Hi everyone. I want to clean my MacBook’s keyboard (dust, wiping it down, etc.), but even after I shut it down, touching any key turns it back on and it boots up. That ends up opening things, typing random commands, or triggering stuff by accident while I clean.

Is there a way to keep it truly off, or to temporarily lock the keyboard, so I can clean it in peace?

Some details in case they help:

• Model: MacBook Pro 2020 / M1
• macOS version: Golden Gate 27.0

Im looking basically for

• A “cleaning mode” that disables the keyboard and trackpad
• A reliable app or Terminal command to lock them for a few minutes
• Or, if the only option is to shut it down and unplug it, I’d like to know that too

I think i´ve seen a similar post a while back, but nothing worked for me.

Thanks in advance! If anyone has a method that worked for them, I’d really appreciate it.

I'm thinking of holding off the upgrade to the latest OS, as I am assuming more and more software will be deprecated and eventually incompatible with future updates. I am also considering my hardware (M2 chip, 16 gigs, 1 TB of storage) that may eventually degrade in performance because of battery condition due to wear and software dependency to high-spec Macbooks in the future.

Asking because of curiosity here. How many years can i get my Macbook to last before deciding to buy a newer model? I got this one at release year and never had any complaints on it. But, i got minor problems due to OS upgrades (reinstalling softwares, removing unsupported drives, adjusting bla bla bla) that made me decide to hold major upgrade to a minimum 6 months after release, waiting to see the patches rolled and fix bugs that may be encountered on day one.

What if your wallpaper was a museum?

I made Gallery, a macOS app that hangs original works from the open collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York) and The Cleveland Museum of Art on your desktop, each with its own museum label.

Would you use it? 👇

M3 MacBook Air (Clamshell with 2 monitors) – It is actually driving me insane how slow things are now, the OS constantly stutters with switching windows and going back into the Desktop screen. Apps crash sometimes, screen turns black. It is genuinely unstable is there any solution or should we just wait for an update?

Hi all,

I’m not technical at all, so apologies if I’m missing something obvious. Apple offered me the latest, fastest and richest macOS, and nothing told me it was still in development, so I upgraded from Tahoe. I now regret it bitterly.

Right after a restart everything is fine. A few hours later the Mac becomes sluggish:

• Apps freeze or lag
• The Dock magnification animation (the wave effect) stutters
• Everything freezes for a moment when I press Cmd+Tab
• The cursor often disappears for a few seconds

It ran smoothly on Tahoe.

My setup

• MacBook Air M4, 24 GB RAM
• About 25% storage free (377 GB used of 494 GB)
• Previous macOS: Tahoe
• Time Machine backups from before the upgrade
• Open apps: Outlook, Chrome (10 tabs), Notion (4 tabs), Claude, WhatsApp, Preview

Activity Monitor, sorted by % CPU, while the Mac is slow (screenshot attached)

1. Google Chrome Helper (Aperitif Renderer): 326.3%
2. kernel_task: 268.5% (52 h of CPU time)
3. WindowServer: 93.8%
4. OneDrive: 56.1%
5. Google Chrome Helper (Aperitif Renderer): 7.9%

Memory looks fine: about 70% used, memory pressure around 36%, 6.8 GB compressed.

My questions

1. Has anyone else seen this on 27.0.1, and is there a known cause? kernel_task and WindowServer seem very high to me.
2. Is there a simple fix a beginner can try?
3. Since I have a Time Machine backup from before the upgrade, what is the safest way to go back to Tahoe without losing recent files?
4. Does anyone know if a fix is likely in the next update?

Thanks a lot!

Can someone explain how the OS rendering is done on macOS? It's definitely unlike Windows for sure.

I recently noticed something interesting. When I'm using my MacBook as is, the battery seems to be draining a bit faster but when I have the machine connected to a monitor, battery drain is significantly lesser.

I would've thought rendering two screens would require more power but it seems to be the opposite. The external display I have runs at 1440@100hz while the MacBook runs at its standard resolution (it's a 14" M5 Pro) with ProMotion.

Using Adobe Illustrator on the MacBook's screen itself for like 1 hour drains around 12-14% while with the external monitor, just 9% drops in like 2 hours.

So I'm guessing the battery power consumption has something to do with the GPU rendering? The external monitor having a little lower resolution and its display + refresh rate depending on its power supply, it doesn't affect the machine that heavily.

Correct me if I'm wrong tho.

*Pardon my English because it’s not my first language.

I recently upgraded my mac to Golden gate 27.0.1 but it’s still pretty sluggish after some time using (not quite sure how long). At first I thought it needed some time to “indexing” so I left it over night and the following morning it’s still fine. But after I use Mozilla firefox, spotify and Adobe photoshop, it lagged like no tomorrow and the Adobe window froze, some brush strokes couldn’t perform well.

I wanted to downgrade it to earlier version but it will cost deleting everything and I need to backup a lot, so I wonder is it a normal thing and should I wait for the next patch? I’d love to hear what others are experiencing. Thanks all!

Ever since updating from Tahoe to Golden Gate, my M1 Macbook Air has a bug where CMD + SPACE just stops working within minutes of booting. Usually it breaks right after I launch an application... Any application... Even settings. The only way I can get it to work again is to restart the computer.

I don't use my dock or my desktop, and exclusively access apps through Spotlight Search, so I basically need to restart my computer every time I want to launch a new application.

Reinstalling MacOS from recovery didn't help.

Anyone else experiencing this?

I’m a long-time Windows user (like 30 years), and also use Linux.I’m trying to get my workflow in Mac for over a year, and it’s not that easy at all to manage application windows.

The main issue I’m facing is restoring discarded windows.

My usual way to do it was to minimise a window when it’s not in use, and to pull it back when needed.

On Windows and Linux I pull back the app window with either alt+tab, or by clicking the icon in the taskbar. It’s a very simple task, requires a single key or click action, and became muscle memory.

However, MacOS will not allow that.

To bring back a minimized window I need to either right click the dock and select the window with the diamond symbol, or to select the app from cmd+tab or the dock, and go to the menu bar and pick window to restore the window.

This is a tree-step action instead of one that gets me confused every time. I feel like fumbling every time I switch windows, which is the most common action done on a computer.

What is the expected window management in macOS ?
What am I supposed to do to put aside a window and bring it back when I need it ?

Real world analogy feels like taking a pile of papers on my desk (app), put it on a shelf (minimise), and bring it back in 10 minutes (restore).

It seems like macOS won’t allow that, which doesn't makes sense since mac is supposed to be the most used friendly and polished experience.

I’m sure I’m missing something.
What am I expected to do in that case ?

Is there a secret shortcut to restore minimized windows ? A shortcut to move a window to another virtual desktop ? A place to put and find all minimized windows ?

I'm really confused (I know an app like alt-tab could add that functionality but I'd rather to do it the MacOS way)

That new left sidebar takes up a massive amount of your screen. Here’s how to get rid of it.

Important: This only works with the Mac App Store version of WhatsApp. If you installed WhatsApp from whatsapp.com, uninstall it and reinstall from the Mac App Store first.

Prerequisites

• Terminal needs Full Disk Access: System Settings → Privacy & Security → Full Disk Access → enable Terminal
• WhatsApp must be the Mac App Store version

Steps

1. Open WhatsApp and let it fully load (this creates the preferences file), then quit it completely with Cmd+Q — not just close the window.
2. Open Terminal and run:

​

WAPLIST="$HOME/Library/Containers/net.whatsapp.WhatsApp/Data/Library/Preferences/net.whatsapp.WhatsApp.plist"

1. Back up the file:

​

cp "$WAPLIST" "$HOME/Desktop/WAPLIST.backup"

1. Disable the sidebar:

​

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Add :com.apple.UIKit.UITabSidebar:com.whatsapp.sidebar.tabs:preferredVisibility integer 1' "$WAPLIST"

If you get “Entry Already Exists”, use Set instead of Add:

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Set :com.apple.UIKit.UITabSidebar:com.whatsapp.sidebar.tabs:preferredVisibility 1' "$WAPLIST"

1. Open WhatsApp. The sidebar should be gone.

To re-enable the sidebar

/usr/libexec/PlistBuddy -c 'Set :com.apple.UIKit.UITabSidebar:com.whatsapp.sidebar.tabs:preferredVisibility 0' "$WAPLIST"

Notes

• If a WhatsApp update brings the sidebar back, just re-run step 4.
• If you installed WhatsApp from whatsapp.com (the Electron/direct download version), this won’t work — the required plist file doesn’t exist. Switch to the Mac App Store version.

Troubleshooting

• “No such file or directory” — Make sure WhatsApp is the Mac App Store version and that you’ve opened it at least once. Also confirm Terminal has Full Disk Access.
• “Does Not Exist” — You’re using Set but the key hasn’t been created yet. Use the Add command instead.
• “Entry Already Exists” — You’re using Add but the key is already there. Use the Set command instead.
• Sidebar came back after update — Quit WhatsApp and re-run step 4. Updates can reset the plist.
• Not sure which version you have — Check the WhatsApp app in Finder. Right-click → Get Info. If the source says “Mac App Store” you’re good. If not, reinstall from the App Store.
• Changes not taking effect — Make sure you fully quit WhatsApp with Cmd+Q before running the command. Check Activity Monitor for any lingering WhatsApp processes and force quit them.

https://github.com/openai/codex/issues/27536

Hi Guys,

For video file hosting such as playing a file from my Mac on Apple TV, is Infuse or Flex the better choice? What is the key difference between them, and how do their user experiences compare? Those who use both, please share some insight.

Our Entra Mac users, running macOS 27, are unable to login after connecting to new a Wi-Fi network.

The affected users' passwords successfully unlock their Macs at startup, but the subsequent login screen displays:

Network is unavailable. Please check your connection and try again.

The user is now locked out of their Mac, even if they attempt to connect to a previously known Wi-Fi network. The Mac becomes completely unusable to the user.

The local admin account can still sign in on the affected Mac.

Sequence:

1. Existing Entra SSO user has (had) a working account.
2. The Mac connects to a new Wi-Fi network.
3. The affected user attempts to sign in.
4. Startup disk unlocks successfully, but desktop login fails with the "network-unavailable" message.

Only workaround we've found:

Signed in as local admin and delete the affected account profile. When the user signs in again, macOS automatically recreates their SSO account and access is restored.

This restores access but requires backing-up and recovering the user's local data. It does not identify the root cause.

The issue appears to be very similar to what Okta users have reported:
https://support.okta.com/help/s/article/okta-platform-sso-authentication-failures-occur-after-upgrading-to-macos-27

No matter what I do, restart, close settings, turn location services completely off or on, my desktop just switches over to this window in settings. Its like a persistent bug that I cant stop. Never had this happen before until yesterday.

I can close this window and go back to chrome, safari, doesnt matter. This window just reopens and switches my desktop over. Very annoying, anyone dealt with this before?

Just writing this post, I'm typing on my keyboard and the words take seconds to appear on the screen after I'm done typing. I don't know what's going on, this mac was super speedy when I first got it.

My SSD is totally free, around 200gb, since I just did a full wipe. After doing the full wipe it was totally fine and speedy again, but a few days after it's back to the same sluggishness. Anything I could be missing? Hardware failure?

ok so I did the dumb thing and kept my whole dev folder in iCloud Drive with "Optimize Mac Storage" on. Git repos, node_modules, venvs, all of it. Yes I know...

Now I'm trying to move everything out to a local folder and iCloud just refuses to download anything. Most of the files are cloud-only and opening any of them hangs forever. Literally a 700 byte git config file. It's been hours.

stuff I've tried:

• freed up a ton of disk space (went from 15 GB free to 110)
• killall bird (it ignored the normal kill, had to -9 it lol)
• killed fileproviderd too
• brctl download on the folder, which did absolutely nothing
• network's fine, I'm signed in, and I've got like 1.3 TB of iCloud space left

bird is just sitting there at ~65% CPU. brctl status says it needs to sync up AND down, so I think it's stuck behind a huge upload backlog from all the git/node_modules files.

haven't restarted or tried Safe Mode yet. I'm also scared to sign out of iCloud, because some stuff hasn't uploaded and I really don't want to lose it.

so:

• has anyone actually unjammed this without nuking everything?
• is there a sane way to get repos out when the files literally won't download? some have uncommitted work

(macOS 26.7.1, MacBook Pro M1 Pro)

I've been getting increasingly tired of all the various subscriptions we are now forced to take on whether it's iCloud, Amazon Prime, Netflix etc. For our family, iCloud is probably the most used and important but we are over the family storage limit and the costs just keep going up.

Are there any other alternative solutions that are worth looking into? I also run a home Ubiquiti system and was thinking of possibly a NAS but that introduces other potential issues like ensuring you have proper backups and it's not always easy for my family members to take over managing the system should I pass away.

Are there any other simple options available out there? I'm looking to actively reduce the number of subscriptions I have moving forward. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

I'm trying to open GarageBand on Mac:

"GarageBand cannot be opened because of a problem. Check with the developer to make sure GarageBand works with this version of macOS. You may need to reinstall the application. Be sure to install any available updates for the application and macOS. Click Report to see more detailed information and send a report to Apple."

I am on an Apple M4, 16 GB, macOS Golden Gate 27—2025 laptop. I am on a school laptop, and I need this for my assessment. I have it fully updated, and I don't want to reinstall the application in case I lose anything. I might not even be able to reinstall it, as it says:

"This app is managed and updated by your organization."

Is there anything I can do in Terminal? Just tell me if I need my password/serial number, etc.

My wife's organization's website got infected by malicious code and she got a ClickFix fake Cloudflare verification page when she went to fix it. Unfortunately, since she often has to log in to the back end of the website and since they have gotten real Cloudflare verification pages before, she did, in fact, open Terminal and run the code before immediately realizing her mistake.

I had her download Malwarebytes for Mac and it identified three instances of two different pieces of malware (MacOS.Stealer.Nova and MacOS.Stealer.Odyssey), which we quarantined and removed. We then restarted the computer and ran the scan again, and nothing was found. She also changed her organizational and Google passwords from another device, and we have her work Mac currently sitting in the other room and disconnected from the internet. She has started going through the passwords that were saved in her Chrome password manager and changing them, and she has 2FA enabled on major accounts as well.

I unfortunately do not have enough experience with Macs generally or with Terminal in particular to know if anything actually happened or if the code itself was never actually executed.

When she ran the code, she got the result "zsh: command not found: #" but she was allowed to enter the website, so I suspect that at least something happened when she ran it, but we don't actually know when the MacOS.Stealer.Nova or MacOS.Stealer.Odyssey pieces of malware would have been installed.

She does have a Time Machine backup from several months ago, but she obviously has a ton of important files and documents that she needs that wouldn't be included in that backup.

I've included screenshots, and she has spoken with the people in charge of the org's website who quickly got the malicious code removed, but since her organization is so small she doesn't really have an IT department that she can turn to. Does anybody here know enough about Terminal to look at the code and the output to give us a bit of insight?

Thank you!

everything in tahoe is so much better. no need of unnecessary display clutter. mission control is smooth. the batter charge limiters work fine. system data is not taking up half my space. apple intelligence can be turned off. i have never used seqouia even tho everyone was like thats the best so didnt go back to 15.8.

I am using Mac OS.

I want a terminal command that displays the version of the command.

For example,

ls --version

However, I can't figure out the proper command.

Hi everyone can someone help me fix my finder, when I want to hit the options tab it is huge and goes off the screen. Any help is appreciated thanks.

As titled. Unmounting the external drive(s) will result in Finder immediately showing up to 50gb freed up from internal SSD. It doesn't look like all external drives are doing this though, just the HDDs.

A quick check with DaisyDisk shows that the internal "Free Space" actually remains the same regardless of whether external drives are plugged in, but "Free + Purgeable" changes.

I've excluded all my external drives from spotlight indexing and have temporarily paused Time Machine backups. But I still can't figure out where this "purgeable" 50gb is??

Any insight would be appreciated, thank you!

MacBook Air M2 / 16GB / 256GB (MacOS 27.0.1)

Updated m2 MacBook Pro to MacOs 27.0.1 and now my computer is very laggy. I use one external 4k monitor but never had issues in previous software. In activity monitor, window server now uses 120-140% CPU and hovers in this range all the time.

Anyone else having similar issues since update? Any suggestions on how I can fix this greatly appreciated! Considering downgrading to MacOS 26 for the time being if this continues.

Update: I closed out of the "Clock" app and that helped significantly. My Windowserver CPU dropped down to 20-30%. Whenever I reopen and keep a timer/stopclock in the background, it shoots back up. Why does a simple clock app use this much CPU I don't understand