Hands-On Mac explores and explains the Mac ? and beyond! From clever Terminal commands to little-known iOS settings, Mikah Sargent shares all the best tips and tricks for your Mac, iPad, iPhone, and Apple Watch. You'll get all the details on Apple's apps and the best apps in the App Store, you'll learn about awesome accessories for your Apple devices, and you'll explore updates to Apple's operating systems ? including iOS, macOS, iPadOS, and watchOS. Hands-On Mac is your one-stop shop for Apple know-how.

You can still get legacy episodes of HOM for free on your favorite podcast apps. The new versions of Hands-On Mac are only available ad-free on Club TWiT or Apple Podcasts. You can join Club TWiT for $7 a month and get everything the club offers or just get the podcast for $2.99 a month. You can also get the ad-free audio versions for $2.99 a month on Apple Podcasts.

Host: Mikah Sargent

Leo Laporte gives his thoughts on Apple's new M1 MacBooks and what it means for the future of the Mac.

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Host: Leo Laporte

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Leo Laporte shares a must-have app for macOS, iStat Menus from Bjango. This system monitoring app gives you real-time info on your Mac's stats, including a CPU monitor, GPU, memory, network usage, disk usage, disk activity, battery, and more.

Get iStat Menus: https://bjango.com/mac/istatmenus/

Host: Leo Laporte

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Want to know what's new with macOS Big Sur? Watch this!

New features: Control center and the menu bar Notification center and widgets Messages Photos Time Machine and APFS New wallpapers and new sounds (including the startup chime!)

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Here's a tool that comes with every Macintosh - the Mac Activity Monitor. It's a lot more useful than you might think!

Leo Laporte gives you helpful tips to get the most from your Mac every week on Hands-On Mac!

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macOS Big Sur is here! now you have to keep it secure. Here are some easy ways (and some pretty tricky ways) to keep your Mac safe. You have a lot of security options with macOS Big Sur, and third party software can give you even more options.

Use secure passwords. To keep your information safe, you should use passwords to secure your Mac, and choose passwords that can't be easily guessed. See Tips for creating secure passwords and Learn how passwords are used. Require users to log in. If others can get physical access to your Mac, you should set up separate users for each person using the Mac, and require each user to log in. This prevents an unauthorized person from using the Mac. It also separates user files, so users only have access to their own personal files and settings. Users cannot see or modify the files or settings of other users. See Set up users, guests, and groups. Secure your Mac when it's idle. You can set your Mac to log out the current user if the Mac has been inactive for a certain period of time. See Set your Mac to log out when not in use. You should also require a password to wake it from sleep or from the screen saver. See Require a password after waking your Mac. For convenience, you can set up a hot corner to click whenever you want to immediately lock your screen. See Use hot corners to start the screen saver. Limit the number of administrative users. One or more people can have administrator privileges for a Mac. By default, the administrator is the person who initially set up the Mac. Administrators can create, manage, and delete other users, install and remove software, and change settings. For these reasons, an administrator should create a standard user account to use when administrator privileges are not needed. If the security of a standard user is compromised, the potential harm is far more limited than if the user has administrator privileges. If multiple people use your Mac, limit the number of users with administrator privileges. See Set up users, guests, and groups. Encrypt the data on your Mac with FileVault. If you have private or confidential information on your Mac, you can use FileVault encryption to protect that information from being seen or copied. FileVault encodes the information stored on your Mac so it is locked and cannot be read unless the login password is entered.

 

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Here is everything you need to know to install macOS 11 Big Sur.

Make sure you watch all the previous Road to Big Sur episodes first! Leo Laporte gives you helpful tips to get the most from your Mac every week on Hands-On Mac!

 

Host: Leo Laporte

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Remember, I'm doing a clean install. To speed up the setup, I want an inventory of all my installed apps and configurations.

If you've installed `mas` using `brew`, you have a command-line interface to your App store installs. And `brew bundle dump ?all ?description ?force` will write a list of everything you've installed from brew and the app store to `brewfile` in your home directory. Save that! Running brew bundle install will reinstall everything (you might want to edit the list first to avoid reinstalling stuff you don't want) But what about apps you installed by hand. There's no easy way to reinstall them, but at least you can get a complete list of everything you've installed with a simple terminal command `ls -la /Applications/ > Installed-Apps.txt` Now that you have a list of installed apps you might want to save configuration files. You'll have to do that manually for GUI apps, but in most cases, they store these files in Library/ApplicationSupport - remember there are two Library folders, the system-wide folder in the root directory, and the Library in your home directory. Make a copy of both and store them on an external drive. If you've moved your Home directory to a separate partition or drive your ~/Library will be preserved. So no need to worry about that. Just make a copy of the system-wide ApplicationSupport folder. CLI programs usually store their configurations as hidden files in your Home folder. These files usually begin with a dot. You can see them with the following command: `ls -ld *.` As you can see many of my dotfiles are really aliases to files stored in a folder called Sync. This is where Syncthing comes in handy Dotfiles often contain private information, like PGP private-keys and mail passwords that you wouldn't want to store on a public server. Instead I sync them to a shared folder available on all my systems. That way I always have access to dotfiles I want to use on all my machines, but I keep them away from prying eyes. I've written a little shell script to automatically alias them when setting up a new machine. Remember aliases?

Leo Laporte gives you helpful tips to get the most from your Mac every week on Hands-On Mac!

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I have mentioned that this time I'm going to do a clean install of Big Sur, but even if you're going to just upgrade on top of your old macOS it's very important to make a backup of your system. Now is also a good time to think about your backup strategy.

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Use Optimized Data to move stuff off your Mac to make room Hit About This Mac under the Apple icon, select storage, and hit manage. Get ready for a clean install Update brewfile Update time machine Make a full image backup Make an image of your data disk Leo Laporte gives you helpful tips to get the most from your Mac every week on Hands-On Mac!

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Is Big Sur compatible with your old Mac apps? Find out all the answers in this episode of Hands-On Mac.

Who can run Big Sur? Just because you're running Catalina does NOT mean you can run macOS 11. Apple says these systems will work:

MacBook, 2015 and later MacBook Air, 2013 and later MacBook Pro, late 2013 and later Mac Mini, 2014 and later iMac, 2014 and later iMac Pro (all models), 2017 and later Mac Pro, 2013 and later

Free space requirements

50.33GB looks to be the minimum Fresh Install Space Requirement? 12.5GB of Available storage Space = Fresh Install? (Catalina Requirement) 18.5GB of Available storage space = For Upgrade? (Catalina Requirement)

Leo Laporte gives you helpful tips to get the most from your Mac every week on Hands-On Mac!

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When you upgrade to Big Sur, think about starting from scratch. Here's step one of how to prepare:

Move your data to a new drive Create a ghost user account in the internal hard drive Create a copy of the home directory on the external drive Get the 970 EVO Plus SSD at https://amzn.to/3iPokBi (affiliate) Get the OWC Express 4M2 at https://amzn.to/2Ic2nj6 (affiliate) Leo Laporte gives you helpful tips to get the most from your Mac every week on Hands-On Mac!

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The first part of Mac OS 11 Big Sur is already here: Safari 14! Here's what's new:

Customizable Start Page Privacy Report Improved Tabs Design Improved Extensions Support Choose your own search engine New security and privacy features Stop getting annoying website notification popups Turn off autoplay video and audio Kill pop-up windows Custom style sheets Develop menu

Leo Laporte gives you helpful tips to get the most from your Mac every week on Hands-On Mac!

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A Better Finder Attributes Core features:

batch change file creation date and time batch change file modification date and time batch adjust the Exchangeable Image File (EXIF) time & date that pictures were shot to compensate for timezones or incorrectly set camera clocks set the creation date of a digital camera picture file to the time the picture was taken show invisible files in the Finder remove invisible files (including .DS_Store) from entire folder hierarchies EXIF date writing support for JPEG (modification of existing timestamps only), CR2, CRW, and CIFF files EXIF date reading support for JPEG, CRW, CR2, THM, NEF, digital camera TIFF, RAF, ORF, MRW, SRF, PEF, CIFF and DNG "remove" file creation and/or creation dates so that they display as "---" in the Finder add or subtract time intervals to the modification date and time add or subtract time intervals to the creation date and time make file creation and modification date the same set or clear the "hide file extension" flag set or clear the "lock" flag set the Mac 9-style creator and type codes of documents

 

Get the program at https://www.publicspace.net/ABetterFinderAttributes/features.html Leo Laporte gives you helpful tips to get the most from your Mac every week on Hands-On Mac!

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Work in multiple spaces on Mac If the desktop on your Mac gets cluttered with open app windows, you can use Mission Control to create additional desktops, called spaces, to organize the windows. When you work in a space, you see only the windows that are in that space. If your Mac has a Touch Bar, you can set an option in Keyboard preferences to show spaces in the Touch Bar. Then just tap a space to open it. If you assign an app (or System Preferences) to a specific space, the app will always open in that space.

 

Use apps in Split View on Mac Many apps on your Mac support Split View mode, where you can work in two apps side by side at the same time. To use apps in Split View on other displays, make sure the "Displays have separate Spaces" tick box is selected in Mission Control preferences.

 

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Leo Laporte gives you helpful tips to get the most from your Mac every week on Hands-On Mac!

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Syncthing, a free open-source program, syncs multiple computers securely. Use it for backup, file sharing, or to keep the same files on all your computers -  Mac, PC, and Linux. Leo gives a demonstration by setting up some synchronization between his devices.

Leo Laporte gives you helpful tips to get the most from your Mac every week on Hands-On Mac!

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On macOS the Finder is the program that runs all the time. With it, you can manage files, launch applications, and as we've learned, automate many of the tasks you perform all the time. Learning to use the Finder more effectively can make a big difference in how happy you are with your Mac. So here are some tips from a variety of sources. Some you may know, some you may not.

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Now it's time to really make folder actions sing with your own custom code. You can do this in Automator or Applescript (easier), or using a scripting language like shell, python, or Perl (advanced).

Follow these steps in order:

Create a script with Script Editor or another script application.

1. In that script, write a handler that conforms to the syntax documented here for the `[adding folder items to] ' folder action. Your handler can use the aliases that are passed to it to access the image files dropped on the folder. 2. Save the script as a compiled script or script bundle. 3. Put a copy of the script in `/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts` or `~/Library/Scripts/Folder Action Scripts`. 4. Use the Folder Actions Setup application, located in `/Applications/AppleScript`, to: a. Enable folder actions for your image folder. b. Add a script to that folder, choosing the script you created

 

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Before we go too crazy creating scripts to attach to your folder actions let me show you the easiest way to automate your mac: a little utility called Hazel.
Hazel watches whatever folders you tell it to, automatically organizing your files according to the rules you create. Have Hazel move files around based on name, date, type, what site it came from, and much more. Automatically sort your movies or file your bills. Keep your files off the desktop and put them where they belong.

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From the TWiT Community forums, MrHomebrew says: "I've used a Mac for a while now (since 10.2) and have some geek cred, but I've never utilized folder actions and would love to hear Leo's take on how useful they can be."

Leo dives into Folder Actions and how to get started with them on macOS!

Leo Laporte gives you helpful tips to get the most from your Mac every week on Hands-On Mac!

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From zapping the P-RAM to booting in safe mode, these are the secret key combinations handed down from Mac guru to guru. If your Mac is having trouble, give them a try!

Mac startup key combinations
To use any of these key combinations, press and hold the keys immediately after pressing the power button to turn on your Mac, or after your Mac begins to restart. Keep holding until the described behavior occurs.

Command (?)-R: Start up from the built-in macOS Recovery system. Or use Option-Command-R or Shift-Option-Command-R to start up from macOS Recovery over the Internet. macOS Recovery installs different versions of macOS, depending on the key combination you use while starting up. If your Mac is using a firmware password, you're prompted to enter the password.  Here's how to set a firmware password: Go into recovery mode, look in the Utilities Menu  Option (?) or Alt: Start up to Startup Manager, which allows you to choose other available startup disks or volumes. If your Mac is using a firmware password, you're prompted to enter the password. Option-Command-P-R: Reset NVRAM or PRAM. If your Mac is using a firmware password, it ignores this key combination or starts up from macOS Recovery.  Shift (?):  Start up in safe mode. Disabled when using a firmware password. D: Start up to the Apple Diagnostics utility. Or use Option-D to start up to this utility over the Internet. Disabled when using a firmware password. N: Start up from a NetBoot server, if your Mac supports network startup volumes. To use the default boot image on the server, hold down Option-N instead. Disabled when using a firmware password. Command-S: Start up in single-user mode. Disabled in macOS Mojave or later, or when using a firmware password. T: Start up in target disk mode. Disabled when using a firmware password. Command-V: Start up in verbose mode. Disabled when using a firmware password.

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