MacOS Stuff

Here's a list of all my favorite MacOS apps, tips, and tricks.

MacOS Apps

Note: Some of these apps cost money, so as an alternative to buying them outright, there is a great service called Setapp. It's a subscription service that will give you access to most of these paid apps and many more for a monthly fee. Also a good way to try out these apps before buying them.

Name	Price	Note
1Password	$	Great cross-platform password manager app if you have other non-Apple devices, otherwise Apple's Password app works great too.
Actions	FREE	A collection of new macOS actions for Siri Shortcuts.
Affinity Photo	$	Image creation and photo editing software. A great alternative to Photoshop, and much cheaper comparatively.
Amphetamine	FREE	Keep your Mac awake for a set time or until an action.
Apple Calendar	FREE	Comes pre-installed with MacOS, a great calendar app.
Apple GarageBand	FREE	Simple but powerful music creation app.
Apple Home	FREE	Comes pre-installed with MacOS, a great home automation app.
Apple iMovie	FREE	Simple but powerful video editing software.
Apple iPhone Mirroring	FREE	Comes pre-installed with MacOS, Get notifications and access your iPhone remotely.
Apple Sidecar	FREE	Comes pre-installed with MacOS, use an iPad as a second screen on your Mac.
Apple Mail	FREE	Comes pre-installed with MacOS, a great email client.
Apple Music	FREE	Comes pre-installed with MacOS, a great music streaming service.
Apple News	FREE	Comes pre-installed with MacOS, a great news aggregator.
Apple Password	FREE	Comes pre-installed with MacOS, a great password management tool.
Apple Podcasts	FREE	Comes pre-installed with MacOS, a great podcast streaming service.
Apple Remote Desktop	$	Apple Remote Desktop Manager.
Apple Safari	FREE	Comes pre-installed with MacOS, secure web browser.
Apple Shortcuts	FREE	Comes pre-installed with MacOS, a powerful tool for automating tasks.
Apple Terminal	FREE	Comes pre-installed with MacOS, a powerful command-line interface.
Apple Time Machine	FREE	Comes pre-installed with MacOS, a great backup tool.
Apple TV	FREE	Comes pre-installed with MacOS, a great streaming service.
Automator	FREE	Comes pre-installed with MacOS, a powerful tool for automating tasks.
balenaEtcher	FREE	Flash images to external storage devices. Great for flashing SDcards.
Bartender	$	Organize your menu bar icons and more.
Berty	FREE	Open-source decentralized messaging app with end-to-end encryption.
BetterDisplay	$	Support and control non-Apple displays.
Bitdefender	FREE	Anti-virus scanner to protect your Mac from viruses and malware.
Blender	FREE	3D modeling application.
Calibre	FREE	Calibre is an e-book manager. It can view, convert, edit and catalog e-books in all of the major e-book formats.
CleanMyMac	$	Storage cleaner and Virus Scanner. Can free up lots of space and keep you safe.
CyberDuck	FREE	FTP and remote file management application.
DaisyDisk	$	Visualizes all your storage space for easier cleanup.
DarkReader	FREE	Makes all websites have a dark theme.
DaVinci Resolve	FREE	Very advanced and well made video editor.
Deliveries App	$	Manage and track all your packages.
DeskFlow	FREE	Use single mouse+keyboard across multiple devices.
Discord	FREE	Chat app that supports audio/video/text for large groups, tailored to Gaming.
DiskDrill	$	Recover lost data.
DrawThings	FREE	Open-Source AI Image generator that supports a ton of free AI Models and is user friendly.
Encrypto	FREE	Drag and Drop encryption app for encrypting files.
FatDriveSorter	FREE	For those random times you need to sort files on an old FAT32 storage device.
FreeCAD	FREE	Open-Source 3D CAD software for engineering.
GBStudio	FREE	Open-Source Game Development Studio for Game Boy and Game Boy Color.
Gifski	FREE	Drag and Drop GIF maker for videos.
Github Desktop	FREE	Manage your Github Repos easily.
Goodnotes	FREE	Note-taking app with advanced features.
Handbrake	FREE	Simple video converter and compressor app.
Heroic	FREE	Open Source Epic, GOG and Amazon Prime Games launcher.
HiddenBar	FREE	Lets you hide menu bar items to give your Mac a cleaner look.
HomeBrew	FREE	Package manager for all your command line tools, and will make your MacOS feel more like Linux OS.
Hush	FREE	Content blocker for Safari.
iStats Menu	$	Displays system information in the menu bar and can monitor and show alerts on system events.
Kaleidoscope	$	Visual diff tool for images and text files.
Ka-Block!	FREE	Ad blocker for Safari.
Kiwix	FREE	Store local copies of Wikipedia on your Mac.
Klee	FREE	App to run your own local secure AI LLM chat.
LanScan	FREE	Scan your network and look for devices and ports.
Latest	FREE	Scans your Mac to see if you have the latest apps installed or if you need updates.
Maccy	FREE	Clipboard history manager for MacOS.
Meeter	FREE	Helpful app to view your upcoming online meetings via the Mac top bar.
Mela	FREE	Manage all your food recipies.
Motrix	FREE	Download manager that will pull downloads off servers faster by using multiple streams.
MusicBrainz Picard	FREE	Music collection metadata manager.
NewFile	FREE	Simple app that will generate a blank file
Ollama	FREE	Run AI LLMs locally on your Mac.
OpenEmu	FREE	Multi-platform retro gaming emulator, play almost any retro game on your Mac.
OrcaSlicer	FREE	3D model slicer for prepping your models to 3D Print.
Parallels	$	Virtual Machine app for running Windows or Linux inside MacOS.
Photomator	$	Photo editing software.
Pixelmator	$	Image creation and photo editing software. A great alternative to Photoshop, and much cheaper comparatively.
Plex	FREE	Media server that will stream your music, movies and TV shows to any device.
Plexamp	FREE	Music streaming app that will stream music from your Plex server. Also has AI playlist generation.
Postman	FREE	API testing and development tool.
Prompt	$	Remote SSH Manager.
Reaper	FREE	Powerful audio editing tool.
Reeder Classic	$	RSS Reader.
Reins	FREE	A chat-like UI for chatting with local AI LLMs via Ollama.
Shapr3D	FREE	3D modeling and engineering CAD app.
Signal	FREE	Secure messaging app.
Sink It	FREE	Makes Reddit less crappy...
Steam	FREE	Gaming app with all the games!
SyncThing	FREE	Sync files between devices without a Cloud.
Tailscale	FREE	Simple to use local VPN for secure remote access to your home network.
The Unachiver	FREE	Great unarchiving app.
Transmission	FREE	BitTorrent client.
Transmit	$	FTP and remote file manager app.
VLC	FREE	Media player.
Windows RDP App	FREE	Remote Desktop App for non-MacOS devices.
WireShark	FREE	Network protocol analyzer.
Xcode	FREE	Apple's IDE for developing software.
Yac Reader	FREE	A comic and graphic novel reader app.
Zed	FREE	Amazing text editor and development IDE with local AI support and much much more.

MacOS Tips and Tricks

Desktop and App Management

• Activate Spotlight for Searching - To bring up a handy search interface that will let you find files on your Mac, just use Command + Space. Spotlight can do all kinds of things, from locating files to answering basic questions to solving math problems.
• Swap Between Apps - To switch between your open applications, press Command + Tab. Keep holding down the Command key and then press Tab to cycle through the open apps. Let go when the app you want is highlighted.
• Close Apps From App Switcher - When you're in the Command + Tab view, press the Q key with command held down to close an open app.
• Hot Corners - If you don't already use Hot Corners, they're worth checking out. You can set tasks that will happen when your mouse hovers in a specific corner, like launching Mission Control, showing the desktop, and more. Set them up in System Preferences > Mission Control > Hot Corners.
• Advanced Hot Corners - If you want to use Hot Corners but have found yourself accidentally activating features, hold down the Option key when setting up a Hot Corner. From there, the Hot Corner won't activate unless you're holding down the Option key.
• Hide a Window - To quickly hide a window on the desktop, just press Command + H. The app will disappear into the background, but you can get it back by clicking on the icon on the dock or using Command + Tab.
• Hide All Windows - You can hide all of the windows except for the window for the app you're currently using by pressing Option + Command + H.
• Cycle Between App Windows - If you have multiple windows open for an app like Safari, you can swap between those open windows using Command + the Tilde (~) key.
• Switch Between Multiple Desktops - If you use multiple desktops, you can swap between them quickly by pressing the Control button and then either the left or the right arrow.
• Widgets on Desktop or Notification Center - To add widgets to your desktop, right click on the desktop and choose "Edit Widgets". This will open the Widget Picker, where you can choose from a variety of widgets to add to your desktop. You can also add them to your Notification Center. Click the time in the top right, or swipe two fingers from the right edge of your trackpad to access the Notification Center.

Managing Files

• Quickly Open Folders - To open up a folder in Finder or on your desktop, hold Command and press the down arrow key. To go back, just hold Command and press the up arrow key.
• Clean Up Your Desktop - For those with macOS Mojave or later, on a messy desktop, just right click and choose "Stacks" to have your Mac automatically organize everything by file type.
• Instant File Deletion - If you want to delete a file and want to bypass the Trash Can on the Mac that saves files before deleting them, just select a file and press Option + Command + Delete at the same time.
• Create an Auto Duplicating File - If you want to create a duplicate file when clicking on a specific file, just right click, select "Get Info." and then check the Stationary Pad box. Every time you open that file, it'll actually open a duplicate, which is great for templates and similar file types.
• Show hidden files - While in Finder, push Cmd+Shift+Period to show/hide invisible files.

Screenshots

• Video Screenshots - Shift + Command + 3 takes a screenshot, Shift + Command + 4 lets you select an area of the screen to screenshot, but Shift + Command + 5, a lesser known option, brings up an interface that lets you record your screen or a portion of your screen.
• Cleaner Screenshots - When using Shift + Command + 4 to select an area of the screen, if you press spacebar, the icon turns to a camera. From there, you can click on any open window to get a screenshot of just that window or interface element like dock or menu bar.

Safari

• Safari Picture-in-Picture (YouTube) - You can watch a video in Safari while you do other things. To do so with YouTube, just right click twice on a video that's playing to bring up a menu offering the picture-in-picture feature.
• Safari Picture-in-Picture Pt. 2 - If the right clicking method doesn't work to pop out a video or you're not watching YouTube, there's another method. With a video playing, look for the audio icon in the Safari toolbar, right click it, and it should bring up a picture-in-picture option.
• Easier Link Copying - If you want to copy the current URL in Safari, press Command + L to highlight the URL bar and then press Command + C to copy. It's quicker than using a mouse.

Force Touch Trackpad

• Quick Looks - When using a Mac with a Force Touch Trackpad, if you click and hold on something like a website link or a YouTube video, you can see a little preview of the content to see what it is without having to leave the current page you're on.
• Dictionary - If you see a word that you're not familiar with, highlight it and press down on it with the Force Touch Trackpad to get a dictionary definition.
• Rename Folders and Files - If you Force Touch on a folder or file name, you can quickly rename it. Force Touch on a folder or file icon and you can see a preview of the file.

Apple Watch and Mac

• Unlocking With Apple Watch - If you have an Apple Watch, you can use it to unlock your Mac, which is a super useful feature for those who don't know about it. To set it up, open System Preferences > Security & Privacy and then toggle on Unlock Mac with Apple Watch.
• Apple Watch Password Authentication - For those with macOS Catalina and an Apple Watch, the Apple Watch can also be used as an alternative to a password so you don't need to type in passwords frequently.

Notification Center and Top Bar

• Activate DND Quickly - If you hold the Option key and click on the Notification Center icon in the top right corner of your Mac's menu bar, you can activate Do Not Disturb.
• Move or Remove an item from the top bar - Hold the Command key and click and drag on an item to move it. To remove the item, drag it down off the top bar. Some items may not be removable. See "System Settings > Control Center" to manage more settings for the top bar.

Keyboard Tricks

• Alternate Mouse Control - There's an option to control your mouse cursor with your keyboard, and it can be enabled in Accessibility. Open up the Accessibility settings and under Pointer Control, choose the Alternate Control Methods tab. From there, turn on Enable Mouse Keys and select toggle to turn on Mouse Keys when Option is pressed five times. When you press Option x5, Mouse Keys turn on and you can use the keyboard to move the mouse.
• Quick Access to Function Key Settings - When pressing one of the function keys to activate Mission Control, Brightness, Media playback, and more, if you hold down Option when you press, you can access the corresponding Settings options inside System Preferences for those keys. Note: This doesn't work on Touch Bar Macs.

Terminal Tips

• Right click a file and hold option key to change "copy" to "copy as path", or drag the file into a Terminal window to input its path.

• In terminal, you can add "man" before any command to read it's manual page. For example.

  man ditto
  

  Now you can see how to use the ditto command, scrolling with your mouse or arrow keys and press 'q' key to quit.

• Always show hidden files and folders - You can use shortcut Cmd+Shift+Period to show hidden files and folders, but that is only somewhat temporary. To permanently show hidden files and folders.

  defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles -bool TRUE; killall Finder
  

  Change TRUE to FALSE to disable.

• Copy files from one folder to another - Option+Dragging and dropping files to copy them from one place to another or try Terminal’s Ditto command instead.

  ditto [original folder] [new folder]
  

  Where ‘original folder’ and ‘new folder’ are the file paths of the source and destination of the files. To see each file’s name in the Terminal window as it’s copied, type ‘-v’ after ditto. This is the command for "verbose mode".

• Download files without a browser - Set the location you want the file to be downloaded and then download the file with curl.

  cd ~/Downloads/
  curl -O [the URL of the file]
  

• Disable drop shadows on a screenshot - When you use Command-Shift-4 then hit Spacebar to take a screen grab of a window on your Mac, a drop shadow is added to the window. To take a screen grab without drop shadow.

  defaults write com.apple.screencapture disable-shadow -bool TRUE; killall SystemUIServer
  

• Keep your Mac awake - Over-riding the sleep settings in Energy preferences takes just one command.

  caffeinate
  

  Press Ctrl-C to end the command or set a time limit like this

  caffeinate -u -t [number of seconds]
  

• Hide non-active apps in your Dock - Dock too crowded, use this to make it show only active apps.

  defaults write com.apple.dock static-only -bool TRUE; killall Dock
  

• Dull hidden apps in the Dock - Make the Dock dim apps that aren’t visible on screen.

  defaults write com.apple.Dock showhidden -bool TRUE; killall Dock
  

• Make holding down a key repeat characters - When you hold down a key on your Mac’s keyboard, it either displays a pop up of additional characters or does nothing. Here’s how to make it repeat the character you tapped, just like it used to do.

  defaults write -g ApplePressAndHoldEnabled -bool FALSE
  

  To undo the command, use the same command but replace ‘FALSE’ with ‘TRUE’

• Hide files and folders from view in the Finder - You can add a "." to the beginning of a file or folder name to hide it (like ".filename"), or use this command.

  chflags hidden [path of folder you want to hide]
  

• Enable an iOS-like power chime when connected to power - Use this to make your Mac chime like an iPhone when you plug in the charger.

  defaults write com.apple.PowerChime ChimeOnAllHardware -bool true; open /System/Library/CoreServices/PowerChime.app
  

• Check for macOS updates more often - To change the frequency with which your Mac checks for macOS updates from weekly to daily, type:

  defaults write com.apple.SoftwareUpdate ScheduleFrequency -int 1
  

• List the Contents of a folder - The ‘ls’ command displays the contents of a directory, by adding ‘-R’ it expands sub-folders. So to see all the contents of a folder, type:

  ls -R [the path of the directory]
  

  Adding '-lr' will also show the file size and permissions.

  ls -lr [the path of the directory]
  

• Restore a disk image to a volume connected to your Mac - If you have a disk image that you need to create an actual volume from, use this command:

  sudo asr -restore -noverify -source /[path to diskimage] -target /[Volume you want to restore to]
  

• View any file’s contents - For lots of files, like audio and video, the text you see won’t mean much. For others, there may be just enough for you to parse what you need.

  cat [file path]
  

• Change the default screenshot location - You can change the place where screengrabs are saved by typing:

  defaults write com.apple.screencapture location [place where you want screen grabs saved]; killall SystemUIServer
  

• Stop apps from saving to iCloud by default - Some macOS apps like TextEdit and iWork apps save to iCloud by default. You can change that by using:

  defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSDocumentSaveNewDocumentsToCloud -bool false
  

  To revert to iCloud, use the same command with the flag set to ‘true’

• How to alter file permissions using Terminal - File permissions control which users can access and modify files and folders. When you copy a file from one user account to another and discover you can’t open in it in your account. Use chmod, which modifies permissions for all users except the file’s owner, and chown which assigns ownership to a specific user.

  sudo chmod 777 path-to-file
  

  To modify the permissions to allow access and reading, but prohibit editing the file, swap 777 for 644. If you want to change permissions on all the files in a folder, type -R after the command name. To change ownership of a file to your account, use:

  sudo chown your-short-user-name path-to-file
  

• Change the default for screen shots on the Mac - By default, screenshots in MacOS are saved as .png files. That’s usually fine, but you can change it if you need to. For example, to change the default to jpeg, type:

  defaults write com.apple.screencapture type JPG
  

  You can also change to PDF or TIFF using the same command and swapping your chosen format for JPG. To change the default name for screenshots, use:

  defaults write com.apple.screencapture name “the-name-you-chose”; killall SystemUIServer
  

  Replace the-name-you-chose with whatever you like and screenshots will now be given that name followed by the date and time.

• Enable text selection in Quick Look - Quick Look is an incredibly useful tool for quickly examining the contents of a file. Use this command to allow you to select text in Quick Look:

  defaults write com.apple.finder QLEnableTextSelection -bool TRUE; killall Finder
  

• Make the Dock show more quickly - If you use Show and Hide dock, eliminate the show delay with these commands:

  defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-delay -float 0; killall Dock
  

  The ‘0’ represents the delay in seconds before the Dock slides into view. To revert to the default, type:

  defaults delete com.apple.dock autohide-delay; killall Dock
  

  You can also change the speed at which the Dock slides in. Again, it’s done by modifying a delay. So, to make it instant, type:

  defaults write com.apple.dock autohide-time-modifier -float 0; killall Dock
  

  To double the speed, replace the 0 with 0.5 and to keep it the way it was, use 1.

• Add a message to the login window.

  sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow LoginwindowText “Your message here”
  

  The next time you log out or restart, the message will appear in the log in window. To remove it, use:

  sudo defaults delete /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow
  

• Make your Mac speak - You can make your Mac say anything you want in the currently selected voice. To do that, use the ‘Say’ command, like this:

  say “whatever you want your Mac to say”
  

  As soon as you hit Return, your Mac will speak the words you typed.

• Rebuild Spotlight - Spotlight is MacOS’s search tool and one which is incredibly useful. Occasionally, however, it can become corrupt or stop working properly. The solution is to rebuild it.

  sudo mdutil -E /Volumes/DriveName
  

  Where ‘DriveName’ is the name of the volume whose index you want to rebuild.

• Search and use the old commands - You can search for a command in the history using any search term. Just use the keys ctrl+r to initiate reverse search and type some part of the command.

  ctrl+r search_term
  

  By default, it will show just one result. To see more results matching your search term, hit ctrl+r again and again. To quit reverse search, use Ctrl+C.

• Move to the beginning or end of lines - You can use Home and End keys here of course but alternatively, you can use Ctrl+A to go to the beginning of the line and Ctrl+E to go to the end.

• Delete the entire line from cursor position - You press Ctrl+U, it deletes everything from your current cursor position to the beginning of the line. Similarly, if you press Ctrl+K, it deletes everything from your cursor position to the end of the line.

• Reading a log file in real time - In situations where you need to analyze the logs while the application is running, you can use the tail command with -f option.

  tail -f path_to_Log
  

  You can also use the regular grep options to display only those lines that are meaningful to you:

  tail -f path_to_log | grep search_term
  

  You can also use the option -f here. This will keep the tail running even if the log file is deleted. So if the log file is created again, tail will continue logging.

• Reading compressed logs without extracting - Server logs are usually gzip compressed to save disk space. Z commands provide alternatives of the regular commands that you use to deal with log files such as less, cat, grep etc. So you get

  zless, zcat, zgrep, etc.
  

• Use less to read files - To see the contents of a file, cat is not the best option especially if it is a big file. cat command will display the entire file on your screen. If you just want to read a file, less command is a far better choice.

  less path_to_file
  

• Reuse the last item from the previous command with !$

  ls Tools/
  cd !$
  

  This would use "Tools/" in place of !$.

• Reuse the previous command in present command with !! - You can call the entire previous command with !!. This is particularly useful when you have to run a command and realize that it needs root privileges.

  apt install vlc
  sudo !!
  

• Using alias to fix typos. This way you won’t have to retype the command again.

  alias gerp=grep
  

• Kill a running command/process - Press Ctrl+C to stop that running command. If for some reason that doesn't work, you can try Ctrl+Z or even Ctrl+X in some cases.

• Using yes command for commands or scripts that need interactive response - If some commands or scripts need user interaction and you know that you have to enter Y each time it requires input, you can use the Yes command. Just use it in the below fashion:

  yes | command_or_script
  

• Find if there are files containing a particular text - There are multiple ways to search and find in command line. But in the case when you just want to see if there are files that contain a particular text, you can use this command:

  grep -Pri Search_Term path_to_directory
  

• Using help with any command - Almost all command and command line tools come with a help page that shows how to use the command. Often using help will tell you the primary usage of the tool/command.

  command_tool --help
  

• Running multiple commands in one command - You can use the ";" separator for running multiple commands on the same line:

  command_1; command_2; command_3
  

• Run multiple commands in one command only if the previous command was successful - The && ensures that the following command will only be executed when the previous command was successful:

  command_1 && command_2
  

• Show the current directory you are in.

  pwd
  

• Repeating a command until it successfully completes - To run a command until it completes successfully use the command's return code in this construct:

  while! [command]; do sleep 1; done
  

• Cleaning the Console - The clear command clears the terminal screen. The keyboard shortcut Ctrl + L allows you to achieve the same thing faster.

• Keep Your Program Running in the Background - If you run the program in a terminal, it will be killed as soon as you end your terminal session. To prevent this and keep the program running, use the nohup command. Example: Transfer files to and from the server using scp and be sure that the transfer will continue even if you accidentally close the terminal window, use this command:

  nohup scp very-big-file.mov user@server-ip:~/very-big-file.mov
  

  nohup also creates a file called nohup.out to store the output of the command.

Terminal Apps and Plugins

These are CLI based apps that make your termainal more efficient and more enjoyable! Highly recommend getting Homebrew setup so you can install these much more easily.

• bat - bat is a replacement for cat command so you can view files in command line with syntax highlighting.
• btop - btop is a replacement for top command that displays system resources and running tasks information with syntax highlighting.
• eza - eza is a replacement for ls command that displays files and folders with syntax highlighting.
• fd - fd is a simple, fast and user-friendly alternative to the find command.
• navi - navi is a cheatsheet for your terminal. Download community made cheatsheets with various commonly used command snippets and examples, and easily search for them to use.
• zsh-autosuggestions - zsh-autosuggestions is a plugin for zsh that provides auto-suggestions based on your command history.
• zsh-syntax-highlighting - zsh-syntax-highlighting is a plugin for zsh that provides syntax highlighting for commands.
• PowerLevel10K - An awesome theme for ZSH.

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