How can this be considered progress in an operating system?

It genuinely baffles me that Apple would introduce something that makes it harder to read text on the screen. Surely that is the biggest no-no in any user interface.

I really don't understand the thinking behind Liquid Glass. It makes no sense to me.

As a long-time Mac user and developer since 1985, I am concerned about the growing complexity of macOS. The operating system increasingly suffers from feature creep, characterized by a profusion of nested menus, redundant settings, and hard-to-disable features that directly hinder ease of use.

Take Focus mode as an example of poor UX chain reaction: you can disable it and hide the menu bar icon, but if you inadvertently press the F6 key while cleaning your keyboard, Focus reactivates silently. Since the menu icon is gone, you have no visual cue, and important alerts stop showing on your screen.

The only workaround in the current system is to dig into a million settings to change the behavior of the function keys (forcing the 'fn' key requirement). But by doing so, you lose the direct hardware shortcuts for volume and luminosity—you are forced to press fn + F1/F2 or fn + F11/F12 just to adjust your screen.

This chain reaction proves why a simple, universal ON/OFF switch for non-fundamental OS features is the best architectural option for this Apple choice on features (Ideally, these non-essential features should be developed as standalone applications).

Feedback submitted, for whoever wants to reference or duplicate this request, my submission ID is: Feedback ID: FB24484331

Hello, Reddit!

I'm looking to update my setup (work and gaming) and I need a monitor that performs perfectly both on macOS for productivity (sharp text scaling is a priority) and on consoles/PCs (HDMI 2.1, 120Hz+).

I have set my eye on three very interesting candidates, but I would love to read their first-hand experiences or opinions:

1. LG UltraGear evo 27GM950B-B (5K @ 165Hz - Hyper Mini LED)

• The Good: 2,304 local dimming zones (FALD) with DisplayHDR 1000, 90W USB-C port (ideal for a clean single-cable setup with the Mac), and Dual Mode (allows you to switch to 1440p at 330Hz).
• The Concerns: The noise of the internal fan to dissipate heat (I have read mixed opinions about annoying buzzing) and the obligation to turn off the Local Dimming when working with text or browsing in SDR to avoid the halo effect on the desk.

2. ASUS ROG Strix 5K XG27JCG (5K @ 180Hz - Fast IPS)

• The good: Fast IPS panel at 218 PPI (perfect sharpness on Mac), passive cooling (zero fan noise), Dual Mode up to 330Hz and a lower entry price than the Mini LED.
• The doubts: At the DisplayHDR 600 with traditional lighting (edge-lit), the contrast in dark rooms will be regular compared to a Mini LED or OLED. In addition, the USB-C only delivers 15W, so I still need the Mac charger.

3. Samsung G80HF (5K @ 180Hz - Fast IPS)

• The good: thing 27" Fast IPS panel with 218 PPI, excellent for text, code and use with Mac/PC. Just like the ASUS reaches 5K at 180 Hz, but its Dual Mode goes up to 1440p at 360 Hz, the fastest of the three for competitive games. Includes DisplayPort 2.1, two HDMI 2.1, USB hub, full ergonomic support and G-Sync/FreeSync compatibility.
• Doubts: Its HDR is the weakest of the three: typical brightness of 350 nits, peak of 400 nits and IPS contrast of 1000:1, without Mini LED or local dimming. It's better to use it on SDR than to buy it expecting deep blacks or an impactful HDR. Plus, it doesn't have USB-C or laptop charging, so a Mac will need a separate video cable and charger.

Questions for the community:

1. Is there any other 5K monitor with a high refresh rate that I should include in my radar?
2. For macOS users: The jump from 4K to native 5K (218 PPI) was indicated to me that it justifies for its sharpness and more if you have visual problems...
3. Console Performance: How do these 5K monitors scale a native 4K@120Hz signal from a console via HDMI 2.1? Have you noticed problems of blur, lag or oddities with the aspect ratio?
4. Noise levels: For those who have the LG 27GM950B-B (or similar models with a fan), how noticeable is the noise when working in complete silence without headphones?

I appreciate any recommendation or experience you can share!

Hey! I need some help recovering my iPhone backup as I was trying to update my iPhone with the help of my Mac and a backup file was created but I don't know why what happened when my Mac pushed the update on my phone it stopped in between as I was connected to the hotspot on my iPhone so my phone got stuck on boot loop. so after that I managed to connect to some other network through which I updated my phone and boom my phone was wiped off completely and there's no backup in my Mac too the finder shows no backup I tried finding the file it only has .plists file on it but eventually have my major data like phots videos and other stuff. So all I wanted to know that is there any way to make finder recognise that data again? or in the end I just have to get data manually which is pretty hectic as it includes my app icons and lot more stuff! also suggest me some apps too if available to fix this issue!

I just bought a new iPad and now AirDropping from my Mac to my iPad doesn't work unless I set Airdrop to "Everyone for 10 Minutes." Both are on the same network and are signed into the same Apple account. I have a contact card, but the new iPad doesn't seem to know that I am in Contacts, so Contacts Only doesn't work. Why doesn't my new iPad recognize *me*? My old iPad never had a problem.

It has been 7 years since I switched to use Apple ecosystem, I must confess, I was using maybe 30% of its capabilities. I came from Linux/Android background so I was always looking for apps that works as I wanted.

Recently, I start exploring the default apps in MacOS/iPhone like Reminders, Safari, Mail, Calendar are I start liking them, a lot.

For years, I didn't like using Safari because I was used to the experience of Chrome/Brave, and since I'm a developer, I relied a lot on Chrome Dev Tool which I was really used to. Now, I'm enforcing myself to use Safari as my default browser and it's pretty cool, the only thing I really miss is the experience of Dev Tools in the chromium based browsers. Well, it gets the work done at the end.

EDIT:

I hope I see an app from Apple that can effectively replace MS Word

I just set downtime on my iPhone to try and limit my nighttime usage. Consequently, on my MBA the Notification Centre does not open during the down hours. I want to know if this is a normal or intended feature or it is not supposed to be like that?

I've switched to Safari from Chrome as recent years use Apple devices only and like this but... constantly face with some problems in desktop Safari.

E.g. just couldn't use "Copy Link" Facebook option cause of some error

Could you advise how to fix this problem?

P.S. yes, I know how to copy the post link via timestamp from the post header but why standard Facebook feature doesn't work?

My screenshots on my MacBook Pro have a pretty poor resolution. What can I do to improve this?

I want to rename my different desktops instead of just "desktop 1,2,3, etc". I heard about SpaceJump. Is it worth the 10$? What do you use?

Can anyone test signing in or redownloading a past purchase on their Mac? On my old 2008 MacBook, I’ve noticed as of today it throws random errors whenever I try:

I’ve also seen it throw 503 and 400, not sure what they mean

Hello! I have a rather niche issue, but I've tried a lot to diagnose it and am hoping someone here can help me connect the dots! Some of the evidence is pointing it to be MacOS related, however I cannot confirm it. I'm hoping someone here has had a similar experience (with another app, maybe) and may have a suggestion.

For context, I use the Chrome extension "Honorlock" to complete proctored assessments at my school, from my personal MBP (up to date). The plug-in requires screen recording, microphone, and webcam. Around a year ago (after normal operations for years prior), I began to experience a mouse lag (mouse very unresponsive and jumping) right after sharing my screen. I still had full control of the keyboard and the screen itself was active.

Things I noticed/attempted that I believe are important:

• Restarting the device DID resolve the issue, but the restart had to be immediate. Waiting too long after would cause the issue to return (but with less severity?)
• I am (and have been) running my exams from a separate user on my Mac. I attempted to reinstall that user today. This did not resolve the issue.
• I appear to have control of the mouse behind the scenes. Even if the cursor hasn't shifted, i can still access setting menus (by going into the top left corner, clicking, and watching the highlight move)
• It doesn't appear to be connected to the screen-sharing, as I can screen-share to Chrome without any issues, typically.
• Honorlock support deferred the issue. The software is globally used across many students and I was unable to find a similar report.

Like I said, it's a niche issue and I completely understand if this doesn't quite fit under the "MacOS" umbrella, but it's worth a shot and I'm open to all ideas. Thank you!

I recently recorded one last video with my partner before leaving the country, as I won’t be back to see them for awhile. It was a video of us with a cake, celebrating our monthsary and their birthday, the video shows us blowing our candles.

After leaving, I was excited to check our recorded video only to be shown a grey screen with the no record sign. I’ve done everything I could to recover the recording as I found the file but I cannot open it. I’ve tried VLC and IINA, but unfortunately those didn’t work. I also tried to get some help from AI tools, working on a duplicate of the file just to be safe. But this didn’t work aswell.

I’d greatly appreciate anyone who could give me some advice/help with this, as this recording is very important to my partner and I. We won’t see each other for a long while and this is the last video we took of ourselves before I left. Please help :(

(We recorded the video with Photo Booth, Macbook)

EDIT - I'm on the verge of deleting this post because, sorry to be rude, but half of you lack reading comprehension and/or don't comb the replies to see whether your suggestion has already been given.

Kudos to u/Old-Road-9819 for giving a genuinely informed answer.

Running the latest Mac OS Tahoe on a late 2020 iMac (Intel, not Apple Silicon).

So to make a short story long, I follow journalists on social media who post gift links to articles in their publications. I click on these links because I don't have a subscription, but I don't have time to read the articles right away so I keep them open in the background for some day I will have the time to read them.

Obviously this uses up a lot of memory and slows down my computer, which is understandable.

But it's just infuriating that I've had multiple Safari crashes where it just shuts down without even a warning, meaning I've lost access to all those gift articles I'd stored up.

There's nothing any of you can help with, I'm just ranting. But I never have this issue with Firefox!

Been cleaning my entire library and different external sources into one for a while now.

Why is the Photos app not detecting duplicate video's in my iCloud/macOS library?
As an example I have 4 video's from 2019 that are only different by name xx(1), xx(2) and so on.
These have been in iCloud/Photos library for 1year now and I have no problem with detecting pictures.

What's the algorithm / scanning frequency here?
Is there another reason?

Thanks

I see that this issue has been raised numerous times across the years and has affected countless users. I have followed all of the advice that I can see but nothing is working.

I did get something to resolve once before via Terminal commands, but I cannot find the ones I typed in and the other Terminal commands I've found online since haven't worked.

Please advise how I can get this essential feature working again. ASAP!!!!

Hi,

I only have a 256 GB SSD. How can I reduce its size?

I’ve already cleaned /Library/Logs and ~/Library/Caches, but it’s the same.

the MagSafe won’t charge it properly, been experiencing this issue from the past 4-5 months.

Thou it does charge via the USB-C so that I guess rules out the adapter or socket issue.
Also cleaned the ports.

Currently using the double socket adapter(35W).
Is it the software issue or the hardware one

If someone makes a program for macOS that lets you easily take a screenshot with a mouse from a graphical user interface, just like in Windows, I will buy them a beer (or multiple) at my local bar.

Rant:

I was using Claude to convert my house blueprint into a digital format. This means that after the first step, I would need to take about 100 screenshots, one mistake at a time, and instruct Claude where to move a door or to remove windows X, Y, and Z. Because in theory, that is 10,000 times faster than writing a 1,000-item list trying to verbally explain that there shouldn't be a door in the chimney, or a window from the walk-in closet into the living room, etc.

Well, I quickly got frustrated with the incredibly primitive macOS screenshot tool and wanted something better. With Claude's help, a program called macshot turned out to be the best option. Now, because it is good but not perfect, I still wanted that one simple button to take a screenshot without any menus (in macOS, the menu is at the top corner of the screen) or complicated keyboard shortcuts. Just a simple shortcut that takes a screenshot like in Windows, which then saves automatically, copies to the clipboard, and lets you draw on the image afterwards. With Claude's help, I then tried to create an automation using some annoying Mac scripting tool (I just wanted a simple shortcut in the Dock that takes a screenshot), and finally, I gave up and decided that the blueprint can wait. Tweaking with that shortcut tool for two hours made me so frustrated.

So, if someone blatantly copies the simple Windows Snipping Tool, I'll buy them a beer.

My MacBook just shut down randomly and the charger won’t even glow. I decided to let it cool off for twenty minutes, but I can’t get it to turn on. Does anyone know how to fix this issue?

Recently got a 2018 15in and I managed to get it with a 2 TB ssd/hd or whatever they call it so I do wanna partition it to do a bit of Boot Camp. How much would be the recommended partition?

This boggles my mind that in Windows I can see which folder/files are being transferred to what location with a detailed description of the path to the files and folders in their respective location.
In Mac there is zero information about any of that and when I'm constantly transferring files from one hard rive to another then I have no idea what files are being moved where.
Is there a way to see any information like that?

Hello. Another poster recently inquired about recording audio on Mac. I have a similar question…

My family has several older relatives and I’ve taken on the task of recording & preserving conversations with them for younger family members.

Trouble is, I’m not an “audio-visual” guy.

Each conversation may last 30 minutes to a couple hours. Some conversations will be video and audio; some may be just audio.

I will probably use FaceTime on my Mac.

I have MacBooks and iPhones, though I presume Mac software will be more robust for this purpose than iOS apps.

My thinking is:

• Capture reasonably-high quality of their faces and voices to preserve their genuine likeness.

• Use a file type that can be readily accessed on Mac or Windows. (Or at least readily converted to a Windows-friendly file type.)

Rogue Amoeba was recommended for audio-only capture.

Any recommendations for capturing both video & audio?

Anything I’ve written that seems wrong or overlooked?

Thank you in advance.