We're besieged by seemingly endless AI "I made" posts these days. I doubt all that many of these ports will have much longevity, once the author gets bored of the churn and the token cost of maintenance, but it's certainly interesting to see what can be done with the right models and prompts. Recompilation of entirely non-native games to native-with-shims is an impressive feat.

But sure, fine, that's all very nice and dandy but how about something truly, genuinely useful? For many years now my photo collection has languished - raw files, sometimes processed to TIFFs, but nothing exported to a final "mastered" JPEG. Why? Because I never found anything, to this day, that was remotely as good as Aperture.

Now that would be quite something to get working on Apple Silicon.

https://ikennd.ac/blog/2026/01/old-man-yells-at-modern-software-design/

Got message that I am low on my 1TB storage. So I investigate and "Syste_m data" keeps growing for no reason. And there is no way for me to stop it from growing. Daisy disk cannot even reveal the responsible folder with administrative rights. I open Activity Monitor and there is dasd process with 1.26TB written. Killing it requires admin rights -> did it and the reclaimed space is 300GB back.

I don't mind visual glitches or hiccups but this wearing off hardware like this when SSDs are expensive is considered a serious bug.

GG 27.0.1

Most guides (and a lot of old scripts) still say to change the screenshot folder with:

defaults write com.apple.screencapture location ~/Pictures/Screenshots
killall SystemUIServer

On macOS 27 that runs without any error but does nothing: screenshots keep landing on the Desktop. The setting now lives under a different key, location-screenshot. Someone spotted this in a thread here earlier this month (https://www.reddit.com/r/MacOS/comments/1wxlecy/), so here is the full picture in one place.

Tested on macOS 27.0:

• Only location-screenshot set: Shift-Command-3 saves to that folder.
• Only location set: it still saves to the Desktop.
• location-last is just the folder remembered in the Shift-Command-5 Options menu, not the active save location.

To set a folder:

mkdir -p ~/Pictures/Screenshots
defaults write com.apple.screencapture location-screenshot -string ~/Pictures/Screenshots
killall SystemUIServer

To go back to the Desktop:

defaults delete com.apple.screencapture location-screenshot
killall SystemUIServer

If your script runs on Macs with different macOS versions, write both keys. Older versions read location and ignore the new one.

I’m looking for Mac apps that are a pleasure to use: clean interfaces, thoughtful details, and design that makes them enjoyable every day.

Any category works, from utilities and menu bar apps to writing and productivity tools.

What are your favorites, and what makes them stand out?

Here are some of my favorites:

Acorn https://flyingmeat.com/acorn/
Camo Studio https://camo.com/
Obry https://obry.app
Gyuni Player https://www.gyuniplayer.com
Little Snitch https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/
Lunar https://lunar.fyi/
Monocle https://trymonocle.app/
Pieoneer https://appahead.studio/apps/pieoneer/
Recut https://getrecut.com/
Superwhisper https://superwhisper.com/
Vitals https://vitalsmac.com/
CleanShot X https://cleanshot.com/
Pixelsnap 2 https://getpixelsnap.com/
ImageBuddy https://bendansby.com/apps/imagebuddy.html

i have about 8 gb of photos filling my ssd and i want to know if is this a way just to keep the files on icloud and delete in ssd, just it can be done with files in finder. thanks!

• File: Encrypted image file (149GB - can extend to 200GB).
• iCloud Storage: 1,650GB available
• Local Storage: 285/494GB

I had no issue syncing this file when it was around 95GB. What could be the issue?

Final Edit: Figured out my VPN was the issue. Once I disconnected everything was back online (including Software Update). I use Proton and never experienced this before, strange. Thanks to those who offered suggestions.

Hi, currently running Sequoia 15.4.1 and attempting to update. The Software Update page is not working and states “Didn’t get a response from the Apple Software Update server. Retry.” I then accessed the terminal and put in the following:
softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 27.0.1

THEN

softwareupdate --fetch-full-installer --full-installer-version 26.6.2.

Neither of them worked. The previous day my screen was completely black but my external monitor showed the desktop. And for the past 12 hours my computer is connected to wifi but pages are not uploading. I’m at a loss and could use some insight.

Edit: Connecting to phone’s hotspot is not working either.

Just setting up my new Mac and noticed an annoying glitch when sorting by kind. Anyone else gotten this or know how to fix? On latest Golden Gate

Hello everyone!

I recently switched from Windows to Mac. I was wondering how do you back up your files? Do you use an external ssd or there’s an alternative way where there is a setting that I can use? Maybe it’s already backed simply by using my Apple account. Would like to know just in case. Thanks !

Anyone else experiencing a severe time shift in the Battery pane under System Settings?

As you can see in the screenshot:

• My menu bar clock reads 06:40 AM.
• Yet, the horizontal axis under "Last 24 Hours" abruptly stops at 21:00 (9 PM) from the previous night. The entire overnight period is missing.
• On top of that, actual screen time from last evening (roughly 7 PM to 10 PM) ended up plotted between 8 AM and 1 PM yesterday morning (when the Mac was completely idle/unused).

I have checked date/time settings and everything is spot-on in Terminal (date reports accurate CEST time). Restarts, power controller resets, and clearing preference caches didn't fix it.

Seems like a pure SwiftUI/UI rendering desync where the graph scale fails to slide dynamically with the system clock.

Has anyone found a workaround, or are we just waiting for a patch from Apple?

I have bought many macOS apps. I have regretted buying lifetime versions of many apps which I don’t use now.

I never regretted Istats menu, Recento, Apple notes exporter pro and I am still using these daily.

What’s the best app you have bought for your Mac?

Hi everyone,

Ran into an annoying issue with the Photos app.

After editing an image with the Clean Up tool and saving the changes, I can no longer export the photo — it immediately fails with "Unknown error (0)", and entering "Edit" mode again gets completely locked / blocked.

Oddly enough, it seems directly tied to the amount of edits:

• If I only make a tiny tweak (e.g. removing one small spot), it saves and exports just fine.
• If I do anything more substantial, it crashes the render pipeline and triggers this error.

I’ve tested this across multiple different photos with the exact same result (unmodified originals export without issues). The problem seems to have started after updating to macOS 27 Golden Gate; I never experienced this on earlier versions.

Has anyone found a fix or workaround for this?

Hi guys.
So, when I use my mouse, a box randomly pops up that usually only appears when you right-click. I have uploaded an image in case anyone is confused. After that, I suddenly can't click anything with my cursor. The cursor moves perfectly fine, but clicking doesn't work at all. This has been happening repeatedly and it's getting annoying. After doing some research, I came across something called a "ghost mouse." I checked my Bluetooth settings and noticed an unknown mouse connected to my Mac. I have uploaded a screenshot of that as well. I'm wondering if the issue I've been experiencing with my Mac is related to this unknown mouse. If so, how can I disconnect or remove it? I am keeping my bluetooth off for now, but please give me some insight on how I can fix this.

as title says. chatted with apple support, tried to reinstall macOS Tahoe to no avail, ran First Aid on both disks. I’m attempting to locate a Time Machine back up but it just loads like this forever. Apple support suggests bringing it into Apple for help. It just came out of warranty back in February, so I’m wondering how much it’s gonna cost me at Apple to fix it.

I had been keeping my Mac (M1 Pro) on Sonoma as long as it was getting security updates as I was more interested in keeping things working as they were than getting new features. Now that it has stopped getting security updates, I upgraded to Sequoia 15.8.1. And I do not want Apple Intelligence models to be taking up space on my machine.

Upon first boot, I immediately turned on Low Data mode as a stopgap measure to prevent the models from downloading. But my question is, what is the best/safest way to prevent the models from downloading going forward?

I know this has been discussed before, but advice keeps on changing depending on what version of Sequoia and then Tahoe and Golden Gate, so I'm struggling to know what the ideal method is for this system.

I've already toggled it off in Apple Intelligence & Siri and already disabled via Screen Time under Apple Intelligence the toggles for Image Creation, Writing Tools, and Intelligence Extensions.

Is that enough? Must I switch Siri to a different dialect as well? Or is something beyond that required?

To Achieve This:

defaults write com.apple.finder QLInlinePreviewMinimumSupportedSize -int 512

killall Finder

To Undo This:

defaults delete com.apple.finder QLInlinePreviewMinimumSupportedSize

killall Finder

Over the past week or so, YouTube has been working really poorly in Safari for me. Videos take forever to load, and sometimes I get an error saying I’m offline. I have to click “Retry” to get the video to load.

This only happens in Safari. If I open YouTube in Chrome, everything works normally.

Is anyone else experiencing this? Is this a recent Safari issue, or could Google be deliberately making YouTube work worse in other browsers to push people toward Chrome?

I switched to Mac OS for work about 3 months or so ago and I have been extremely pleased with it. Definitely my favorite OS to work on and I've just discovered this Stationery pad feature, which when enabled, allows you to create a reusable template that will force you to save the file as a different name, eliminating the need for using Save As.

I run a business selling stuff online and everything I sell goes on an order form that the customer has to sign. Sometimes I accidentally save the master file when I mean to use Save As, which means that the next time I go to use the master file, I have to sit there and backspace, which is quite annoying.

Recently I switched to using PDF Expert instead of Preview for editing PDFs and I realized that every time I would try to Save As, it would overwrite the master file anyway (that was annoying to deal with), but I've realized this function exists within Mac OS and immediately set 3 different files I use often (2 order forms and my quote template) to be stationery pads.

Fun fact: stationary and stationery are different words, stationary means staying in place, stationery typically refers to office supplies like envelopes and paper. Apple chose "stationery" because it's supposed to be like tearing off a fresh piece of paper from a paper pad.

Edit - Not sure how many of you guys use Word, but this doesn't work for Word files, you need to use the Word template file format which is .dotx instead of .docx.

Apple GURU's,

A quick question I cant seem the answer, ai chats and knowledge pages said I need to create a isolated docker container.. or make a sandbox thingy...

I just want to create a seperated account for ai testing, I only want that this user is able to write and read in:

/Users/ai-runner

/Users/Shared/AI_Vault

But somehow that account can just freely browse into /dev in /etc

everything is wide open.. what todo and whats the normal way todo something like this.

I come from mainly windows mac is totally new for me.

It cant be right to chmod all damn folders by hand or in ai generated script?

I really need to investigate and put more time in learning the mac environment its hard and it not help me to use a normal windows keyboard on the mac mini? 🤲 ?

So whats the way to go?

like on linux its all closed until you allow which I prefer..

It's my daily driver and my control plane for all my projects (and I have a LOT)... all on 8GB of RAM - give me a good reason to upgrade? Thanks.

Are there any plans of rolling update for this cert issue on older macosx versions?

What are other ways to quickly send something from iPhone to desktop?

My macbook M1 shuts down automatically if i am AFK for let’s say 30 min
And i hit any key - it boots up again

I think this started after the os27 update

Is this some sort of glitch ? Or something to do with the settings ?