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.
416 questions
1
vote
1
answer
19
views
Fix Microsoft Outlook Main Window Position
On a multiple display system, Microsoft Outlook always opens on the currently active display.
The previous position of Outlook is ignored.
The NSWindow Frame MainWindow value in the plist always gets ...
- 183
0
votes
0
answers
24
views
Determine the UUID or URL of the recent conversations using local data from the ChatGPT macOS app?
For some convenience scripts, Alfred workflows etc I would like to be able to programmatically determine the UUID (and hence the URL) of my chats. This used to be easy by simply looking in the data ...
- 3,638
0
votes
0
answers
33
views
Using terminal command or script to turn on/off time sensitive notifications in Focus preferences
I am using macOS Monterey. I wanted to know if there is a Terminal command or a script that I can run to turn ON/OFF time sensitive notifications in Focus preferences.
I am new to scripting and I came ...
- 121
0
votes
1
answer
102
views
macOS 14.6.1 : Mouse behaviors - Logitech wired and Magic Mouse controlled by the same settings
I have been useing a wired Logitech USB mouse for a couple years and all of a sudden it decided to slow way down. Thinking this was a preferences issue. Settings > Mouse, cranked the speed up to ...
- 1
0
votes
2
answers
40
views
What enables/prevents changing language for a given application?
In theory, I can configure (via the system preferences) any application to run under a specific language (different from the default system langauge).
However, for some applications this option is ...
- 113
1
vote
0
answers
101
views
Individual accent colors for Mac OS Apps? [duplicate]
I'd like to change the individual accent colors of my apps in Mac OS (so that they arent all the same). I'd like to change my Mail app accent colors to blue specifically. Is there a way to do this ...
- 11
1
vote
1
answer
69
views
TrueTone flickering when switching user accounts (display color changes briefly)
When I switch between logged in user accounts, I noticed TrueTone flickers (the display color shifts to TrueTone briefly). It turns on when switching to the next account for a few seconds, and then ...
- 111
0
votes
0
answers
289
views
Application Shortcut for Slack does not work
I've created an application shortcut for the "All Unreads" command in Slack to change from Cmd+Shift+A to Ctrl+Shift+A.
It shows up in the toolbar for Slack:
When I press Ctrl+Shift+A in ...
- 111
1
vote
0
answers
1k
views
How to stop cursor from blinking on Mac?
My MacBook's version is Sonoma 14.0. I hope to disable cursor blinking for as many apps on MacBook as possible, especially for Notes.app, xcode.app, and Safari.app. This question has been asked before ...
- 145
0
votes
0
answers
792
views
Unable to log into Hulu through Chrome because "Location is turned off in Mac System Preferences", but setting is on and still won't let me in
I am trying to log into Hulu with Chrome and it asks to share my location. I say yes. It goes to log in and I get a popup for a location request. I accept and the browser says my location has been ...
- 1
2
votes
2
answers
203
views
How to copy "App Shortcuts" to another user or Mac?
In System Settings -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> App Shortcuts it is possible to define application-specific shortcuts for menu entries.
My main problem is that I have quite a long ...
- 131
1
vote
1
answer
713
views
MacBook Pro - Sound preferences won't open
I'm running OS X El Capitan 10.11.3 for years on my MacBook Pro Retina 2015, never updated the OS since then as I'm running a bunch of softwares that won't work if I update.
Anyways, since about one ...
- 113
2
votes
0
answers
385
views
How do I get rid of old, orphaned network hardware ports under macOS?
I'm frequently changing USB-C Ethernet adapters with my M1 MacBook Pro 14" because they get lost or broken.
But, although I've removed them from Network Setup under Preferences they stay under ...
- 21
2
votes
1
answer
2k
views
How can I disable auto-lock in the 1Password browser extension?
How can I disable auto-lock in the 1Password browser extension?
I use the 1Password password manager and the Chrome web browser. Whenever I try to auto-fill a password, a tool tip says, "Press ...
- 181
4
votes
1
answer
359
views
Choose which Applications re-open documents at launch
To enable or disable the preservation of open files between launches, there's a global Preference/Setting.
up to Monterey
System Preferences > General > Close windows when quitting an app
...
- 118k
1
vote
0
answers
750
views
How to Prevent Uninstalling Chrome Extension on macOS
There is an extension that I want to make harder to delete or disable on Chrome, how can I go about doing this? I have tried to edit the ExtensionInstallForcelist policy using:
defaults write com....
- 21
6
votes
1
answer
4k
views
Where does Microsoft Teams store its cached login credentials?
When I launch Teams.app (currently using beta 1.6.00.10052 on macOS 13.3.1) I am greeted with a login/auth popup containing 7 accounts. I only currently use 2 of them. The others are related to test ...
- 3,638
0
votes
0
answers
43
views
Why does Preview not follow the Preferences?
In Preview, I chose the settings
Start on the last viewed page
Open each file in its own window
However, it seems that the settings are not respected.
When opening a PDF file, the first page is ...
- 471
1
vote
0
answers
388
views
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 ...
- 214
-1
votes
1
answer
45
views
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, ...
- 125
2
votes
0
answers
97
views
"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 "...
- 21
2
votes
1
answer
715
views
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 "...
- 188
2
votes
1
answer
333
views
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 ...
- 747
2
votes
0
answers
54
views
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 ...
- 291
1
vote
1
answer
39
views
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?
...
- 133
2
votes
1
answer
1k
views
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. ...
- 716
0
votes
0
answers
29
views
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. ...
- 3,484
3
votes
1
answer
718
views
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 ...
- 81
1
vote
0
answers
1k
views
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 ...
- 504
2
votes
1
answer
418
views
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.
- 31
0
votes
1
answer
258
views
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 ...
- 1,307
3
votes
0
answers
462
views
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
...
- 91
2
votes
1
answer
273
views
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 ...
- 121
1
vote
1
answer
477
views
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 ...
- 39
0
votes
0
answers
259
views
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=...
- 61
0
votes
0
answers
30
views
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 ...
- 101
1
vote
1
answer
864
views
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 ...
- 11
2
votes
0
answers
481
views
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 ...
- 877
0
votes
0
answers
18
views
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 ...
- 303
5
votes
1
answer
872
views
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
...
0
votes
0
answers
83
views
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.
...
- 1,192
2
votes
1
answer
321
views
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
...
- 131
1
vote
1
answer
58
views
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.
- 2,300
0
votes
0
answers
2k
views
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 ...
- 1
0
votes
0
answers
110
views
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 ...
- 101
0
votes
1
answer
343
views
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 ...
- 61
0
votes
0
answers
163
views
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 ...
- 191
3
votes
0
answers
758
views
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 ...
- 685
1
vote
0
answers
459
views
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 ...
1
vote
2
answers
3k
views
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 ...
- 287