Beyond customizing the Safari start page for things like Favorites, Reading List, and Frequently Visited, you can also change the background image used by Safari. This allows you to use any picture you want as the default background image in Safari.
To be able to set a custom background image in Safari, you’ll need Safari 14 or newer on a modern macOS release, like macOS Mojave or newer.
• Launch Safari.
• Now, simply right-click (or Ctrl+Click) in the empty area on the start page and click on Choose Background. This will open up a file selection window.
• Find the picture that you want to set as the background from the file selection window and select it. Now, click on Choose.
• From now on your start page will look completely different.
If you feel like removing the custom background at any point, just right-click (or Ctrl+Click) in the empty area and choose Clear Background.
Resetting an Apple ID password can be annoying, though it’s made much easier if you have access to a device that you are already signed into. Without another device though, the process of resetting an Apple ID account login can be frustrating, but a Recovery Key makes this situation easier.
Apple ID Recovery Key serves as an additional way of authenticating your Apple account, and it can be used if you forget your password and lose access to another trusted device. Using a recovery key eliminates the need to visit Apple’s website to jump through hoops like verifying payment method details and answering security questions for a password reset. The ability to generate a recovery key from the Mac requires macOS Big Sur or macOS Monterey.
If you have a Mac, it’s pretty easy to generate and use a recovery key.
• Open “System Preferences” on the Mac (from Apple menu or Dock).
• This will open a new window on your Mac. Click on the Apple ID option located at the top-right corner.
• Now, click on “Password & Security” from the left pane. In this section, you’ll find the Recovery Key option below Trusted phone numbers. Click on “Turn on” next to the Recovery key option to continue.
• When you’re prompted to confirm your action, click on “Use recovery key” to proceed.
• Next, you’ll be asked to enter your Mac user password. Type in the password and click “OK”.
• If you have an iPhone, you’ll also be prompted the enter the passcode you use to unlock your iPhone.
• Now, your unique recovery key will be shown to you on the screen. Make sure to write it down in a safe place that you’re able to easily access. Once you’re done, click on “Continue”.
• Next, you’ll be asked to enter your 28-character recovery key to verify that you’ve noted it down. Click on “Done” after typing it in.
• The feature is now turned on. If you want to change the recovery key for any reason, you can click on “Create new key”. You also have the option to turn this feature off at any time.
From now on, you’ll have just two ways to reset the password for your Apple account. You can either reset the password from a device that you’re already logged into, whether it’s your Mac, iPhone, or iPad, or you can use the recovery key instead. The latter could prove to be invaluable if you don’t have access to another trusted device, or if you only have one Apple device.
Note that when you disable and re-enable the Recovery Key feature, a completely new key will be generated for your account. If you lost your current recovery key somehow, you can replace the key with a new one on your Mac from the same menu using the “Create new key” option.
If you’re the kind of Mac user who personalizes their computer a lot, you may also be interested in changing the way Siri sounds when she replies to your voice commands. This is something that wasn’t possible until recently.
Ever since the release of macOS Big Sur 11.3 software update Apple is giving users multiple voice options for Siri. Now you have a total of four different voice options that change how Siri sounds without affecting the accent. Two of them are masculine deeper voices whereas the other two are feminine higher pitched voices, though the voices are plainly labeled as Voice 1, Voice 2, Voice 3, and Voice 4, without any gender suggested or implied.
Before you get started with the following procedure, make sure your Mac is running at least macOS Big Sur 11.3 or later, since the new voice options aren’t available on older versions. Once you’re done, follow these steps.
• Head over to System Preferences on your Mac from the Dock. Alternatively, you can click on the Apple menu and choose “System Preferences” from the dropdown menu. This will launch a new window on your screen. Here, click on the Siri option which is located in the first row.
• Now, you’ll see that the older voice selection has been changed to “Voice Variety”. Right below, you’ll see the new Siri Voice setting with four different voices to choose from. Check out all of them and select the one that you prefer.
Did you know that your Mac has hidden fonts that are disabled by default? If your Mac is running macOS Big Sur, Catalina, or later, you can access all these hidden fonts and install them for free.
It turns out that Apple obtained licenses for a slew of new fonts in macOS that can be used system-wide, but these fonts aren’t installed on the Mac by default. Instead, these are an optional download and you might not necessarily be aware of this. Since these fonts can be used system-wide, you’ll get to use them in the documents or projects that you’re working on, for a unique look.
Before you get started with the following procedure, make sure that your Mac is running macOS Catalina or later, since these fonts aren’t accessible on Mojave and older versions.
• Click on the “magnifying glass” icon located at the top-right corner of your desktop to access Spotlight search. Alternatively, you can open Spotlight by pressing Command + Space bar.
• Next, type “Font Book” in the search field and open the app from the search results.
• Now, head over to the “All Fonts” section in Font Book, and scroll down to view all the available fonts.
• The fonts that are grayed out in this list are the hidden fonts that Apple recently added to macOS. Clicking on the fonts will give you a preview of what it looks like. To install these fonts, right-click on the font and choose the download option as shown in the screenshot below.
• When you’re prompted to confirm, click “Download”. Once the download completes, the font won’t be grayed out anymore and you’ll be able to use it in your favorite apps.
That’s about it, you can repeat the steps to install all the hidden fonts you want on your macOS machine.
Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to install all the hidden fonts on your Mac at once. You’ll have to do it one by one which could be a tedious process for many, but on the plus side you’ll get to preview each font before installing it, and you have the option to install just the fonts you actually want to use.
From now on, you can make your Pages documents, Keynote presentations, and Motion projects stand out with these new additional fonts that most people aren’t aware of.
If you're having persistent networking issues on a Mac, like constantly dropping from a Wi-Fi network, inability to join networks, inappropriately sluggish internet connections that only impact the particular Mac, or other networking related issues, it may be helpful to reset the network settings.
The easiest way to reset Wi-Fi settings is to delete Wi-Fi related configuration files. Please note that by resetting network settings you will need to re-add and re-join any networks and enter the passwords again.
• Disable Wi-Fi by pulling down the Wi-Fi menu and choosing to toggle the Wi-Fi switch Off
• Go to the Finder, pull down the "Go" menu, choose "Go to Folder..." and enter the following path:
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/
the click the "Go" button
• Select and delete the following files from this folder:
com.apple.airport.preferences.plist
com.apple.network.identification.plist
com.apple.wifi.message-tracer.plist
com.apple.network.eapolclient.configuration.plist
NetworkInterfaces.plist
preferences.plist
• Restart the Mac by going to the Apple () menu and choosing "Restart..."
• When the Mac boots back up, enable Wi-Fi again by going to the Wi-Fi menu and toggling it back On
• Select the network you wish to join
This approach will often resolve many wireless networking issues encountered on the Mac, but if you're still experiencing any Wi-Fi networking issues, you might want to reset the router and the modem itself, which typically involves unplugging those devices from power source for 10-15 seconds and then plugging them back in again, then waiting a few minutes for those to rejoin the appropriate networks.
