First you need to physically copy the picture library to the new location, and then you have to tell Photos where the new location is. Here's how to do this:
• Go to the Pictures folder (in your home directory) and locate the "Photos Library" package
• Copy the "Photos Library" package to the new destination by dragging and dropping it to the desired location
• Hold the Option (Alt) key down and launch Photos
• Find the Photos Library in the list or click the "Other Library…" button to manually navigate to the new location and then click the "Choose" button
Now Photos will use the library you have specified in the new location. Be aware that if the library is located on an an external hard drive and you launch Photos without that drive connected, your images won’t be available.
Mac users in higher security risk situations may wish to enable an optional firmware password on their machines, which offers an advanced level of protection. In short, a firmware password is a lower level layer of security that is set on the actual Mac logic board firmware, rather than at the software layer like FileVault encryption or the standard login password.
The result of setting an firmware password is that a Mac can not be booted from an external boot volume, single user mode, or target disk mode, and it also prevents resetting of PRAM and the ability to boot into safe mode, without logging in through the firmware password first. This effectively prevents a wide variety of methods that could potentially be used to compromise a Mac, and offers exceptional security for users who require such protection.
Like any other essential password, use something memorable but complex, and do not forget a firmware password after it has been set. A lost firmware password is unrecoverable on most modern Macs without a visit to an Apple Store for service and recovery.
Setting a firmware password is rather simple.
• Start up from macOS recovery mode by holding down Command (⌘)-R immediately after turning on your Mac. Release the keys when you see the Apple logo.
• When the utilities window appears, choose Utilities > Firmware Password Utility from the menu bar. On iMac Pro, choose Startup Security Utility instead.
• Click Turn On Firmware Password.
• Enter a firmware password in the fields provided, then click Set Password.
• Quit the utility, then choose Apple () menu > Restart.
The firmware password will not appear during a regular restart or boot of the Mac, it only becomes mandatory when the Mac is attempted to boot from alternate methods. This may be in situations where a Mac is attempted to boot from an macOS installer drive, an external boot volume, recovery mode, single user mode, verbose mode, target disk mode, resetting the PRAM, or any other alternative booting approach that will summon the rather plain looking firmware password window. There are no password hints or additional details provided, only a simple lock logo and a text entry screen. An incorrectly entered firmware password does nothing and offers no indication of login failure except that the Mac won't boot as anticipated.
Safari for both macOS and iOS have a setting you may never have noticed, since we so often have Internet access. This is an easily overlooked feature that’s actually really cool. Here’s how to save your Safari reading list for offline viewing.
In Safari for macOS, choose Safari > Preferences and then click Advanced. You can then check next to the Reading List label Save Articles for Offline Reading Automatically. If that option isn't checked, you can also view the Reading List in the sidebar, right-click an item, and choose Save Offline.
With iOS Safari, you navigate to Settings > Safari and swipe down to the bottom, and then tap the switch to on for Automatically Save Offline. If you have that option disabled, which it is by default, you’re prompted the first time you choose Add to Reading List from the Sharing sheet whether or not to save items from then for offline reading automatically.
Preview is a great basic image editing application bundled with macOS, but recent versions have simplified the available image export format options down to JPEG, JPEG 2000, OpenEXR, PDF, PNG and TIFF. Or at least that's what you see on first glance.
It turns out you can still access all the traditional image format options from the Save and Export panels just by holding down the Option (Alt) key when clicking on the Format menu.
Holding the Option (Alt) key when selecting format reveals all possible image formats. You can use this to convert existing images to different formats, or to save the file as a less common format.
The Finder's Go > "Go to Folder..." (Shift-Command-G) menu item is a nifty way to access your file system.
First of all, you can use it to see hidden folders, so if you need to view /private/var, you don't have to open a Terminal window to do so.
Secondly, the "Go to Folder" window is an excellent place to paste a path rather than clicking around to get to a deeply nested folder. I use this pretty often when I'm troubleshooting. After all, if Apple's support documentation tells you to open ~/Library/Mail/V2/MailData to access a file within it, it's very quick to just copy that path and paste it into the window.
To make typing stuff in even faster, the "Go to Folder" window allows tab completion (just as Terminal does), and it tries to autofill as you type, as well. So if you type in ~/Doc and then wait for a moment, your Mac will attempt to figure out the destination and fill it in for you.
Important to note is that you aren't just limited to using "Go to Folder" within the Finder itself. The same keyboard shortcut can be used to invoke it within Open/Save dialogs, too.
