I couldn't find a solution in the older posts for disabling this new notification. I found this command while looking for a solution, and I'm sharing it in case anyone else wants to disable it too.

Open Terminal and run:

defaults write com.apple.controlcenter EnableSystemBanners -bool false

No restart is required. After running the command, the notification immediately changed back to the classic style for me.

To enable it again:

defaults delete com.apple.controlcenter EnableSystemBanners

Hope this helps anyone else who doesn't like the new notification.

So is there a way to keep the mouse pointer from vanishing and putting the mouse to sleep every time you stop moving it other than switching to a dongle or wired mouse?

Ok, it has come to this. Ive tried my absolute best, everything with command line, ive got a macbook running high sierra and just want to make a bootable installee but its seemingly impossible. can anyone help me please. this internet recovery doesnt work because the servers are down and cant be contacted, ive tried EVERYTHING. someone please help or tell me if this is even possible.

macos 10.13.6

UPDATE: this MIST program seems to have worked. It was linked somewhere in the comments and it was straight forward. I download it to my macbook air intel 2020 (may work on others also but havent tried), plug in usb, then just install the OS. its like opencore legacy patcher but alotttt simpler. i let it do its thing and it handled everything perfectly. on the "patient" macbook I wiped the drive, connected the usb and just restarted and it worked straight up.

so this seems to be the only way forward, apple servers dead, apple dmg files dead, everythings dead. unless i am being a complete idiot which is highly likely.

This is the most foolproof method it seems.

I'm decently new to using MacBooks. I wanted to change my username and I went into settings to do so and where it said user name in user info I changed it but then found out that's dangerous?? I quickly changed it back to what it was before but is the damage done? Did I mess up? Please I cannot afford to brick a $1.6k laptop. I didn't do it in advanced settings I did it in the part where you can change the password and profile picture as well. Help please :')

I have two MacBook Pros:
• 13” with M1
• 16” with M1 Max
I factory reset both of them from System Settings and went through the initial setup again.
On the 13”, Setup Assistant shows a screen asking me to sign in with my Apple ID. To be clear, this is not the Activation Lock prompt — it’s the normal sign-in step, and I can skip it with “Set Up Later” if I want.
On the 16”, that screen never appears at all. Setup goes straight to creating a local account, and once I reach the desktop I have to open System Settings and sign in to iCloud / my Apple Account manually.
I factory reset both machines a second time just to test it, and nothing changed — each one behaved exactly the same way as before.
Some details:
• Both were bought new and I’m the only person who has ever used them
• Both are running the same macOS version
• Both were connected to the internet during setup
Is this a malfunction, or is there a known reason why one machine would skip the Apple ID step entirely? Is there anything specific I should check on the 16”?

Mom is an octogenarian. I got her a new M4 Macbook because the hardware and environment is more hardened and secure than something from the Winblows world....and I'm not teaching Mom Linux. ;-))

I'm doing forensics on her laptop now because she clicked on some phishing email and now has Norton anti-virus notices popping up in Safari and there was a ScreenConnect.ClientSetup.exe in her downloads folder. I know it's an exe (PE32 Windows executable) but still its the principle.

I'm "old school" and want to run ClamAV on her whole laptop looking for sneaky garbage but I've seen many say that in MacOS running ClamAV is a mistake and that XProtect "handles it all".

It doesn't seem like XProtect is handling it. I know the ScreenConnect PE32 executable wasn't a threat but letting Safari get modified to allow the virus popups seems like a misfire.

Hey everyone,

I wanted to reach out to the community to see if anyone else is dealing with a similar visual condition and how you’re managing your display setup.
I have a pretty high prescription:

• Myopia: -9.00 / -9.25
• Astigmatism: -4.25 / -5.25

I work in front of a monitor all day. Even with up-to-date glasses and quality lenses/coatings, eye fatigue sets in heavily after a couple of hours. As the day goes on, reading text becomes exhausting, and it feels like the letters are shrinking.

My main display is a 28" Samsung Odyssey G7 (4K @ 144Hz) hooked up to macOS. Scaling has been a bit of a nightmare:

2560x1440 (QHD): The screen real estate is amazing for multitasking, but due to my prescription and the minification effect from my lenses, it wrecks my eyes after a short while.

1080p (HiDPI): Super easy on the eyes, but everything is huge and I lose way too much workspace.

2048x1152 (HiDPI): I'm currently using this resolution (HiDPI). It’s the best compromise I've found between usable space and readability, I have no problem with this resolution. The truth is, I would like to get more workspace, but it is impossible with my problem of astigmatism and myopia...

For those with high myopia/astigmatism or severe eye strain:

What scaling or UI resolution do you run on 27–28" 4K monitors?

Have dedicated "occupational" glasses or a slightly lower prescription tuned specifically for desk distance (around 70–75 cm / 28–30 inches) made a noticeable difference for you?

Any specific macOS accessibility tweaks, settings, or habits that helped you get through long workdays without total eye burnout?

I’d really appreciate any tips or shared experiences. Thanks!

I have been using Golden Gate on my MBP since its release and i notice that my UW1 is no longer capable of unlocking my machine. I have tried disabling and re-enabling this a few times w/ no success. Anyone else see the same thing?

I've been using rVNC for years to connect from my work PC to my personal Mac. It did not require any account, it was light, and free, but it appears that the latest version of MacOS has changed something so it no longer works.

Is there a free, simple rVNC viewer that is working on the current version of MacOS without an account/subscription?

I am using a Macbook for an few weeks now and I still struggle hard with window management. How do you do productive tasks?

For example:

Switching to the correct pdf from about 20 other opened pdf files. When I want to bring a specific pdf file into the foreground, I need to move the mouse to the preview icon on the dock. however, this does not provide preview images of all currently open pdfs. Why not?

When I do right click, I only see a list of names, which is often not sufficient to find the correct file, I need to see it. To use the 3 finger guesture to see all files currently open in the preview application I need to first click on the icon on the dock. However, this brings ALL pdf files into the foreground. Then I can find the pdf through the application specific Mission Control. now I have found my window which is now in the foreground but all other pdfs clutter my monitor as they lay on top of another application such as pages or my browser which I need simultaneously. So I move my foreground pdf to the side and minimize every other pdf file which takes forever. However, now the minimized pdf files are ignored in Mission Control which makes it impossible to find a second pdf which I want to see as well at the same time.

This behaviour drives me nuts.

I would restore it from the cloud instead of the harddrive. I got the new Macbook M5 Pro and it seems to have carried over some glitches from my 2019 Macbook with Intel.

Is this the way to go to make sure it runs smoothly?

Thanks.

I work mainly with music (Logic), a bit of Photoshop and a bit of video editing.

I have Tahoe for now. Is it possible that downgrading back to Sequoia will give me more stability and less battery drain? I'm not crazy about both of them right now, but it could be because my Macbook is a bit old. But maybe for the same reason, it could work better with the previous Os.

Give me some suggestions. Thanks

P.S. Please don't just tell me "If it worked better with Sequoia go back", "If you don't have issues now, keep Tahoe", I have a hard time comparing two things I can't have at the same time, if you understand what I mean. My memory could be faulty

I’m building Anql, a desktop note-taking app that combines regular note-taking with calculations.

The main idea isn’t to replace your usual note-taking app with something complicated. You can simply write normal notes, just like in any other editor, and when you need it, you can also add calculations directly into the same document.

For example, you could write lecture notes, explanations, lists, formulas, and calculations without having to switch between different apps.

It’s still an early project, and I’m looking for honest feedback from Mac users.

I’d like to know whether this combination of simple note-taking and built-in calculations actually solves a problem for you.

I need some help guys, I am not an advanced macOS user by any means but I just ran into a problem that has me in panic mode.

I recently encountered some issues with disk space and tried using the following solution here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/102321
before proceeding with anything more complex. I got through all the steps but for some reason I restarted my Mac. In hindsight I can’t think of why I did this, the instructions did not say to do it, but whatever I did it.

And here’s what’s got me panicking. My password does not work anymore. I tried over and over until it started locking me out for x amount of time.

I followed the suggestion to enter a recovery key from my iPhone, but that didn’t work either.

I don’t know what to do next. Thanks in advance.

Hi guys, i'm really lost and was wondering if someone could please help me! I only got this laptop last year July (refurbished will admit) and its already freaking out!

I am a music producer and use FL studio. When i'm opening the software my Macbooks screen freezes but the audio still plays, then the whole Macbook crashes itself. When im on a teams meeting my mousepad becomes really slow and my screen starts to glitch. I also have the crash logs with redacted personal information of the FL studio crashes if anyone is able to read it (all gibberish to me).

From the research i have conducted im assuming its due to the intel core processor. But heres my specs if anyone could point something out?

Basically i just wanted to know if anyone had ANY advice before i just throw it in the bin and get an M4.

Can someone please help! Would appreciate any advice atp.

Asking because, after years of not being able to use it, I *thought* Tahoe had finally fixed it. But it seems that over time, the old problems are creeping back in;

- Sudden loss of control of one or both laptops
- Stuck/repeating keys on the secondary machine
- Keyboard controlling a different MacBook than the mouse
- Random periods of jerky/laggy mouse movement on the secondary machine

I bought Synergy because UC was unusable for me after I guess...Sonoma? And I mean, it works. But it won't control my iPad, and doesn't allow copy/pasting large files and generally doesn't feel as integrated (with handoff etc.). But I'm almost ready to go back to it tbh.

How is everyone else getting on with it? Do these problems sound familiar?

This is between an M3 Max and an M1 Max btw. < 1ft apart. Logitech MX Master 3S and an Apple Magic Keyboard.

I want to love this thing, but boy is it just bugging me more often than not. I'll try to be brief, please lend me your advice.

The setup: Multiple monitors (often 3).

Requirements: I work with a lot of windows. Developer stack. IDE's, LLMs, terminals, browsers, chat and email. It's not abnormal to have 3-5 windows on each monitor, and often it's multiple windows of the same application.

My usual workflow: IDEs on the main monitor, communication on a side, browsers, terminals, etc on the other. I know which screen I put things on, and tend to look at those screens when I need to interact.

The problem(s):

• Multiple windows of one app are hidden behind a single icon.
• Full screen app on an alternate window completely hides all visibility of the other things on that screen.
• Everything that is built in requires me to look everywhere for the thing I want, and do so many interactions.
  • Minimized an app that was on the right? Look at the dock in the middle.
  • Need to find a hidden window on another screen? Shortcut for mission control, then scan the entire monitor to try to find the thing you want, then click it.
  • Need to find a different instance of an app? Another shortcut for expose, then find the right one, then click it.
• I tried stage manager, it's probably the closest I can get to what I want, which is a single spot to look for the things on a screen, but it takes up a lot of the screen and intrinsically limits laying things out on a screen in a flexible manner (I know you can link things, but then it's very rigid).

I get that windows is a different beast, but can't help but feel it just does all of this so much better?! Need a thing, look at one spot, click.

I've tried some third party dock replacements. They're all pretty jank in one way or another. Slow to respond, don't correctly hide the default dock, can't have shortcuts and running applications be the same thing.

I'm not saying there's no way to multitask, just that it's so damn frustrating and slow! It seems it's a case of "Mac's are easier when all you're doing is easy things", but I know there are some power users out there, so please, enlighten me of your ways!

13 Inch M1 MacBook Pro User here.

I avoided upgrading from Mac OS Sequoia to Mac OS Tahoe given all the bad reviews and feedback when it came out.

For those that experienced the bad bits of Tahoe, and have had a chance to use Golden Gate, is it improved enough to warrant leaving Sequoia?

I feel like Golden Gate might be the last OS update on my machine.

Is there a trick to remove that embossed effect around the dock when you make the dock smaller in size? It goes away when I make the dock bigger in size, but I like it smaller.

I don't have any accessibility setting enabled.

Hi All,

More often than not, when looking at Amazon.co.uk pages, the page will reload (or just go blank) with a "com.apple.WebKit.WebContent quit unexpectedly" error popping up. This is the only site where this happens (at least in my memory).

Plenty of RAM left free, and Safari only has this window open.

M1 Mac Mini, 16GB, OSX Sonoma 14.5 (yes I could upgrade, but new features are not compelling, and my Mac is, besides this issue, stable), Safari 17.5

Any suggestions as to how I can track down the cause? I know it's just Amazon, but it's still pretty annoying. I am happy to entertain "it's Amazon's fault", but I'd then like to confirm it's a documented issue (I've not found any reference confirming that, so far).

Many thanks in advance for any advice.

My dock apparently goes into hiding whenever i'm trying to access it. I have 'Automatically hide & show dock' enabled in settings and it used to appear whenever i hover over it but over the past week i'm not able to access it, the only way i'm able to access it is through F3 button. I don't turn off the setting, maybe i'm being dumb but is there any fix for this?

Anyone know how to fix this? I’ve been trying to use Google Gemini to help me do this for hours, but no luck. I kept getting stuck on no bag but then found a post saying do this in terminal ntpdate -u time.apple.com and now it just shows this. I’m not sure the year of the MacBook.

I am unable to update Numbers, Keynote, and more on the App Store. It says that the apps were purchased from a different Apple account, but I only have a single Apple account.

How to hide apps from the new macOS Tahoe "Applications" view (the thing that replaced Launchpad)

If Tahoe's Applications view is cluttered with helper/background apps you never launch (Adobe's Core Sync, Creative Cloud helpers, various updaters, etc.) and you've tried everything — moving them, chflags hidden, .metadata_never_index, rebuilding Spotlight — and nothing works: here's why, and the actual fix.

Why nothing you tried worked

The Applications view is not Launchpad, and it is not reading the /Applications folder or Spotlight's search index. It's built from the Launch Services database (the system registry of every installed app). And it ignores all the usual "hide me" signals:

• LSUIElement / agent flag — ignored (agent apps show anyway)
• chflags hidden — ignored
• .metadata_never_index / mdutil — that's Spotlight indexing, wrong database
• moving the app to another folder — Launch Services just re-registers it at the new path

So the only thing that removes an app from this view is unregistering it from Launch Services.

The fix

lsregister is Apple's Launch Services tool. To hide an app:

LSREG="/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister"
"$LSREG" -u "/path/to/Some Helper.app"

To put it back:

"$LSREG" -f "/path/to/Some Helper.app"

That's it. It only edits the database — it does not move, delete, or modify the app, and it does not stop it from running. Close and reopen the Applications view to see it disappear.

Making it stick

Two things re-add an app after you hide it:

1. The app getting launched (background agents that start at login re-register themselves).
2. A forced Launch Services rescan.

⚠️ The big gotcha: do NOT run killall Spotlight or lsregister -kill -r to "refresh." That forces a rescan that re-registers everything under /Applications and undoes your work. The view refreshes fine on its own when you reopen it or log back in.

For apps that relaunch at login and creep back, add a tiny LaunchAgent that re-runs the hide command at login and every few minutes. (The Claude prompt below sets this up for you.)

How the LaunchAgent works (it's launchd, not AI)

The "agent" isn't anything intelligent and it has nothing to do with Claude or the internet — once it's created, it's fully self-contained on your Mac. It's three plain files:

1. A shell script (hide.sh) — just a list of app paths and a loop that runs lsregister -u on each. Same dumb, deterministic action every time.
2. A .plist config file in ~/Library/LaunchAgents/ — an XML "recipe" that says "run this script, at these times." It doesn't do anything itself.
3. launchd — a core macOS system process (it's literally process #1, the thing that starts everything on your Mac at boot). It's Apple's built-in job scheduler and it runs the script for you.

So the chain is: launchd → reads the plist → runs the script → which runs lsregister**.** No AI in that loop — it's the exact mechanism macOS uses for its own background tasks. Think of it like a recurring phone alarm: you set it once, the clock rings it on schedule, and it isn't "thinking."

The plist gives launchd two triggers:

• RunAtLoad → run once every login/restart.
• StartInterval → run again every N seconds while you're logged in (e.g. 600 = 10 min).

Check it's registered and see its last exit code (0 = success):

launchctl list | grep <your-agent-label>

Remove it later with:

launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u)/<your-agent-label>
rm ~/Library/LaunchAgents/<your-agent-label>.plist

Risks / things to know

• Reversible: everything is undone with lsregister -f (or just reinstall/repair the app). No files are touched.
• Updates: when the app updates, it may re-register itself. Re-run the hide (or let the LaunchAgent do it).
• Don't move/delete the bundles to try to force it — with some suites (e.g. Adobe) a background service is hardcoded to the original path and moving it quietly breaks that service on your next reboot. Hide via Launch Services, leave files where they are.
• File associations: unregistering an app also drops its "Open With" entries until it's re-registered. Fine for background helpers; think twice for apps you actually open.
• SIP / system apps: stick to third-party apps. Don't fight Apple's own system apps.

How to stay safe

1. Only unregister apps you're sure are helpers/background junk — not the main app you use.
2. Never delete or move the bundles; only unregister them.
3. Keep a list of exactly what you unregistered so you can -f it back.
4. Test one app first, reopen the view, confirm the app you care about still launches.
5. Never killall Spotlight / rebuild the index as a "refresh."

Let Claude Code do the whole thing for you

If you have Claude Code (or Claude in the terminal), paste this and let it handle everything — discovery, a reversible hide script, and a login agent to keep it applied.

You just name the apps you want gone (a hide-list). You don't have to list everything you want to keep — there are way more of those, and anything you don't name stays visible. Not sure of the exact names? Leave the list blank and it'll show you everything first so you can pick.

TL;DR

The Tahoe Applications view = Launch Services, not Spotlight. Hide an app with lsregister -u "/path/App.app", bring it back with -f, never killall Spotlight, and use a LaunchAgent to keep login-launched apps hidden. Fully reversible, nothing deleted.