My system data and macOS have been taking up an absurd amount of storage for a while now, and I’ve tried all sorts of things like digging through large folders, running various different versions of clean my Mac etc… the other day I installed the most recent software update and my MacOS size almost tripled and now everything is running really slowly and most of my applications won’t even open. Any help would be greatly appreciated 🙏

Tilt reads the lid angle sensor in the hinge of Apple silicon MacBooks. Lower the lid a little and your windows lean back from a flat wallpaper, and the picture holds still while the screen turns. No camera, no head tracking. Lift the lid and everything's back to normal.

- Free, no in-app purchase: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6819511315

- Needs an Apple silicon MacBook with a lid angle sensor, macOS 14+, built-in display only. If your Mac has no sensor, the menu says so.

- Screen Recording is the only permission; frames are thrown away after drawing and there's no network code

I'd like to hear whether it works on your MacBook model, whether the effect looks natural, what you'd use it for, and about any bugs or install trouble (support page: https://tilt.cottonferry.com/support/).

Edit: the end of the video still shows a GitHub link from when Tilt was open source. It isn't anymore, so the App Store link above is the only download.

One click. Literally can't be easier. Download Native Aerials

About 1 year ago I asked here "How to automatically cycle through Tahoe Day, Tahoe Morning, Tahoe Evening and Tahoe Night wallpapers for free?", and then eventually settled on Aerials app. It's heavy, though, and I wanted something that doesn't run in background and doesn't consume my RAM.

So with macOS 27 Apple added a new engine that can rotate wallpapers automatically based on the Sun location in your area, or just based on clock. They still didn't add a single dynamic wallpaper, so I had to fix this.

I present to you: a macOS app that merges four aerials into one, and macOS then plays and swaps them automatically. It does not stay running in background, instead it merges 4 files into one, and they are played exactly like a normal aerial: playback on lock screen, slowdown when unlocked, switched by the system natively.

It's 100% free, open source (my self-hosted Forgejo + mirrored to my GitHub), no ads, no trackers, no analytics, no telemetry, no donation prompts anywhere, MIT. And it's reproducible!! Which means you can build the code yourself and it will match exactly the zip I published. Of course you're welcome to upload the 800 kb release zip to VirusTotal, it gives 0/66 detections.

I WILL brag about it being signed and notarized!! I bribed Apple with €100 for no Gatekeeper. you just download the zip, drag to Applications, and there you have it. Zero setup, one click, it works forever.

It's not on AppStore because it requires access outside of sandbox and registers a tiny background helper that only wakes up on macOS updates and to sync wallpapers catalog, then exits. It's all open source, zero dependencies, so you're welcome to audit it.

https://git.hloth.dev/hloth/native-aerials

mini faq!

Q: Why not Aerial (AerialScreensaver)?
A: It still uses its own player and its own scheduling, not Apple's sun-tracking engine

Q: Why not Sunpaper (mduncs)?
A: It's a menu bar app, runs in background, not notarized, not reproducible, not build attested

Q: Why not BiAksoy/aerial-dynamic-wallpaper, andmev/tahoe-wallpaper-switcher or pdfux gist?
A: All require you to type commands to terminal; Native Aerials requires one click and 0 setup

My app is something that you download, click once and it just works, but if you'd like something more feature rich, definitely check out Aerial!

RetroMac 3.0 is out. Most of it came straight from feedback, from comments here and from the testers, so this is mostly a list of what you asked for. I'm the guy behind RetroMac. You dont know Jack ehm Retromac? Its an app to theme your MacOS and let it shine like OSX, System 9, beOS or even WIndows...

Here we go, Version 3.

"Let me use it without giving up my whole Mac."

You can now put a theme on chosen Spaces only. One Space runs Mountain Lion, the others stay plain macOS with your own Dock, menu bar and wallpaper. That one came from a tester.

"What exactly does it change, and can I get my setup back?"

Each theme now lists every change it makes before you turn it on. RetroMac remembers your own settings, and "Restore my settings" puts exactly those back, not factory defaults. Rescue Desktop removes every effect in one go.

"Mountain Lion doesn't look like Mountain Lion."

Fair. The dock was a flat bar with dots. It's now the 10.8 shelf, frosted glass in perspective with the glowing lights on the front edge, measured off the original. Plus 10.8's Apple menu, About This Mac with your Mac's real specs, and a working Launchpad.

Also new: Windows Vista with Aero and the Sidebar, Solaris 8 CDE, QNX Photon, a animated Halloween dock that's on fire, the Green Lite shader, and better VoiceOver support after three rounds with a blind tester (still workimg on that)

The other big thing is the Retro Family: five standalone native apps, no RetroMac needed. RetroFind (Mountain Lion's Finder), RetroNotes (the yellow notepad, synced with Apple Notes), RetroReminder, RetroContacts and RetroCal (leather header and torn paper included). They install with one click from RetroMac's new Apps library.

Free to use, optional one-time Pro unlock (just for more shader, webcam support - 99 % dont need that, no account, no tracking. macOS 14+, Apple Silicon and Intel, signed and notarized.

https://github.com/klotzbrocken/RetroMac

Hope you like it ◡̈

r/nullPlayer

https://github.com/ad-repo/nullplayer

nullPlayer is 100% free and open source

A small macOS Tahoe utility for changing or removing window corner rounding.

Simple GUI with presets + custom radius. No SIP changes or code injection.

GitHub: https://github.com/mansarip/mac-window-corners

This has completely messed up my muscle memory. I'm so used to relying on Spotlight for everything, and now it's just frustrating.

Hey everyone,

Few months back, I shared Muffle with you all, a lightweight macOS menu bar app that blurs and dims background windows so you can focus on the active one.

There are several apps like HazeOver (dims the background but no blur) and Monocle (beautifully designed app but recently reported causing background performance issues) which does what Muffle does but I wanted to build an app which applies background blur and applies a dim, without taking a toll on CPU or GPU.

Some distinct features:
- ~0% idle usage
- Shake to toggle the blur
- Multi monitor support and monitor specific blur

It's fully local and no data is collected

Changes on the latest update:
- Muffle's blur/dim is much smoother
- Transition animation controls
- Removed accessibility permission
- Mission control support

As a seasonal offer, I'm pricing it at $4.99 for two devices. You can download it and use it for 7 days for free. You can use the code MACOSLAUNCH to get the discount.

It's apple notarized and distributed directly.

Privacy policy: https://www.getmuffle.com/privacy

Feel free to try it out and let me know your thoughts.

Link: https://www.getmuffle.com

First time building a macOS app.

Introducing Dockorate, a cozy Fall harvest that lives on your dock with more seasons and festivals coming soon.

Download it here: https://dockorate.com/

The notch has been sitting there doing nothing since 2021, so I put a radio in it. Collapsed it is a thin pill against the cutout. Hover it and it morphs into a peek card and then a full player with album art, live track titles and transport controls. Move the pointer away and it folds back.

No notch on your Mac? The player lives in the menu bar instead, so this works on an iMac or an external monitor too. With the unlock it can also draw a notch of its own there, sized to the menu bar at a width you pick.

Stations come from the Radio Browser community directory, searchable by name or genre. The app ships no stations of its own, so the library holds only what you put in it.

Free permanently: five saved stations, no account, no time limit, nothing stops playing. $9.99 once (a launch price until 19 October, then $19.99) adds live track titles, per-song album art, unlimited stations, stream URLs and the placement options. Nothing renews, and there is a 14-day trial of the paid half in the app.

There is no Notch Radio server. No account, no analytics, no crash reporting, no ads.

https://apps.apple.com/app/notch-radio/id6801505315?pt=128254947&ct=reddit-macos&mt=8

macOS 14 Sonoma or later. I will be in the thread if anything looks wrong on your setup, external displays especially.

Hey Guys,

I've just picked up my first MacOS device, an M3 MacBook Air. I've used Apple Devices for around a decade but have always daily driven Windows for my PC/Laptop. My question, what hints, tips, and tricks would you want to know as a new MacOS user these days? I work in the software industry so I'm pretty technical. I'd also love any app recommendations.

My Windows PC is still my day to day device, but want to focus more of my productivity on MacOS and leave Windows for gaming.

Thanks Guys

Hey everyone! I’ve been working on Puros, a music player for macOS with a native CoreAudio playback engine.

If you have a collection of FLACs and albums on your Mac but also use streaming services, Puros brings those sources into one app, with control over how your music reaches your headphones, speakers or DAC.

The long-term goal is a free, open-source alternative to apps like Audirvana and Roon, starting with a focused listening experience on macOS.

Point it at your music folders and browse your artists and albums. The Signal Path panel lets you see whether the audio is being resampled or processed along the way. Compatible DACs support exclusive mode and automatic sample-rate switching to follow the track.

For tuning your sound, there’s parametric EQ, AutoEQ headphone presets and VST/VST3 effects. You’ll also find internet radio, Last.fm scrobbling, Discord Rich Presence and a MilkDrop-style visualizer.

Provider plugins let you add streaming sources. Separate community providers are available for TIDAL, Spotify, SoundCloud and YouTube Music (currently all by me). Provider SDK lets others build integrations too.

Puros is free and open source, available for Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 12 or later. It’s an early alpha, and most of the app was written with AI assistance. Feedback, bug reports and contributions are welcome.

I’d love to hear how it works for everyday listening, whether you use headphones, MacBook speakers or an external audio setup.

I’m also looking for testers with less common DACs, audio interfaces, USB-to-S/PDIF converters or DSD-capable devices. Share your gear and what works or breaks, it would help expand hardware coverage.

Download: https://getpuros.app
Source: https://github.com/purosapp/purosapp

I recently ordered a new Mac mini M6, and I’m experiencing a strange graphical glitch in macOS. There is a noticeable black ring or outline appearing around the Dock and launcher.

I’m not sure whether this is a macOS visual bug, a graphics-rendering issue, or something related to my display settings.

Does anyone know how to remove the black ring or what might be causing it? I’d appreciate any suggestions, troubleshooting steps, or solutions.

I’ve attached a screenshot showing the issue.

Thanks in advance for your help!

I’m the developer of Docktopus. It’s a customizable dock with a bunch of desktop tools built into it, so you can reach them from the same place as your apps.

Compared with the stock macOS Dock, the biggest difference is what you can put alongside your app icons: window previews, clipboard history, audio controls, system stats, and more. You choose the widgets and layout, so it can be a small dock or a full taskbar.

There’s quite a bit in it now:

- Dock and window switching: Hover over a running app to preview its windows and click the one you want. There’s also a keyboard window switcher. You can import your existing macOS Dock, pin apps and folders, place it on any screen edge, and choose which monitors show it.

- Dynamic Island: An optional expandable panel at the top of your screen for music controls, clipboard history, system stats, calendar events, notifications, and audio/display controls. It also has a Drop Zone for temporarily keeping files within reach. Works on displays without a notch too.

- Clipboard manager: Search copied text, links, images, and files; pin things you reuse and organize them into categories. Text recognition runs on your Mac, so you can find a copied screenshot by words inside it.

- Time Spent: See where your day went with app usage, daily trends, and browser titles/URLs where supported. You can add manual entries, run timers, and export filtered records as CSV. Automatic tracking is optional, and the history stays on your Mac.

- Remembrance: For those “I saw this somewhere yesterday” moments. It can save screenshots of your active windows and recognize their text, letting you search past work by text, app, or date. You can copy text from captures or reopen a page when its URL is available. Capture is off by default, with app exclusions and storage/retention controls.

- Audio Mixer: Turn down one app without turning everything else down. Adjust or mute individual apps, switch audio outputs, and manage system volume from the dock, menu bar, or Island. Per-app controls need macOS 14.2 or newer.

- Other useful bits: CPU/GPU, memory, and network stats; brightness controls for compatible displays; calendar, timers, Now Playing, a color picker, and Coffee to keep your Mac awake.

For the look, there’s Liquid Glass, CDE, and Windows 95, all in light and dark versions, plus editable colors, fonts, and icons. Yes, the Windows 95 theme includes the retro taskbar look.

Clipboard history, Time Spent, and Remembrance stay local. There’s also a Privacy Pause that temporarily stops all three from collecting new activity.

There’s a trial before buying. Launch pricing is $19.99 ($29.99 regular), one-time for two Macs, with a year of updates included. You can keep using covered versions afterward without a subscription.

Screenshots, details, and download: https://docktopus.app

Hi everyone! I'm the developer of GPX Explore. It started as a way to open a GPX file on the Mac and look at the route, elevation and heart rate on a bigger screen.

I've added a 3D view so you can see the hills a route crosses. You can fly along the track, pause and look around, or export a flyover video to share. The clip shows it running on the Mac with a recorded ride.

It also lets you draw routes along roads and trails, trim a recording, fix stray GPS points, and split or join tracks. It saves ordinary GPX files.

The viewer, charts, climb breakdown and printing are free. The 3D view, flyover videos and editing are part of GPX Explore Pro, a one-time purchase shared across Mac, iPhone and iPad. No subscription or account required.

Product page

If you use GPX files for rides or hikes, I'd like to hear what you usually need to check before heading out.

App Store Link

Hi, I have a problem with my 2nd monitor. We are on MacOS 27, and we have problem after the update. We use Worship presenter to show texts on 2nd monitor(projector) but since the update, every time we click on desktop, the texts and everything that shows up on 2nd screens rolls down, after we click on the program it comes back. Is there a solution or option for this? Is there a button in options or something? Thanks.

https://lsuryatej.github.io/jot/

About a month ago I posted Jot here, a small scratchpad that pops up with ⌥A and does the math in the margin as you type. Most people scrolled past, which is fair. One person didn't. They used it every day and filed 9 bug reports on GitHub over the next few weeks. Multi-line selection drawing wrong, pasted images leaving a huge gap under them, headings throwing the cursor up a line, ⌘V in the find bar pasting into the note instead. Every single one was real.

So this is half a thank you and half "it's a lot less broken now, so you can go check it out".

If you missed the first post: you hit ⌥A, a note shows up over whatever you're doing, you type. If a line has math in it (`rent = 1800`, then `rent / 3` on the next line), the answer shows up on the right. Units and currency work too, `5 km to miles` and so on. Lines without math just stay lines. There are checklists, `5m timer`, `remind tomorrow 9am`, pasted images, and it can float, live in the menu bar, or sit at the screen edge as a sidebar you push your cursor into.

Since that post:

- selection, images and headings draw properly now

- you can switch notes with a mouse (side buttons, shift+scroll, or a little note picker), not just a trackpad swipe

- drag list items to reorder them, or ⌃⌘↑/↓ like in Apple Notes

- ⌘B / ⌘I, ⌘-click opens links, and bold is actually bold now

- proper menus and a real Settings window

- VoiceOver reads out the math answers

It's free and open source (MIT), about a 1 MB download, no account, no analytics, notes stay on your Mac.

I also made a site for it, and the site is basically a Jot note. You can type math into it and watch the answers show up in the margin, which explains it better than I can: https://lsuryatej.github.io/jot/

One heads up so it doesn't feel sketchy: it's not notarized (I don't pay Apple the $99 a year), so if you download the zip macOS will complain the first time and you'll need System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway. `brew install lsuryatej/jot/jot` skips all of that.

If you try it and something feels off, tell me here or on GitHub. Clearly that works.

Jax Embedder will attempt to extract the album cover image for each track from the Music app database, and save it directly into your file's metadata for safekeeping, so you never lose it in case the Music database gets corrupted or lost. 

Repository

Hi, I'm the developer of Cellar, a free and open-source Homebrew app for macOS.

I wanted to see what I'd installed, what needed updating, and which packages were there because something else depended on them. I also wanted to keep an eye on running services and their CPU and memory usage. Basically, have it all in one window.

You can install and update packages, start and stop services, and check what's missing from a project's Brewfile. Before an upgrade or cleanup, it shows you what will change.

It's built with SwiftUI, requires macOS 15+, and is signed and notarized. No account or telemetry. The code is MIT licensed.

Screenshots, source and download: https://github.com/tuhage/Cellar

Or install with Homebrew:

brew install --cask tuhage/cellar/cellar

If you try it, let me know how it works with your setup.

Am I the only one experiencing where my password is being typed, like character by character, after using TouchID?

I was just logging in to an account when I noticed this and I'm concerned if my device has malware or if it's a new update. After enabling autofill it just started typing itself out from email to password and it's not something I've experienced before, usually it just pastes the entire thing and done.

Any help/advice? Thanks in advance.

I'm the developer of FanBar, a free open-source alternative to Macs Fan Control — a native macOS menu-bar app that shows CPU temperature and fan RPM at a glance and lets you take manual control when you need it.

How it compares to Macs Fan Control:

• Free and fully open source (GPL-3.0), including the privileged helper — no paid tier; custom presets are free, not a Pro feature
• Lives entirely in the menu bar (native SwiftUI), no separate main window
• Silent/Balanced/Performance/Extreme presets with editable fan curves, up to 6 custom presets with their own name, icon and curve, 90°C alerts, desktop widget, UI in English/Chinese/Japanese/Russian
• Signed and notarized

Honest caveats: Macs Fan Control has the longer track record (since 2013), a broader per-sensor list, and a Windows build via Boot Camp. Full source-backed comparison: https://getfanbar.com/compare/macs-fan-control

Would love feedback from fellow Mac users — especially Intel Mac owners, since fan data availability varies by model.

the error message says i need at least 25.18 GB of space to update, but i have quadruple that and it still won’t let me update? what am i doing wrong?

I’m the developer of Cursor Teleporter 2, a macOS utility for moving the cursor between displays, saved positions, and screen edges.

On a setup with several monitors, the cursor can spend a surprising amount of time travelling back and forth across your screens. Reaching the same windows, panels, and controls all day adds up to repetitive movement, interrupted focus, and a tired wrist. Cursor Teleporter lets you save exact positions and return to them with keyboard shortcuts.

macOS already includes Move Cursor to Next Monitor, which is useful for a simple screen jump. Cursor Teleporter supports a broader range of cursor workflows: returning to exact saved positions, moving through displays and saved points separately, navigating forward or backward, and leaving your windows alone.

With 2.0, I added Edge Teleporting. Hold Option and move through an enabled screen edge, and the cursor appears on the opposite side. You can choose which edges are active and whether the modifier is required. The update also adds a visual saved-points overview, optional cursor highlighting, and actions for Apple Shortcuts and AppleScript.

Pricing and availability

For new users, Cursor Teleporter is $7.99 as a one-time purchase, with no subscription. Updates within a major version are always included; major upgrades may be paid.

For 2.0, I decided to make the upgrade free for everyone who already owns the app, including Mac App Store customers.

Requires macOS 26 or later.

Links

• Website and trial: https://www.apptorium.com/cursor-teleporter
• Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/cursor-teleporter/id6471482080

Caddy Docs is a big deal to me and I am proud to share it with you.

The basic idea is to organize class and work assignments into fun tabs on the edge of your screen.

• Colorful tabs that pop out into powerful workstations
• Desktop Pets that live on these Caddies (included among "Caddy Pro")
• The ability to arrange multiple files into a side-by-side view in one workstation
• A really good Caddy Notebook inside every Caddy.

• A new feature called Ask, powered by Apple Intelligence (also included among "Caddy Pro").

  Caddy Docs: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/caddy-docs/id6802867430?mt=12

100 free codes are in r/caddydocs.

Hi r/MacOS, I'm the developer of Compact Contacts.

Apple's Contacts app shows one card at a time, which gets painful once you have a few thousand people spread across iCloud, Google and Exchange. Compact Contacts opens the contacts you already have and shows them as a sortable table. There's no second address book and no sync of its own, so edits go back through macOS like any change you'd make in Contacts.

What it does today:

• One table with the columns you pick, saved layouts, and search across every field including notes
• Merge duplicates field by field (you choose which phone, email or address stays), and undo the last merge for up to 30 days
• Bulk edit with a before/after preview for every card before anything is saved
• Smart Views like "Missing Email" or "Has Notes"
• CSV and vCard import/export

It's been out for a while now and people using it have been really kind with feedback and bug reports, which is a big part of why 2.0 got this big. Thank you if that's you.

Coming in 2.0 (free update for everyone who already has it)

• Health Check: one scan gives your address book a score and lists duplicates, broken numbers and emails, missing names, stray spaces and so on
• Tags with colors, saved as regular Contacts groups so they sync with iCloud and Google
• Birthdays and anniversaries list with optional reminders
• Automatic encrypted backups on your Mac, with a history view that shows what changed and lets you restore a single field or a deleted contact
• Rules, like "when a new contact is added, format the phone number and add a tag"
• Print mailing labels and envelopes, Excel export, business card scanning, and a menu bar search
• Faster loading and search that works properly in every language
• Drag contacts out as vCards
• A redesigned iPhone app, with proper support for foldable iPhones (three columns when it's open)
• Lots of small fixes

Details

• macOS 15 or later, one-time US$24.99. No subscription, no in-app purchases
• No account, no ads, no analytics. The app never sends your contacts anywhere
• English, Turkish, German, French, Spanish, Arabic and Simplified Chinese

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6790129187?pt=129119018&ct=reddit_macos&mt=8

There's also an iPhone + iPad version (separate purchase): https://apps.apple.com/app/apple-store/id6795653671?pt=129119018&ct=reddit_macos&mt=8

Happy to answer anything in the comments.