Capturing a screen recording on your Mac is valuable for a variety of scenarios. There are handy third-party apps to help with this, but Apple offers a free built-in option with macOS.
With modern macOS releases (Mojave and later), Macs have a hidden screen record app with more advanced controls like a timer, save to destination choices, show/hide the mouse pointer, remember last selection, microphone control, and more.
If you mostly do straightforward screen recording on Mac, the native functionality is free with no app to download.
• On your Mac keyboard, press the combination Command + Shift + 5 (can be used while running any app)
• In the bottom middle of the screen, choose the rectangle with a circle icon to record the whole screen or the dotted-line rectangle with a circle icon to record a selection of your screen
• Click the Options button if you’d like to enable the microphone, show mouse clicks, select a save location, and more
• Choose Record to start
• When you’re done, click the Stop button (circle with square icon) in the menu bar found in the top middle/right of your screen
• Your recording will show up on your Mac’s desktop by default unless you picked a different save location
You can also pull up this menu in QuickTime by clicking File > New Screen Recording but the keyboard shortcut is usually faster.
If you are going to sell, return, or give away a Mac, you almost certainly want to factory reset the computer first. Performing a factory reset on a Mac will erase all data on the Mac, and return it to a clean slate as if the computer were brand new, without any data or personal files on the computer at all.
Erasing a Mac and returning it to factory defaults has never been easier, thanks to the addition of a “Erase All Content & Settings” feature introduced in newer versions of macOS system software. Gone are the days where you had to manually erase and then reinstall system software, now you can simply let MacOS handle the task for you by choosing to erase and factory reset the Mac through a handy built-in feature.
The approach is available in macOS Ventura and newer only.
Be sure to back up the Mac with Time Machine first! Proceeding will erase all data, files, and information from the computer. This will erase all data on the Mac. Do not proceed unless you have backups of your data. Failure to backup will result in permanent data loss!
• Pull down the Apple menu and go to “System Settings...“
• Go to “General“
• Choose “Transfer or Reset”
• Click on “Erase All Content and Settings”
• Confirm that you want to erase everything, log out of your Apple ID, and remove all data from the Mac by clicking “Continue”
• Follow the onscreen instructions to complete the process
When the Mac has finished factory resetting and erasing everything, a freshly installed version of the current version of macOS will boot into the typical “Hello” screen. Assuming you’re going to be gifting this Mac or selling it, you probably do not want to set it up yourself, instead let the recipient handle it.
This same factory reset feature also exists in macOS Monterey, but it is accessed slightly differently on those Macs. To factory reset a macOS Monterey Mac, go to the Apple menu > System Preferences > System Preferences menu > Erase All Content And Settings. Be sure to backup all data beforehand, as usual.
Unicode incorporates nearly 150,000 symbols, and our keyboards let us directly enter no more than several dozen (even with Shift and Option). Many of the remaining characters can be found in Character Viewer, a part of macOS that’s hidden by default. This viewer lets you find symbols, drag them or double-click them to insert symbols into text, and mark them as favorites for later access.
You can bring up the Character Viewer through several methods:
• On a keyboard with a Globe key (lower-left corner), you can press that key to bring up the viewer. If pressing Globe doesn’t bring up the viewer, check your settings. In macOS 13 Ventura or later, go to Apple menu > System Settings > Keyboard and choose Show Emoji & Symbols from the “Press Globe key to” menu; in macOS 12 Monterey or earlier, go to Apple menu > System Preferences > Keyboard and enable the option in the Keyboard tab.
• Press Command+Control+Space.
• In macOS 13 Ventura or later, go to Apple menu > System Settings > Keyboard, click Edit next to Input Sources (under Text Input), and enable “Show Input menu in menu bar”.
• In macOS 12 Monterey or earlier, go to > System Preferences > Keyboard, choose the Input Sources tab, and check “Show Input menu in menu bar”: Emoji & Symbols is one choice.
When it first appears, the viewer might be in an abbreviated form that emphasizes emojis and shows links along the bottom. If so, click the palette icon in the upper-right corner to expand it into the larger Character Viewer.
You can search for characters via the field in the upper-right corner, and the viewer provides matches. Say you want to routinely insert 1/2, 1/4, and other fractions using the compact drawn fraction symbols in a font? Search for fraction, and all fractions appear. You can then select each one you want to have easy access to and click Add to Favorites below its preview on the right-hand side.
After adding the first favorite, a Favorites link appears in the left-hand navigation list. You can then click Favorites to access characters and symbols you’ve added to the list.
Modern MacBooks can last 18 hours or more on a single battery charge, but like all rechargeable batteries, the one in your Mac has a finite lifespan. Over time, its capacity to hold a charge gradually diminishes, potentially leaving you tethered to a power outlet more often than you'd like. This is where understanding your Mac's battery cycle count can be important.
Checking your Mac's battery cycle count provides valuable insight into its overall health and remaining lifespan. A cycle count represents the number of times your battery has gone through a full charge cycle, which occurs when you use 100% of its capacity – whether in one sitting or spread across multiple partial charges. By monitoring this number, you can gauge how much life your battery has left and plan accordingly, whether that means adjusting your usage habits or preparing for a potential battery replacement down the line.
Here's how to check it your Mac's battery cycle count:
• Click the Apple symbol () in the menu bar while holding the Option key
• Select System Information from the dropdown menu
• In the new window, click the Hardware list in the left sidebar if its contents aren't showing
• Click Power in the expanded Hardware list
• Look for Cycle Count under "Health Information" in the Battery Information section of the main window
This number represents how many times your battery has been fully discharged and recharged.
Apple designs MacBook batteries to maintain up to 80% of their original capacity at their maximum cycle count, which varies by model. Recent MacBooks typically have a maximum cycle count of 1,000, while older models range from 300 to 500. You can find your specific model's maximum on Apple's support website. Remember, reaching the maximum cycle count doesn't mean your battery stops working. It simply indicates when you might notice a decrease in battery life.
Every new Mac bought from Apple comes with a one-year warranty that includes service coverage for a defective battery. If your Mac is out of warranty and the battery hasn't aged well, Apple offers battery service for a charge.
Sometimes, an external drive, disk image, or other mounted volume refuses to leave macOS of its own free will.
When using macOS, you certainly know if you’ve opened a Pages file or are editing an email. But, below the surface are files that macOS uses that you don’t see all the activity required for background processes, Time Machine backups, Spotlight indexing, and other system needs. When you want to eject a mounted volume, like a volume on an external SSD or hard drive, you can run afoul of macOS’s hidden needs.
You can try to eject a volume normally in these ways:
• Select it in the Finder and press Command-E
• Select it in the Finder and choose File > Eject
• Control-click/right-click the volume in the Finder and choose Eject
If you’re lucky, when you try to eject a volume, you will see a message with specific details, such as: The disk "My Photos" couldn't be ejected because "Adobe Photoshop 2024" is using it. Quitting Adobe Photoshop will let you eject “My Photos”, but if there’s something happening at a system level, you will see a message worded like this: The disk "My Photos" wasn’t ejected because one or more programs may be using it. You can try to eject the disk again or click Force Eject to eject it immediately. Cancel and Force Eject buttons are part of the dialog, and a progress spinner appears next to the phrase “Trying to eject.”. That does not help resolve the situation. Here’s what you can do to narrow down the problem:
Close Finder windows. As odd as it seems, sometimes merely having a window open in the Finder that shows the contents of the volume or a folder on it may make the Finder believe that a “program” is using that mounted item. Close the Finder window and try again.
Remove the volume from Spotlight. I’ve found that Spotlight can sometimes seize hold of a volume and mark it as unejectable even when indexing isn’t actively in process on that volume. You can check if that’s the problem by going to Apple menu > System Settings... > Siri & Spotlight, scrolling down to the bottom of the view, and clicking Spotlight Privacy. Drag the volume into the window (or click + and navigate to it, then add it), and click Done. This immediately removes the volume from indexing. Try to eject now. If it works, that was the problem. However, if you want to search items on that volume, you will need to remove it from Spotlight Privacy later.
Check if Time Machine is backing up. If Time Machine is actively backing up the volume, you may be unable to eject it. Check the status of Time Machine either through its system menu or by going to Apple menu > System Settings... > General > Time Machine. If it’s underway, you can choose Skip This Backup from the Time Machine system menu or click the “x” box next to the active session in the System Settings view and wait for Time Machine to wind down. You can exclude the volume from Time Machine by using the settings view: click Options, click the + (plus) sign at the bottom of Exclude from Backups, and add the volume while mounted. Click Done.
Shut down. For a physically connected external volume, choose Apple menu > Shut Down. When your Mac is completely shut down, unplug the SSD or HDD. Press the power button on your Mac to start up. For a “logically” mounted volume, such as a disk image or networked volume, choose Apple menu > Restart. On restart, the volume should be unmounted by default. If not, immediately select it and use an eject option listed above, which should now work.