macOS survival guide: Handle every calamity with these Mac-saving tips

Whether you’re new to the Mac or a longtime user, you want to get the most out of macOS. It has a ton of features, but even someone who’s been using it for years forgets about many of them or didn’t realize they’re there to begin with. Besides macOS’s features, there are a few habits you should learn that will help you master your Mac and keep it running—and lasting—as long as possible.

Here are a few tips I find the most useful in making it feel like I’m getting the most out of the Mac daily. We have several more tips on setting up your new Mac, becoming a power user, protecting your Mac, mastering Safari, keyboard shortcuts, and easy ways to help you navigate macOS.

Mission Control: Survive a messy desktop

We all do it: keep dozens of windows open at the same time. To help navigate the mess, macOS has a feature called Mission Control, which provides an uncluttered view of your desktop so you can see all of your open windows. But most people don’t use it.

There are several ways to launch Mission Control, so many in fact, that you’ve probably done it by accident once or twice: press the F3 key on your keyboard, swipe up with three fingers on a trackpad, tap with two fingers on a Magic Mouse, or drag any window to the top of the screen. Whichever one you choose will do the same thing: sort all your open windows so you can see each one. From here, you can pick the one you need.

But Mission Control is more powerful than just a desktop organizer. You can also create additional desktops beyond your main one to organize your work and keep your system focused on the main apps you need at a specific time. When in the Mission Control interface, you’ll see a “Desktop” bar at the top that shows your current view. Click the “+” button at the far right, and a new desktop will appear, letting you drag windows from your current desktop to the new one.

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Once you’ve got the basics of Mission Control down, you can do more with it within the Dock itself. If you Control-click on an app icon, a pop-up menu appears and in the Options section, there is an Assign To option where you can set the app to open on a particular Desktop. Another handy tip: move your pointer over an app in the Dock, and then lightly double-tap with two fingers on a trackpad or Magic Mouse to bring that app’s window to the forefront.

Low Power Mode: Survive a long day

Your MacBook has great battery life, but when working remotely for longer than usual, Lower Power Mode can help extend it even further. In Low Power Mode, the MacBook’s screen brightness is automatically turned down a little, the system clock speed is a little lower, and overall power consumption is reduced. On the MacBook Pro, the fan is turned down a bit as well.

To turn on Low Power Mode, go to System Settings > Battery and click on the pop-up menu for Low Power Mode. You can set it to Always, Only on Battery, or Only on Power Adapter. You can also set it to Never if you absolutely can’t sacrifice performance–you might do this if, say, you scheduled demands for maximum productivity.

If you’re unsure about the effects of Low Power Mode on performance and your work, play around with it a bit. You may find the difference with it on or off imperceptible in your situation.

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The Battery System Setting has other options you should learn. Click on the “i” button for Battery Health and you can see your MacBook’s battery condition and the maximum charge it can hold. At the bottom of the main window, click on the Options button, and you’ll find more settings to adjust that affect your battery life. The more you know about your battery’s health, the better off your MacBook will be.

Universal Clipboard: Survive multi-device sharing

We’ve all been there—a link, text snippet, or image is on our iPhone and we need it on our Mac. So you open Mail, write an email to yourself, send it to your Mac, wait, open it, copy what you need, and head back to the app you were using to paste it in. With Universal Clipboard, that takes just a second. It’s a fantastic, magic tool that allows you to cut/copy and paste between your Macs, iPhones, and iPads. On macOS, there is no Universal Clipboard setting, but you do need to do the following:

1. Turn on Wi-Fi and Bluetooth
2. Go to System Settings > General > AirDrop & Handoff and turn on the switch for “Allow Handoff between this Mac and your iCloud devices.”
3. Sign into the same Apple Account on all your devices

Once that’s done, you can copy text and images on your iPhone and paste them on your Mac and vice versa. I use it constantly, and every time it feels like magic. Try it once and you’ll wonder how you were able to get anything done quickly before.

Other helpful Apple ecosystem features include iCloud Desktop and Documents, Universal Control and Sidecar, iPhone mirroring, and unlock a Mac with an Apple Watch. Using these features not only makes your Mac more productive, but they help make it feel like you’re getting the most out of your devices.

iPhone and iPad apps: Survive productivity-killing distractions

You might not realize it, but any Mac released since the M1 arrived in 2020 can run apps made for the iPhone and iPad. There isn’t an obvious “iPhone & iPad Apps” section in the App Store, however, so to find these apps, you have to search and them on the result page, click the iPhone & iPad Apps button near the top.

Why would you want to do this? While many iPhone and iPad apps have a Mac companion, others don’t or have a web-based alternative. But more importantly, when you need to pick up your iPhone to do something, it can lead to lots of distractions that can zap your productivity.

You won’t find every app on there—it’s up to the developer to decide if they want to make their iPhone app available on the Mac—but many of your favorite iPhone apps will likely be available. And if you can’t find something, you can always resort to iPhone Mirroring, a macOS Sequoia feature that lets you mirror your iPhone screen right on your Mac. So you can keep your phone in your pocket or bag and keep your eyes on your work.

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Antivirus: Survive malware attacks

If you’re an old-timer like me, you remember when the Mac community would laugh at the idea of using antivirus software. Maybe that was because Macs are more secure than Windows PCs, or because Macs weren’t as popular, they aren’t targets for attack. Whatever the reason, it was rare that macOS fell victim to a virus.

Times have changed. While there are still way more Windows PCs in use, the Mac has become more of a target for viruses, malware, and other attacks. Apple has security features in macOS such as Gatekeeper and XProtect, but hackers are making more of an effort to bypass these measures. That’s where antivirus software comes in.

If you download anything outside the Mac App Store or receive files from other people, an antivirus suite of software will protect your Mac. We have a roundup of the best antivirus software to help you find one that’s right for you. Our top pick right now is Intego Mac Internet Security X9, which requires a subscription, but we also have recommendations for free options as well.

macOS Recovery: Survive total disaster

If your Mac locks up or won’t start, there’s a nuclear mode called macOS Recovery (also called Recovery Mode) that can be used to fix or fully restore your Mac. If things get so bad that you need to erase the startup drive and reinstall macOS, you can do it in macOS Recovery as well.

On M-series Macs, you can get into macOS Recovery by powering up a Mac and holding down the power button as it turns on. (On Intel Macs, hold down Command+R.) Continue to hold down the button(s) until you see “Loading startup options” or an Options icon. Click the Options icon to continue into macOS Recovery.

In macOS Recovery, you have several tools at your disposal. We have a complete guide to using macOS Recovery to help with what ails your Mac. You can do things like reformat your Mac’s drive, reinstall macOS, and access Safari, Disk Utility, or Terminal. Try it out to get familiar with the interface—you can get back to your Mac’s regular interface by restarting the Mac.

Think of macOS Recovery as a flare in an emergency roadside kit. If you’re lucky, you never have to use it, but it helps to know how it works in case you end up in a situation that calls for it.