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How to Find All 32-Bit Apps on a Mac

written by applenws

MacOS High Sierra is the last macOS release to support 32-bit apps “without compromise” (presumably meaning without performance degradation, and with maximum compatibility), and betas of macOS 10.13.4 are now notifying users if 32-bit apps are being run. This might suggest that 32-bit Mac apps will run through a compatibility mode like Rosetta or Classic in the near future, and eventually, it seems likely that Apple will drop support for 32-bit apps on the Mac completely in a some future system software release, favoring 64-bit apps.

But there are a fair amount of 32-bit apps which are widely used on many Macs, despite Mac OS itself being 64-bit since Snow Leopard. If you’re not sure what apps are 32-bit or 64-bit, then you’ll be glad to know that Mac OS has a handy tool available within System Information to quickly show you all the apps which are 64-bit or not.

How to Find and View All 32-Bit Apps on a Mac

The simplest way to see all 32-bit applications (and 64-bit apps) on a Mac is to use System Information

  1. Hold down the OPTION / ALT key on your keyboard, then pull down the  Apple menu
  2. Choose “System Information” from the top of the Apple menu list *
  3. In the System Information app, scroll down the left-side menu and look under “Software” and choose “Applications”
  4. Look for the “64-bit (Intel)” option in the column header, and click on that to sort the column by 64-bit

    5. How to find and view all 32-bit apps on a Mac

  5. Every app that says “No” is 32-bit, every app that says “Yes” is 64-bit

In the screenshot example here, you can see that this particular Mac has quite a few 32-bit apps installed and in regular use, including Steam, SuperDuper, TextWrangler, Warcraft 3, and WriteRoom. Of course this is just an example, and there are many other apps used by Mac users which are 32-bit.

If you find 32-bit apps, and you plan on consistently installing all future Mac OS software versions and updates, then you’ll want to get those apps updated to 64-bit, contact the developers to ask about 64-bit support, or find replacements for the apps in question. It’s likely that 32-bit apps will still run down the road in macOS (for a while anyway), but Apple suggests there will be some sort of compromise associated with doing so.

How does this impact me? Why do I care what apps are 32-bit or 64-bit?

Currently, this won’t impact you at all. But, this may impact which apps work on your Mac in the future, under a future Mac OS system software version.

If you don’t plan on ever running any Mac OS beyond macOS High Sierra (10.13.4+) then it won’t impact you ever. For example if you avoid a theoretical macOS 10.14, 10.15, or 10.16 release, then it likely won’t matter at all. But if you install a future macOS system software version with some sort of abstraction layer to run 32-bit apps, the performance may be less than optimal. And further out, if a MacOS release loses all 32-bit app compatibility, those apps may not work at all, without 64-bit updates from the developer anyway.

There is some precedent for this, both on the Mac and in the iOS world. For example, fairly recently Apple iOS abandoned 32-bit app support, which led some apps to stop working on some iPhone and iPad devices. And in the past, Apple has taken similar measures with Rosetta for PPC apps on Intel chips, and when running Classic apps in the early versions of Mac OS X.

OK, but I can’t find ‘System Information’ on my Mac!

* If you don’t see “System Information” in the  Apple drop down menu, then you probably did not hold down the OPTION key while reviewing the  Apple menu options. Hold Option and try again. Or, try an alternative method of launching System Information app.

You can also access System Information from the /Applications/Utilities/ folder, or by launching it via Spotlight.

Does this also mean Macs and MacOS will be 64-bit too?

Yes. But… if you’re a keen observer of computing history (and who isn’t! *nerd snort*) then you may recall that Mac OS X Snow Leopard shipped with a 64-bit kernel and all releases since then have too. In other words, if your Mac is vaguely new, it’s already 64-bit, since Macs haven’t been 32-bit since 2006 when the first series of Intel-based Macs debuted (but you can always check for 64-bit CPU architecture or which of the 32-bit or 64-bit kernel is in use if you aren’t sure about a particular Mac). Essentially this means that after about a decade of supporting the older 32-bit apps and architecture, Apple looks like they want to move entirely to 64-bit soon.

So just keep an eye on what apps you’re using that may still be 32-bit, and update the apps that you can. Or if you’re highly reliant on an older 32-bit app that won’t be updated, consider avoiding macOS High Sierra upgrades or any other future major system software release where full support may no longer exist, at least until you have your app situation sorted out.

Source: OSX Daily

March 6, 2018 0 comment
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How to Get the Size of a File or Folder in Mac OS

written by applenws

Need to know the size of a particular file? Or have you ever wondered how large a particular folder is on a Mac? With a simple trick you an quickly get the size of any file, folder, or item as found within the Finder file system of Mac OS.

This tutorial will walk through using the Get Info panel in Mac OS to be able to quickly discover the storage size of any given file or folder on a Mac. You can access the Get Info panel through a menu item, or a keyboard shortcut. The tricks work the same on all versions of Mac OS and Mac OS X, as the Get Info capability has been around on the Mac since the Classic era.

How to Get the Size of Individual Files or Folders in Mac OS Finder

  1. From the Finder of Mac OS, navigate to the parent directory containing the file or folder you want to get the size of
  2. Select the file or folder you wish to retrieve the size of
  3. Pull down the “File” menu and choose “Get Info”

    4. Get Info about a selected item, folder, or file to get file or folder size information

  4. The items total size will be revealed in the top corner of the Get Info window, and lower you will find both the total file size of all items within that folder as well as the item count for the folder

    5. See file and folder size in Finder of Mac OS with Get Info

You can close the Get Info window when finished reviewing the data.

The Get Info panel reveals a lot of other helpful as well, including creation and modification date, tagging information, file comments, file origin, file locking, sharing and file permissions, what app the file opens with, and more.

Find Size of a File or Folder with ‘Get Info’ by Keyboard Shortcut

You can also use the “Get Info” keyboard shortcut to quickly access the same information:

  • Select any file or folder in the Finder of Mac OS, then hit Command + i keys to bring up the Get Info panel

Get Info shows file size or folder size of an item in Mac OS

Regardless of how you access the Get Info panel, the results are the same. You can also access the Get Info panel of a file or folder result returned via the search feature Spotlight.

You can also see the file size of a Finder item when the active directory is in the List view.

If you’re the type of person who likes to see as much information as possible at a glance, you’ll likely appreciate always showing folder sizes in Mac OS, and you might also want to enable the Show Item Info option for the Mac Desktop and Finder as well, which will reveal additional information for files and folders shown in the standard Icon view.

It’s worth mentioning that this is not the only way to reveal the size of files and folders in Mac OS. You can also use a setting to calculate and reveal folders sizes in List view, or you can find large files and folders on a Mac by using the Finder Search feature to narrow down items within the file system based on their size. And of course there are a variety of third party disk space analyzers that also make it extremely easy to locate folders and items based on file size, which can be handy tools for tracking down disk storage hogs. And of course you can also turn to Terminal and get the size of a directory from the command line or a file that way as well.

Source: OSX Daily

March 4, 2018 0 comment
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How to Find Duplicate Songs in iTunes 12

written by applenws

iTunes offers a simple way to track down and find duplicate songs in a music library, so if you find yourself hearing the same song every once in a while when listening to iTunes on a Mac or Windows, or after copying music to an iPhone, iPad, or iPod, then it’s quite possible duplicate tracks are to blame.

It’s fairly easy for music libraries to contain duplicate songs and tracks, particularly as you build a collection over time. If you’re ripping CDs and importing music into iTunes, downloading songs from SoundCloud and the web, buying albums and songs from multiple sources like iTunes, Amazon, and elsewhere, it’s fairly easy to eventually end up with duplicate versions of the same song.

While iTunes has long has the capability of finding duplicate songs, the feature has been moved in modern versions of iTunes from version 12.0 and later, which has led many users to believe that you can’t find duplicate tracks with the app anymore. But that’s not the case, it has just been relocated.

How to Find & Show Duplicate Songs in iTunes 12

Finding duplicate tracks and duplicate items in iTunes 12 is the same on Mac and Windows, here’s what to do:

  1. Open the “iTunes” app if you have not done so already
  2. Go to your music library in iTunes
  3. Pull down the “File” menu and then go to “Library”
  4. From the “Library” sub-menu, choose “Show Duplicate Items”

    5. How to Find Duplicate Songs in iTunes 12

  5. iTunes will gather a list of potentially duplicate songs that you can peruse through and verify independently

    6. List of potentially duplicate songs found in iTunes

Once finished, you can click the “Done” button at the Display Duplicate screen to go back to the regular track listing of your iTunes library.

Are iTunes Songs Actually Duplicates, or Just Sharing a Track Name?

Once you’re at the “Displaying Duplicates” screen in iTunes, it will be entirely up to you to confirm if songs and tracks are actually duplicates, or if they simply share the same song title name or artist name. This does not necessarily mean the songs are the same, however.

For example, iTunes will show as “duplicates” two different versions of the same song if they share the same track name, even if the songs and files are actually totally different. This is important to understand, particularly if you have a lot of music from the same artist, with live albums, Greatest Hits collections, or remixes and so forth.

One helpful way to make it a bit easier to track down actual duplicate versions of the same song is to use the song “Time” column to see how long each track is. If the tracks are the exact same length, it’s more likely the songs are actually the same and not just different recordings with the same name. Also be sure to pay attention to the Album name too, since that can be a helpful indicator.

Use the Time column to help determine if a song is truly the same or not in iTunes duplicate find list

The best way to determine if found duplicates are actually duplicate songs is to display the duplicate files as instructed above, and then simply listen to the songs in iTunes. This applies even if you use the Option key trick to “Show Exact Duplicates” to remove, which is also not perfect.

Also note that imported recorded Voice Memos from iPhone will appear in an iTunes library as a track, and if they are labeled simply as the default “New Voice Recording” they will appear as duplicates even if they are not.

If you have found confirmed duplicates, you can always delete them directly from iTunes, or locate the iTunes music library files and make your adjustments in the file system instead.

If you’re not using iTunes 12 for whatever reason, then you can still find duplicate items by using the guide here, which works for iTunes 11, iTunes 10, and earlier releases as well.

Do you have any other tips for tracking down duplicate songs and tracks in iTunes? Share them in the comments below!

Source: OSX Daily

March 3, 2018 0 comment
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How to Rip a CD with iTunes & Import MP3s on Mac & Windows

written by applenws

Do you have some audio CDs laying around that you’d like to digitize and convert to mp3? Ripping a CD and turning the audio into MP3 or M4A tracks is remarkably simple with iTunes, and the process its he same on both a Mac and Windows PC.

This is a great approach if you want to digitize a CD music collection to bring onto a computer for archival purposes, listening through iTunes, or even for later copying to an iPhone or iPad.

Now I know what you’re thinking, not many modern Macs and PCs have CD or DVD drives anymore, right? But that shouldn’t stop you from ripping a CD if your really want to, because you can use any external CD / DVD drive, a SuperDrive (you can also use an Apple SuperDrive with Windows), or even use Remote Disc to share a CD/DVD drive from another Mac.

To use this tutorial to convert a regular audio CD into MP3s, you will need the following:

Assuming you meet those simple requirements, you’re ready to convert the audio CD into MP3 files on the computer. Let’s get started.

How to Rip a CD with iTunes

The process of ripping a CD and turning the audio into MP3 files is the same whether iTunes is on a Mac or Windows, here’s how it works:

  1. Open iTunes on the computer you want to import the songs to
  2. Insert the CD you want to rip and turn into MP3s
  3. When iTunes recognizes the disc and shows the “Audio CD” screen, click on the “Import CD” button

    4. How to import and rip a CD to mp3 in iTunes

  4. A progress bar will appear in the top of the iTunes screen, just wait for this to finish after iTunes is finished importing the CD

    5. ripping cd to mp3 with itunes

When completed, the progress bar will vanish from iTunes and the audio tracks will have a little green checkmark next to them in iTunes.

Ripped CD to mp3 successfully achieved in iTunes

You’re done, you now have MP3s of your songs from the CD! Now you can eject the CD from iTunes and you’ll find the mp3 tracks in your regular iTunes music library. If you’re ripping a large collection of CDs repeatedly, once you’re done you might want to get album art for iTunes too so that the iTunes library looks like it’s supposed to.

As a quick side note, iTunes will default to import an audio CD using an MP3 encoder with high quality settings at 160 kbps. Those iTunes import settings can be changed if necessary, to either raise or lower the quality and bitrate, or to change the import format from MP3 to M4A if desired.

Once the songs are stored in your iTunes library, you can do whatever you want with them. Listen and enjoy, copy them to your iPhone or iPad, make them into ringtones for an iPhone (just remember that copying iTunes to an iPhone has changed in new iTunes versions and it’s a little different), whatever you want.

Enjoy your freshly ripped music! And if you have any questions or comments about using iTunes to rip CDs into mp3 format, let us know in the comments below.

Source: OSX Daily

March 1, 2018 0 comment
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How to Show a List of All Calendar Events on Mac

written by applenws

If you use the Calendar app on Mac and iOS, your calendar events will seamlessly sync between all Apple devices using the same Apple ID. While the iPhone and iPad have easy ways to display a Calendar in List View from iOS, the Mac doesn’t have the same simple toggle functionality to see a list of all events in the Calendar app. However, that doesn’t mean it’s impossible…

You can show a list of all scheduled Calendar events on the Mac with a little-known trick. While it’s certainly not obvious, it gets the job done and allows you to display a list of calendar events in Mac OS quickly.

How to Display Calendar Events as a List on Mac

  1. Open the “Calendar” application on the Mac if you have not done so already
  2. Optionally, select the Calendar(s) you want to show a list for from the left side menu
  3. Click into the search box in the upper right corner of Calendar app then enter the following search parameter:

    4. .

  4. After typing the single period . hit the Return key to show a list of all Calendar events

    5. Show a Calendar List View on Mac

By searching for a single period in Calendar on the Mac, you will show all Calendar events as a list view, appearing alongside the Calendar window in Mac OS.

Remember, if you use iCloud and have an iPhone, Mac, iPad, and/or other Apple devices, your calendar data will sync between all of your Apple devices sharing the same Apple ID.

You can also search for two concurrent parenthesis like “” if desired, but searching for a single period like . is probably easier for most Mac users.

Why the default Calendar app on Mac does not have an obvious “List” calendar button like the List View Calendar button on iPhone and iPad is a bit of a mystery, but perhaps it’s a feature due in the future of Calendar app for Mac, or maybe not that many users want a list of calendar events that are schedule and thus the feature is deemed unnecessary. In any event, if you do want to see a list view of your calendar events in Mac OS, you will need to rely on this little known search trick.

So, want to see a Calendar event list on the Mac? Search for a period. That’s it! Simple, if not quite obvious.

Do you know of another way to see a list of all Calendar events on the Mac? Share your tips in the comments below!

Source: OSX Daily

February 27, 2018 0 comment
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How to Keep Folders on Top When Sorting by Name in Mac OS Finder

written by applenws

By default, if you sort a directory by name in the Mac OS Finder, you will find that both files and folders are arranged alongside one another based upon an alphabetical sorting of their names. This is great for many users, but if you have a large folder with many subfolders and files, it can make locating folders and differentiating between files and folders a little more challenging. A great solution to this is to use a little-known Finder feature that keeps folders on top of a name sorted directory list.

Maintaining folders at the top of a directory is a commonly used feature in the Windows PC world, but it’s just as useful on the Mac. Once you have enabled the setting, folders will appear first in any directory sorted by name, regardless of how that folder is viewed; list, icon, column, or cover flow.


To be able to sort by name while keeping folders on the top, you will need a modern version of Mac OS system software, Sierra 10.12.x or later will have the capability while older versions do not.

How to Keep Folders on Top When Sorting by Name in Mac OS Finder

This is an easy setting to enable, but it’s often overlooked or not even know at all. Here’s where to find the Keep Folders On Top setting:

  1. Go to the Finder of Mac OS

    2. Finder icon on the Mac

  2. Pull down the “Finder” menu and choose “Preferences”
  3. Click the “Advanced” tab and check the box next to “Keep folders on top when sorting by name”

    4. Keep Folders on Top when sorting by name in Mac Finder list

  4. Close Finder Preferences

Now from the Finder you can choose to sort any directory by name, and you will see all folders in that directory will always be located on top. It doesn’t matter how the directory is viewed, folders will appear on top as long as the sorting is by name.

Folders shown on top in a Name listing view of Finder

Compare how the above screenshot looks, with folders on top, versus below, where folders are scattered throughout with the file listings in a standard alphabetical name sorting arrangement of Finder:

Default folder and file sorting on Mac Finder

The setting is limited to the “Name” sorting option, and unfortunately does not currently work when using sorting files by date, kind, size, tags, comments, or the other available Finder sorting choices.

With that said, there are other options for grouping folders together within Finder as well. A different but equally useful feature is sorting by “Kind” in the Finder, which will also group folders together in any view of a directory contents, as well as grouping other documents and files by their file type/kind as well. However, when sorting by “Kind” the folders will not appear on top of a directory list, though they will appear grouped together.

By the way, if you’ve never visited the Finder Preferences before, another great feature to enable is Show File Extensions in the Mac Finder, which makes the suffix of a file appear if applicable (like .jpeg, .txt, .doc, etc). There are many other settings adjustments to make in the Finder preferences as well, so tinker around and explore the various options.

If you enjoyed this trick, you’d almost certainly appreciate this collection of 9 simple tips to improve Finder in Mac OS.

Source: OSX Daily

February 26, 2018 0 comment
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How to Create an AutoResponder in Mail for Mac

written by applenws

Have you ever wanted to setup an auto-responder eMail message in the Mac Mail app? Autoresponders allow you to set an “out of office” auto-reply that gets sent automatically as a reply to any inbound email to the Mac Mail app. This is great solution for situations where you’re out of the office, away from a desk, or otherwise away from email for a while, whether it’s a vacation or maybe you just hate replying to emails. Whatever the reason, all inbound emails will get an automated response with the message of your choice.


If you’ve ever sent someone an email and then received an immediate reply that said something like “I’m out of the office right now, please reach me on my cell phone at 555-555-5555” then you have seen how an auto-responder email works. This tutorial will show you how to set up an autoresponder just like that, from within the Mail app for Mac.

Setting up autoresponders in Mail for Mac works the same on basically every version of Mail app and Mac OS, so this should be version and release agnostic. As long as you have an email account added to the Mail app for Mac and have the Mail app open and running, the auto-reply will be sent.

How to Create an Autoresponder Email Reply in Mail for Mac OS

We’re going to make a broad all-encompassing email auto-responder, meaning the auto-reply will be sent instantly to every single inbound email message to the Mac Mail app.

  1. Open the Mail app if you haven’t done so already
  2. Pull down the “Mail” men and choose “Preferences”
  3. Click on “Rules” tab
  4. Click “Add Rule”

    5. How to create an autoresponder for email in Mail for Mac

  5. Fill out a Description and name it something obvious, like “Vacation Auto-Responder”
  6. Under the “If conditions are met” section, choose “Every Message” from the drop down menu options
  7. Now at the “Perform following actions” section, choose “Reply to Message” from the drop down menu options

    8. How to create an autoresponder for email in Mail for Mac

  8. Next click on “Reply message text…” and enter your auto-responder email message, then click “OK” and click “OK” again to set the Mail auto-responder

    9. How to create an autoresponder for email in Mail for Mac

  9. Click “OK” again to set and enable the Mail auto-responder

    10. How to create an autoresponder for email in Mail for Mac

That’s it, the auto-reply autoresponder has been set.

You can confirm it’s working as expected by sending yourself an email, which should quickly get the automated response that you set in the auto-responder Rules.

If desired, you can setup much more complex rules to auto-reply and autoresponders, for example you could apply the auto-reply to specific senders, specific email from domains, to specific people, to VIP only, for specific dates, and so much more. That is all up to you. For our purposes here we are keeping things simple with a broad universal email auto-reply to all emails from all recipients.

Disabling and Enabling the Autoresponder in Mail for Mac

Once you create the auto-responder it will be enabled autoamtically. But you can later disable, or re-enable that autoresponder again at any time by simply doing the following:

  1. Open Mail app on the Mac and go to the “Mail” menu and choose “Preferences”
  2. Go to ‘Rules’ and check or uncheck the box next to your autoresponder (labeled as “Vacation Auto-Responder” in this tutorial)

If you do not ever disable the autoresponder, it will be enabled and in use for perpetuity as long as the Mail app on the Mac is open and the rule is enabled.

Email autoresponders are commonly used for business but many people use them for personal email too. Maybe you’re away from your desk and you want people to know immediately that is the case, or maybe you’re on vacation and don’t want people to email you thinking they’re being ignored, or maybe you do want to ignore email so you’re setting an auto-reply email message that says so. There are many potential use cases for autoresponders in email, so use your imagination and set the conditions as you see fit.

Creating autoresponders for email is just one of the many features available with the Rules feature in Mail for Mac. Mail Rules can be quite powerful, offering the ability to remotely sleep a Mac from an iPhone or via any inbound email that meets the Sleep Mac requirements defined by the Mail rule. You can also create auto-forwarding, batch archiving, special sound effects for particular email senders, date specific actions, auto-deletion of emails fitting specific rules, amongst thousands of other possible options through automating email via the Mail for Mac Rules feature. Feel free to explore the Rules options, there are many interesting possibilities!

If you enjoyed this tip, you’d likely enjoy this collection of 8 particularly helpful Mail tricks for Mac, or you can browse through our Mail tips section.

Was this helpful to you? Do you have any other helpful Mail auto-responder tricks, or Mail Rules tricks for Mac? Share them with us in the comments below!

Source: OSX Daily

February 21, 2018 0 comment
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How to Quickly Get Stock Prices from Safari URL Bar on Mac

written by applenws

Safari for Mac can quickly give you stock price quotes for any ticker symbol right from the address bar, offering yet another way to keep track of equities for those who like to follow the day-to-day ride of the stock market.

Of course you can just google or web-search for a ticker symbol too, but a Safari feature called Safari Suggestions offers an ultrafast way of getting the price of a stock without having to search the web, all you need is the ticker symbol.

This is a super simple trick, here’s how it works:

How to Get Stock Price Quotes from the Safari Address Bar on Mac

All modern versions of Safari for Mac should support this feature:

  1. Open Safari if you have not done so already
  2. Click into the URL address bar (or hit Command + L) and enter the ticker symbol you want to check the price for, for example “AAPL”

    3. See stock price of ticker symbol from Safari address bar

  3. The current price of the entered ticker symbol will appear below the address bar, clicking on that result will open the stock symbol in Yahoo Finance

That’s all there is to it. You can check just about any stock symbol this way, and most ETF and mutual funds should work too, though I have found there are some that are not detected as ticker symbols properly and don’t show up with a price quote.

Note that if you disabled Safari Suggestions on the Mac then the stock ticker symbol lookup trick will not work. Those settings can be accessed in the Safari Preferences and are enabled by default, but some users may have turned the feature off if Safari was freezing up when the address bar is selected, something that can occasionally happen on older Macs or slower internet connections.The Safari Suggestions feature is different from the search suggestions feature, which offers suggestions of similar search items in the Safari URL bar as you type. Each can be enabled or disable independently if desired, much like you can hide the Favorites dropdown menu in Mac Safari too.

This is just one of myriad ways to get stock quotes on a Mac, you can also get current prices of ticker symbols with Spotlight, from the Notification Center Stocks section, with a Dashboard widget, or with Siri too. So whether you’re a bull or bear, you’re never far from knowing where the market is moving, or just in case you want to know how much money you’d have if you had bought Apple stock instead of Apple products if you want a subtle reminder to invest for the future.

Source: OSX Daily

February 18, 2018 0 comment
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How to Show Hidden Files on MacOS with a Keyboard Shortcut

written by applenws

Modern versions of Mac OS offer a super-fast and easy way to reveal invisible files on a Mac, all you need to use is a keyboard shortcut. With a simple keystroke, you can instantly show hidden files on a Mac, and with another strike of the same keyboard shortcut, you can instantly hide the hidden files again too. This is by far the fastest way possible to show and hide invisible files on a Mac. You won’t need to use the defaults command to show hidden files (though it still works), instead you can just use the handy keyboard shortcut anywhere in the Finder or a file access dialog.


To use the hidden files keyboard shortcut, you’ll need a modern version of Mac OS system software, including macOS High Sierra and macOS Sierra, anything beyond 10.12 should support the invisible files toggle keyboard shortcut.

If you’re unfamiliar with the concept, hidden files and hidden folders on a Mac are typically either system level items, configuration data, or some other file or folder which is usually hidden from the average end user for a reason. Thus, revealing hidden files is usually only necessary for more advanced Mac users, whether it’s to view, edit, or modify some particular invisible file or folder, or contents therein.

How to Show Hidden Files on Mac with a Keyboard Shortcut

Using the Show Hidden Files Keyboard Shortcut is incredibly simple, here’s how it works:

  1. From the Finder of Mac OS, navigate to any folder where there might be hidden files (for example, the Macintosh HD root directory, or a user Home folder)

    2. Finder icon on the Mac

  2. Now press Command + Shift + Period to instantly toggle to show hidden files

    3. Show hidden files on Mac with a keyboard shortcut trick

Here is an example of what the Macintosh HD directory looks like after hidden files are made visible, and after hidden files are made invisible again, this is demonstrated in animated GIF format so that you can see the hidden files appearing and disappearing:

Show and hide Hidden Files with Keyboard Shortcut on Mac as shown in animated GIF

As you can see the hidden files and folders become visible and invisible as the keyboard shortcut is pressed.

The hidden files and folders, often marked as hidden via chflags command, setfiles, or by placing a . period as a name prefix, will instantly become visible. The now visible hidden files will be displayed as having slightly faded names and icons, to offer a visual indicator that the file or folder in question is usually hidden.

Hidden Files are now visible in Mac folder with keyboard shortcut

Note that with hidden files made visible, they will become visible in all folders on the Mac, just like what happens if you use the defaults command to show hidden files in Mac OS and Mac OS X. The big difference between modern Mac OS releases and earlier versions of system software is that now the Command + Shift + Period keyboard shortcut is available to show and hide invisible items in the Finder, whereas before you had to use the defaults write command in the Terminal to reveal or hide those files and folders. If you prefer the command line approach for whatever reason, it is still available to modern Mac OS releases.

How to Hide Hidden Files on Mac with Keyboard Shortcut

And of course you can quickly toggle to hide the hidden files again and make them no longer visible by using the same keyboard shortcut:

  • Navigate anywhere in the Mac Finder and hit Command + Shift + Period again to hide invisible files

Hidden files are invisible again with toggling the same keyboard shortcut

Toggling the hidden files keyboard shortcut will impact all folders on the Mac.

Command + Shift + Period is the Keyboard Shortcut for Toggling Hidden Files in Mac OS

Just remember that pressing down Command + Shift + Period in the file system of Mac OS will hide or show invisible files.

The keyboard shortcut to show or hide hidden files on Mac OS

The visual indicator of hidden files and folders is fairly obvious. Here’s a folder (root Macintosh HD) with hidden files invisible, the default state:

Hidden files invisible in Mac OS

And here’s that same folder with hidden files made visible via the keyboard shortcut, as you can see there are many more items in the same directory but they are hidden from the usual Finder view of the user. Each hidden file or folder is represented by the faded opaque icon and name:

Hidden files are made visible in Mac OS

If this keyboard shortcut sounds familiar to you and you’re a longtime Mac user, it’s probably because the Command Shift Period trick has long worked to toggle viewing of invisible items in Open and Save dialog boxes, it’s just that now that same keyboard shortcut can toggle the visibility of invisible items in the general Finder of Mac OS as well.

As mentioned before, you can still show and hide hidden files in Mac OS with a defaults command if you want to, or you can enable with a defaults command and hide them again with the aforementioned keystroke, but the defaults string syntax is simply no longer necessary to gain quick access to the hidden files.

Again, this keyboard shortcut trick only applies to modern MacOS releases, earlier versions of system software will need to use the command line method instead.

Whether you show or hide invisible files on the Mac is entirely up to you, but generally speaking having them made visible is most appropriate for advanced Mac users who need to access the hidden directories or files that are scattered throughout Mac OS. Absolutely do not remove, modify, or delete any hidden files without knowing what you’re doing, many of them are configuration files for various apps, programs, and functionalities, or are necessary components to Mac OS and software.

Source: OSX Daily

February 12, 2018 0 comment
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How to Use Lock Screen in MacOS High Sierra

written by applenws

Mac users have long been able to use various tricks to lock the screen of their computers, but with MacOS High Sierra 10.13.x onward, a simpler and faster option is now available on the Mac with an official Lock Screen feature.

With the new Lock Screen feature, you can instantly lock down a Mac through a system-wide menu option, or with a keyboard shortcut. Once Lock Screen has been enabled, a proper user login and password must be entered before the Mac can be accessed again. This is an excellent privacy and security feature, and one that Mac users should familiarize themselves with if they frequently use their computers in a public setting, be it at work, school, home, or anywhere else they may want to password protect their computer to prevent unwanted access.


Note this specific Lock Screen feature is only available in the latest versions of Mac OS, including macOS High Sierra 10.13.x onward. If you’re on an earlier version of Mac OS system software, you’ll need to rely on other methods to initiate the lock screen on a Mac as described here, or if you have a MacBook Pro with Touch Bar you can set a dedicated screen lock button.

How to Use Lock Screen in MacOS via Menu

You can enable the Lock Screen on Mac OS from anywhere via the Apple menu:

  1. Pull down the  Apple menu from any application
  2. Choose “Lock Screen” to instantly lock the Mac screen and bring up the login window

How to lock screen in MacOS via Apple Menu

Locking the screen is instantaneous, and the Mac will require a password to login and regain access.

The Lock Screen feature does not log out of the user account, or quit any applications, it also won’t start a screen saver right away, it only locks the screen by bringing up a familiar login window thereby requiring the user name and user password to regain entry to the Mac.

Another option to enable the Lock Screen feature on the Mac is to use the keyboard shortcut…

How to Enable Lock Screen in MacOS via Keyboard Shortcut

The default keyboard shortcut for the new MacOS Lock Screen option is Command + Control + Q, you can hit the keystroke at any time to lock down the Mac:

  • Hit Command + Control + Q to activate Lock Screen on the Mac

Lock Screen on Mac with a Keyboard Shortcut

Once you hit the command sequence on the keyboard, the Mac screen will instantly lock out, thereby requiring a login to regain access.

For many users, using the keyboard shortcut for Lock Screen will be faster than the menu option, and it’s likely that the keystroke approach is the fastest way to initiate a screen lock procedure on any Mac.

Note that you can change the Lock Screen keyboard shortcut if you’re unhappy with Control + Command + Q for whatever reason by going to the Keyboard system preferences. If you find yourself accidentally quitting apps instead of locking the screen, you may wish to do that. Just be sure your new keystroke doesn’t conflict with anything else.

To reiterate, these dedicated Lock Screen keyboard shortcut and menu options are only available to the latest versions of macOS system software (10.13+), but that does not mean that users of prior Mac OS software releases are left in the dark or without similar options to quickly activate a password screen to lock down a Mac. In fact, all versions of Mac OS can enable a lock screen associated with the Mac Screen Saver feature as described here that can be activated by keystroke or by a mouse corner. Another option is to use an optional Screen Lock button on the Touch Bar of MacBook Pro if you have one of those Macs.

The primary difference between the new Lock Screen option in modern macOS releases versus the older lock screen trick available in earlier Mac OS releases is that the new variation is officially recognized as “Lock Screen” whereas earlier versions of Mac OS would indirectly go about enabling a lock screen by activating the screen saver with password protection. The end result is basically the same however, though the new variation won’t immediately enable a screen saver, whereas the screen saver based approach always immediately does.

By the way, if you’re using the Lock Screen feature for security and privacy reasons (and you should be if your Mac gets used in any work place, public location, school, or even many home environments) then you’ll also want to be certain you enable FileVault disk encryption on the Mac so that all data on the hard drive is encrypted, further protecting your personal data from prying eyes or potential privacy incursions.

Do you have any other handy tricks relating to the Lock Screen feature on the Mac? Share them with us in the comments below.

Source: OSX Daily

February 7, 2018 0 comment
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