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.
414
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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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0
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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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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 ...
- 484
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2
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Missing Photos choice in 10.12 Screensaver
I recently updated to 10.12 Sierra and migrated iPhoto to Photos. In System Preferences I do not see a choice to select Photo library. In the source panel I just see National Geographic/Aerial/Cosmos/...
grg♦
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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. ...
- 30.2k
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1
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Always use dark mode, on Mojave
I have chosen Dark mode, under System Preferences > General > Appearance. Yet, it seems whenever starting up the computer, it switches back to Light.
I am guessing there is some "switch ...
- 103
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3
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Keyboard Shortcut for moving left/right a space doesn't work
After going to:
Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts > Mission Control
I am able to assign a keyboard shortcut to move left/right a space. However pressing shortcut I assigned does not ...
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2
answers
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How to change tap to click using "defaults write" from command line?
I want to change the trackpad tap-to-click property from the command line. Graphically, I can do it by clicking System Preferences -> Trackpad -> Tap to Click. How can I do it from the command line?
...
- 247
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1
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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. ...
- 165
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1
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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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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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How to disable Mojave’s desktop tinting (with reduce transparency)?
Even with “Reduce transparency” enabled, Mojave’s desktop-tinting is quite horribly annoying, in both Light Mode and Dark Mode (regardless of accent color). Switching to a solid red desktop background,...
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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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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 ...
- 236k
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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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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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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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4
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How to beautify binary dict files?
I've opened /System/Library/Frameworks/AppKit.framework/Resources/StandardKeyBinding.dict in vim, and it looks like jibberish. Is there a way to convert it to human readable just to see what it ...
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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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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.
...
- 1,172
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1
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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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8
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Running two separate instances of Safari in the same user session
I would like to run two separate Safaris at the same time. Each Safari having his own session, history, cookies, and so on.
I can do that with two users on my Mac.
But doing that in the same user ...
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0
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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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1
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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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2
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Is there a way to show app icons in Mission Control?
When I used Mission Control, I like to show all my open apps (not in groups) , but when I have a lot of windows, it would be nice to have an overlay of the application icon over the image of the ...
- 144
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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 ...
- 181
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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 ...
- 101k
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How to change font size and font for all profiles in terminal?
So I have many profiles in my terminal preference, as shown below
I would like to be able to change the font for all of these different profiles at once
3024 Day, 3024 Night, AdventureTime...
...
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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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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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Preference Panes no longer open after Big Sur update. Library/PreferencePanes is now completely empty
After upgrading to Big Sur, none of the System Preferences panes open. A little hunting around online steered me to the folder, Library/PreferencePanes, which is now completely empty. So I guess there'...
- 236k
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2
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How do I enable "Announce the time" programmatically?
The "Date & Time" System Preferences pane has an option to "Announce the time". I'd like to be able to turn on this preference option by invoking a shell script. Is this possible?
(It's fine if ...
- 2,084
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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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How do I set a custom avatar for my account profile in Mountain Lion?
I just got Mountain Lion. On previous versions of OS X, I could choose a photo from the filesystem as my account avatar. This doesn't seem possible under the Users & Groups section of System ...
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1
answer
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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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2
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Cannot disable "Dark menu bar" on Mac OS X
While going through my settings I wanted to try out the "dark menu bar" in the General System Preferences. Now I cannot turn it off. Each time I uncheck the checkbox, it seems to have no effect, it's ...
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1
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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 ...
CommunityBot
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1
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Keyboard preferences are lost after each restart
I had this strange behaviour on my Mac running OS X my Mac running OS X El Capitan 10.11.6.
When logging in, I have the following keyboard shortcut conflict between Spotlight and keyboard layout ...
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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 ...
CommunityBot
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How to increase "tracking speed" beyond the maximum?
For a Macbook Pro, I've set trackpad settings for Three Fingers to "Dragging":
However the tracking speed is too slow, and often it's impossible to drag for a larger distance due to the size of the ...
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votes
1
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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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1
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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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2
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Logitech Options won't let me change the "Keystroke assignment" assigned to a mouse button anymore
Logitech Options won't let me change the "Keystroke assignment" assigned to a mouse button anymore. I just get a sad error noise every time I try to set one.
Strangely, there are already ...
grg♦
- 201k
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1
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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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2
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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 ...
- 35.7k
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Enable Finder "Calculate all sizes" checkbox by default
Finder > Show View Options > Calculate all sizes
This option causes Finder to calculate the sizes of all files and folders and display their sizes in the Finder list view columns, rather than a ...
- 116k