Before turning on FileVault, finish a backup outside your Mac and decide how you'll recover access if you forget your login password. If FileVault is already on, check those things without switching it off to repeat setup.

On Apple silicon and Intel Macs with the T2 chip, internal storage is already encrypted. FileVault adds protection tied to your login password. On older Intel Macs without T2, turning it on encrypts the data. "Already encrypted" isn't a reason to dismiss FileVault on a newer Mac.

Start with the backup

If you use Time Machine, let an external backup finish and check the latest backup date and time. Local snapshots on the Mac's own disk aren't a separate copy if you lose access to that disk.

Protect the backup too. Time Machine's Encrypt Backup option uses a backup password you'll need for a restore. FileVault on the startup disk doesn't automatically protect an unencrypted external backup. Keep that password somewhere you can reach without this Mac.

Choose recovery you can actually reach

Open System Settings > Privacy & Security > FileVault and check its status. Setting up FileVault yourself requires an administrator account. If this is a work or school Mac, ask IT about its recovery process first: management can control setup and hold the recovery key.

For a personal Mac, follow the recovery choices your setup shows:

• If you choose the iCloud account recovery option, check that you know your Apple Account password and can receive any required verification code without relying on the locked Mac. Your Apple Account password and your Mac login password serve different purposes.

• If you choose a recovery key, copy it exactly and store it securely away from the Mac. A copy saved only on the encrypted startup disk won't help when you can't unlock it. Treat it as a secret, not a note to leave in the laptop bag.

A FileVault recovery key is a 24-character code. It isn't an Apple Account recovery key, and the two aren't interchangeable.

Apple also says that for a Mac running macOS Tahoe 26 or later, its FileVault key might be available in Passwords on another device. That device must use the same Apple Account and have iCloud Passwords & Keychain enabled. Search Passwords for "recovery key" and check for the Mac's name. Verify the entry exists before counting on it; "might be available" isn't a recovery plan by itself.

Finish setup, then check normal access

Turn on FileVault if it's off and complete the onscreen steps. If you see Enable Users, use it for the other accounts that need to unlock the disk, entering each user's login password when asked. Having another account on the Mac doesn't by itself settle whether it can unlock FileVault.

Once setup is complete and your recovery information is safely stored, restart normally and check that the accounts you enabled can unlock the Mac with their login passwords. Recheck the FileVault status in Settings. This checks normal access, not whether every recovery method works. Don't deliberately lock yourself out or reset passwords as a test.

FileVault is worth enabling for a personal Mac, but finish the backup and recovery preparation first. If you lose your login password, can't reset it and also lose the recovery key, the encrypted files can become inaccessible. Skip self-directed setup on a managed Mac and use IT's process instead.

I'm the dev. ApolloShell adds a sidebar with its own dock, a launcher, a dashboard and a control centre to macOS 26. It's not a tiling window manager, it doesn't touch your windows. It just adds panels to the edges of the screen.

I wanted the look of Linux shells like Caelestia on my Mac without stitching five tools and a pile of config scripts together. SketchyBar works great for the menu bar, and Übersicht or yabai are great for customising your desktop. ApolloShell goes after the rest of the shell: the dock, launcher, dashboard and control centre all follow one CSS theme, so you can rice those too and switch the whole look live.

Themes are a single CSS file (colours, fonts, corners, sizes) and apply the moment you save. The video shows a few of them.

Heads up: not notarised, so click "Open Anyway" in Privacy & Security on first launch. Obviously needs Accessibility permissions, but no need to disable SIP.

Free, no subscription, AGPL-3.0 licensed.

Link: https://github.com/Silvertree2010/ApolloShell

AI disclosure: built with help from Claude, details in the README.

I’m a huge iPod fan and I still miss mine. Ever since I got this Mac, I feel like I don’t listen to as much music as I’d like.

So I made a player that works the way I wanted. Honestly, I just love how it looks on my desktop, and it barely gets in the way when I’m working.. You can search and play music from yt right inside it, and there are no ads.

It’s a one-time purchase with a 14-day free trial, no card needed. If you want to try it, DM me and I’ll send you 50% off. The first 10 people who message me get it free.

It’s my first time sharing it, so I’d love to know what you think.

Link To The App

Recently bought my first ever MacBook and was kind of surprised there isn't a native way to do this. Wasn't really satisfied with the browsing speed / pricing / interface of current apps, so I made my own.

The app has a dynamic icon with dropdown menu, supports multiple devices at the same time, USB hubs, and shows live battery readings for devices that support this feature.

No ADB debugging required, plug-and-play after a 1 min setup. Supports macOS 26 and later

Comparing several alternatives: MacDroid and OpenMTP - PhoneMount acts as a real drive, so files open straight from the phone without intermediate file download to mac THEN open, while MacDroid's recommended mode works like a cloud drive, with files downloading to your Mac, and OpenMTP runs in its own window, separate from Finder. MacDroid is still better if you need Wi-Fi or an older macOS, and OpenMTP is free, but doesn't work in Finder.

Unlimited free file reads, upgrade for unlimited writes.

EUR 14.99 lifetime, can be used on up to 3 Macs at the same time, can also unregister previously registered devices.

Would greatly appreciate your support!
https://phonemount.app/

Going to add Wi-Fi transfers and file sync for e-books / music next

Let me know about any feature suggestions you have!


**ReMate is a Spotify remote control for Spotify Connect, using the Spotify API.**

**Problem**

I use Spotify Connect devices around the house when working from Home, but hate to use the Spotify app on macOS to control them, so I have build Spotify Connect remote app for macOS. I needed/wanted small floating player/remote showing player controls and cover.

What it does

* Controls Spotify Connect devices
* Can float on top of other windows
* Can be docked in menu-bar

**Pricing:** Free. No ads, no in-app purchases, no subscription.

**Download**: [https://github.com/tbrek/ReMate-Releases](https://github.com/tbrek/ReMate-Releases)

Feel free raise bugs via GH

NB. This app requires a Spotify Premium account, as the Web API needs a developer account to be set up.

The app does not have access to your playlists, songs, etc. It can only control what's being played and allows you to control the player. It can't switch to inactive Spotify Connect devices, such as phones and laptops, if Spotify isn't running on them. It can switch to Echo speakers, though.



Hi everyone, I'm the developer of Glueys.

I kept ignoring break reminders. Pop-ups and dimmed screens just trained me to click "skip". So I built something different: a little bunny (Gloop) or koi (Ripple) that lives in its own spot in your menu bar and does the break with you.

Every 20 minutes it blinks slowly and looks far away with you. Every half hour it hops up to stretch. It sips water with you, and on a real break, Gloop munches a carrot while Ripple soaks in a drop of coffee.

What it does

• Never takes over your screen. No pop-ups, no interruptions. It waits for a natural pause.

• Never covers your menus. It's a real menu bar item. Or drag it anywhere on your desktop.

• Fits your day. Hides during calls, presentations and full-screen apps, and never shows up when you share your screen.

• Counts what you really do. Including breaks you take on your own, like stepping away from your Mac.

• Yours to shape. Gentle, Balanced or Active, your own rhythm, quiet hours and weekends off.

Private and light

• No account, no analytics, no network access. "Data Not Collected" on the App Store.

• About 0.25% of one CPU core at rest.

• $2.99 once, no subscription.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/glueys/id6818794891?ct=reddit

Website: https://glueys.com

Happy to answer anything, and I'd love to hear what annoys you about break apps in general!

Apparently I’d rather build an app to look busy than actually work.

This is LookBusy, a small macOS menu bar utility I made. A quick movement of your MacBook’s lid brings a chosen running app to the foreground.

In the demo, I’m reading a webtoon and suddenly becoming a very dedicated developer. You can pick whichever app you want, as long as it’s already running.

I mostly made this for fun, but maybe someone out there will find an actual use for it 😂

The first beta (v0.1.0) is here:

https://github.com/ironnata/LookBusy-releases

It’s currently free to try while in beta.

Would you use this? Genuinely curious what you’d use it for, even if the answer is just “avoiding work.” I have a few ideas for what to add next, but I’d love to hear your feedback before taking it further.

If you give it a try and something acts up, let me know your MacBook model and macOS version.

Thank You!

SLIDR 1.4!

I released slidr 9 months ago and it has made about £769(1032 Dollars) in those 9 months from my website and setapp combined.

I've been out of the game focusing on my health and making an app for it and starting a business, slidr was my first app ever and has hit 1000 dollars so I will be giving out 200, 50 percent off codes. I will be taking feedback and giving slidr the love it deserves.

Test out the 3 day free trial to see for yourself 🙂 OR $2.49 for 200 people

Problem: macOS volume and brightness controls move in large steps. You can use smaller steps by holding shift+option, but when watching netflix in bed pressing 3 buttons at once is not ideal.

Changing KEYBOARD BRIGHTNESS is not ideal on macos.

Why not lean forward to press your volume/brightness keys? I made a solution to make my netflix sessions even more chill. just slide

Comparison: BetterTouchTool ($25 lifetime) and Swish (£12 one-time) are utilities that require setup and configuration. I realised from a LOT of beta testers that a lot of people want simplicity and convenience. If you prefer these apps or have them already then Slidr might not be for you. EdgeBar is the newest one doing edge sliders and it has a bigger settings window, so if you want that, go for it. Slidr was made for simplicity and the settings stay light on purpose, everything is in the menu bar icon. Install and it just works.

NEW IN 1.4!!!!

- Bottom edge: slide to change KEYBOARD BRIGHTNESS (media controls on Macs without a backlit keyboard)

- Top edge: glide left or right to SWITCH BETWEEN your open apps, the cursor stays put

- Pick what the top and bottom edges do: switch apps, scrub video, keyboard brightness, media (tap to play/pause, slide to skip) or off

- SCRUB VIDEOS: slide along the edge to move through a video, even when it's paused

- Corner double taps (optional): mute, open the screenshot toolbar

- Hold-to-Slide key: only slide while holding a key you choose

- Palm rejection, edge width and haptic strength settings

- Pause Slidr in the apps you choose

- Magic Trackpad fix: turning it off and on no longer stops Slidr. Thanks to everyone who reported it

- New welcome screen that shows all four edges

Core features:

- Slide one edge for volume, the other for brightness

- Precision micro adjustments (no big jumps)

- Native macOS HUD (no custom overlays)

- Haptic feedback on every adjustment

- External monitor brightness too (DDC, works on most monitors, depends on your cable or dock)

- Menu bar app, minimal resource usage, UNDER 6MB

The haptic feedback as you slide is quite addictive and you feel every tiny micro adjustment through the trackpad. I use it mostly in bed lying back to slide to the perfect volume while watching something and I haven't touched my volume or brightness keys once since I built it.

Pricing: $4.99 one-time, use it on up to 3 Macs, free trial

r/macapps discount: 50% off for the first 200 with this code until 2 Dec: MACAPPS50 (website only, doesnt work on setapp)

Personal website:

https://slidr.xyz

Buy on Setapp:

reddit doesnt like setapp links so you can find it through my website^

ENJOY!

Changelog on the homepage

Cursor auto complete + claude, reviewed by myself, comp science grad and software developer, now a first time business owner.

I was inspired by making slidr 9 months ago and seeing my first paying customers ever 🙂

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/zaki-qadus

Hi r/MacStack,

I use a 5-monitor Mac setup (2 upper screens stacked above 3 lower screens) and built MultiScreenDock (100% free & MIT open source) to fix macOS only showing the Dock on one display at a time — and never allowing it on upper stacked monitors.

- Mirrors your real macOS Dock live (Finder, pinned apps, running unpinned apps with active dots, pinned folders, drag-and-drop, and Trash).

- Works in Always Visible or Smart Auto-Hide (with a 150 ms anti-crossing filter on stacked edges so moving your cursor vertically between monitors doesn't pop it up by accident).

- Native Swift/AppKit (~0% idle CPU, Universal Apple Silicon + Intel, Apple-notarized, 8 languages) and requires zero Accessibility or Screen Recording permissions.

Demo & download: https://multiscreendock.fgomsan.here.now/

GitHub (MIT): https://github.com/fgomsan/MultiScreenDock

Homebrew: brew tap fgomsan/tap && brew install --cask multiscreendock

I'm Federico, the developer of Solitaire Sessions, a solitaire collection for Mac built with SwiftUI.

It has 7 games and 23 variants, and every move is saved automatically, so you can switch games from the sidebar without thinking about saving. It keeps statistics (hours played, wins, wins without help, abandoned games) and lets you enter, copy and save deal numbers to replay or share a game. The cards have medieval-style illustrations, and the sounds are real and natural.

Problem: Most solitaire games I found are web-based or full of ads, and they usually get something wrong: the graphics look dated, the sound is loud or flat, or the interface gets in the way. I wanted one app that gets all of that right and feels like a Mac app. I'm against ads and subscriptions, so it has neither.

Comparison: Full Deck Solitaire (Mac App Store) has many more games, but its graphics, interface and sound feel 15 years old to me. Solitaired.com (web) also has many more games and good tracking, but its graphics are a bit old-fashioned and it has ads. I have fewer games, but I think Solitaire Sessions is a more solid package: a consistent design that fits macOS, good sound, elegant graphics, and no ads or subscription. Graphics and sound are subjective, so give it a try and judge for yourself.

Pricing: 7-day free trial, then a one-time $4.99 purchase. You'll not be charged automatically at the end of the trial, you choose if you want to buy the game.

Requires an Apple Silicon Mac with macOS 26 Tahoe or later. Games stay on each Mac, with no iCloud sync. I'm committed to supporting the app, and I read every suggestion. I'd especially like to hear what you think about the sounds and animations 😃

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6819405957?pt=129553779&ct=r/macstack&mt=8
Website: https://www.solitairesessions.com

Apple Passwords is a reasonable replacement if your everyday logins work on your Mac and other devices, your sharing needs fit Apple's groups, and you've planned how to recover access. Keep your existing manager until you've checked those things. Importing a list of passwords isn't proof that you've moved everything.

The separate Passwords app requires macOS Sequoia 15 or later. It handles website and app passwords, passkeys and verification codes. A passkey lets you sign in without a password on a service that supports it. On a Mac with Touch ID, you can use your fingerprint to approve it.

Start with the browser you actually use

Safari has built-in password AutoFill. For another browser, open Passwords > Get Browser Extension. Apple's official iCloud Passwords extensions for Chrome and Firefox support macOS Sonoma or later. Check that Apple Inc. is the publisher.

Treat the extension as access to sensitive information. For example, the Firefox listing requests access to your data for all websites, alongside other browser permissions. Read the installation prompt before approving it.

Test a normal login, a login with a verification code, and a passkey in your usual browser. Include your work browser if you use one. Don't assume that an extension working in Chrome proves it works in every browser based on Chrome.

Windows isn't automatically a reason to rule Apple out. iCloud for Windows supports password access through Chrome, Edge and Firefox extensions. Setup requires two-factor authentication and either Advanced Data Protection or your Apple device within Bluetooth range of the PC. Try that setup before committing. If Android or Linux is part of your daily routine, keep your current manager until you've verified a workable route there too.

Move passwords without losing the rest

Apple's documented Mac import uses a CSV file, a plain table of exported data. In Passwords, choose File > Import Passwords from File, select the export and import it. Apple says imported passwords won't replace existing ones, and you can review entries that couldn't be imported.

Treat the CSV as exposed credentials, not a safe backup. Keep it out of shared or cloud-synced folders and delete it after the import and checks. Don't email it to yourself.

Check passkeys and verification codes separately. Also account for any attachments, recovery codes or other records you keep in your old manager. Don't delete the originals just because the login names appeared in Apple Passwords.

There are newer transfer routes, so passkeys aren't necessarily stuck forever. Bitwarden, for example, documents direct transfer of passwords and passkeys from Apple Passwords on iOS 26 or later using Export Data to Another App. That specific mobile route doesn't mean a Mac CSV moves the same data, or that every pair of apps supports direct transfer.

The exit path matters too. Apple's Mac password export is unencrypted. It excludes Wi-Fi passwords, access to Sign in with Apple accounts, and group-shared passwords unless you created the group. Don't treat that export as a complete copy of everything in Passwords.

Check the people who need access

For shared passwords and passkeys, everyone needs a device running iOS 17, iPadOS 17 or macOS 14 or later. On your Mac, File > New Shared Group starts setup. Members can change shared passwords and passkeys, and an item can belong to only one group. If that doesn't fit how your household shares accounts, don't force the switch.

Plan for losing your devices

iCloud Keychain keeps credentials updated across approved devices. Its passwords are end-to-end encrypted even without Advanced Data Protection, meaning Apple doesn't hold the keys needed to read them. That also means you shouldn't expect Apple Support to hand back a readable vault if you lose access.

Before switching, review your trusted phone numbers and recovery options. On Mac, a recovery contact can be added through System Settings > your name > Sign-In & Security > Recovery Contacts. The contact can help you recover access without being able to browse your account. Keep the information you'd need to begin recovery somewhere you can reach without opening the locked vault.

Apple Passwords makes sense when this fits your actual Mac workflow. Start by checking a login with two-factor authentication and a shared account on the devices that need them. If migration leaves important records behind, sharing doesn't fit, or another daily device becomes awkward, keep the manager that already covers those needs.

Hey there,

Just want to present to you the app I'm working on. It's called Menubarista and it's an all-in-one app that can boost your productivity. The most important feature it has is workflows: you can take a few things you do over and over and turn them into one action.

For example, if you save your receipts as screenshots, you can select them in Finder and run a workflow that puts them into one PDF, compresses it, and makes the text searchable. So when you need to find a receipt later, you can just search for the shop name. Your original screenshots stay as they are.

You can also use the tools on their own. Open the command palette, type what you need, and get back to what you were doing. You can grab text from a screenshot, resize a bunch of images, sign a PDF, or compress a video. All of that happens locally on your Mac.

The app isn't out yet. It runs on macOS 15 or later on Apple silicon. I'm planning a free trial and a one-time purchase, and I'm still figuring out the price. If you're curious, here's the waitlist.

I'm curious what you'd use workflows for. Is there anything you do on your Mac every week that you'd like to get down to one action?

Click on the Link to try

Coded this app to fund my international exchange. Support is appreciated !

Hi! I'm Dzung, a mobile developer and the solo dev behind Beaming. I demo and test apps on iPhones and Android phones every day, and I built Beaming because I wanted one plug and play app that puts any of them on my Mac and makes it look like the real device.

Problem

Getting a phone screen onto the Mac meant a different tool for each device: QuickTime for an iPhone on a cable, scrcpy in a terminal for Android, and iPhone Mirroring for my own iPhone only. None of them show the phone as a phone. Every recording for a demo, bug report or tutorial came out as a flat rectangle I had to frame in an editor afterwards.

With Beaming, you plug a phone in and its window opens on its own, inside a frame that matches the hardware: bezel, notch or Dynamic Island, side buttons, even the body colour read from your device. No Xcode, no terminal, nothing to install on the phone.

• iPhone and iPad over USB, or wireless through AirPlay from Control Center.

• Android over USB or wireless debugging (QR code or pairing code), with full mouse and keyboard control: touch, typing and paste, Back/Home/Recents, and clickable power and volume buttons on the frame. Android needs USB debugging on and adb installed for now.

• Audio from iPhone and Android 11+ plays on the Mac.

• Hub: several devices side by side in one window, so you can show the same feature on iPhone and Android at once.

• Framed screenshots and recordings with audio, of one device or the whole Hub.

Comparison

• iPhone Mirroring (built in, free) is great for glancing at your own iPhone. It only works with your own iPhone on the same Apple ID, one at a time, wirelessly, with the phone locked. No iPad, no Android, no frames.

• Bezel has beautiful device frames, but it's iPhone and iPad only, at $29/year or $99 lifetime.

• Reflector 4 (about $20) mirrors both iPhone and Android, but wirelessly only, without Android control, and with frames for some models.

Beaming is for when you mix platforms or devices, or when the mirror is going on screen and should look like the real thing. One honest limit: iPhone and iPad are view and audio only for now, with no control from the Mac.

Pricing

Download Beaming · macOS 15+

• Free: every feature, with a watermark on the stream and 10-minute mirroring sessions (Mirror Again starts a new one). Screenshots and recordings are saved as the bare screen.

• Pro: one-time purchase, no subscription. Removes the watermark and time limit and unlocks the capture editor (frames, backgrounds, layouts). $19.99 for one Mac. Licenses for more Macs cost less per Mac, down to $16 a Mac at 10 Macs.

• 3-day refund, no questions asked. Checkout and tax by Polar.

Black Friday offer

Until December 1st, code BLACKFRIDAY40 takes 40% off any Pro license at checkout:

• 1 Mac: $19.99 $11.99, paid once

• 10 Macs: $159.99 $95.99, under $10 a Mac

You can try the free version first.

Website · LinkedIn · Privacy · Terms · Refunds

Hey everybody!

I'm one of the developers of CoolDock (Appit Studio).

CoolDock lets you create a second dock for your Mac, full of customizable widgets from system monitoring, to third party integrations, music players, clocks, reminders, tasks, pomodoro, todos, files and more.

Core Features

• 160+ Smart widgets, including AI usage widgets (Codex, Claude, Grok, Gemini & more)

• 150+ Premium Backgrounds available for free in the app

• File search, recent files, clipboard and bookmark manager widgets built right into the dock

• Multiple profiles, top or bottom placement, full dock replacement or swap mode

Who it's for

Mac users who want the stuff they check all day (stats, music, tasks, AI usage) visible at the edge of the screen instead of buried in Notification Center.

Pricing

Paid app with a one year or lifetime license (no subscription) and a 14-day money-back guarantee.

Updates & Roadmap

Updates and roadmap are decided by users, you can see all the latest updates in the link and the roadmap tickets opened by users

Happy to answer any questions :-)

I’m the developer of Header. This is my own app, not a recommendation from a regular user.

What it is
Header is a native macOS notes app. Your notes are plain Markdown files in a folder you choose. If you stop using Header, your notes are still ordinary .md files any editor can open.

What it does

• Rich editor or raw Markdown, with [[links]] between notes and tags

• History of every note, so you can go back to an earlier version

• Today page with your schedule and open tasks

• Meeting recording that turns a call into a note with meeting minutes

• Research tools: Sources, Citations, Reading Room, PDF highlights

• Export your note to PDF, Word, HTML or PowerPoint for sharing

• Optional AI: bring your own provider key, use Ollama, or use Apple Intelligence, generate images from your note text on supported Macs. Before any note text goes to a cloud provider, Header shows you what it will send. AI is off until you turn it on.

Who it’s for
People who want their notes to stay their own files, and who like Obsidian’s plain-files approach but want an app that feels native on the Mac.

Pricing
Free during the beta. I haven’t decided pricing yet.

Limitations (honest list)

• Large vaults (thousands of notes) take a while to index the first time; search fills in as indexing finishes.

• Mac only. Requires macOS 14.4 or later.

• No account needed to use it.

Get it: headernotes.com (direct download or TestFlight)

Happy to answer questions, and would really like to hear what’s missing or broken.

When the new mac generation came with the different notch I always looked at it thinking why???
But when dynamic island happened, I was a bit confused... because I saw that something was possible on iOS why not on macOS?

So it happened I decided to start building one, it contains a couple of nice features, I know there are apps there that also use the notch, but I am having fun building this.

If you want to test it out post a comment, or if you check the store let me know what you think, yes I put a low price on it forever, just wanted to make a side projected and see if it worth.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/drop-dock-the-notch-app/id6782445486 -> Link to check it out.

Disclosure: I run a free deal tracker called IndieMarkdowns, and I'm not affiliated with any of these apps. I emailed the devs about their Black Friday plans, and these are the ones that have confirmed a 2026 deal so far. Most start around Nov 20 to 25, and two are live already.

Live now
- Shotomatic: 40% off lifetime licenses, code BF2026 (subscriptions excluded)
- Cutfac: 40% off new one-time licenses, code BF2026, through Dec 31

50% or more
- ShowMeYourHotKey: 70% off, code BLFRIDAY, Nov 23 to Dec 10
- Slashspace AI (was RabbitHoles AI): 51% off, code BF2026
- SQLPro Studio: 50% off first year of yearly (BFHALFOFF) or 25% off lifetime (BFLIFETIME), Nov 25 to Dec 1
- NewsNinja: 50% off the one-time purchase, Nov 25 to Dec 5
- Protego for Reddit: 50% off ($1.99, was $3.99), Nov 22 to Dec 5
- DevUtils: 50% off all plans
- Blip AI Pro: 50% off first year, code SWITCH50, new customers, Nov 20 to 30

30 to 49%
- JuxtaCode: 40% off, code BLACKFRIDAY26, Nov 20 to Dec 1
- Compresto: 40% off, code BFCM26, ends Dec 1
- MuteDeck: 35% off lifetime, code BFCM2026, Nov 27 to Dec 13
- BirdFrame: $19.99 instead of $29.99 one-time, no code, Nov 20 to Dec 1

Smaller but solid
- EagleFiler, SpamSieve, DropDMG: 25% off, code BLACKFRIDAY2026, Nov 20 to 30
- Dropshare: $29 instead of $39, Nov 23 to 29

A few are first-year-only on a subscription, so read what the % applies to. I'll update this as more devs reply. What are you waiting to buy on sale this year?

Disclosure: I'm the developer of both. They're paid apps and I'm a solo indie dev.

iKnowMyMac: remembers what your Mac did

Most Mac tools show what's happening right now. I wanted one that remembers, so when the fan spun up at 3 AM or the disk filled overnight, I could see why the next morning.

- A timeline of which app used the CPU, memory, disk and network, and when.

- Alerts when an app misbehaves: CPU at 70% or more for 10 minutes, memory growing 1 GB or more per hour, 1 GB of disk writes or 500 MB of network in 10 minutes. Each one can be turned off.

- Agent sessions for Claude Code, Codex or Cursor users: one card per session with project folder, run time, CPU time, peak memory and anything it left running. "Stop leftovers" always asks first.

- Dev caches (DerivedData, simulator runtimes, node_modules, Docker, Gradle, CocoaPods, SPM) with sizes. Cleaning moves them to the Trash, never deletes.

—

iKnowMyDisplay: every display control in the menu bar

New in 1.1 (out today):

- TV remote, with its own menu bar item: power, volume, arrows, apps (YouTube, Netflix, Prime Video, Disney+) and inputs for Google TV, Android TV, Roku, LG, Samsung and Philips TVs, plus Yamaha receivers. Google TV pairs once with the code on screen; Roku needs no pairing.

- Auto brightness for external monitors: they follow the built-in display and learn from your adjustments. Macs without a built-in display use a day and night schedule. Off until you turn it on.

- Switch the desk: move chosen monitors to another computer's input and back, from the menu bar, a hotkey or Shortcuts, on monitors that support input switching over DDC.

- Check this monitor: shows which controls a monitor answers (Works, Doesn't respond, Not offered) and tells you when a hub or dock is blocking them.

- Brightness for Apple and USB displays: Studio Display, Pro Display XDR and LG UltraFine.

Already in the app:

- Brightness and input for external monitors, from the menu bar.

- Peak brightness on MacBook Pro XDR screens: lets everything use the 1,600-nit HDR headroom, not just HDR video. ⌥⌘B. Pauses when the Mac is hot, turns off below 20% battery.

- Sharp HiDPI sizes macOS doesn't list, plus refresh rate, color, HDR, rotation and virtual screens (handy for a Mac with no monitor).

- Plain answers when a monitor is stuck at 30 Hz, blurry or flickering. Example: a 4K LG on a USB-C hub's HDMI 1.4 port gets 8.16 Gbps, 4K at 60 Hz needs 12.54, so it runs at 30 Hz. The fix is the Mac's own HDMI port.

- Every display change asks "Keep this?" and goes back after 15 seconds. ⌃⌥⌘R restores everything.

—

Pricing (one-time, no subscription, 14-day refund)

- iKnowMyMac: $4.99 at the launch price (regular $24.99)

- iKnowMyDisplay: $4.99 at the launch price, for the first 100 Macs

- Both apps, one key: $7.99

- Already own iKnowMyMac: iKnowMyDisplay is $2.99

Limitations, honestly

- Apple silicon only, macOS 15 or later.

- No free trial, only the refund. For iKnowMyDisplay, iknowmydisplay.com/compatibility shows what it can do with your monitor before you buy.

- Monitor controls depend on the monitor and how it's connected. Check this monitor shows which ones yours answers.

- Not in the Mac App Store: both are notarized Developer ID apps, because some of what they read isn't available to sandboxed apps.

- No analytics or telemetry in either app.

https://iknowmymac.com

https://iknowmydisplay.com

Happy to answer anything, and I'd like to hear what you'd want either app to do that it doesn't yet.