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How to Install Homebrew on Mac

written by applenws

Advanced Mac users may appreciate using the Homebrew package manager, which greatly simplifies the process of installing command line software and tools on a Mac.

For example, if you want to easily install favorite command line tools on a Mac like cask, htop, wget, nmap, tree, irssi, links, colordiff, or virtually any other familiar unix command line utility, you can do so with a simple command. Homebrew downloads and builds the package for you.


This is obviously aimed at more technically savvy Mac users who spend a lot of time at the command line. While there’s no particular issue for novice users installing Homebrew on their Mac, the odds of novices finding it useful are slim, unless they intend to embark on learning the command line environment. Contrast that to power users who practically live in a terminal environment, whether longtime Mac users or migrating to the platform from the Windows or Linux world, who will immediately see the value of Homebrew.

Requirements for Installing Homebrew on Mac OS

prerequisites to installing Homebrew on a Mac include the following:

  • A Mac running Mac OS X 10.10 or later, though earlier versions are sort of supported
  • Command Line Tools must be installed on the Mac (either independently or through Xcode)
  • Knowledge of the command line and using bash or zsh

Assuming you’re interested in installing Homebrew and meet those requirements, then the rest is equally straight forward.

How to Install Homebrew on Mac OS

The simplest way to install Homebrew is through ruby and curl, accomplished with a single command. This approach is the same for installing Homebrew in all supported versions of Mac OS and Mac OS X.

  1. Open the “Terminal” application, found in /Applications/Utilities/
  2. Enter the following command into a single line of the terminal:

    3. /usr/bin/ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/install)"
    Installing Homebrew on Mac

  3. Hit Return and you’ll see a series of lines about what the script will install and where, hit Return again to agree or hit Escape to cancel
  4. Enter the administrator password (required by sudo execution) to begin installation

Installation of Homebrew will take a while depending on the speed of your Mac and internet connection, as each necessary package is downloaded and installed by the script.

When complete, you will see an “Installation successful!” message.

Homebrew successfully installed on Mac

Now you’re ready to install software packages through Homebrew, or you can read the help documentation with the following command:

brew help

Homebrew help on Mac

Installing Software Packages through Homebrew on Mac

Installing packages with Homebrew is super easy, just use the following syntax:

brew install [package name]

For example, to install wget through Homebrew you could use the following syntax:

brew install wget

Simple, easy. Once complete you can run wget as usual.

Installing a package with Homebrew on Mac

A quick side note; Homebrew is not the only way to install command line software, you can install command line tools on a Mac yourself and then compile and make software independently. For example, we discuss installing wget on Mac OS without Homebrew here and it uses the typical configure and make process. There’s nothing wrong with that approach (and arguably it might be preferable for users who want limited packages and a slimmer footprint) but if you’re accustomed to a package manager like dpkg, apt-get, or rpm you’ll almost certainly appreciate and prefer to use Homebrew.

How to Disable Hombebrew Analytics Tracking

Homebrew now defaults to using anonymized behavioral analytics tracking. If you do not want to participate in that or you’d just rather disable the feature to reduce network traffic or for privacy purposes, or whatever other reason, you can run the following command after successfully installing Homebrew on a Mac. This will opt out of Homebrew analytics:

brew analytics off

Hit return and after a moment or so the analytics tracking in Homebrew will be disabled.

How to Remove HomeBrew from a Mac

If you have installed Homebrew but later decide you want to remove Homebrew from a Mac for some reason or another, you can uninstall it with another ruby script run from the command line:

ruby -e "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/master/uninstall)"

Alternatively, you could download that “uninstall” script directly and run it yourself.

Enjoy Homebrew!

Source: OSX Daily

March 7, 2018 0 comment
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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 Enable or Disable “Avoid Highways” in Maps for iPhone

written by applenws

The iOS Maps app has quite a few tricks up its sleeve, including a settings toggle that allows you to get directions to and from destinations while avoiding highways and freeways. This is particularly helpful for iPhone users that rely on the Maps app for directions and getting around, but it works on iPad as well.


Getting Maps directions that avoid highways may be helpful for many reasons; maybe you don’t like driving on highways, maybe you’re trying to avoid a predictable traffic jam, or maybe you just want to use side roads and backroads. Whatever the reason, if you’d like to enable the Maps feature to avoid highways it’s easy to turn on, and likewise if you enabled the avoid highways feature at some point in time and now want to disable it, it’s equally as easy to turn the feature off again.

The “avoid highways” Maps toggle requires a modern version of iOS, if you’re on an ancient version of system software you would need to update to have such a feature.

How to Turn On or Off “Avoid Highways” in Maps for iOS

The “Avoid Highways” capability is available along with a separate “Avoid Tolls” option in Maps for iOS, you can toggle each on or off individually on any iPhone or iPad:

  1. Open the “Settings” app on your iPhone or iPad

    2. Settings icon

  2. Go to “Maps” and then tap on “Driving & Navigation”

    3. Open the Navigation settings in iOS

  3. Look for the “Avoid” section and toggle the switch next to “Highways”
  • If the “Highways” switch is enabled then Maps will avoid highways whenever possible
  • If the “Highways” switch is disabled (default) then Maps will use highways as normal

Avoid highways in iOS Maps Settings

  • Exit Settings and return to Maps for your changes to take effect on the next set of directions

    • You can confirm the change has been made by getting Maps directions to some location that requires the usage of a highway.

    The change also carries through to turn-by-turn voice navigation directions initiated by Siri on the iPhone.

    Debatably, it might be more useful to have the settings toggle for avoiding highways (and tolls) directly within the Maps app, but for now you must be go the Settings app to toggle the features off or on as you see fit.

    iOS setting for Maps to avoid highways

    The Maps app for iOS has a lot of interesting features, you can easily add stops for food and gas on a road trip, see weather directly in the Maps app for destinations, show GPS coordinates for locations, input GPS coordinates for locations, mark and share specific locations, get directions via transit, and so much more.

    It’s worth pointing out that some users may be tempted to use the “Avoid Highways” feature for avoiding traffic routine jams, but don’t expect it perform quite a good as something like Waze or another app which is dedicated specifically for that purpose. So while it may not avoid traffic, it will avoid highways, whereas if you want to avoid both (or just traffic) you may be better off trying an app like Waze for iPhone for such a purpose.

    Happy travels! And if you have any particular experience with the “avoid highways” feature in iOS Maps, share them in the comments below.

    Source: OSX Daily

    March 5, 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 Fix an Unresponsive iPhone X Screen

    written by applenws

    Rarely, owners of an iPhone X may discover their screen is unresponsive seemingly at random, where swipes and taps on the screen are either not registered at all, or they have a severe lag and there’s a notable delay before the touch interaction completes. Swipes and gestures suddenly have a huge lag, and taps on the screen either take moments to do anything, or are ignored entirely.

    Sometimes, the iPhone X screen freezes completely, becoming entirely unresponsive to any engagement with the device at all.

    These are rare issues but when and if they do happen to a user, it’s understandably annoying. Fortunately there’s a simple solution available, so if you discover that your iPhone X is randomly unresponsive and the screen does not appear to be working, you can fix the problem fairly quickly.

    Before anything else, make sure your iPhone X display is clean, and there isn’t any poorly fitting screen protector or case on the device that could prevent the screen from being touch responsive. Assuming the iPhone X screen is clean and there isn’t any obstruction, you’re in the realm of the unresponsive display troubleshooting that we’ll cover here.

    So, what’s the best way to resolve an unresponsive iPhone X with a frozen display? The good old fashioned hard reboot! Yes indeed, forcibly restarting iPhone X will cause the iPhone to reboot and once it has booted back up again, the devices display and touch interactions should respond to all input as expected.

    How to Fix Frozen / Unresponsive iPhone X Screen

    Here is how you can quickly fix an unresponsive iPhone X by forcibly rebooting the device, be sure you follow the sequence exactly to properly initiate the forced reboot:

    1. Press down the Volume Up button and release
    2. Press down the Volume Down button and release
    3. Hold down the side Power / Lock button until you see the  Apple logo appear on screen, this can take about 10 seconds or so
    4. Once you see the  Apple logo on the display, release the Power button and the device will boot up as usual

    Once the iPhone X boots back up, the screen should instantly work as you’d expect it to. All touch should be immediately recognized, and touch gestures and swipes should be recognized fluidly as usual.

    Admittedly force rebooting a device is not the most elegant solution, but since it works (and since there is no known other solution) and it doesn’t take too long, it’s perhaps the best option available at the moment.

    Next: Update iOS on the iPhone X

    After you have forced your iPhone X to reboot, you should take a moment to update iOS to the latest version, or at least be sure your device is on the latest version available.

    1. Back up the iPhone X, backing up to iCloud is easy or you can backup to iTunes
    2. Open the “Settings” app and go to “General” and then to “Software Update”
    3. If an iOS software update is available, download and install it as usual

    Installing the latest version of iOS to iPhone X is important because each software update release tends to include bug fixes, some of which may remedy the unresponsive screen issue.

    Why does the iPhone X screen freeze or become unresponsive?

    It’s not entirely clear why the iPhone screen can become unresponsive to touch, swipes, gestures, and other touch input seemingly at random. Presumably the unresponsive screen issue is software related, however.

    Interestingly, some time ago Apple had released an update to iOS for iPhone X versioned as iOS 11.1.2 that specifically mentioned in the release notes the following:

    “Fixes an issue where the iPhone X screen becomes temporarily unresponsive to touch after a rapid temperature drop”

    There are also various reports online that the iPhone X screen can become unresponsive or frozen when the device is in a cold environment. In these situations, installing the iOS updates may resolve the problem.

    But skepticism of temperature being the only cause of an unresponsive screen is warranted, because I have personally experienced the unresponsive screen issue on my own iPhone X in an indoors temperature controlled environment at a pleasant 72 degrees, and while running iOS 11.2.6.

    It’s reasonably likely that the iPhone X screen occasionally freezes or becomes unresponsive due to some particular software issue, whether it’s a bug in a particular app, or iOS itself, or whether some daemon is running in the background and suddenly consuming excessive resources leading the device to become so slow that it appears unresponsive of frozen. Because the screen becomes responsive again after a hard reboot, this makes sense.

    Finally it’s worth mentioning that because the iPhone X is fairly new, the device is covered under the regular Apple Warranty, and so if you’re experiencing constant freezing or unresponsive screen issues and the above tips of updating iOS and forced rebooting are not resolving the problem for you, you might want to consider reaching out directly to an official Apple Support channel. Unresponsive screens are not common but they’re also not entirely rare, and a similar issue happened with iPhone 6s models a while back, as well as occasionally on iPhone 7 and other iPhones too, often also requiring a hard reboot, software update, or even a system restore.

    Did these tips help you fix your unresponsive iPhone X screen? Do you have another solution for this issue? Let us know your experience in the comments below.

    Source: OSX Daily

    March 2, 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 Tag Files on iPhone and iPad

    written by applenws

    Using file tags can help to arrange, organize, and prioritize documents, files, and data. Now that iOS has a dedicated Files app for the iPhone and iPad, you might find it helpful to know that you can tag any items, files, documents, images, or anything else stored within the Files app of iOS, much like you can tag files in the Mac Finder. And perhaps best of all, if the tagged files are stored in iCloud Drive, they will sync to other iOS devices and Macs as well, with that same tag.

    Tagging files in iOS is a simple process, but it’s easily overlooked. This tutorial will show you how to tag a single file, how to tag multiple files, and how to view tagged files in the iOS Files app.


    The Files app is available on all iPhone and iPad devices running iOS 11 or later. The tutorial here is demonstrated on an iPhone but the behavior is the same on an iPad too.

    How to Tag Files in Files App for iPhone and iPad

    You can tag any file quickly from the iOS Files app by following these steps:

    1. Open the “Files” app on the iPhone or iPad

      2. Open the Files app

    2. Navigate to the file(s) you wish to tag and tap on the file you want to tag

      3. Open the file you want to tag

    3. From the file preview, tap the Sharing button, it looks like a box with an arrow flying out of it

      4. Tap to Share for tagging

    4. Tap the “+Tag” button in the sharing panel

      5. How to tag a file in iOS

    5. Choose the file tag(s) you want to use by tapping on them, then tap on the “Done” button

      6. How to tag a file in iOS for iPhone and iPad

    That’s it, your selected file will have been tagged with the tag of your choice.

    If you’re syncing data with iCloud, then the file tags will sync over to other devices shortly. And yes if you tag a file from iCloud Drive on the Mac, that tag will sync with the associated file to iPhone or iPad as well via Files app.

    How to Tag Multiple Files in iOS Files App

    You can also tag multiple files at the same time from the Files app in iOS, here’s how that works:

    1. Open the Files app in iOS
    2. Navigate to the files you want to tag, then tap the “Select” button in the corner of the Files app
    3. Now tap to select each file you want to tag
    4. Tap the Sharing icon and then tag the files as desired, choosing “Done” when finished

    Whether you tag one file or many files is up to you.

    How to View Tagged Files in iOS Files App

    Of course you can easily see the tagged files from the iOS Files app as well. This is also where the power of file tagging can be extra useful, because you can use file tags to quickly see and edit items you have tagged, without having to navigate to wherever their original location is in the Files app or file system.

    1. Open the ‘Files’ app and go to the main Browse screen to your root directory selection
    2. Scroll down to find the “Tags” section, then tap any tag to see the files matching that tag

      3. Where tagged files are located in iOS Files app

    Note that on the iPad the Browse section will be in the Files app sidebar if the device is orientated horizontally.

    For Mac users reading this and wondering about tagging directly in the Finder of Mac OS, or from within iCloud Drive, you can tag files on the Mac with drag and drop, or with a file tag keyboard shortcut, and remove tags just as well too.

    While tagging is fairly new to the iOS world with Files app, the Tags feature has been around on the Mac for a very long time, where it used to be called “Labels” before rebranding as Tags in more recent Mac OS releases. Anyway, enjoy your tags!

    Source: OSX Daily

    February 28, 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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