I got an older mac monitor for free, and I'm hoping I can connect it to my Macbook Air (5 years old) to use as a second screen. The inputs on the monitor (pictured) are different than newer macs.

Does anyone know if this is possible and if so, is there a specific adaptor I can buy?

Thanks! (fingers crossed)

Mac is band new (3h old) and can’t find where it is? I also had to manually set a time zone

So, i found out recently in my inbox August 29 that i got a message from claude in one of my sub google account and not my main one that a malware has been stealing my login sessions in my mac or other computers (windows Os) i went to activity and check CPU and try to see if there is any unusual programs running a background and there was nothing, I know mac has xprotect that runs in the background each time an application is running. This worries me quite a bit since a question arises like how do Claude even know i have malware in my mac? and how do i fix this? do i need a dedicated malware/virus scanner? since my mac m1 with the latest software has already really powerful built-in security systems.

When i opened my macbook, it goes to this. And i dont know what to do. Can you please help me? Thank you

I read a bit online and checked these options in the settings, but nothing changes. The F keys function as F keys regardless of whether I turn on/off the function keys option in the keyboard shortcuts

I'm using macOS Ventura 13.7.8 and an apple original keyboard

My job involves talking to clients over the phone or in-person. It's a critical part of my work. Everything discussed and who said what needs to be recorded in a word document. Having a conversation that flows naturally and allows me to think on my feet while typing doesn't come easy for me. I use a Macbook M2 and an iPhone 16 and calls can be made/answered on both.

My mandatory requirements are:

• Diarization / speaker detection to seperate who said what (a popular one I trialled often joined sentences from speaker 1 and speaker 2)
• Local transcription and total privacy. Conversation or text stays with me.
• Hot-key / short cut start and stop
• Inexpensive
• Bluetooth support so that I can take calls on a headset or buds

Optional (nice but no critical):

• It knows my voice
• Integration with Claude
• Real time speech to text

I am aware of the Mac App Comparison table but I am looking for real-life experience and what users consider to be best value for money. Free is good but inexpensive is okay as well.

Thank you for any suggestions that meet my user case.

My MacBook Air is in rough condition, still works, but sometimes the battery doesn’t charge and will randomly quit on me if I have more than a few applications open (even just having chrome, zoom, and notes app open will make it flip out). It’s super slow and unable to maintain efficiency. I have a PC which I run my GIS software and film editing software on, but all of my web based work, zoom meetings, word processing, and storage/document (not iCloud) storage is on my MacBook. I’m afraid it’s going to die on me one of these days or I won’t be able to resurrect it again after it runs out of battery. Which leads to my choices.

I could trade it in for a MacBook Neo, which is aesthetically nice but way less RAM and storage capacity - which is technically a downgrade in quality, but an upgrade in functionality. Or I get another new or used MacBook Air, or upgrade to a new or used MacBook Pro which is what I really want to do (unfortunately, this is much more expensive than the neo and I’d have to wait a longer amount of time to afford). I’d love advice on this, as I don’t want to make any uneducated decision. I would like whatever new Mac I get to last me 7/8+ years.

I got this Laptop used from a family member, and I've never had an apple device, so bear with me here.

It works fine for all intents and purposes, despite being older and also...looking that. He did not treat it that gently. But the battery dies fairly quickly, despite it saying it still has plenty left. As I investigated this, it told me that it recommemded changing the battery.

Now, it's not unusable by any means, and I'd rather not buy a new Laptop alltogether. But the general benefit of a Laptop is the portability after all. How much would it cost to change it in an apple store? Would they even still do that? Or wouldn't it be worth it at all? Because I don't know how long this thing will survive, I'd rather not spend hundreds of euros on it, only for it to give up in 6 months.

I have an old intel MacBook Pro 2017, now it's almost 10 years old and can't run the software I need. Thus I've been looking into buying a new one.

A MacBook Air M3 would cost around the same money as the new Mac Mini M6, that's why I'm wondering whether or not it would be smarter to just go with the Mac Mini instead?

I'd remote control the Mac Mini from my old intel based MacBook whenever I'm not home, which I won't need that often anyways.

Hello. I'm having an exchange calendar sync issue (ie it's not working at all) so I deleted the offending account and went to clear the cache from the library, but there's no calendar folder at all. I'm on an M5 macbook running 26.5.2. Is this normal or is there something weird here? If it is normal, can anyone tell me where to find the caches? Thanks so much!

I just got a MBP 5max 48GB RAM and 2TB ssd. I just had a 2019 iMac die 🚫hard drive failure. I have some of the same files as my dead computer on a previous laptop. I also have an iCloud with my .Mac email account that has all of the passwords and emails I use this for audio recording/mixing with protools and freelance graphic design work. When I first startup my new computer what should load automatically and what should I do to recover as much as possible? Where in icloud could some of my music files have been saved at?I guess I’ll just download all of my apps again. Any advice on setting up this new computer would be appreciated. Thx
-T

Long story short, I got drenched by rain and my Mac was in my backpack. I stupidly didn't check to see if it was okay until the next day in my morning uni class, I have applecare so I can turn it in and everything but I was wondering if there was any hope in saving it so I dont have to go through that process while having assignments and such pile on.

It's quite hard to explain so I've filmed a very short video. I have tried everything within display settings on both devices, with no luck.

Chatgpt told me to try the "double push method" which apparently "realigns" the devices, but I haven't had a great deal of luck with that either.

My Mac and MacBook are 2021 and 2020 M1s, both running on Tahoe.

Any help would be appreciated.

Charge stuck at 1% tried charging for the whole day. Restarted and still the same.

As far as I remember, I could quickly search for an app and access it through Spotlight. But recently, none of the apps that I use frequently are showing up in Spotlight, even though I can see them in my "Applications" folder.

Attaching a few screenshots showing the same.

Any help is appreciated :)

Hi everyone, I need a tip or some help.

I recently bought a beige G3, and when I try to turn it on, I hear the standard startup sound and the hard drive running. However, the system doesn't boot up; there's just a black dash in the corner of the screen.

What could this be? Maybe the monitor adapter, or something else I haven't figured out yet. The adapter is the right one (see photo 2).

Any help is appreciated. Thanks in advance!

It stops showing up after a couple of days. I think it’s a bug. Anyway to get it back without a reboot?

On windows I could kill explorer.exe to fix bugs like these, anything similar?

Hi Folks!! I want to use my macbook air with my two monitors as duel screen setup. For that I need some docking hub. I have checked a bunch of docking hubs on Amazon India but not really convinced which one to buy that last longer. Some are cheap but has bad reviews while others are expensive and very less reviews ( out of which most of ppl said overpriced). Can you suggest me any better option which I can buy in India....

FYI, I already checked the language settings and the only language I have is English

Is it cooked? Any chance this can be fixed without costing half of its original price?

M1 2020

I've successfully got an intel iMac to sleep with no dark/maintenance/RTC etc wake events whatsoever for five hours i.e. without apparent time limit. Writing a guide is a little problematic in considering how much background and detail to add. Here is draft no. 3 or so; I'd be interested to get comments as to whether it's clear enough and works.

It's appreciated that a guide with no commentary is easiest to follow, but I'm hoping that at this draft stage someone else might do that; I'm tired of the project - but since it's environentally useful and apparently nothing else is available; this is provided. One script presumes that Karibineer elements is installed; if not then anything related to it can be deleted or if left it should do nothing -so not an issue.

1. Prerequisites and Baseline Setup

Hammerspoon Installation & Permissions

Hammerspoon is a lightweight, open-source automation tool for macOS that interacts natively with system APIs without requiring System Integrity Protection (SIP) to be disabled.

• Download Hammerspoon from hammerspoon.org or its official GitHub repository and move it to your Applications folder.
• Open System Settings > General > Login Items and add Hammerspoon to Open at Login.
• Open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Accessibility and enable Hammerspoon.
• Open System Settings > Privacy & Security > Input Monitoring and enable Hammerspoon (allows global detection of the sleep shortcut).

Calendar Notification Toggles

Open the Calendar app, go to Settings / Preferences > Alerts, and set Default Alerts for events and all-day events to None. This prevents the OS from scheduling hardware RTC wake timers for upcoming calendar items.

Baseline Power Settings (pmset)

Setting a standard automated idle sleep timer in System Settings (or via pmset sleep) acts as a primary defense for short absences. This idle sleep timing prevents excessive SSD write wear from RAM during brief breaks, reserving aggressive hibernatemode 25 strictly for manual overnight hibernation.

Run this command in Terminal to disable standard network wake triggers:

Bash

sudo pmset -a tcpkeepalive 0 powernap 0 womp 0

2. macOS System Daemon Overrides

Analytics Deactivation (osanalyticsd)

The analytics daemon regularly sets RTC alarms to run local engagement checks. Unload the daemon to prevent it from queuing hardware wake requests:

Bash

sudo launchctl bootout system/com.apple.osanalyticsd

Internal Timer Suppression (powerd.plist)

Desktop Macs ignore standard sleep settings for CSPNEvaluation internal tasks. Placing a FeatureFlag override in the system domain forces powerd to abandon Smart Power Nap logic permanently without altering file permissions or risking macOS update failures.

Create the configuration file:

Bash

sudo nano /Library/Preferences/FeatureFlags/Domain/powerd.plist

Paste this XML structure:

XML

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<!-- Disables 2-hour CSPNEvaluation RTC dark wakes on macOS Sequoia and stops mDNSResponder maintenance wakes -->
<!-- Bluetooth radio toggles & pmset schedule cleanup in Hammerspoon config file remain required to block external wake triggers -->
<dict>
    <key>CoreSmartPowerNap</key>
    <dict>
        <key>Enabled</key>
        <false/>
    </dict>
</dict>
</plist>

3. Passwordless Authorization & Hammerspoon Script

To allow Hammerspoon to manage system sleep modes and toggle system agents without requiring an admin password prompt on every execution, configure a sudoers rule:

1. Run: sudo nano /etc/sudoers.d/btt_bluetooth
2. Paste: z ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: /usr/bin/pmset, /bin/launchctl
3. Save (Ctrl + O, Enter) and exit (Ctrl + X).

Click the Hammerspoon menu bar icon, select Open Config, paste the following Lua script, save, and choose Reload Config:

Lua

-- ==========================================
-- 1. MANUAL TRIGGER (Option + /)
-- ==========================================
hs.hotkey.bind({"alt"}, "/", function() 
    -- 8-second pause to allow unplugging of USB peripherals
    -- MUST remain >= 2 seconds to prevent physical key release from triggering a wake
    hs.timer.doAfter(8, function()
        local karabiner = hs.application.get("Karabiner-Elements")
        if karabiner then karabiner:kill() end

        hs.execute("sudo /bin/launchctl bootout gui/$(id -u) /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.bluetoothuseragent.plist")
        hs.execute("sudo /usr/bin/pmset schedule cancelall")

        -- Lock into h25 and sleep
        hs.execute("sudo /usr/bin/pmset -a hibernatemode 25")
        hs.execute("sudo /usr/bin/pmset sleepnow")
    end)
end)

-- ==========================================
-- 2. AUTOMATED WAKE MANAGEMENT
-- ==========================================
wakeWatcher = hs.caffeinate.watcher.new(function(eventType)
    if eventType == hs.caffeinate.watcher.systemDidWake then
        -- Wait 2 seconds for powerd to log the wake event
        hs.timer.doAfter(2, function()
            hs.execute("pmset -g log | grep -i 'Wake from' | tail -n 1", function(exitCode, stdOut)
                local logLine = (stdOut or ""):lower()

                -- ONLY intervene if it is a manual Power Button wake
                if logLine:find("powerbutton") then
                    hs.execute("sudo /usr/bin/pmset -a hibernatemode 0")
                    hs.execute("sudo /bin/launchctl bootstrap gui/$(id -u) /System/Library/LaunchAgents/com.apple.bluetoothuseragent.plist")
                    hs.application.launchOrFocus("Karabiner-Elements")
                end
                -- If it is an RTC/Maintenance wake, do nothing. macOS will return to h25 natively.
            end)
        end)
    end
end)

wakeWatcher:start()
```[cite: 2]

---

## 4. Daily Operational Workflow

* **Initiating Deep Sleep:** Press `Option` + `/`[cite: 2]. You have **8 seconds** to unplug any wired USB mouse and release all physical keys[cite: 2].
* **Waking the Computer:** Press the physical **Power Button**[cite: 2]. Wait roughly **15 seconds** after the screen lights up to allow Bluetooth, Karabiner-Elements, and Wi-Fi to initialize cleanly before clicking[cite: 2].
* **Automatic `hibernatemode 0` Reversion:** Upon waking, Hammerspoon automatically resets `hibernatemode` back to `0`[cite: 2]. This ensures short idle breaks during the day use low-impact RAM sleep rather than wearing down your SSD with full 8GB+ RAM dump writes, reserving `hibernatemode 25` strictly for intentional overnight hibernation[cite: 2].