Questions tagged [preferences]
The personal settings which control the configurable options on your Mac or iOS device. Examples include what wallpapers are displayed, when a screen saver will be displayed, or whether or not Time Machine is enabled and how it is configured.
401
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How to get Auto Dark Mode to work at sunset, not many hours later?
On Monterey 12.6.3 I have System Prefs > General > Appearance set to 'Auto'. This works, changing Dark to Light mode and back again automatically.
But it does so some hours after sunset.
I ...
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Application Shortcut clashing with System shortcut
I use Figma for UI designing; It has a shortcut AltL (in Windows) and ⌥L (in Mac) to collapse all the nested groups in the Layers Panel.
But I am unable to use it in Mac because everytime I press ⌥L, ...
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"Show Scroll Bars" Setting Changes Randomly
Throughout the day, my "Show Scroll Bars" setting which I manually set to "When Scrolling" keeps changing to either one or the other two alternatives: "Always" or "...
- 101
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How to set advanced number format in regional settings?
Recently updated to 13.2 and came across interesting problem. I'm accustomed to dot (.) as decimal and a space ( ) as a thousand separator for numbers. Regional settings offered "advanced" ...
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How to export paragraph styles in Pages?
Here for example are four Paragraph Styles I often use:
Notice I have them all set up nicely, even with the F-key.
My remote colleague was working on a similar document. I wanted to say to her "...
- 171
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Why can't I use Automator to correctly target UI elements in System Preferences? [ventura]
I'm trying to use Automator to record an action on the system preferences, in the accessibility display pane. I want to change the value of the slider for the color filter intensity.
I use automator ...
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Choose what to sync before turning on iCloud
I want to only sync reminders and notes with iCloud. But when I turn it on, every possible option is enabled already by default. And syncing starts immediately, because the device must be online to ...
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Default System Preferences
I just updated to Ventura and found the new System Preferences interesting.
After playing around I found that it is impossible to recall the default settings.
Where can I find the default choices?
...
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Changing Cursor (NOT pointer) Color in Pages
macOS Big Sur
Pages
Blinking is fine, I want only to make the cursor more visible. I do not care if that is done by making it larger or changing the color, I just need to be able to see it when ...
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Accidentally deleted file from /Library/Preferences/
I have deleted the file
com.apple.HIToolbox.plist from /Library/Preferences/ by mistake.
I have a copy of the file saved.
I hoped the file would be reconstructed after reboot, but that didn't happen. ...
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Is it possible to store a dictionary order and its name on the dictionary app?
For some reasons whenever I install a new version of macOS, the order of the dictionaries and its custom name on the tab bar get reset on the dictionary app.
This really makes me irritated as I use a ...
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Extract clock from Date & Time pref pane?
In some older versions of MacOS you could run the clock visible in the Date & Time pref pane standalone (think I read about it at MacOS X Hints back in the days). That was sometimes pretty useful. ...
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How do I locate the custom keyboard shortcuts on the filesystem?
I have a lot of custom keyboard shortcuts (System Preferences → Keyboard → Keyboard Shortcuts → App Shortcuts), but they don't seem to be able to be exported. Is there any way to access them on the ...
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How can one disable screen mirroring permanently in Mac Os Monterey?
I know how to disable screen mirroring in Monterey, but, when the laptop goes into power saving mode, it reverts back to mirroring, and I have to change it back again through preferences.
Is there ...
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Get an application, to ask for automation permissions?
How can I force an app to ask for automation permissions?
So that I can make it have permissions to access documents and data in safari.
Like this
But for safari.
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How to prevent the Screen Sharing app from re-opening connections
I use the macOS Screen Sharing app a lot, located in:
/System/Library/CoreServices/Applications/Screen Sharing.app
I usually launch the app by clicking any of a series of .vncloc files that I keep in ...
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AirPlay Receiver option in Sharing prefs
To begin, I know NOTHING about coding or programming. The last programming I ever wrote was in basic on my Commodore 64 in 1987. With that said...
Working on a Mac mini 2018. OS Monterey 12.5.1
...
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In macOS 11.6.8, how do I change the background in Terminal to be a picture file?
Suppose I head to Terminal -> Preferences -> Window. I see no option enabling the setting of my Terminal background to be an arbitrary jpg. Further, if I go to such, then type Command+ I, once ...
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Automation privacy preferences unavailable at random times
I have this strange symptom in which all of the apps registered under the automation privacy & security preferences sometimes are non-existent after unlocking my MacBook. I have similar problems ...
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61
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MacOS: Chrome- Can't edit UserDataDir policy on local home computer
I am trying to edit some Chrome policies on my own Mac (non organization) which I have admin access to. For example, the 'UserDataDir' policy (https://chromeenterprise.google/policies/?policy=...
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How do I change default behaviour of the function keys on a per-application basis? [duplicate]
I have done a quick search on AskDifferent and I haven't found a precise match for the question I have. I'm relatively new to MacOS and am looking to customise its behaviour. I'm a software developer ...
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Safari Autofill "Other Forms" is not working
I complete forms on a particular website regularly. I used to be prompted (I cannot remember when this stopped, but it was after updating Safari - now 15.6) with previous entries in each field via a ...
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How can I force macOS's "look up" feature to use my default browser to search?
In system preferences, I have my default browser set to Google Chrome.
When I am using Chrome, if I select a word and force-click it, I get the usual dictionary pop-up, but if the word is not found in ...
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How to create a hotkey that opens Emacs in MacOS? [duplicate]
I have just bought a MacBook Air for professional reasons and I am new to MacOS. Before that, I have been using Linux (Ubuntu and NixOS) for a long time.
I would like to define a hotkey to open my ...
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405
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Several items missing from Menu Bar
On a MacBook Air M1 running Monterey 12.4 several items are suddenly missing from the menu bar, e.g: battery, date time, and more
I tried:
rebooting the device
run in terminal killall SystemUIServer
...
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35
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Can I revert Apple Mail to its previous behavior with regard to the search box?
In Mac OS 10.14.6 and earlier, when I searched in Mail, it would filter whatever folder I was viewing, but then if I clicked on a different folder I would be shown the full contents of that folder.
...
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macOS 13 Beta: Usual link no longer opens Pref Pane for Full Disk Access
In versions of macOS up to and including 12.x, the following link directly opened the Preferences Pane for Full Disk Access:
x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.preference.security?Privacy_AllFiles
...
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What is the difference between "Remove" and "Remove All" in Safari Preferences › Privacy › Manage Website Data?
The title pretty much says it all.
I cannot find any explanation of the difference between the two buttons.
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External monitor shows colors not right
I got a new extra-wide display. Unfortunately, my MacBook is not right configured to the monitor. The colors on it seem too bright, lacking contrast and color. I made sure that the issue is my MacBook ...
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How change value of "Press Fn to" in Keyboard preferences programmatically?
I need to change value of "Press Fn to" programmatically to "Do Nothing". I can't find a direct way to switch this. I believe that is possible do this with AppleScript, but will ...
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MacOS 12.3.1 Full Disk Access problem
We use an MDM solution to manage devices. A .mobileconfig 'profile' grants all the necessary access for Ivanti File Director, that works perfectly fine when the rights were granted on an earlier ...
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Why does Terminal.app ignore my cursor preferences?
I recently did a fresh install of macOS Monterey (previously was using Big Sur), and now I notice that the cursor always blinks in Terminal.app. I'm aware of these preferences:
but no matter what I ...
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How can I run a script to add keyboard shortcuts on macOS?
See also: How to script a global keyboard shortcut in MacOS
I like to maintain some scripts I use to set up new Macs the way I like them. One thing I would like to automate is the setting of some ...
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Is there a way to set the path to the iTerm preferences folder directly from the shell?
So I know that you can set the path to the URL or folder for your preferences using the following path in iTerm2:
General > Preferences > 'Load preferences from a custom folder or URL'
but can ...
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Unblock app Mac labels as unidentified developer with xattr
I recently asked how to unblock a binary from Mac's complaint that it's not identified. See How to unblock binary from use because Mac says it is not from identified developer.
The solution of ...
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How to unblock binary from use because Mac says it is not from identified developer
I have a binary from work that I'm trying to run. I keep getting an error that
“my-binary-amd64” cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified.
I've looked up solutions online and so far I'...
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How do you get rid of the notification to login to iCloud in System Preferences?
If you want to login to MacOS to be able to get apps for example, but don't want (or can't due to corporate firewall, etc) to login to Icloud, how do you disable the red notification in system ...
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Synchronize preferences between macs?
I use four different Macs on a daily basis. I would love to be able to synchronize preferences between them. This is an obvious feature that is missing from iCloud. I'm thinking of writing software to ...
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How can I fix underscan/overscan when the slider isn't shown in System Preferences on macOS Monterey?
So I have this same problem as in How can I fix underscan/overscan when the slider isn't shown in System Preferences?:
I purchased two new monitors recently and both had pretty bad overscan (...
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Iterm2 Text Stacking on Itself
I cannot figure out how to fix my iterm2 window. The text is simply overlapping itself when the window is anything except maxed out:
Of course, I can't use iterm2 like this, so fixing would be great. ...
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Unable to add apps to Security & Privacy Preference on MacOS Mojave
Yesterday. I cloned my hard drive to my SSD for use. One of the essential apps I need to use is EVKey which works fine with no issue before.
After I boot up the SSD, I notice that I am not able to add ...
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System Preferences can't alter Files and Folders
I am trying to set some privileges for apps to access folders using System Preferences->Security & Privacy and choosing Files and Folders.
However clicking on the buttons for an app has no ...
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780
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How do you programmatically enable the "Develop" menu in Safari 15 on macOS 12 (Monterey)?
In previous versions of macOS, it was possible to enable the "Develop" menu using the following command:
defaults write com.apple.Safari IncludeDevelopMenu -bool true
Unfortunately, this ...
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75
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Turn off automatic macOS updates
I'm trying to turn off automatic macOS updates. When I run command:
$ sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.SoftwareUpdate AutomaticDownload -boolean FALSE
it works:
$ defaults read /...
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Is there a command/simple method to restore all "defaults" settings?
defaults read prints out all the preferences for all apps.
defaults write … … can be used to set preferences
But write cannot use the format that comes from read
I would like a way to get all the ...
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61
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How do I remove the "Do you want to replace it?" dialog in Big Sur?
On a new M1 with Big Sur I attempted to save over a file with Photoshop. Adobe has always presented a dialog box to confirm I wanted to save over a previous file. Note the "confirm" button ...
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How can I selectively copy preferences from one machine to another?
How can I selectively copy app preferences from an older machine to a newer one?
Is it sufficient to copy the preferences files from (e.g.) ~/Library/Preferences?
Will there be any side effects to ...
- 8,778
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Shell command to change "Prefer tabs when opening documents"
In macOS System Preferences->General you can change "Prefer tabs when opening documents" option to "never" or "always" etc.
I would like to enable this feature for all ...
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656
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Applescript for keyboard system preferences pane
I'm trying to write an applescript to get me to a specific section of the system preferences - Keyboard > Shortcuts > App Shortcuts and click on the "+", choose a specific app, enter ...
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How can I fix underscan/overscan when the slider isn't shown in System Preferences?
I purchased two new monitors recently and both had pretty bad overscan (underscan? there were black bars around the screen). My mac no longer has the setting it used to have in the Displays section of ...
