Mac OS Specific Hot Tips

Stuck Application Windows

Do you have a window that you can’t make full screen because the top of the window is hidden in a nebular black hole between displays? This happens fairly regularly in Premiere. Solution: Hover over any corner until your mouse becomes the resize icon, hold option and then double click. Congratulations, you’ve got your window back and you can bend it to your will. 

Wireless Keyboard Chaos

Keyboard not working? “Forget this device” in system prefs, then restart. Toggle the keyboard on and off, and then hold the Command key. You can re-pair it (pun intended). 

Computer Not Responding

First try to alternate the following hotkeys in rapid succession ⌘+Tab ⌘+Q. If that doesn’t work, hold down ⌘+Option+Esc for Force Quit. If that doesn’t work, hold the power button down. 

System Scheduling

System scheduler is no longer working because Apple got rid of it, and you have an installation that would benefit from an on/off schedule or an auto restart? You gotta do it in command line now. It’s actually pretty easy: See here. 

Safe Mode

So, you think you installed something naughty that’s really screwing up your computer? Boot up your computer holding the shift key, this will disable all third party things and you’ll be able to remove things as needed.

Recovery Mode

So, your computer is really struggling and you need to hit up disk utility and/or you need to reformat? Turn on your computer and immediately press ⌘+R fo recovery mode. 

Reformatting to APFS

In disk utility, select view and choose “View All Devices” then select the drive’s highest hierarchical item (typically the brand’s enclosure), then hit erase, then hit scheme GUID, then select APFS as the format.