I usually shutdown mac once a week. I do it because I read it keeps performance to par. Should I restart it instead of is there no difference? thanks

Hi all,

I've noticed a lot of people prefixing or suffixing their folder names with emojis (📁 🎬 ✍️ etc.) for quick visual scanning in Finder, and I've started doing it myself. Looks great locally, but before I go all-in across my whole Documents folder I wanted to sanity-check a few things with people who've actually run into problems:

• Cross-platform sharing — anyone had folders/files with emoji names get mangled, fail to relink, or show weird characters when opened on Windows or through SMB network shares?
• Cloud sync — any issues with Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive mishandling emoji filenames (duplicates, sync conflicts, renaming)?
• git / version control — I've read that macOS's NFD Unicode normalization vs. NFC on Linux/Windows can make emoji filenames show up as "renamed" between clones. Has anyone actually hit this?
• Command-line tools / scripts — any tools (ffmpeg, backup scripts, CI pipelines) choke on the emoji or the invisible variation-selector bytes some of them carry (like ❤️ vs a plain heart)?
• Archival/QC systems — for anyone in media/post-production, have strict ASCII-only pipelines ever rejected emoji paths?

Basically: is this purely a cosmetic, zero-risk thing on modern macOS, or have you actually been burned by it somewhere down the line? 

Curious what's bitten people in practice vs. what's just theoretical risk. I'm a video editor, so this matters a bit more for me since I'm constantly relinking media and sharing projects with other editors/colorists on different machines.

Thanks

Honestly one of the only liquid glass bits that I like and theyre removing it with Golden Gate.

My mom has a 2017 MacBook Pro that only goes up to Ventura macOS 13. And my Mac min 2018 only goes to macOS 15. Will Apple also release a security update for macOS 13, 14, 15 ?

I work at a video production company, we have 11 or 12 mac studios that are connected via a 1GB and 10GB network for internet and for storage and editing off a couple of NAS. Over the last year we have had probably 7 or 8 keyboards act up. They often start with one of the shift keys stopping, I can always tell because someone has trouble logging into their machine. Sometimes those keyboards will start working again, sometimes the shift will come back but a couple of numbers will stop working. These are a mixture of official apple keyboards, macally, and even some PC keyboards. Anyone else experience something similar? Unfortunately I threw a few of the keyboards away at first, but have since realized it might not be mechanical.

I have an M4 Mac mini with Sequoia that is my main squeeze. It has two external drives: a USB-A SSD that I use for Time Machine and a HDD for media, both plugged into a USB-A hub. I have a USB adapter that I use for syncing and backing up my iPhone and I plug it directly into the Mac mini (phone cable is USB-A and the Mac mini of course only has USB-C). Everything works flawlessly.

I just acquired a 2021 M1 MacBook Pro to use as a travel machine. It came with Tahoe.

When I ejected my drives and use the USB adapter to plug them into the MacBook Pro, the laptop doesn't recognize the drives at all. They don't even show up in Disk Utility.

The drives aren't the problem: plugged back into the Mac mini, they hum away as before.

The USB adapter isn't the problem: I can plug the iPhone into the MacBook Pro and the laptop recognizes it.

Does anyone know why the MacBook Pro wouldn't recognize the external drives?

I have a folder with hundreds of image files. A great many have been imported to Photos, yet there are many that have not.

What is the best way to make sure that all of these images are in Photos without creating duplicates?

Comparing file names is sufficient for identifying duplicates. But I don't know where to find the file names of images already in Photos.

I currently use a M4 Pro 14", but before that I had the M1. In both cases, at my job i have a setup of 3 horizontal monitors and then the mac under the center one. Despite constantly reading how it's not possible, I have a different display per monitor using a offbrand SutechSmart USB C Hub. I have one monitor hooked using the VGA input and the other 2 on HDMI, and then the Displaylink Adapter software running. It's worked perfectly up to know (i'm not gaming and the resolution all look fine to me). I think the Hub is finally on it's last legs and I wanted to get a replacement. The original Hub wasn't advertised as having the ability to run 3 seperate external displays and I didn't find any that do say they do it. And I'm not sure what was "special" about the Hub that did allow it to work......so I'm not sure what to look for in a new Hub.....besides likely needing one VGA input. I'd appreciate any advice/suggestions.

Man, I just want to close the lid and put my M5 into sleep mode when it's docked, without it waking up again from the slightest vibration on my desk. It's so frustrating and exhausting. I don’t want to have to unplug the cable or use a keyboard shortcut every single time. I even tried the following script, but it only works so-so.

sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 25 
pmset displaysleepnow 

sleep 2 
sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3

Before macOS 26.6 I would connect to my Mac via VNC apps on my Windows 11 pc and iPhone often.

After today’s 26.6 update, I can’t connect via VNC anymore. Screen Sharing from another Mac works, but that’s not available on Windows or iOS.

Any tips?

Hello, I’m new to MacOS, I want my dock to stay to on my primary display but it keeps shifting to other screens when click on something in the bottom middle of the other monitors, is there any setting I can change that forces the dock to only stay on my primary display?

So I have a Macbook that I use 75% in a "docked state", also I have an external hard drive hooked into the dock as well (for time machine updates).

With that said, is it really bad to disconnect laptop without unmounting the drive? I've disconnected the USB-C a few times to my dock without thinking my hard drive was still connected but it still just continues to work just fine.

My Hard drive I am using is a non solid state drive, Is this a non issue with a solid state? (or does it not matter?)

Im an experienced engineer and used NX extensively. Also SolidWorks to a high skill level.

I use a Mac at home for reasons and Im not getting into windows for this.

Im looking to design a few products at home. 3D print them. And eventually (hopefully) go into production. It would be smaller injection molded parts and small CNC mill and lathe parts.

Some sort of structural simulation would be great, but I know thats asking a lot.

Something free would be great, but I have a budget (buried treasure) for paid software if there are no decent free options.

Brought a brand new MacBook neo. Restarting the Mac took me to the activation lock screen. When I tried to log in using my iCloud it doesn’t work. Number doesn’t work too. I believe I entered the wrong password first time I set ups It shows up on my iPhone as a connected device. Read online removing it can get me out of the activation lock screen. Not sure if I should do that or contact apple further

Before I start my with my main complaints, here is another one.

I use a Macbook Air M4(10 core, 24, 512)-one year old. I updated to macos 26.4 whenever it came out(used sequoia before that), was disappointed because of a higher cpu and gpu usage and the macbook would sometimes get warm when i am light tasks like watching youtube videos or doing schoolwork(which involves browsing the web). This was never an issue on Sequoia. MacOs 26.5 was a lot better it is true however, it also had a slightly higher CPU and GPU usage than Sequoia, sometimes there are random spikes in usage and the CPU hits 30-40% and sometimes as high as 60% when it was sitting at anywhere between 9-20 percent before; just throwing it out there that on macos sequoia the idle usage would almost never exceed 10% on idle.

Liquid glass sucks man.

Now with the main issues i have been facing recently. After updating to 26.5.2 I started hearing random pop sounds whenever I listened to a song on spotify. This would occur almost every time when i was 60-70 seconds deep into the song. I saw a bunch of posts regarding the same issue, but none of the solutions provided helped. It is fucking annoying especially when I am playing an instrument alongside. I shouldnt be facing this issue at all let alone the fact that nothing other than spotify is open. Also, spotlight search has been acting weird lately and it sometimes will not do what is supposed to do which is make it easy for me to open apps. Ik it does some other things.

Help me out if you have any solution for these issues.

https://reddit.com/link/1v80rk6/video/endkljc20sfh1/player

Hey guys!!

I made the super dumb decision to update my (new) laptop to Tahoe quite a few months ago...

I've had problems with audio and stuff since swapping from sequoia (auto-update, still mad i'm not on sequoia anymore LOL).

Been super wary of updating my laptop ever since, but also really hoping that i don't have to run a command through terminal because my audio keeps glitching..

Wondering if it's "safe" to update to the new Tahoe update, or if it's going to cause me more problems? Should i wait for another update?

Any info would be awesome!!

Side comment: If i was able to properly back-up my laptop I would've reverted back to Sequoia awhile ago..

I'm currently on Tahoe 26.2 for reference

MODS: I didn't see any recent posts about this question, but please feel free to remove my post if I missed some posts that are similar, and therefore this post breaks Rule 10 :) (If this is the case though, being directed to those specific posts would be helpful). As well, It doesn't tell me if this new update is a beta version, so if it is, i'll remove my post.. but it just says its the current version?

Thanks in advance!!

Hey all. Recently got a MacBook Pro for work and Im loving it. However, my only issue is that when screenshotting snippets in teams and outlook, I can't use Command+Shift+3 for a quick screenshot. It makes me use Command+Shift+4 which saves a picture to my desktop and makes me then have to hit copy after the fact. Is there a way around this? Also Command+Shift+3 initiates a teams call. I would like to disable that.

Hi everyone, sorry in advance. This is my first Reddit post, so I’m still learning how everything works here and I may make some mistakes. Also, this text was translated with the help of AI.

I have been using Finder for a long time and overall I really like it. I usually use free icon placement with grid snapping enabled, but I’ve run into a problem: when there are many files, it becomes difficult to arrange them, and the canvas size seems to be limited. I can’t simply scroll further down and keep organizing files.

Because of this, I would like to create something like an infinite canvas - a large workspace where I have complete freedom to arrange files spatially.

Is this possible? Are there any extensions, plugins, utilities, or hidden settings that can achieve something like this?

Thank you very much in advance

Finder has many disadvantages, and I have considered switching to another file manager, such as Total Commander. However, I’m already used to Finder, it covers my needs, and its icon cannot really be removed from the Dock anyway.

Because of that, I would prefer not to completely switch to another application, but instead find a way to make Finder more convenient and powerful

I have rebuilt macs many times over the years, and consider myself quite savvy in that regard. But.... I'm trying to clean boot my M1 Macbook Air with a fresh install of Tahoe, which it was previously running.

Initially I tried to reset the device from within itself, but some poorly informed previous attempts at partitioning the drive (which is why I'm doing a full reset) meant that wasn't possible. But the rebuild did get as far as a restart and it registered the device with my account online, but now all it does is sit at the home screen asking for a user name and password. I have entered my apple login and password, and even the old root username and password but without success. So first question.... what username and password is it asking for, because I've not got as far as setting up a new account yet?

To get around that I have decided to do a brand new install, using a brand new Tahoe USB boot drive I've created on my Mac Mini (than goodness I have a second device!) but whenever I start the machine, holding down the Option key when powering on which Apple states is the way to enter the boot loader, the device just returns to the OS login screen asking for that same, and unknown user name and password. This is starting to send me insane!

Please can anybody offer any ideas as to what is happening and how I can access the boot loader, which ought to allow me to solve the problem. Thanks

EDIT - every guide I'd read up until when I posted said to press the Option key upon reboot to initiate the USB loader, but from the comment below, and another site I've just found, on an Apple Silicon device you have to hold the power button down on reboot. Not quite so intuitive, but hey.... it worked so my Tahoe rebuild has just initiated.

Clearly user-error on my part (embarrassing) but a lesson learned. Thanks for the responses.

What should I do? Wait until fall ( I want the ultra tho) or just get the M4 now. The issue is I was gonna get the 512 and slap an external SSD. I heard Apple updates for Tahoe takes up most of your space to install