Apple Ecosystem enables you to send and receive iMessages and messages on your Mac. Although it works like magic, sometimes it can also be quite distracting and annoying, especially when you often receive spam messages. If your Mac is overloaded with text messages and you don’t want to disturbed by those red dots and alerts, you can easily turn off iMessage, or hide iMessage notifications on your Mac.
How to turn off iMessage on your Mac
If you don’t want to send and receive messages, just follow the steps below to turn off iMessage on your Mac:
Launch your Messages app. Normally, the Messages app should be found in the Dock.
on your keyboard, press the Command key and , at the same time to invoke its Preference screen.
Navigate to the iMessage tab, click the Sign Out button next to your Apple ID. Click Sign Out again in the confirmation pop-up.
Once you signed out of iMessage, you will no longer be able to receive iMessages until you sign into your Apple ID again.
How to turn of iMessage notifications on your Mac
If you still want to send and receive text messages on your Mac, but just don’t want to be distracted by iMessage notifications, you can follow the steps below to turn off iMessage notifications:
Go to System Preferences > Notifications & Focus.
Under the Notifications tab, locate and select the Messages app in the left panel, then turn off the toggle next to Allow Notifications.
With this done, you’ve disabled notifications from the Messages app, and you can still get and send messages on your Mac.
Flushing your DNS cache is an efficient way to troubleshoot DNS and connectivity issues, as well as keeping the local record of domain name server information more secure. In this blog, you’ll learn what DNS cache is, how DNS cache works, why you should flush DNS, and most importantly, how to flush DNS on your Mac.
To flush DNS on your Mac, you’ll need to enter a Terminal command on your Mac. Here’s how to do it:
On your keyboard, press Command and Space to invoke Spotlight.
Type terminal and press Enter to launch the Terminal app.
Copy and paste the following command into the Terminal window, then press Enter. sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder Note: this command only works on macOS EI Capitan and newer. If you’re using an older versions of macOS, check the next section for the correct command.
You’ll be asked to enter your Mac’s login password to run the command. Just enter the password and press enter again. Please note that due to security reasons, the password will not be displayed when you’re typing. There’s no notification when the process completes.
Note: if you’d like to hear an audio notification after the NDS flush process completed, run the following command instead:
sudo dscacheutil -flushcache; sudo killall -HUP mDNSResponder; say dns cleared successfully
Flush DNS commands on older macOS versions
The table below lists the correct commands for resetting DNS cache on older macOS versions:
DNS, or the domain name system, is the phonebook of the Internet. It translates human readable domain names (e.g. techzoneonline.com) to machine readable IP addresses (e.g. 123.456.789.1), connecting web browsers with websites and allowing browsers to get to websites and other Internet resources. Without the DNS, we’ll not be able to visit a website by its domain name. We have to manually enter the IP address of its web hosting.
The DNS cache on your Mac is a temporary database that stores information about previous DNS lookups. It’s like a phonebook at your hand.
Anytime you enter a URL into your web browser, or click the hyperlink on a webpage, a DNS lookup process is initiated. If it’s the first time you visit a website on your Mac, your Mac will connect to a DNS server that tells your web browser where to go (which IP address your browser should go) .
The DNS server maintains a directory of websites and their corresponding IP addresses. When your Mac connected to a DNS server to fetch the IP address of a website and provides it to the web browser, that information is stored on your Mac in the DNS cache.
In other words, every time you visit a website, your operating system and web browser keep a record of that domain and corresponding IP address. This eliminates the need for repeated queries to remote DNS servers and allows your OS or browser to quickly resolve a website’s URL.
Why you should flush DNS
There are several reasons to flush DNS. The most common one of which is to make sure the DNS records in your local cache is up-to-date, to resolve DNS errors when trying to visit specific sites, and to protect your Mac from NDS cache poisoning and spoofing.
Hopefully, after reading this guide, you’ve learned how to flush DNS on your Mac. Feel free to drop a line in the comment area below if you have any questions or suggestions on this topic. Thanks for reading!
It’s quite annoying to find your mouse is becoming laggy and jumpy when you want to get some serious work done. If you’d like to fix the slow mouse performance issue and get rid of a laggy, jumpy, choppy and even unresponsive mouse, you’ve come to the right place! This post is a comprehensive troubleshooting guide that works on any Bluetooth mouse like the Apple Magic Mouse, Logitech Bluetooth mouses, etc.
Before trying anything more complicated, let’s do some basic troubleshooting steps first.
Make sure your mouse is charged
Unlike the wired mouse, the performance of the Bluetooth mouse is affected by its battery status. If your mouse isn’t charged or has worn out batteries, the cursor will be laggy and jumpy.
Clean the bottom surface of your mouse
Make sure the bottom surface (especially the IR light sensor) is clean. A Magic Mouse 2 user reported in Apple Support Communities that if there were pieces of lint or hair in the cavity containing the IR light sensor, the mouse will become laggy.
You can use a soft, dry cloth to clean the railing and remove any debris from the laser opening of the mouse and see if it lags again.
Make sure you’re using the mouse on a flat surface
The mouse may not work properly if you use it on a bedsheet and such uneven surfaces. It’s suggested that you use your mouse on a flat and clean surface.
Turn off your mouse and turn it back on
Most mouses have a power button. You can turn it off, then turn it back on to see the mouse lag issue persists. You can also pull out its replaceable battery and reinsert it.
Unpair and re-pair the mouse
Sometimes the mouse lag issue would be fixed after you re-paired your Bluetooth mouse.
To re-pair the mouse, you need to unpair it first. Here’s how to do it:
Go to System Preferences > Bluetooth and remove your mouse from the Bluetooth devices list.
Re-pair your mouse according to the mouse pairing tutorial.
Restart your Mac
Restarting your Mac often can fix temporary glitches like laggy mouse input and irregular mouse cursor. By restarting your Mac, you’re performing an SMC reset, which may help fix the wireless keyboard / mouse lag issue.
Remove any USB device connected to your Mac
If you have any USB device connected to your Mac and your Bluetooth mouse happens to be laggy and jerky, try removing those USB devices.
“There is degradation in the performance of the wireless mouse when a USB 3.0 device is connected to the notebook computer. At a distance of 3 feet and greater away from the notebook computer, a significant lag was experienced in the response of the mouse. The impact to mouse performance was found to be the same whether the USB 3.0 peripheral device had data being actively written to it or if it was merely connected to the notebook computer and the link to it established.”
“A similar impact to wireless mouse performance was noted if a USB 3.0 device, such as a flash drive, was used. Since the noise from the USB 3.0 is broadband, it could potentially impact any radio whose antenna is close by. Although the test results are not shown in this paper, similar impact was seen to Bluetooth radio performance.”
Remove any new wireless electronic device nearby
If there are any new wireless electronic device nearby, it may cause interference to your Bluetooth mouse. To rule that out, try keeping any new wireless electronics farther away from your mouse and Mac.
Disable and re-enable Bluetooth on your Mac
Sometimes the Bluetooth mouse lag issue would be resolved after you re-enabled Bluetooth on your Mac. To re-enabled the Bluetooth function on your Mac:
Go to System Preferences > Bluetooth, click Turn Bluetooth Off to disable Bluetooth.
Wait for 30s and click turn Bluetooth On to re-enable Bluetooth.
Adjust the tracking speed & scrolling speed
If the tracking speed of your mouse is set to a low volume, the cursor would be lagging or moving slowly. You can follow the steps below to adjust the tracking and scrolling speed of the mouse:
Go to System Preferences > Mouse, under the Point & Click tab, move the slider under Tracking speed to the right to increase its tracking speed.
Go back to System Preferences > Accessibility, on the left sidebar, scroll down to click Point Control, then click Mouse Options…
Move the slider next Scrolling speed to the right to increase its scrolling speed. Click OK to save the changes.
Disable Handoff Feature
Some Mac users have reported that the Handoff feature would interfere with the wireless mouse, and they fixed the mouse lag issue by disabling the Handoff feature on Mac. If you don’t need the Handoff feature on your Mac, just follow the steps below to disable it and see if this fix the mouse lag issue:
Go to System Preferences > General.
Uncheck the box next to Allow Handoff feature between this Mac and your iCloud devices.
Reset your Mac’s Bluetooth module
You can try your luck to reset your Mac’s Bluetooth module if you’re still having the Bluetooth mouse lag issue.
Note: Your Mac’s Bluetooth module will be reset to its factory settings after you reset its Bluetooth module, which means that the wireless keyboard and wireless mouse will temporarily lose connection to your Mac. Make sure you have a wired keyboard and mouse available in order to continue using your Mac.
To reset your Mac’s Bluetooth module:
Launch the Terminal app on your Mac.
Copy and paste this command in Terminal and press Enter on your keyboard: sudo pkill bluetoothd
You will be asked to enter your Mac’s login password. Simply type the correct password and press Enter to execute the command. Please note that for security reasons, when you enter the password in Terminal, you won’t get any visual confirmation.
See if your mouse lags or not after you reset your Mac’s Bluetooth module. If this issue persists, try the next fix, below.
Delete Apple Magic Mouse related Bluetooth property list files
If you’re using an Apple Magic Mouse, try deleting mouse-related Bluetooth property list files:
Launch the Finder app.
On your keyboard, press Shift ⇧ + Command (or Cmd) ⌘ + G to invoke the Go to Folder… prompt. Copy and paste the path and Press Enter to open the Preferences folder.
Search “mouse” to locate the Apple Magic Mouse related .plist files and delete them.
Restart your Mac and pair your Magic Mouse again.
See your Magic Mouse lags or not. Normally, after deleting the .plist files, the mouse lag issue should be fixed.
Reset NVRAM
Short for Non-Volatile Random-Access Memory, NVRAM is a memory that saves its stored data like user preferences and settings on your Mac regardless if the power is on or off.
It’s rare for NVRAM to get corrupted on a Mac, but once it does, it may cause the mouse lag issues. Luckily, it’s quite easy to reset NVRAM on Mac, it just involves restarting your Mac and holding a certain keyboard key combination s it boots back up. Here’s how to do it:
Note: Depending on the processor your Mac is equipped with, the steps for resetting NVRAM will vary.
Reset NVRAM on Mac with Intel processor
If you’re using a Mac with Intel processor, just follow the steps below to reset NVRAM:
Disconnect all USB peripherals like your external drive (except your external keyboard) from your Mac.
Click the Apple icon on the top menu bar, then select Shut down… to completely shut your Mac down.
After shutting down your Mac, locate the Command (⌘), Option, P, and R keys on your keyboard. We’ll use these keys later.
Turn on your Mac using its power button.
Press and hold the Command (⌘), Option, P, and R keys as you hear the first start-up sound and release the keys after the second start-up sound.
Reset NVRAM on Mac with the Apple T2 Security Chip
The Apple T2 Security Chip is the second-generation, custom silicon for Mac, which delivers several new capabilities to your Mac, such as security for Touch ID data, encrypted storage and secure boot capabilities, and enhanced image signal processing.
If your Mac is equipped with the Apple T2 Security Chip, follow the steps below to reset NVRAM:
You can follow the steps below to reset NVRAM on your Mac with Apple T2 Security Chip:
Disconnect all USB peripherals like your external drive (except your external keyboard) from your Mac.
Shut down your Mac completely.
Press and hold the Command (⌘), Option, P, and R keys.
Keep holding down the 4 keys as your Mac starts with Apple logo and release the keys after the Apple logo appears and disappears for the second time.
Reset NVRAM on Mac with Apple M1 processor
According to the Apple Support Communities, there is no hardware for resetting SMC / NVRAM on M1 Macs, so you just cannot rest NVRAM on Macs with the M1 and M2 processor.
The M1 processor is designed to perform tests on NVRAM automatically as soon as your Mac starts up from a shutdown.
That’s it! Hopefully, this guide helped you fix the wireless mouse lag issue on your Mac. If you have any questions or suggestions on this issue, just drop a line in the comment area below. Thanks for reading!
As one of the largest a video game digital distribution service in the world, Steam boasts 120 million monthly active users (MAUs). For those who play games on Mac, Steam is definitely an essential app. If you find Steam won’t open on Mac, with a Error message telling you that your Mac could not connect to the Steam network, you’re not alone! Fortunately, you should be able to fix this issue easily using the fixes in this article.
Try these fixes
Here are the fixes that helped many Mac users resolve the Steam won’t open issue. Just walk your way through the list and start troubleshooting.
Before trying anything more complicated, the first thing you should to check is whether Steam’s servers are online or not.
Sometimes, if there are too many players visiting Steam at the same time, its servers may not handle the amount of requests coming in, causing the Steam client on your Mac to disconnect to Steam network.
To check Steam servers status, you just need to visit the STEAM & GAME STATS page.
If you find that Steam servers are up, it means that it’s not a server side issue. But don’t worry. Just read on and try the fixes one by one to troubleshoot your Mac or your local network.
Relaunch Steam
When you get the “Could not connect to the Steam network” error message after you tried to launch the Steam client on your Mac, it gives you to options: RETRY CONNECTION or START IN OFFLINE MODE.
Click RETRY CONNECTION, then the Steam client will try to connect to the Steam server once again. According to many Mac users, a few tries in a row might do the trick.
If this issue persist, then click START IN OFFLINE MODE. Once the Steam client is opened, in the menu select Account -> Go Online… -> RESTART AND GO ONLINE.
In addition, you can also go and check if there are any Steam updates in Steam -> Check Update.
If there is no updates available, or if Steam still won’t open after installing the latest updates, you can try quitting the Steam app completely with any auxiliary processes it might be running:
Launch Activity Monitor.
Locate Steam in the list of processes. Then select it and click the stop button in the top bar.
Relaunch the Steam app.
See if this fix resolve the Steam won’t open issue. If not, try the next fix, below.
Set correct date and time on your Mac
Steam’s server might output an error if the time and date on your Mac are not in sync with Steam’s server. This may happen when your time and date are not set to automatic. You can follow the steps below to set your time and date to automatic:
Go to System Preference -> Date & Time.
If you notice that “Set date and time automatically” is not checked, click the lock icon at the bottom left corner to make changes. Then check the box next to Set date and time automatically.
Launch Steam and see if this issue persists.
If this fix doesn’t work for you. Try the next one, below.
Delete Steam.AppBundle to reinstall Steam
This fix allows you to reinstall Steam on your Mac quickly, without removing any games already installed. To do so:
Open Finder and go to the following location:
~/Application Support/Library/Steam
Once the Steam folder is opened, locate the folder Steam.AppBundle and delete it. Then simply launch Steam like you normally would. This will force Steam to download the latest version and perform a fresh install.
Relaunch Steam to see if this fix works. If this issue reappears, try the next fix, below.
Clear Steam cache files
Sometimes, corrupted Steam cache files may also lead to the Steam won’t open issue .These cache filed are kept in your Mac’s Library folder. To delete Steam’s cache from your Mac, just follow the steps below:
Open Finder and go to your hard drive -> Library -> Application Support to delete the Steam folder.
Then on your keyboard, press Shift + ⌘ + G to visit ~/Library/Caches, delete the Steam folder.
Go to ~/Library/Preferences and ~/Library/Logs to delete Steam from all of them.
Now Steam should be completely removed from your Mac and you can proceed with trying to reinstall it once again. Normally, after you installed the Steam app, this issue should be resolved.
Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ve fixed the Steam won’t open on Mac issues. Free feel to drop a line if you have any suggestions or questions on this issue!
New to macOS and don’t know how to take screenshots on your Mac? If so, you’ve landed on the right spot! On macOS, you can use its built-in Screenshot app or keyboard shortcuts to capture your screen. In this article, you’ll learn how to take screenshots on your Mac quickly and easily!
3 methods to take screenshots on your Mac
There are more than one method to take screenshots on macOS. You don’t have to try them all. Just pick the method that works best for you.
Use the built-in Screenshot app to take screenshots
In macOS Mojave 10.14 and later, you can use the built-in Screenshot app to capture your screen. If you just need to capture your screen and share it to others, the built-in Screenshot app is convenient enough to complete the task.
To take screenshots or screen recordings using the Screenshot app:
On your keyboard, press Shift – Command – 5 to launch the Screenshot app and display the tools.
Click a tool to select what you what to capture or record.
Capture the whole screen
Capture a window
Capture a potion of the screen
Record the entire screen
Record a portion of the screen
Click Options if you want to modify the advanced settings. For example, you can specify where to save screenshots. You can also choose to set a time delay or show the mouse cursor when taking screenshots.
The Show Floating Thumbnail option, once selected, will display a thumbnail of the screenshot or recording you just took in the bottom-right corner of the screen for a few seconds, so you have time to mark it up, drop it to a document, an email or a Finder window, or share it before it’s saved to the directory you specified.
To take screenshots using keyboard shortcuts:
If you prefer to use keyboard shortcuts to take screenshots, here are the frequently used keyboard shortcuts:
Keyboard shortcut
function
Shift-Command-3
Capture the entire screen
Shift-Command-4
Capture a portion of the screen
Shift-Command-4-Spacebar
Capture a window or the menu bar
Shift-Command 5
Open the Screenshot app
Shift-Command-6
Capture the Touch Bar
If you want to customize these keyboard shortcuts, on your Mac, choose Apple menu > System Preferences, click Keyboard, then click Shortcuts.
Note: On macOS, screenshots are saved as .png files and screen recordings are saved as .mov files.
Use Snipaste to take screenshots
If you need to edit the screenshot you just took, you may need to use a more efficient tool.
Snipaste is a simple but powerful screen capturing and snipping tool that allows you to pin the screenshot back onto the screen.
In other words, after taking the screenshot, you can easily add texts, lines, arrows, frames and blurs to the screenshot right on your screen (without opening the editor)!
First launched in 1990, Snagit is created and distributed by TechSmith. Believe it or not, up to now, over 39 million people world wide use Snagit! Snagit may be the best screen capture and recording software for content creators.
Snagit enables you to quickly capture your screen, add additional context, and easily share with coworkers. With Snagit, you can:
give quick, simple answers
organize and save captures
make step-by-step instructions
Snagit is so powerful that it provides over 15 sharing outputs. With it, you can use images, videos and GIFs to share idea, give feedback and communicate more efficiently.
That’s it! Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ve learned how to take screenshots on your Mac. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to drop a line in the comment area below. Thanks for reading!
Although apps on macOS are usually well-behaved, there are times when they stop responding and you cannot quit them normally, and the pointer becomes a pesky spinning wheel. In this case, you have no choice but to force quit the app. If you happen to experience the exact same issue, but don’t know how to force quit the app, don’t worry. You’ve come to the right place. After reading this article, you’ll learn how to force quit apps on your Mac easily!
How to force quit apps on Mac
It’s quite easy to force quit apps on your Mac, and there are more than one method to do that. However, before taking this drastic route, try closing the frozen app from the app’s menu in the menu bar, or use the keyboard combination Command + Q to quit the app.
Use Command + Q to quit the app
If the app is still hanging, try the methods below one by one until you find the method that does the trick for you.
Note: you may lose unsaved changes when force-quitting an app.
Method 1: force quit from the Menu bar
If the app still doesn’t quit, you can Force Quit it from the Menu bar. Here’s how to do it:
Click the Apple icon in the top-left corner of your screen and select Force Quit. Or you can press Command + Option + Esc at the same time, which works very similar to pressing Ctrl + Alt + Del on a Windows PC.
Either way, it will bring up the “Force Quit Applications” box, in which you can find all the active apps currently running on macOS. You just need to select the misbehaving app and click the Force Quit button.
Normally, the problematic app would be closed.
Tips: You can also press Command + Option + Shift + Esc at the same time to force quit an app immediately.
Method 2: force quit from the Dock
You can easily quit an app from the Dock by simply right-clicking the app you want to quit and select Quit. You may probably not know, macOS also allows you to force quit an app from the Dock. Here’s how:
On the Dock, right-click on the app you want to quit. The shortcut menu will pop up.
Press the Command key. You’ll see that Quit will change to Force Quit in the shortcut menu.
Select Force Quit to close the app.
Method 3: force quit from Active Monitor
Activity Monitor on macOS is very similar to Task Manager on Windows OS. It’s designed to monitor the performance of processes on your Mac. If the methods above failed to force quit the frozen app, you can force quit it from Activity Monitor.
In Activity Monitor, you can see all the processes currently running in macOS, and you can easily quit a certain process. By doing that, you force quit the misbehaving app. You can follow the steps below to force quit the app in Activity Monitor:
On your keyboard, press Command + Spacebar at the same time to bring up Spotlight search bar. Type activity monitor and press Enter to open Activity Monitor.
In Activity Monitor, you’ll see a list of active processes. Among the list, locate the frozen app and click the “X” icon at the top of the window.
Click on Force Quit to end the process. Then macOS will force quit the app.
Normally, one of the methods should do the trick for you. If none of these solutions works, you can restart your Mac.
Hopefully, after reading this article, you’ve learned how to force quit apps on your Mac. Feel free to leave a comment below if you have any questions or suggestions on this topic. Thanks for reading!
Wearable devices are becoming more and more popular. With an Apple watch, unlocking your Mac is much easier. You just need to wear your Apple Watch and be near your Mac, then your Mac will be unlocked automatically by your Apple Watch.
However, sometimes this feature may not work as expected. If you’re seeing the error message “Your Mac was unable to communicate with your Apple Watch” when trying to unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch, don’t worry. You’re not alone. This is a common issue reported by tons of Apple Watch users. The good news is that you should be able to fix this issue easily after reading this article.
Check if you meet the requirements for this feature
To use this feature, you need to ensure:
The model of your watch is Apple Watch Series 3 or higher
Your Mac is running on macOS High Sierra or later
To use Auto lock to approve requests for your Mac administrator password, a Mac running on macOS Catalina or later and an Apple Watch running on watchOS 6
Your Apple Watch is using a passcode
You’ve enabled 2-factor authentication for iCloud
You’ve signed into the same Apple ID on your Apple Watch and Mac
Bluetooth and Wi-Fi is enabled on your Mac
You’ve disabled automatic login
Note: to disable automatic login, you need to go to System Preferences > Security & Privacy. Under the General tab, check the box next to Disable automatic login to turn it off.
Sometimes, after a fresh restart, everything on your Mac would return to normal. If this is the first time for you to receive the error message, simply restart your Mac and see if your Apple Watch can unlock your Mac.
If this issue persists after you restarted your Mac, try the next fix, below.
Reset the radios
The Auto unlock feature will stop working if the Bluetooth or Wi-Fi is turned off or somehow stopped responding on your Mac or Apple Watch. If it’s the case, you may need to reset the radios on both devices. After recycling them, you may fix this issue. Here’s how to do it:
On your Apple Watch:
Swipe up from the watch face and tap the Airplane Mode button to turn the Bluetooth and Wi-Fi off.
Tap the Airplane Mode button again to turn all the radios back on.
On your Mac:
Go to System Preferences > Network > Wi-Fi. Then click Turn Wi-Fi off to disable Wi-Fi. Click the button again to turn Wi-Fi on.
Back to the System Preference window, then click Bluetooth > Turn Bluetooth Off. Click the button again to turn Bluetooth on.
Try auto-unlock again after you’ve reset the radios. See if this fix works. If not, move on to the next fix, below.
Re-enable Handoff on your iPhone
Some users reported that they fixed this issue after they re-enabled Handoff on their iPhone. You can give this fix a shot if you haven’t tried it yet.
To re-enable Handoff on your iPhone, follow the steps below:
On your iPhone, go to Settings > General > AirPlay & Handoff. Tap the toggle next to Handoff to turn it off.
Wait a few seconds and tap the toggle again to turn it back on. See if this fix helps. If not, try the next fix, below.
Sign out of your Apple ID, then sign back in
If this issue persists, you may also need to sign out of your Apple ID, then sign back in on your Mac. Here’s how to do it:
On your Mac, go to System Preference > Apple ID > Overview.
Click Sign Out… to sign out of your Apple ID, then sigh back in.
See if you can unlock your Mac with your Apple Watch. If not, just move on to the next fix, below.
Check “Keychain Access” on your Mac
The Auto Unlock feature may not work as expected if keys and plists are not reset properly. To fix it, you need to delete those plists in Keychain Access. Here’s how to do it:
On the keyboard of your Mac, hold the Command key and Spacebar at the same time to invoke Spotlight. Type Keychain Access and press Enter to launch Keychain Access.
In Keychain Access, from the menu bar, select View > Show Invisible items.
In Keychain Access, search for “Auto Unlock”. You’ll see a bunch of application passwords for “Auto Unlock: xxx’s …”. On your keyboard, press the Command key and A to select all records, then delete them. (this will reset auto lock on other Macs if you’re using multiple Macs)
In Keychain Access, search for ”AutoUnlock” (no space). There should be 4 kinds of entries for “tlk” “tlk-nonsync” “classA” “classC”. Select all records and delete them.
Open Finder and go to ~/Library/Sharing/AutoUnlock. There should be two files “ltk.plist” and “pairing-records.plist”. Delete both files.
Go to System Preference > Security & Privacy, under the General tab, check the box next to Use your Apple Watch to unlock apps and your Mac. If your first attempt fails, try it again.
See if this fix works for you. If not, try updating the OS of your Apple Watch and Mac to the latest version. If there is no system update available, you may need to contact Apple for further assistance.
AirDrop not working on your Mac or iOS devices like iPhone and iPad? You’re not alone. Recently we’ve seen many users reporting this issue. Some people find that their devices cannot discover each other when they try to share files via AirDrop, others complain that their device often failed to receive the file even after they selected the receiving device.
Luckily, you’ve come to the right place. After reading this article, you can fix this issue easily.
Step 1: Check if your devices are compatible with AriDrop
Some old model of iOS devices and Macs are compatible with AirDrop. To AirDrop items between your devices, you need to make sure both of your devices are compatible with AirDrop.
AirDrop between to two Macs: You need ensure both Macs are running Mac OS X Lion (10.7) or later:
MacBook Pro (late 2008 or newer)
MacBook Air (late 2010 or newer)
MacBook (late 2008 or newer)
iMac (early 2009 or newer)
Mac mini (mid-2010 or newer)
Mac Pro (early 2009 with AirPort Extreme or newer)
AirDrop between two iOS devices: Both iOS devices need to be running on iOS 7 or later:
iPhone 5 and newer
iPad (4th generation) or newer
iPad Air (all models)
iPad Pro (all model)
iPad Mini (all model)
iPod Touch (5th generation) or newer
AirDrop between a Mac and an iOS device: The iOS device should be running on iOS 8 or later; and the Mac running on OS X Yosemite (10.10) or later:
MacBook Air: Mid 2012 or newer
MacBook (Retina): all models
MacBook Pro: Mid 2021 or newer
iMac: Late 2012 or newer
iMac Pro: All model
Mac Mini: Late 2012 or newer
Mac Pro: Late 2013 or newer
Step 2: Make sure your devices are discoverable in AirDrop
If you cannot find the device you want to AirDrop files to, check if you have it set its AirDrop receiving settings correctly.
To set AirDrop receiving setting on the iOS device:
Unlock the receiving iOS device, then go to Settings > General > AirDrop.
If you’re in the Contacts of the device you’re sending to, you can set its AirDrop receiving settings to Contacts Only; if you’re not in its Contacts, then you should set its SirDrop receiving settings to Everyone.
To set AirDrop receiving settings on Mac:
Open Finder on the Mac that needs to receive files.
On your keyboard, press Command + Shift + R to invoke the AirDrop window.
At the bottom of the AirDrop window, set the AirDrop receiving setting to Contacts Only if you’re in the Contacts of the device you’re sending to; if not, set the AirDrop receiving to Everyone.
Normally after the AirDrop receiving settings is set correctly, AirDrop would function properly again.
Note: if you’re in the Contacts of the receiving device, but the device holder has blocked you in Contacts, you’ll not be able to AirDrop files to that person until he unblock you in his Contacts.
Step 3: Awake & unlock your devices
One common error that would lead to AirDrop problems is that the receiving device is asleep.
To function properly, AirDrop requires the display to be active on both devices. And it’s better to unlock the devices before you start AirDropping.
Step 4: Turn on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on both devices
AirDrop uses Bluetooth to detect compatible devices nearby and uses Wi-Fi to perform the transfer.
Even if you have turned on Bluetooth and Wi-Fi on both devices, simply toggling turn off and on may fix the problem.
Step 5: Turn off Airplane Mode
Another common error that would causes AirDrop not working is that you forget to turn off Airplane Mode on the receiving devices.
Just as mentioned above, AirDrop needs Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to operate, and if the Airplane mode is turned on, it disables the both.
If you accidentally turned on and forget to turn it off, just Go to Settings > Airplane Mode to check turn it off.
Step 6: Reboot your devices
Sometimes, a simple restart would let AirDrop work again. If you’ve tried all the troubleshooting steps above but AirDrop is still not working, try reboot your devices. Normally, after a fresh restart, this issue will get fixed.
Hopefully, this article helped you resolve AirDrop not working issue. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to leave us a comment below. Thanks for reading.
If you need to share your Mac with other people, you may not want them to see the private files and folders. To avoid this situation from happening, macOS offers us a way to hide files and folders.
If you don’t know how to do it, don’t worry! You’ve come to the right place. After reading this article, you’ll learn how to hide files and folders on your Mac quickly and easily!
To hide files and folders on macOS
It is recommended that you put all the files you’d like to hide into a folder, then you just need to set the properties of that folder as “hidden”.
After you moved all the files you want to hide to a single folder, follow the instructions below to hide that folder:
On your keyboard, Press the Command key and Space bar at the same time to invoke Spotlight. Then type terminal and select Terminal from the search results.
After you launched Terminal, enter the following command line, including a space at the end of it. chflags hidden
Drag the folder that contains the files you want to hide into the Terminal window and drop it next to the command line.
After you dropped the folder, the path of the folder will appear next to the command line in the Terminal window.
Press Enter on your keyboard to execute the command. The Terminal window will not show the result of that command line. But if you go to the folder where you store the folder you wanted to hide, you will find the folder already “disappeared”.
To access the hidden file or folder on macOS
After you hid the files or folders, you can access them by simply pressing the Command-Shift-. combination.
Here is how to do it:
Go to the folder where stores your hidden file or folder.
Press the Command Key, the Shift key and the Period key (the . key) at the same time, then you will see those hidden files and folders.
You can also view hidden files and folders in Finder by executing the following command lines one by one:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles TRUE
killall Finder
The command lines above tell Finder to show hidden files and then restarts it.
If you want to stop Finder from showing hidden files, run the command lines below one by one:
defaults write com.apple.finder AppleShowAllFiles FALSE
killall Finder
The command lines above tell Finder to stop showing hidden files and then restarts it.
To unhide a file or folder
If you want to unhide a file or folder, follow the steps below:
Launch the Terminal app.
Type the command line below into the Terminal window, and also remember to type a space after the command: chflags nohidden
If the file or folder is hidden, you can open Finder and go to the folder where the hidden file or folder is stored, then press the Command key, the Shift key and the Period key (that’s the . key) at the same time to make them visible. Once you can see the file or folder, drag it to the Terminal window and drop it after the command line, as you did earlier.
Press the Enter key to run the command.
After you run the command, the file or folder will become visible.
One more thing
It is not a foolproof way to protect your files and folders from others, since other people can easily find those files and folders using the method in this article. To secure your files and folders, you should encrypt them. By encrypting, you prevent others with out encryption password from open them.
Both Windows and Mac have the built-in screen capture tools, however, those built-in tools are not powerful enough for the technical writers or bloggers who need to write how-to guides. For technical writers or bloggers, they deserve a versatile screen capture tool: Snagit! To be honest, Snagit is the best screen capture software I’ve ever used.
What is Snagit?
Snagit is a screen capture and recording software developed by TechSmith. It is elegant, beautifully designed and simple to use. With Snagit, you can not only capture your computer or smartphone screen easily, but also edit the screenshots efficiently using Snagit editor and share them to various destinations.
Main features of Snagit
As a professional screen capture tool, Snagit provides its customers with all the features they may need. Briefly speaking, with Snagit, you can
capture or record your computer screen;
edit the screenshots with drawing tools and effects in Snagit editor;
Share screenshots to various destination.
Screen capturing & recording
Unlike the most screen capture software on the market, Snagit not only provides you with the screen capturing feature, but also allows you to record the computer screen.
As you can see from the screenshots below, Snagit provides all the screen capture modes you may need:
(Snagit 2020 for Windows)(Snagit 2020 for macOS)
Compared with the screen capturing feature, the screen recording feature in Snagit is quite simple. After all, Snagit is a screen capture tool from TechSmith. If you need a professional screen capturing tool, Camtasia is a better choice.
(Snagit 2020 for Windows)(Snagit 2020 for macOS)
Screenshot editing
Snagit is famous for its powerful screenshot editing features. It provides you with lots of drawing tools and effects so that you can edit the screenshot directly in the Snagit Editor the next second after capturing it, which is really efficient!
(Snagit 2020 for Windows)(Snagit 2020 for macOS)
Screenshot sharing
Snagit enables you to share screenshots to various destination quickly and easily!As you can see from the screenshots below, you can share screenshots to MS office, cloud drives, IM apps, etc.
(Snagit 2020 for Windows)(Snagit 2020 for macOS)
Fuse: connect mobile device to Snagit
Fuse is an app available in AppStore and Google Play. With the Fuse app, you can send the image files like smartphone screenshots to Snagit via your network connection, then you can edit them with the drawing tools and effects in Snagit Editor.
To sum up, Snagit is an excellent screen capture software on the market. In my opinion of view, it is the best screen capture tool I’ve ever used. If you need to deal with screenshots frequently and if you haven’t tried it yet, It’s worth a try! Snagit can definitely boost your productivity.
