder 5 min Show the full path in Finder, in the title bar and the path bar 5 min Keep folders at the top when Finder sorts by name 5 min Keep a MacBook awake with the lid closed, and when not to 6 min Require a password immediately after a Mac sleeps 5 min Turn off Siri suggestions and lookups that send data off your Mac 6 min Reduce transparency and motion for a calmer, faster Mac 5 min Set up hot corners on a Mac without triggering them by accident 5 min Save new documents to your Mac instead of iCloud by default 6 min Turn off autocorrect, smart quotes and substitutions for writing and code 5 min What defaults write does, and how to undo one safely 6 min Switch a Mac between work, focus and presentation setups in one step 6 min PDFs and redaction Why a black box on a PDF does not redact anything 5 min How to check whether a PDF was really redacted 6 min Remove metadata from a PDF on a Mac before you share it 6 min Redacting a PDF in Preview on a Mac, and what Preview actually does 6 min Bates numbering on a Mac: what it is and how to add it 5 min Make a scanned PDF searchable on a Mac 5 min Merge PDFs on a Mac without uploading them anywhere 6 min Compress a PDF on a Mac without wrecking the scans 6 min Remove the password from a PDF you own, on a Mac 6 min Compare two versions of a PDF on a Mac 6 min Fill in a PDF form on a Mac and flatten it so it stays filled 5 min Sign a PDF on a Mac using Preview 5 min Split a PDF into separate files on a Mac 5 min What a PDF still hides: layers, attachments, bookmarks and old thumbnails 6 min Redacting photos and scans inside a PDF 6 min A privilege log built from the redactions themselves 6 min Preparing a document production on a Mac: a checklist 6 min Redacting records for a FOIA or public records request 6 min Why a redaction tool should work with the network off 6 min Add a watermark, header or footer to a PDF on a Mac 6 min Storage and cleanup What System Data is on a Mac, and how to shrink it 6 min The Mac says storage is full, but the folders do not add up 5 min Time Machine local snapshots are taking space on the internal drive 5 min Purgeable space on a Mac: what it is and why it will not free up 6 min Xcode is eating the disk: DerivedData, simulators and archives 5 min Docker.raw is huge on a Mac, and how much of it is real 6 min Find and delete old iPhone backups on a Mac 5 min Which caches are safe to delete on a Mac 6 min Uninstall an app on a Mac completely, leftovers included 6 min Find duplicate files on a Mac without deleting the wrong copy 6 min A shared Mac: which user account is using all the space 6 min Swap files on a Mac: why they grow and what to do about it 6 min Tidy the Downloads folder without losing anything 6 min Package caches on a Mac: npm, Homebrew, pip and CocoaPods 6 min Optimize Mac Storage in iCloud: what it removes and when 6 min Log files on a Mac that quietly grow for years 6 min Mail is taking up storage on a Mac: attachments and the envelope index 6 min Not enough space to update macOS: what to clear first 6 min Why a disk cleaner should show you the plan before it deletes anything 7 min The Photos library is taking up space: originals, caches and duplicates 6 min Dictation and voice Dictation on a Mac: what the built-in version can and cannot do 6 min Hold-to-talk dictation: why a held key beats a toggle 6 min How to dictate punctuation on a Mac 6 min Dictation for wrist pain and RSI: a practical setup 6 min Dictating into Slack, mail and a code editor on a Mac 6 min Writing a first draft by voice 6 min Where your audio goes when you dictate on a Mac 6 min Offline dictation on a Mac 6 min Dictating names, jargon and technical terms accurately 6 min Clearing an inbox by dictating the replies 6 min Transcribe a meeting on an iPhone 5 min Dictating clinical notes on a Mac 6 min Case notes by voice: dictation for lawyers on a Mac 6 min Dictating in a noisy room: microphone and technique 6 min How much faster dictation is than typing, and where it is not 6 min Voice commands while dictating: new line, undo, select all 6 min Filler words in dictated text and how to clean them up 6 min Dictating code and shell commands: when it works 6 min Setting up a dictation hotkey on a Mac 6 min Journaling by voice on a Mac and iPhone 6 min Finding files Spotlight cannot find a file you know exists 5 min Find a mail attachment on a Mac 5 min Find the original of a photo inside the Photos library 5 min Files on an unplugged external drive: knowing what is where 5 min Find files by extension on a Mac 6 min Find the largest files on a Mac 6 min Find every copy of a file on a Mac 6 min Rebuild the Spotlight index on a Mac 6 min Search inside one folder only on a Mac 6 min Full Disk Access on a Mac: what it grants and why apps ask 6 min Why searching a Mac feels slow, and what fast search does differently 6 min mdfind: searching a Mac from the Terminal 6 min Finder search tips that actually narrow things down 6 min Quick Look from the keyboard, anywhere on a Mac 5 min Open Terminal at a folder on a Mac 5 min Either, not and exact: boolean file search on a Mac 6 min Coming from Windows: the Everything search habit on a Mac 6 min A launcher and a file search are different tools 6 min Finding a file when you only remember part of the name 6 min Naming and folder habits that keep a Mac searchable 6 min Locking and hiding files How to password protect a folder on a Mac: three ways that work 7 min How to password protect any file on a Mac, whatever the format 7 min Locked in Finder is not password protected: what the Locked box does 7 min How to hide a folder on a Mac, and why hidden is not private 6 min Encrypt a folder on a Mac with Disk Utility, step by step 7 min Encrypt a USB stick or external drive on a Mac 7 min Forgot the password to an encrypted disk image? What still works 7 min Password protect a zip file on a Mac, and the weakness to know 7 min Clear recent files on a Mac: Finder Recents, menus and Open Recent 6 min Keep private files out of Spotlight search on a Mac 6 min Quick Look and thumbnails: how a Mac previews what is inside a file 6 min Locked notes on a Mac: what Notes protects and what it cannot 6 min Password protect a Word document on a Mac 7 min Password protect Pages, Numbers and Keynote files on a Mac 7 min Hide and lock private photos on a Mac 7 min Where to keep tax returns, passports and ID scans on a Mac 7 min FileVault or a locked folder? What each one protects on a Mac 6 min Delete a file for good on a Mac: what replaced Secure Empty Trash 6 min Private files and Time Machine: what your backups keep 6 min Is iCloud Drive private enough for sensitive files? 6 min More Mac guides Find and delete old node_modules folders on a Mac 6 min Find every screenshot on a Mac and gather them in one place 6 min The Mac says it is unable to expand a zip file 6 min Redact a bank statement before sending it, on a Mac 6 min Stop a Mac sleeping during a long download or upload 6 min Collecting files from different folders before you send them 6 min Dictated words land in the wrong app or the wrong spot 6 min Fix a scanned PDF that is sideways and out of order 6 min Your Mac fills up again a week after you cleared it 7 min Mac settings that revert after a macOS update 7 min Dragging a file between two full screen apps on a Mac 6 min Video editing caches and scratch files filling a Mac 7 min Getting a Mac ready to record a screencast 7 min Turning phone photos of a document into one readable PDF 7 min When dictation keeps mishearing you on a Mac 7 min Copy the full path of a file on a Mac 6 min Find a folder by name on a Mac when Spotlight only shows files 6 min Messages attachments taking up space on a Mac 7 min Password protect a PDF on a Mac before you email it 7 min Turn off the sound effects a Mac plays for the Trash and screenshots 6 min Show file extensions for every file on a Mac 6 min Drag and drop stopped working on a Mac: what to check, in order 6 min Where did that file save? Finding it again on a Mac 6 min Application Support taking up space on a Mac: what is safe to clear 7 min Save an email as a PDF on a Mac, attachments and threads included 7 min Using a Mac with one hand after an injury: a practical setup 7 min How to exclude a folder from a file search on a Mac 7 min Finder is slow to open a folder with thousands of files 6 min Redacting the same name across a stack of PDFs on a Mac 7 min Stop a Mac rearranging your desktops and Spaces on its own 6 min What is this folder on my Mac? Finding the app that made it 7 min Writing with dyslexia on a Mac: a dictation and read-back setup 7 min Crop a PDF on a Mac, and why the cropped part is still there 6 min Find the apps you never use on a Mac and remove them 7 min Lock a folder with Touch ID on a Mac: what macOS allows 6 min Search for files on a Mac with Spotlight indexing turned off 7 min The Mac settings developers change first on a new machine 7 min Change Mac settings automatically when you unplug the charger 6 min You emptied the Trash but your Mac got no space back 6 min Mac dictation keeps stopping mid-sentence: causes and fixes 6 min Replace a page in a PDF on a Mac, such as a signed page 6 min Save a web link as a file on a Mac, and what a webloc is 6 min Check disk space from the Terminal on a Mac with df and du 6 min Dictation on a Mac mini or Mac Studio with no built-in microphone 6 min Drag a file into a folder several levels deep on a Mac 6 min Is it safe to open a PDF attachment on a Mac? What to check first 6 min Sending a Mac for repair without handing over your private files 6 min Can you delete DMG files after installing an app on a Mac? 6 min Hide personal details in a screenshot before you share it on a Mac 6 min How to tell if someone used your Mac while you were away 7 min Typing with arthritis on a Mac: settings and dictation that help 7 min Files missing after Migration Assistant: where they usually are 7 min A distraction-free Mac for long writing sessions: the settings that matter 7 min Delete pages from a PDF on a Mac, and check they are really gone 6 min Keep files private from someone who knows your Mac password 7 min Other Volumes in Disk Utility: what is using that space on a Mac 6 min Stop a MacBook turning on when you open the lid or plug it in 5 min Delete GarageBand from a Mac and get the sound library space back 6 min Reset app preferences on a Mac: find the plist and move it safely 7 min Turn off personalized ads on a Mac, and what the switch leaves on 6 min Verify a checksum on a Mac before you open a download 6 min What a sparsebundle file is on a Mac, and how to open or shrink one 6 min Can you delete /private/var/folders on a Mac, and what is in it 6 min Change the screenshot format from PNG to JPG on a Mac 6 min Dictation not working on a Mac: what to check, in order 6 min Do you need a Mac cleaner app? An honest answer 6 min Fill in a PDF that has no form fields on a Mac 7 min Finding a file when you only remember the folder it was in 6 min How much free space should a Mac have? Working out your own number 6 min How to add page numbers to a PDF on a Mac when Preview cannot 6 min How to search for files by size on a Mac, in Finder or Terminal 6 min Redacting a document before you share it with an AI chatbot 7 min Stop a Mac reopening windows and apps after a restart 6 min What the Other Users & Shared storage category means on a Mac 6 min Can you delete the Install macOS app after updating a Mac? 6 min mds_stores using high CPU on a Mac: what it is doing and when to act 6 min The Dock keeps changing size on a Mac: set it once and lock it 6 min How to lock an app on a Mac with a password, and what works instead 7 min Search for a word across many PDFs at once on a Mac 6 min An encrypted disk image stays unlocked on a Mac: make it lock itself 6 min Command-Space does not open Spotlight on a Mac: what to check 6 min Text copied from a PDF pastes as gibberish on a Mac: why and the fix 6 min The Containers folder is taking up space on a Mac: what is safe 6 min Windows slide away when you click the desktop on a Mac: turn it off 6 min Find a downloaded file on a Mac by the website it came from 6 min Find a file fast in the Open or upload dialog on a Mac 6 min Rename a batch of files at once on a Mac with Finder 6 min Show folder sizes in Finder on a Mac, and why they can mislead 6 min The Mac screen dims or turns off too soon: the settings behind it 6 min Dictating numbers and email addresses on a Mac accurately 5 min How to middle click on a Mac trackpad 5 min Mission Control feels slow on a Mac: how to speed it up 6 min Sort a messy folder by file type on a Mac 6 min The Trash will not empty on a Mac: item in use or locked 6 min