everyday Mac tasks
one page per job, grouped by the tool that does it. every page starts with what macOS already gives you — where that is enough, we say so and you are done.
text recognition
keep awake
color picker
archives
- 7z your Mac opens. rar it will not.7z your Mac already opens, and rar it reads in Terminal but not in Finder. what works out of the box, where it stops, and what to do about the rest.
- «unable to expand». what error 79 and error 1 are telling you.what error 79 and error 1 mean when Archive Utility refuses a zip, the one command that shows what the file really is, and how to open it anyway.
keyboard lock
speed test
file converter
- a folder of heic, and something that wants jpgmacOS converts heic in the Finder's right-click menu, in batches, for free. three built-in routes, what each costs you, and the format none of them writes.
- mov and mp4 are often the same filerenaming works for h.264, and it changes the label rather than the file. the built-in command that repacks a mov properly, in seconds, without re-encoding.
- QuickTime will not open it. the video is fine.macOS reads neither container — the same h.264 that plays as an mp4 fails as an mkv. what to play it with, and how to remux without re-encoding.
- the pdf is 40 mb and the form accepts 10Preview's Reduce File Size is a fixed recipe: 144 dpi, jpeg 0.70. what that does to your file, a real case where it quadrupled it, and how to hit a size.
- forty documents, and Word is not installedone file is a Print dialog away. forty is where macOS runs out — and the Automator recipe everyone still posts stopped working in 2015.
- a folder of .pages files, and the person asking for them has Wordone file is File → Export To. a folder of them is an AppleScript, because Shortcuts and Automator have no export action for Pages, Numbers or Keynote.
- the pdf came out with the hashes still in itmacOS prints a .md file as raw text, hashes and all. what actually renders it: a Shortcuts action, pandoc through Safari or Pages, and where each one stops.
- the clip is fine. the upload made it look terrible.macOS does have a right-click that compresses video. it just does not know what a reel is. what it does, what it will not do, and measured numbers.
app uninstaller
- the app is gone. its eighteen folders are not.dragging an app to the trash leaves its data in eighteen folders, and pkgutil --forget removes none of them. where they are, and how to clear them safely.
- the app will not go in the trash«can't be moved to the Trash because it's open», a trash that won't empty, an app that comes back. how to read what macOS refuses — and why rm -rf won't help.
- system data: 180 gb, contents unspecifiedthe category macOS will not itemise, opened up: which volume the snapshots are on, why df and the storage screen disagree, and the 19 gb nothing can clean.
- the app is gone. its system extension is still there.the app is gone, systemextensionsctl list still shows its extension. how macOS removes system extensions and kexts, what gc does, and when it takes Recovery.
vpn switcher
- your vpn says connected. nothing loads.the tunnel says connected and nothing loads. «connected» is not a measurement — how to tell dns from routing in thirty seconds, and the built-in fixes.
- the Mac woke up. the tunnel did not.sleep tears the tunnel down and waking does not rebuild it. the one free command that reconnects it, and how to run it on every wake.
- your vpn says connected. is anything actually going through it?the client says connected and pages load — that proves nothing about the route. three built-in checks: default route, tunnel counters, outside address.
time tracker
timer
clipboard history
system monitor
- 64 gb of ram, and it says it is out of memorymacOS has no documented free-space threshold for swap. how to check swap in one command, tell a full disk from a leaking app, and what actually helps.
- no built-in way to see how hot your Mac isno built-in readout on M-series Macs, and the popular Terminal recipe is rejected outright. what you can read for free, and what needs an app.
app launcher
download hopfree · macOS 14+ · Apple silicon and Intel