macOS

Shows how to set up a new Mac, including bringing a nearby iPhone or iPad over to sign in with your Apple Account. Also touches on personalizing the desktop, using Control Center, finding apps and browsing with Safari.

Apple's central online manual for the Mac, with entry points for setting up a new Mac, switching from Windows and privacy and security tools. It has a table of contents and a search field for finding any topic.

Lists the key combinations for opening Spotlight, opening results and narrowing a search to apps, files, actions or the clipboard. A quick way to find things without the mouse.

Maps familiar Windows ideas to their Mac equivalents, such as Finder, System Settings, the Dock and the Command key. Useful for people moving over from a PC.

Covers the Screenshot panel and the keyboard shortcuts for capturing the whole screen, a window or a selected area, plus screen recordings.

Explains how Mission Control lays out every open window in one view and shows full-screen apps and desktop spaces. Covers the swipe, keyboard and mouse ways to open it.

Describes how to warm the screen colours at night using Night Shift in Displays settings. You can schedule it, keep it on until tomorrow or adjust the colour temperature.

An overview of the Displays settings pane, where you control resolution, brightness and other display options. Some options appear only when an external display is connected.

Apple's reference for key combinations that replace mouse or trackpad actions on a Mac. It notes that apps can define their own shortcuts, so one may not work everywhere.

Explains how to set the menu bar, Dock, windows and built-in apps to a light or dark look, or let the Mac switch automatically. The Auto option follows the Night Shift schedule.

Explains how to back up files, apps and photos to an external drive with Time Machine. Covers choosing the backup disk, how often backups run and how to restore.

Walks through recovering space when the startup disk is nearly full: checking usage, optimising storage, moving or deleting files and getting temporary relief.

Explains how macOS can keep files, photos and attachments in iCloud and download them only when needed to free up disk space. Points to the Storage page in System Settings for recommendations.

Shows how to turn on iCloud Drive so documents are available on your other devices. Covers moving Desktop and Documents into iCloud and what to do if saves fail for lack of space.

Explains how to prepare a drive that works on both Macs and PCs. Recommends MS-DOS (FAT) for disks up to 32 GB and ExFAT for larger ones, and warns that erasing deletes everything.

Describes using First Aid in Disk Utility to find and fix format and directory errors that cause odd behaviour. Advises backing up first and working up the sidebar from volumes to the device.

Explains how to update App Store apps by hand or leave automatic updates on, with sections for Mac as well as iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV.

Describes how macOS updates bring features and security fixes, and how to install one now, schedule it overnight or check manually.

Shows where to find Software Update in System Settings and how to turn automatic downloading and installation on or off.

Explains why keeping macOS current matters and how to use Software Update. Also covers what to do when no update shows and the difference between minor and major releases.

Explains how a Mac gets security configuration and system data updates in the background, often without a restart, and where to make sure those settings are enabled.

Explains how to force an unresponsive app to close, after trying a normal quit first, and what to do if that fails.

Covers what to do when an app stops responding or closes by itself: force quit, restart, check compatibility and updates, and remove recent add-ons.

Lists common reasons for a sluggish Mac, such as a nearly full disk or memory-hungry apps, and checks to try including Activity Monitor and Disk Utility.

Explains that a flashing question mark means the Mac cannot find a working startup disk. Walks through repairing the disk in Recovery, reinstalling macOS and checking Startup Disk settings and NVRAM.

Lists which keys or buttons to hold at startup to reach tools like Recovery, startup disk selection and diagnostics, with separate sections for Apple silicon and Intel Macs.

Explains how to start in safe mode to see whether startup software is causing a problem, with separate methods for Apple silicon and Intel Macs, and how to confirm it worked.

Explains how Activation Lock ties a lost or stolen Mac to your Apple Account through Find My, and how to turn it on, off or remove an offline Mac.

Explains the Privacy & Security pane in System Settings, which controls what information your Mac shares and how data is protected, with per-category options.

Shows how to turn on FileVault disk encryption and choose between an iCloud account or a recovery key for unlocking. Warns to keep the recovery key somewhere safe.

Gives basic hardening advice: strong passwords, separate accounts per person, locking the Mac when idle and turning on FileVault.

Apple's in-depth guide to how security is built into its hardware, system software, encryption, apps and services. Serves as an overview with links to detailed sections.

Describes the built-in firewall that guards a Mac against unwanted network access and denial-of-service attacks, and where it can be configured.

Starts with the basics: Wi-Fi turned on, being in range and Wi-Fi appearing in Network settings, plus restarting an AirPort base station.

Helps work out whether cables, devices, settings or your provider cause an internet problem. Covers Wi-Fi recommendations, service status and restarting modems and routers.

Lists checks for a Mac that will not join Wi-Fi: password and security type, hidden network details, access control and signal range.

Shows how to reach Mac and Windows computers and file servers on your network, by browsing or by typing the network address.

Explains how to share Mac files over SMB from Sharing settings and turn it off again. Advises turning off Windows File Sharing for accounts you are not using.

Suggests waiting out a provider outage, checking that Ethernet or Wi-Fi shows as connected and matching network settings to your provider's recommended values.

Explains how to reinstall macOS from macOS Recovery, which macOS version you will get and what to try if the reinstall fails.

Explains how to boot into macOS Recovery on Apple silicon and Intel Macs, plus troubleshooting for startups that fail or stall.

Shows how to wipe the startup disk of an Apple silicon Mac in Recovery and then reinstall macOS, with advice on backing up first.

Explains how to erase and format the startup disk of an Intel Mac from Recovery, and notes that newer macOS versions have different recommended steps.

Describes the recovery tools on Apple silicon Macs for repairing storage, reinstalling macOS, restoring from Time Machine and changing security settings.

Covers the same recovery tools for Intel Macs, started by holding a key combination such as Command-R at startup.

Explains how to type a command with its path and arguments, stop a running command with Control-C and recall earlier commands with the Up Arrow.

Introduces Terminal as the command-line app on macOS and points to running commands, looking up commands in manual pages and trying scripting.

Shows how to open Terminal from Spotlight or the Utilities folder, quit it, and end a shell session by typing exit.

Explains that Terminal uses zsh by default and how to change which shell new windows launch in Terminal's General settings.

Apple's table of contents for Terminal, covering windows, settings and profiles, shell scripts and automation, plus pointers to UNIX manual pages.

Explains how to run commands with administrator rights using sudo, switch users with su, and why to avoid the root account.

After a macOS upgrade, git and other developer tools often stop with this error because the Command Line Tools need reinstalling. Running xcode-select --install brings up an installer, and you don't need the full Xcode app.

macOS reorders Spaces based on which you used most recently, which confuses keyboard switching. Turn off 'Automatically rearrange Spaces based on most recent use'. It's in System Settings → Desktop & Dock → Mission Control on Ventura and later, or System Preferences → Mission Control on older versions.

Cmd-` (the key above Tab on US keyboards, left of Z on UK ones) cycles through the open windows of the front app, and Shift-Cmd-` goes backwards. The answer explains it only works for windows in the same Space that aren't full screen, and how to get round that with Cmd-Tab.

kernel_task deliberately takes CPU time to slow the Mac down when it's too hot. This answer traced it on Intel MacBook Pros to heat from charging on the left-side Thunderbolt ports, and found charging from the right side helped. Mostly relevant to Intel models.

With multiple displays, the Dock moves to whichever screen you push the pointer down against the bottom edge of, so it often moves by accident. To bring it back, move the pointer to the bottom of the screen you want and keep pushing down.

macOS's netstat doesn't take Linux's -p flag for process names. The answer gives a netstat filter for listening TCP sockets, and an lsof command that shows the program name and process ID for each listening port.

A beginner guide to the Mac OS Terminal from Percy Grunwald of TopTechSkills.

Apple Support's own video on reinstalling macOS using macOS Recovery.

A guide from Digital Tech Studio to reinstalling the latest macOS from Recovery Mode.

Academind introduces the macOS Terminal and the zsh shell for beginners. The video appears to be several years old.