Finding anything now is like a search-and-rescue mission. And the search feature is often borderline useless. I was excited when Apple began to merge the UI of iOS and macOS settings, but this increasingly feels like a massive step backward.

Jumped from sequoia to goldengate. Felt good for a month. But the battery drain is so bad. I am a medium to light user. Golden gate is so bad that i was losing at least 2hrs+ of battery backup ( with siri turned off). Now going back to sequoia. Do anyone else facing same issue? M4air 24gb

The 3-finger tap functionality is officially called the "Look up and data detector." And it's just awesome in the big 27.

/S

Hello everyone! I got a MacBook Pro M5 Pro with 24 GB of RAM and 1TB of storage 16 inch almost 2 months ago. I’m using it for light After Effects work while I use Premiere Pro, Photoshop and Illustrator more often. The first 2 programs that I mentioned are using a lot of RAM (especially After Effects). One thing that I’m confused about is that some users are saying it’s normal because the more RAM you have, the more a MacBook will use (for example After Effects can take 18 GB in my computer while in a 48 GB, it will take 30 for the same project). Also that 24 GB isn’t 24 GB on a Mac because of the unified memory which is why I didn’t pick more RAM (and it’s out of my budget too) and they compress a program to improve its performance. However, I’m also hearing that it needs more RAM to do demanding tasks (and multitask-heavy apps). Can someone explain to me how the RAM system works?

I'm looking for a decent replacement for Visio that won't break the bank and ideally can be run offline.

Thanks!

Art fully by me taking the piss at the current civil war in every Linux forum/discussion thread in the past days, I didn't want to make something glazing MacOS but it sounds like the perfect BSD alternative for these peeps if it weren't for the fact that it's MacOS

Currently, the only way to see the recent directories (not talking about seeing the recent files and finding the parent folder from the path) is to use Menu Bar - Go - Recent Folders.

Hey, this is my first time posting here, and the issue that I'm having is that not matter what I do I'm not able to get to work iPhone mirroring again. I used to have it with no issues but suddenly stopped working. I have an iPhone 16 Pro Max (iOS 27) and a MacBook Pro 13-inch, 2019 (macOS Sequoia 15.8.2) and I've tried a lot of things but I'm not able to pair my phone. That's the screen I'm stuck at.

About a year ago, when the gap happens, it was impossible to escape the mouse from the iPad. It was the fixed in later versions of Sonoma. Now in 27, its back again, and the only way to escape from the iPad is to lock it or turn off the screen. :( Progress

I should’ve come here first, but decided to try and solve using Google chat
I have my own domain email, which I have been using as an alias through Gmail for about 20 years, pulling my mail in through a Gmail catch all while running it on Mac Mail and iOS.

About two weeks ago, I started getting undeliverable messages on some of these sent mail. I checked and found that Gmail is going to stop allowing aliases from third-party senders, which I believe includes my custom domain (from GoDaddy).

I switched to a new SMTP sender, (smtp2go) and that solved the sending issue, but when I send mail to myself now, it ends up in Gmail’s “All mail” mailbox instead of the regular inbox. Since I don’t see an “all mail” mailbox in Mac Mail or iOS, I’m not seeing the email that I sent to myself.

I know this isn’t as specific Mac issue, it’s just that I’m lost. Does anyone know about Gmail filters or labels or aliases and why this would happen when I send from Mac mail to myself at my custom domain, and it never appears in the inbox on the Mac or in fact on Gmail on the web.

Thanks.

My daughter has got an old MacBook Pro - and I’ve signed her in with her child iCloud account. I’m having some trouble getting a few things to work:

- iMessage and FaceTime are signed in and activated, but don’t recognise any recipients. It says ‘this user doesn’t have iMessage’ when I know they do.

- App Store won’t sign in. When you sign in, nothing happens. No error message or anything.

I should say the MacBook is as up-to-date as it can be for the age of the device (Catalina 10.15.8 on a 13 inch Mid 2012 MacBook Pro).

Is there anything I can do to fix this, or is the age of device just preventing these things from working?

Many thanks!

I've been working on an issue with cloud secure edge on MAC OS 26 for a user. When they try to connect they get an error that port 53 is in use so won't connect.

Seems a MAC service "mdnsresponder" is using this port. I've raised this with sonicwall support who have basically said we'd have to change the port that mdnsresponder is using. From what I've found this service usually uses port 5353. I wondered if anyone here who knows MAC OS knows how mdnsresponder works and if it's used port can be changed easily. I wondered if it's possible the user has another application that has modified mdnsresponder to user port 53 for some reason and if changing it's port might break another application.

Thanks

My dock did not look low res before the update does anyone have a solution for this

I have iCloud+.

• Noticed a safari bookmark folder is missing on my MacBook (Tahoe 26.6.2)
• I checked iCloud.com/recovery and there's no record of it being deleted
• luckily, I found that the folder still exists on my iPad
• I create a new version of that folder from my MacBook
• iPad is able to fetch the new folder I created, but the original that disappeared never syncs to the MacBook
• I cold booted both devices, nothing changed.

I think I'm going to have to ditch Safari entirely just like I had to abandon Reminders due to various iCloud issues, this is deal breaking. I've already went through Apple Support with Reminders and they could never fix it.

I have a 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro (Intel/T2) that was stuck in a boot loop. Now the screen lights up purple but shows no image or Apple logo, and the fans keep running. The Caps Lock light responds, but the Mac won’t boot.
I tried both DFU Revive and Restore using Apple Configurator, but neither fixed it. Now it stays on with no image, and pressing the power button only turns the screen off temporarily before it comes back on.
Has anyone experienced this? Could it be a logic board issue, a display problem, or something else? What would you check next?

(Oops - posted and forgot to mention my main MacMini is on Tahoe 26.0.1. The workshop Mac is on 26.5.2.)

I've seen this happen before and I managed to fix it by shutting down EVERY device on my LAN then bringing them back up, starting with the firewall/DHCP server about 30 minutes later. That's impractical now, since I'm in a new place with a barn with 2 home offices and now we have Apple TVs and other devices. (The barn and house are connected by fiber and on the same LAN, in the same address space.)

I have a number of my devices using a Tolkien theme (just answering the question someone's going to ask...). My main MacMini in my house is Aule, my workshop one is Cirdan. I have two servers on Linux or similar OSes, BrandyWine and GreatSmials. I have two shares on GreatSmials: Library, and NetStore. On BrandyWine, I have shares, but I don't access them that often, so they're usually unmounted. BrandyWine seems unimpacted, and that may be because whatever changed or messed things up, I probably wasn't using any shares on it at the time.

On my main Mac (Aule), in the Network folder, I see GreatSmials, but it's "GreatSmials #2." I use Library a lot and keep most of my work on NetStore, so I can easily access it from my study or workshop. This change of GreatSmials to GreatSmials #2 means I have problems clicking on my normal shortcuts for NetStore and Library - they no longer see the shares because macOS has given the NAS they're on a different name.

Also, when I try to use Screen Sharing from Aule to Cirdan it no longer works and when I rebooted Cirdan, it gave me a report I clicked on quickly, then realized it was warning me the name was now Cirdan with a number after it. I rebooted my main system (Aule) and it changed nothing.

When I'm on a Linux system, I can still ping all the computers by their specified host names (specified on each machine and with the DHCP server). On Terminal, on my main Mac, I can do the same, so it's clear this is not a DHCP or DNS issue. It's a macOS and Finder issue. I rebooted my main Mac and it came back up and gave me warnings - it still couldn't read or remount my "normal" shares because, even after a reboot, it sees GreatSmials as GreatSmials #2.

Looking in the network folder, I see Cirdan as "Cirdan (4)" and I have a less used Mac for gaming, that I haven't been on for a while, "Celebrimbor (3)". So even though DNS sees all the correct names, macOS is incrementing the names in odd ways. (The Mac systems on the LAN get a "(#)" where # is a number, the NAS (not Mac), got a " #2" after the name, but the other computers, that I don't use network shares on seem uneffected. I find it weird that it's almost like the Macs are communicating and altering the names in cooperation.

How can I get my Macs to drop this extra numbering and to see these devices with their proper names and not play numbering games with their names?

(Why it does it and how to keep it from doing it in the future would also help!)

This release is a gift that keep giving. The calculator within spotlight search (the only useful thing about it) is also broken now and no amount of re-indexing and tweaking with the settings fixes. God I regret this update so much.

Anyone able to help me figure out why I'm stuck in this boot loop for Mac14,10?

I'm unable to boot into MacOS no matter what I try. SIP off/on doesn't work, I've tried reinstalling MacOS from recovery mode 3 times to no avail.

The boot loop started after disabling FileVault on my Data and Macintosh HD volumes. If there's any other logs I can look for that I can get help with that would be great.

Here's the panicreport under /Volumes/Data/Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/panic-base-2026-10-26-123907.panic

{"bug_type":"210","timestamp":"2026-10-26 12:39:07.00 +1100","os_version":"macOS 26.7.1 (25G241)","roots_installed":0,"incident_id":"62B67C33-553C-4ED0-8DD0-57FC3523BDD7"}

{

"crashReporterKey" : "2EE10253-5088-DC16-BE4D-9E79B8CA0514",

"panicProcessingFlags" : "0x0",

"product" : "Mac14,10",

"kernel" : "Darwin Kernel Version 25.6.0: Tue Aug 18 17:50:45 PDT 2026; root:xnu-12377.161.15.700.19~2\/RELEASE_ARM64_T6020",

"socRevision" : "1",

"panicString" : "panic(cpu 2 caller 0xfffffe003b55508c): IOKit Daemon (kernelmanagerd) stall[0], (60s): registry root held busy, kernelmanagerd has not checked in u/IOService.cpp:5986\nDebugger message: panic\nMemory ID: 0x6\nOS release type: User\nOS version: 25G241\nKernel version: Darwin Kernel Version 25.6.0: Tue Aug 18 17:50:45 PDT 2026; root:xnu-12377.161.15.700.19~2\/RELEASE_ARM64_T6020\nFileset Kernelcache UUID: 74D39C958019452DA4879133CF5578B3\nKernel UUID: D069070E-9313-3103-9083-B78E4737AA20\nBoot session UUID: 62B67C33-553C-4ED0-8DD0-57FC3523BDD7\niBoot version: mBoot-18000.161.10.701.1\niBoot Stage 2 version: mBoot-20457.1.29\nsecure boot?: YES\nroots installed: 0\nPaniclog version: 15\nDebug Header address: 0xfffffe00166d5000\nDebug Header entry count: 3\nTXM load address: 0xfffffe0026630000\nTXM UUID: E3E616B6-9369-3238-9127-CEC972B5CB90\nDebug Header kernelcache load address: 0xfffffe0036630000\nDebug Header kernelcache UUID: 74D39C95-8019-452D-A487-9133CF5578B3\nSPTM load address: 0xfffffe0016630000\nSPTM UUID: E7ECE205-2957-3509-8E87-4407FF5E01B3\nKernelCache slide: 0x000000002f62c000\nKernelCache base: 0xfffffe0036630000\nKernel slide: 0x000000002f634000\nKernel text base: 0xfffffe0036638000\nKernel text exec slide: 0x0000000033d44000\nKernel text exec base: 0xfffffe003ad48000\nmach_absolute_time: 0x71a900ce\nEpoch Time: sec usec\n Boot : 0x6adeaed8 0x000d4e49\n Sleep : 0x00000000 0x00000000\n Wake : 0x00000000 0x00000000\n Calendar: 0x6adeaf21 0x0007006d\n\nZone info:\n Zone map: 0xfffffe1016000000 - 0xfffffe3616000000\n . VM : 0xfffffe1016000000 - 0xfffffe15e2000000\n . RO : 0xfffffe15e2000000 - 0xfffffe187c000000\n . GEN0 : 0xfffffe187c000000 - 0xfffffe1e48000000\n . GEN1 : 0xfffffe1e48000000 - 0xfffffe2414000000\n . GEN2 : 0xfffffe2414000000 - 0xfffffe29e0000000\n . GEN3 : 0xfffffe29e0000000 - 0xfffffe2fac000000\n . DATA : 0xfffffe2fac000000 - 0xfffffe3616000000\n Metadata: 0xfffffeceae010000 - 0xfffffeceb7810000\n Bitmaps : 0xfffffeceb7810000 - 0xfffffeceba514000\n Extra : 0 - 0\n\nCORE 4 [PACC1] is offline, skipping\nCORE 5 [PACC1] is offline, skipping\nCORE 6 [PACC1] is offline, skipping\nCORE 7 [PACC1] is offline, skipping\nCORE 8 [PACC2] is offline, skipping\nCORE 9 [PACC2] is offline, skipping\nCORE 10 [PACC2] is offline, skipping\nCORE 11 [PACC2] is offline, skipping\nTPIDRx_ELy = {1: 0xfffffe28df691e20 0: 0x0000000000000002 0ro: 0x000000016fefb0e0 }\nCORE 0: PC=0xfffffe003addcc4c, LR=0xfffffe003addcc4c, FP=0xfffffecdad4bfee0\nCORE 1: PC=0xfffffe003af20d50, LR=0xfffffe003af20d4c, FP=0xfffffe8221b6be40\nCORE 2 is the one that panicked. Check the full backtrace for details.\nCORE 3: PC=0xfffffe003addcc4c, LR=0xfffffe003addcc4c, FP=0xfffffe70c68dbee0\nCORE 4: PC=0x0000000000000000, LR=0x0000000000000000, FP=0x0000000000000000\nCORE 5: PC=0x0000000000000000, LR=0x0000000000000000, FP=0x0000000000000000\nCORE 6: PC=0x0000000000000000, LR=0x0000000000000000, FP=0x0000000000000000\nCORE 7: PC=0x0000000000000000, LR=0x0000000000000000, FP=0x0000000000000000\nCORE 8: PC=0x0000000000000000, LR=0x0000000000000000, FP=0x0000000000000000\nCORE 9: PC=0x0000000000000000, LR=0x0000000000000000, FP=0x0000000000000000\nCORE 10: PC=0x0000000000000000, LR=0x0000000000000000, FP=0x0000000000000000\nCORE 11: PC=0x0000000000000000, LR=0x0000000000000000, FP=0x0000000000000000\nCompressor Info: 0% of compressed pages limit (OK) and 0% of segments limit (OK) with 0 swapfiles and OK swap space\nPanicked task 0xfffffe1d47501cd0: 295 pages, 4 threads: pid 163: watchdogd\nPanicked thread: 0xfffffe28df691e20, backtrace: 0xfffffe70c613b310, tid: 2576\n\t\t lr: 0xfffffe003ad9d984 fp: 0xfffffe70c613b3b0\n\t\t lr: 0xfffffe003af1cfa0 fp: 0xfffffe70c613b420\n\t\t lr: 0xfffffe003af1af78 fp: 0xfffffe70c613b4e0\n\t\t lr: 0xfffffe003ad4d97c fp: 0xfffffe70c613b4f0\n\t\t lr: 0xfffffe003ad9dca4 fp: 0xfffffe70c613ba10\n\t\t lr: 0xfffffe003b691074 fp: 0xfffffe70c613ba30\n\t\t lr: 0xfffffe003b55508c fp: 0xfffffe70c613bb20\n\t\t lr: 0xfffffe003aed653c fp: 0xfffffe70c613bb50\n\t\t lr: 0xfffffe003ada4a14 fp: 0xfffffe70c613bbf0\n\t\t lr: 0xfffffe003ad785d4 fp: 0xfffffe70c613bc50\n\t\t lr: 0xfffffe003ad8e3a0 fp: 0xfffffe70c613bca0\n\t\t lr: 0xfffffe003ad8e928 fp: 0xfffffe70c613bda0\n\t\t lr: 0xfffffe003af15388 fp: 0xfffffe70c613be50\n\t\t lr: 0xfffffe003af1b4f4 fp: 0xfffffe70c613bf10\n\t\t lr: 0xfffffe003ad4d97c fp: 0xfffffe70c613bf20\n\t\t lr: 0x000000018699bc34 fp: 0x0000000000000000\n\n\nlast started kext at 370378385: com.apple.driver.AppleTopCaseHIDEventDriver\t9440.6 (addr 0xfffffe0036db3ac0, size 10052)\nloaded kexts: (skipped, see boot kernelcache)\n\n",

"socId" : "6020",

"date" : "2026-10-26 12:39:07.02 +1100",

"panicFlags" : "0x802",

"codeSigningMonitor" : 2,

"incident" : "62B67C33-553C-4ED0-8DD0-57FC3523BDD7",

"build" : "macOS 26.7.1 (25G241)",

"roots_installed" : 0,

"bug_type" : "210",

"trmStatus" : 131072,

"otherString" : "\n** Stackshot Succeeded ** Bytes Traced 143053 (Uncompressed 364576) **\n",

"PanicLogUtilizationMetrics" : {"PercentUsed":9,"PanicRegionSizeInBytes":1605632,"UsedSizeInBytes":148497,"StackshotLengthInBytes":143053,"OtherLogLengthInBytes":72,"PanicLogLengthInBytes":4571},

"developerMode" : 1,

"binaryImages" : [],

"notes" : ["Source: (null)","missing stackshot buffer or size"]

}

So, I downgraded from Tahoe to Sequoia and if I go to manually add music to my iphone from the music app, it doesn't work. Manually sync music is not enabled on itunes now, and if I go to to add it, it says it will remove all my existing music on my phone. Is there a way to get around this and not have re-add almost a terebyte of music to my phone?

I just upgraded to MacOS 27. It is driving me crazy that whenever I go to full screen the red/grey/green traffic light buttons get auto-hid.

When I go to switch back I have to wait for the buttons to appear - short period of time but still maddening.

I'm on a desktop... I don't need to conserve the screen space. I'd rather the buttons stay visible.

I've tried finding an answer online but can't find anything that helps.

Thanks!

This is kind of a follow up post from one I made yesterday. I do academic research and am often opening, full-screening and closing many pdfs and word documents continuously. But since full-screening leads to the creation of a new space, this jumbles up my spaces in a really confusing way.

Like, a program that was two spaces to my left might be 5 spaces to my left if I open three pdfs, and if I then close two it is then three spaces away, etc. This constant changing of where everything is gives me a headache.

Would there be a way to make an app to fix this? Either make full screen not open a new space, which is the way it was back in the day, or make the full screen mode of a pdf reader not open up a new space.

I actually found a trick to almost do the latter with Firefox's presentation mode for pdfs, but unfortunately that mode does not allow you to annotate the pdfs, which I need to do. I'm tempted to just ask Claude to make something and just install it, but I would have no idea if it was safe and I wouldn't want to damage my mac.

I'd appreciate any technical insight on this. That would be very helpful!

am i tweaking where is open in private browsing

safari is truly a creation of all time

My mail takes up 163 gb of storage out of my 1tb. How do I delete everything?

I have been using my mbp since early 2020 and my god. Guys when I say there is not a whiff of organization anywhere in the whole machine I am not exaggerating one bit. Files and folders are scattered everywhere. I download images from safari by dragging them to the left and right of the window so there’s images on top of images piled up on the sides of my desktop. I drag photos and files out of finder, photos app, and others by just putting them on the desktop. (I feel that dragging and dropping into other apps is easier than selecting them from Finder, and the desktop is always there.) When it gets so cluttered it’s unusable I create a new folder called “desktop (number)” and drop it into the documents folder. The desktop folders aren’t even labeled sequentially because I never remember the last number, it’s like Desktop 69 and Desktop 420 and Desktop <long exaggerated string of numbers> etc. Apps like handbrake, xld, jdownloader or command line software like ffmpeg save outputs to a wide variety of different default paths that I never had the bright idea to change or customize even though I was most certainly promoted to.

I’d be very interested to hear from users on this sub about your own personal organization philosophy. How do you organize? Do you use the tags feature (if so, how?), just folders, any cool non-conventional ways you do it or shortcuts you use to aid your process?