If you frequently use AirDrop on the Mac to send and receive files between Macs or to and from iOS devices, you may appreciate having ultra-fast access to AirDrop by having it readily available from the Dock of Mac OS.
By using a little file system trick, you can gain direct access to AirDrop through the Mac Dock, rather than having to use the Finder to navigate to the file sharing feature. This guide will walk through how to set that up on Mac.
Obviously the Mac must support AirDrop to be able to use the feature, let alone have access to it. Nearly every vaguely modern Mac supports AirDrop, and all modern MacOS operating systems support the feature, so as long as you’re reasonably up to date then compatibility shouldn’t be an issue. Adding an AirDrop icon into the Dock of the Mac is achieved by locating a shortcut to the AirDrop feature and then placing it into the Dock. This is hidden by default within a system folder, but it’s easy to retrieve with the following steps:
How to Add AirDrop to the Dock on Mac
Open the Finder of Mac OS
Pull down the “Go” menu and select “Go To Folder”
Enter the following directory path exactly, then hit Enter / Return to jump to that location in the file system:
Find the “AirDrop.app” application within the directory, then drag and drop Airdrop.app into the Dock of the Mac, arranging it for where you want the icon to be accessible
Close the /CoreServices/Finder.app/Contents/ folder when finished
Now if you click on the AirDrop icon in the Mac Dock, an AirDrop window will open immediately in Finder to activate the feature, making AirDrop on the Mac ready to send and receive.
Remember, AirDrop can work to send data to and from Macs, as well as to and from iOS devices. If you’re unfamiliar with data transfer using AirDrop, the following walkthrough guides should be helpful to you:
It’s also helpful to recall that where AirDrop files go depends on the target recipients operating system, on the Mac that’s always the Downloads folder of the active user account, but in iOS it can be various places depending on the file type being sent.
Ultimately the AirDrop window accessed from the Dock this way will be the same AirDrop window you’d access in Finder when clicking on ‘AirDrop’ in the sidebar menu, or from the Go menu, or via the AirDrop keyboard shortcut, it’s just a matter of ease and speed that make adding the AirDrop icon to the Dock a helpful trick.
You may notice this is similar to how you go about adding iCloud Drive to the Mac Dock, and so while you’re performing either trick you could add another step to include that as well if it interests you.
Two major security flaws have been found in modern computer processors, potentially impacting nearly all modern computers in the world.
All Macs and iOS devices along with most Windows PC and Android devices are potentially susceptible to the critical security flaws, named Meltdown and Spectre.
Theoretically, the vulnerabilities could be used to gain unauthorized access to data, passwords, files, and other personal information on any impacted computer or device.
What are Meltdown and Spectre?
The vulnerabilities are described by security researchers as follows:
“Meltdown and Spectre exploit critical vulnerabilities in modern processors. These hardware bugs allow programs to steal data which is currently processed on the computer. While programs are typically not permitted to read data from other programs, a malicious program can exploit Meltdown and Spectre to get hold of secrets stored in the memory of other running programs. This might include your passwords stored in a password manager or browser, your personal photos, emails, instant messages and even business-critical documents.
Meltdown and Spectre work on personal computers, mobile devices, and in the cloud. Depending on the cloud provider’s infrastructure, it might be possible to steal data from other customers.”
Having security flaws that potentially impact nearly every computer and smart phone on the planet is obviously fairly major news, and you can read more about it here, here, or here if you’re interested.
“All Mac systems and iOS devices are affected, but there are no known exploits impacting customers at this time. Since exploiting many of these issues requires a malicious app to be loaded on your Mac or iOS device, we recommend downloading software only from trusted sources such as the App Store.”
So what should you do? And how should you defend or protect against these security vulnerabilities?
How to Defend Against Meltdown and Spectre
The easiest way to avoid potential security trouble with Meltdown or Spectre vulnerabilities is to take a multi-prong approach to computer and device security:
Avoid untrusted software, and never download anything from untrusted sources
Use an updated web browser that contains relevant patches for these security flaws
Install relevant security updates and/or system software updates when they become available for your device or computer
By the way, those are good general computer security tips to practice… even after the threat of Meltdown and Spectre passes thanks to software updates. Let’s detail a bit further:
1: Avoid Sketchy Websites and Dubious Downloads
Do not download untrusted software or anything from an untrusted source, ever. Not downloading sketchy software from sketchy sources is good computing advice in general, not only to protect against Meltdown and Spectre, but also to prevent other potential malware and junkware from ending up on your computer.
Never accept an unsolicited download. Never install software that you did not specifically seek out to install. Always download and get software from trusted websites and sources, whether it’s the software developer, the vendor, or a place like the App Store.
2: Update Your Web Browsers
Another potential attack vector comes from web browsers. Fortunately, major web browsers have been (or will be) updated to ward off potential problems:
Google Chrome will apparently be patched on January 24 with version 64 or later
Safari will apparently be patched in the near future for Mac, iPhone, and iPad
For Windows users, Microsoft Windows 10 and the Edge browser have been patched, and updates for other versions of Windows are due out as well. Tthe latest versions of Android have apparently been patched by Google as well.
If you’re concerned about using an un-patched web browser in the meantime, you could shift to a patched browser for the interim period until the primary browser gets repaired. For example, you could download and use Firefox 57 (or later) for a few days until Safari or Chrome gets updated.
3: Install Security Updates and/or Software Updates When Available
You will want to be sure to install relevant security updates when they become available for your devices and computers.
Another option is to update operating system software to major new release versions. Apple says they have already released mitigations for Mac, iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, and Apple TV running the following system software or newer:
It remains to be seen if Apple will issue independent security update patches for prior versions of Mac OS system software, but in the past Apple has often done this with the prior two system software releases. Hopefully macOS Sierra 10.12.6 and Mac OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 will receive separate future security software updates to protect against Meltdown and Spectre, since not all Mac users can or want to update to macOS High Sierra.
Apple Watch and watchOS are apparently not impacted.
TLDR: Significant security vulnerabilities have been discovered on basically all modern computers. Keep an eye on the Software Update mechanism of your Mac, iPhone, iPad, other computers and smartphones, update your apps and web browsers, and install security updates when they become available.
With all the fuss about old, depleted batteries slowing down your iPhones, it might be a good idea to at least check the health of your iPhone’s battery. To do this, you can use a free tool called coconutBattery, an app that digs into your iOS and Mac devices to tell you how old they are, and how strong your battery is compared to when it was new.
CoconutBattery
CoconutBattery is an Mac app that performs a single task — it checks the status of the battery in your Mac, or the battery of any iDevices connected to that Mac. To use it, you just plug your iPhone or iPad into your Mac, and make sure that it trusts the host computer (if you regularly sync your iPhone with your Mac, you can skip the “trust” step. If you don’t, then just follow along with the instructions that will appear on your Mac and iPhone’s screens).
Once connected, you’ll see a window something like this:
All you need to know about your iPhone battery in one place.
That’s the iOS page of the coconutBattery window, and it shows you several pieces of useful info. The top section is basic data about the connected iPhone (or iPad): dater of manufacture, OS version, device model, and the storage space currently used. For more details –serial number, ages in days, and the current kind of charger connected — click on the Device details… button.
Below that is the section we’re interested in: the battery details. Here you will see two bars, hopefully both green. The upper bar shows you the current charge level of the battery (similar to the percentage readout on the iPhone itself), along with the current charge, and the full possible charge capacity in milliAmp hours (mAh).
New vs. old
Below that is a bar showing the “design capacity” vs the current capacity. That is, it shows you how much charge your iPhone’s battery can hold today, vs how much it could hold when it left the factory (the “design capacity” is the official spec for you device — the actual capacity when new could be slightly over or under that number, but it is a good guide).
Thus, you can see just how weak your battery has become over the years. You can also see how many charge cycles the battery has been through.
Works on Mac batteries too
CoconutBattery also works on the Mac.
How to maximize your battery’s lifespan
There are several tips yo can follow to keep you battery healthy for as long as possible. Apple has a support page dedicated to just that, and it’s a great read if you want the truth about batteries from the source. After all, who would know better about battery life and health than Apple, a company obsessed with optimizing battery performance so it can make its devices ever smaller?
Check it out, and maybe you’ll be able to make your current iPhone last a little longer.
If you are running coconutBattery on a Mac with a battery i.e. a MacBook, then you can see this info for your Mac’s battery too. And you can also save the current data in order to keep a record of your batteries’ depletion over time. And finally, there’s a coconutBattery Plus upgrade to let you check iOS batteries wirelessly, and to unlock battery charge notifications, plus advanced viewers for Mac and iOS.
iTunes for Mac and Windows has a feature which allows music to shuffle between songs in a library, and sometimes iTunes appears to automatically shuffle songs in a music library whether the user intended to enable the feature or not. Often this is because a user has selected to enable the shuffle option intentionally but forgot about it, but sometimes shuffle my be turned on accidentally or inadvertently. Additionally, some iTunes users occasionally report that their music will seemingly shuffle and skip between songs randomly as well.
If you want to disable music shuffling in iTunes in Mac OS or Windows, you can easily do so using a few different methods.
One approach is to look for the little shuffle button which toggles the feature off and on, it looks the same in iTunes on a computer as it does in iOS. Another approach is to disable the shuffle feature through menu options.
How to Stop iTunes Shuffling Music on Mac or Windows
Setting shuffle off via the iTunes menu items is easy:
Open iTunes if you have not done so already, and start playing any music or song from a library
Pull down the “Controls” menu and then go to the “Shuffle” submenu
Select “OFF” so that the checkmark appears next to the Off label to disable shuffling
This should completely turn off shuffling of music in iTunes on Mac OS or Windows.
Note that if you turn shuffling to OFF and the music continues to shuffle, you will likely want to turn shuffle on, start playing music, then turn shuffle OFF again, and that should resolve it. It’s likely iTunes version dependent, but some users have reported off and on that shuffle seems to either turn itself on, or is stubbornly persistent even if toggled off. Of course, user error or misunderstanding how shuffle works is also a possible explanation, particularly for those who are not familiar with the shuffle button icon which exists in iTunes, and is fairly easy to toggle on unintentionally. That’s another way to turn off and on shuffling, which we’ll get to next.
Disabling Shuffling of Music and Songs on Mac or Windows via Shuffle Toggle
Another approach to disable shuffling of iTunes music is to toggle the button switch. The shuffle button in iTunes looks the same as it does on iPhone and iPad, so if you’re familiar with shuffling music in iOS 11 and iOS 10, or disabling shuffling in iOS, then you likely know what button to look for.
Open iTunes and start playing any song as usual
Look at the little iTunes track info display at the top of the app which shows the artist, song name, and song length, then find the little shuffle button and click it so that it’s not highlighted
The shuffle button looks like two intersecting arrows.
If shuffle is enabled, it will look like it does above and below, with a darkened highlight around the button:
If shuffle is disabled, it will look like two intersecting arrows without a border or highlight on them:
Some people may disable Shuffle in iTunes because they want to play through a track list as it appears in iTunes library, or because they want to stay on one particular album. If you’re disabling shuffle for the latter reason, another helpful tip for shuffling in iTunes involves joining songs together as a compilation in iTunes so that they shuffle together, which works great for shuffling within albums or within artists with broad libraries.
This may seem like a simple or obvious trick, but many users are not aware of how shuffling works or may not be aware that they enabled it accidentally, usually by clicking the little arrow shuffle button.
Of course enabling shuffling is just as easy as selecting the “ON” option in the Shuffle menu, or by clicking on the shuffle button and leaving it highlighted. Use the setting as you want and as you enjoy your music library.
A significant security vulnerability has been discovered with macOS High Sierra, potentially allowing any person to log into a Mac with full root administrative capabilities without a password.
This is an urgent security problem, and while a software update should arrive to resolve the problem soon, this article will detail how to protect your Mac from this security hole.
What is the root login bug, and why does it matter?
For some quick background, the security hole allows a person to enter ‘root’ as a username and then immediately login as root to the Mac, without a password. The password-less root login can occur directly with a physical machine at the general user login screen seen on boot, from the System Preferences panels which typically require authentication, or even over VNC and Remote Login if those latter two remote access features are enabled. Any of these scenarios then allow full access to the MacOS High Sierra machine without ever using a password.
A root user account provides the highest level of system access possible on a MacOS or any unix based operating system, root grants all capabilities of administrative user accounts on the machine in addition to unrestricted access to any system level components or files.
Mac users impacted by the security bug include anyone running macOS High Sierra 10.13, 10.13.1, or 10.13.2 betas who have not previously enabled the root account or changed a root user account password on the Mac before, which is the vast majority of Mac users running High Sierra.
Sounds bad, right? It is, but there’s a fairly easy workaround that will prevent this security bug from being a problem. All you have to do is set a root password on the impacted Mac.
How to Prevent Root Login Without a Password in MacOS High Sierra
There are two approaches to preventing root login without a password on a MacOS High Sierra machine, you can use Directory Utility or the command line. We’ll cover both. Directory Utility is perhaps easier for most users since it is accomplished entirely from the graphical interface on the Mac, whereas the command line approach is text based and generally considered more complex.
Using Directory Utility to Lock Down Root
Open Spotlight on the Mac by hitting Command+Spacebar (or clicking the Spotlight icon in the upper right corner of the menubar) and type in “Directory Utility” and hit return to launch the app
Click the little lock icon in the corner and authenticate with an admin account login
Now pull down the “Edit” menu and choose “Change Root Password…” ***
Enter a password for the root user account and confirm, then click “OK”
Close out of Directory Utility
*** If the root user account is not yet enabled, choose “Enable Root User” and then set a password instead.
Essentially all you are doing is assigning a password to the root account, meaning that logging in with root will then require a password as it should. If you do not assign a password to root this way, amazingly, a macOS High Sierra machine accepts a root login without a password at all.
Using the Command Line to Assign a Root Password
Users who would prefer to use the command line in macOS can also set or assign a root password with sudo and the regular old passwd command.
Open the Terminal application, found in /Applications/Utilities/
Type the following syntax exactly into the terminal, then hit the return key:
sudo passwd root
Enter your admin password to authenticate and hit return
At “New password”, enter a password you won’t forget, hit return, and confirm it
Be sure to set the root password to something you will remember, or perhaps even matching your admin password.
How do I know if my Mac is impacted by the password-free root login bug?
It appears only macOS High Sierra machines are impacted by this security bug. The easiest way to check to see if your Mac is vulnerable to the root login bug is to try and login as root, without a password.
You can do this from the general boot login screen, or via any admin authentication panel (clicking the lock icon) available in System Preferences like FileVault or Users & Groups.
Simply put ‘root’ as the user, do not enter a password, and click “Unlock” twice – if the bug impacts you, then you will be logged in as root or granted root privileges. You must hit “unlock” twice, the first time you click the “unlock” button it creates the root account with a blank password, and the second time you click “unlock” it logs in, allowing for full root access.
The bug, which is basically a 0day root exploit, was first reported to the public on Twitter by @lemiorhan and has quickly gained steam and media attention due to the potential severity of impact. Apple is apparently aware of the issue and is working on a software update to resolve the problem.
Does the root login bug impact macOS Sierra, Mac OS X El Capitan, or before?
The password-less root login bug appears to only impact macOS High Sierra 10.13.x and does not appear to impact earlier versions of macOS and Mac OS X system software.
Remember, Apple is aware of this problem and will issue a security update in the near future to address the bug. In the meantime, do yourself a favor and set or change the root password on Macs running macOS High Sierra to protect them from unauthorized full access to the machine and all its data and contents.
If your Mac is experiencing unusual problems that you suspect may be a result of a hardware issue, using Apple Diagnostics may help to identify and even troubleshoot a problem.
Apple Diagnostics will run a suite of tests on the Mac to check for hardware issues – meaning, not a problem with system software, but instead it searches for trouble with some sort of hardware component on the Macintosh. For example, if a port is no longer working, a battery has failed, an issue with the graphics card or display, things of that nature that are not related to system software or software related trouble.
Apple Diagnostics is basically the modern incarnation of Apple Hardware Test. Newer Macs will run Apple Diagnostics, whereas older Macs from 2013 and before will run the Apple Hardware Test suite instead. AHT typically displays a bit more information to the end user, while AD is a bit more restrained. Nonetheless, both are initiated the same way, and both are excellent for troubleshooting potential hardware issues on a Mac, regardless of whether it’s an old or new model.
Entering into Apple Diagnostics on a Mac is fairly simple, requiring a keypress on system boot. Here’s what you should do to accurately run the test on a Mac:
How to Run Apple Diagnostics on Mac to Test for Hardware Issues
Disconnect all devices and cables connected to the Mac that are not required for it to function (i.e.; keyboard, mouse, external display, power cable)
Shut down the Mac by going to the Apple menu and choosing “Shut Down”
Turn on the Mac by pressing the Power button, then immediately press and hold the “D” key on the keyboard
Continue holding the “D” key until you see a screen asking you to select your language, then click on your language choice to proceed
Apple Diagnostics will run a series of hardware tests on the Mac, displaying a progress bar on the screen with an estimated time remaining and a “Checking your Mac…” message, this usually takes a few minutes to complete
When finished, the Mac will report any issues that are found and show a reference code* if applicable
You can run the Apple Diagnostic test again by clicking “Run the test again” if desired, otherwise you can choose the “Get Started” support option, “Restart” option, or “Shut Down” option
There are many potential error messages that may show up in Apple Diagnostics, and if you’re not sure what to make of them you can check them with the Apple diagnostic code list discussed further below, or contact Apple directly for support options.
Keep in mind that not every single hardware issue is going to show up or be flagged by Apple Diagnostics. Some more unusual hardware problems may not be discovered by the Apple Diagnostic tool included on Mac, and would need to have additional troubleshooting and discovery tests run by an authorized Apple technician. This can include unusual behavior like a computer that won’t start randomly, or a Mac that randomly shuts down, or some problems with ports or the internal display. Also, any physical damage to the Mac will not show up in Apple Diagnostics, so if your Mac has a big dent in the size or a cracked screen, that will not show up in the hardware test. Neither will something like drying a Mac after the Mac has sustained water or liquid contact, unless the water contact actually damaged something that is then detectable in the diagnostic test. For this reason, the Apple Diagnostic test is not perfect, but it’s a great starting point for end consumers to begin troubleshooting some particularly annoying hardware problems on a Mac, iMac, MacBook, MacBook Pro, or other modern Macintosh computer.
Running Apple Diagnostics on a Mac via the Internet
You can also run Apple Diagnostics test over the internet by holding down Option + D during system start. This takes a little longer to load, but the hardware diagnostic test otherwise works the same.
How do I interpret Apple Diagnostics references codes from a Mac?
If Apple Diagnostics reports a potential issue, it will provide a reference diagnostic code and a brief explanation of what the issue pertains to. You can then get further information by making note of the Apple Diagnostics reference code number and checking the Apple Reference Codes page here for additional information. This is a helpful resource and should assist you in troubleshooting a hardware problem.
Going Further with Apple Diagnostics and Troubleshooting Mac Hardware
Remember, the Apple Diagnostics tool is helpful, but it is not definitive. If you are experiencing problems on a Mac that seem to be clearly related to a hardware problem, you will probably want to do the following:
Run the aforementioned Apple Diagnostics test, repeat the test a few times if desired and/or to be thorough
If the problem persists, contact Apple Support or an official Apple authorized repair center for further assistance
The good news is that hardware problems are rare, and most hardware problems are fixable. In fact, many hardware issues will be covered by the Apple warranty or Applecare Extended Warranty, meaning a repair would be free of charge, as long as the problem is not not from damage or user-caused behavior.
If you’re on a Mac with recent macOS release (Sierra or El Capitan), then Apple is defaulting to try and automatically downloading the 5GB installer for macOS High Sierra in the background to your computer. When the download completes, the Mac then sends you a notification suggesting that High Sierra is ready to install, with the notification only having two options; “Install” and “Details”. Some users may find this convenient to automatically download a major software update and casually suggest to install it onto a Mac, but other users may be less than excited about this behavior, particularly if you’re not yet ready to install macOS High Sierra onto a computer.
If you do not want macOS High Sierra to be automatically downloaded onto a Mac, maybe because you’re avoiding the macOS update or postponing it while a particular bug or issue is sorted out, we’ll walk through a few steps on how to prevent a Mac from automatically downloading the MacOS High Sierra installer.
How to Stop MacOS High Sierra Installer from Downloading Automatically
The first thing you can to prevent High Sierra from automatically downloading do is toggle system preferences to prevent the automatic downloading of updates in the background.
Go to the Apple menu and choose “System Preferences”
Go to the “App Store” panel
Uncheck the box next to “Download newly available updates in the background”
Exit System Preferences
This alone should prevent macOS Sierra or Mac OS X El Capitan from downloading the “Install macOS High Sierra” file onto your Mac into the Applications folder, and prevent from sending the notification that it’s ready to install.
Some Mac users may want to maintain automatic software downloads and updates however, but still avoid macOS High Sierra and the macOS High Sierra installer. Or perhaps you want to be absolutely certain that the Mac App Store does not download the installer for High Sierra. The next tip will detail a trick to accomplish that.
How to Completely Prevent the Mac App Store from Downloading the MacOS High Sierra Installer
If you’re committed to avoiding macOS High Sierra for whatever reason, you can completely prevent the “Install macOS High Sierra” application from ever downloading via the Mac App Store with this trick, which basically spoofs a copy of the installer and locks it down so that it can’t be overwritten. If you want to install High Sierra down the road, you will need to undo this and remove the spoof installer.
From the Finder of Mac OS, go to the Applications folder
Look for the legitimate “Install macOS High Sierra” in the directory, and if it exists, delete it by dragging to the Trash
Locate a small application in the /Applications folder, like “Launchpad”
Duplicate the selected Launchpad app by selecting Launchpad then hitting Command+D (or going to the File menu and choosing “Duplicate”)
Rename the “Launchpad copy” file to “Install macOS High Sierra” – the name must exactly match the original authentic macOS High Sierra installer
Now choose to “Get Info” on the freshly named fake “Install macOS High Sierra” app by selecting it and hitting Command+i (or going to the File menu and choosing ‘Get Info’)
Click the “Locked” checkbox button to lock down the renamed app, then close the Get Info window
You can confirm this has worked by opening the Mac App Store and trying to download the MacOS High Sierra installer, which will fail with a message stating “macOS High Sierra failed to download”.
Essentially what you have done is taken another system level app from Apple (in this case Launchpad, but you can use another system app if you want), made a copy of it, renamed it to “Install macOS High Sierra” and locked it so that the file can not be changed or overwritten. This means when the App Store attempts to download MacOS High Sierra it will fail because the system will think the High Sierra installer file already exists, and discover that it is locked and can not be overwritten.
Important: This completely prevents the App Store from being able to download the MacOS High Sierra installer as long as the file exists in the Application folder. You will not be able to install macOS High Sierra on the Mac for as long as that renamed Launchpad / fake Installer exists in the Applications directory. If you want to reverse this, simply delete the fake “Install macOS High Sierra” app, or Get Info again and unlock the file, and then move the item
Why does macOS High Sierra Installer automatically download in the first place?
Apple has decided to automatically download the macOS High Sierra installer onto Macs running El Capitan or Sierra, a support document states the following:
If you’re using OS X El Capitan v10.11.5 or later, High Sierra conveniently downloads in the background, making it even easier to upgrade your Mac. When the download has completed, you receive a notification indicating that High Sierra is ready to be installed. Click Install in the notification to get started.
If you want to install High Sierra later, just dismiss the notification. Install it at any time by opening the file named Install macOS High Sierra from your Applications folder, Launchpad, or Spotlight. Or delete the installer by dragging it to the Trash. You can always get it again from the App Store.
This aggressive automatic download push for High Sierra was pointed out 512pixels and Tidbits, both of which make various good points about why it may not be a great idea to automatically download a 5.2GB file in the background, let alone try and install a brand new operating system, which is not without some reported problems, onto unsuspecting users, and without even backing up their computers beforehand (which would prevent a potential easy downgrade from macOS High Sierra to what you had before).
Of course another option that is less aggressive is to disable Notifications and alerts in Mac OS completely by enabling a 24/7 Do Not Disturb mode, which will simply prevent the “install macOS High Sierra” alerts from showing up on screen, but it wouldn’t prevent the download. Personally, I hate notifications and alerts of all kinds on my Mac and use the 24/7 Do Not Disturb trick so that I’m not pestered by nagging alerts and inconsequential distractions, but many users really like the alerts feature and may not find that as a reasonable alternative.
Of course if you’re already on High Sierra, none of this is applicable to you, and if you don’t mind that High Sierra is possibly downloading in the background and pushing to install, you won’t care much about this either. And to be perfectly clear, this is not unique to High Sierra, Apple was also automatically downloading Sierra to Macs that were running El Capitan as well. Nonetheless, if you don’t like auto-downloading large files or system software, you may appreciate stopping the behavior on your own Mac or others you manage.
Some MacOS High Sierra users have reported issues with wireless networking after updating their Mac to the latest system software version. The problems may range from difficulties connecting to wi-fi networks, dropping wi-fi connections (particularly after waking from sleep), sluggish wireless speeds, and other frustrating connectivity problems with wi-fi networks.
This article will attempt to detail some common problems, and explain some troubleshooting steps to resolve wi-fi issues with macOS High Sierra.
Having Wi-Fi Problems in High Sierra? Update to the latest macOS High Sierra Update
Before doing anything else, if the Mac is currently on High Sierra then you should update to the latest version of macOS High Sierra that is available. Apple regularly releases software updates to system software, and macOS High Sierra is no different. If you are still running macOS High Sierra 10.13, then you need to update to the latest point release version available (10.13.1, 10.13.2, etc). This is easy, but you should always backup a Mac before installing any system software update.
Go to the Apple menu and choose the App Store, then go to the “Updates” section and install any available system software updates to High Sierra
Point release updates often include bug fixes, and if you’re experiencing a problem that is related to a core system software bug then it’s possible the system software update will resolve that, possibly along with other reported problems
The bottom line: check for available system software updates and install them if any are available.
Is the Wi-Fi router SSID (name) hidden?
Some Mac users with MacOS High Sierra have reported difficulty connecting to wi-fi access points that have a hidden SSID.
One possible workaround is to make the SSID visible, this must be done on the wi-fi router itself and will vary per wireless access point, but if you have access to the wi-fi router it may be a solution. This works for many users, but obviously if you must have a hidden SSID for some reason then making the SSID visible is not always a viable option.
Does wi-fi only drop when macOS High Sierra wakes from sleep or screensaver wake?
Some users report that macOS High Sierra drops their wi-fi connection when waking from sleep or when waking from a screen saver, or that macOS High Sierra is slow to re-join wi-fi after waking from sleep.
You may be able to resolve wi-fi dropping after a Mac wakes from sleep by following the steps outlined below to create a new wireless configuration.
One reported workaround to wi-fi not re-joining after waking from sleep is the following:
Go to the Wi-Fi menu and choose “Turn Off Wi-Fi”
Wait a few seconds and then return to the wi-fi menu and choose “Turn Wi-Fi On”
Sometimes simply toggling the wireless capability off and on again is sufficient to resolve an inability to rejoin a wi-fi network. Some users are also reportedly turning off wi-fi before they sleep their Mac, and then enabling it again once their Mac is awake.
Another possible workaround is to use caffeinate at the command line, or an app like Caffeine or KeepingYouAwake, or sleep corner, to temporarily prevent sleep while those functions are activated. This is obviously not much of a solution if you must sleep a Mac.
Of course, workarounds are inconvenient and they are not true solutions. If you’re experiencing wifi connection problems then try the steps below to potentially resolve them.
Creating a New Wi-Fi Configuration in macOS High Sierra
Back up your Mac before continuing, these steps involve removing system level configuration files. Do not proceed without a backup made so that you can roll back if something goes wrong.
First, turn off wi-fi by pulling down the wi-fi menu bar item in the upper right corner and selecting “Turn Wi-Fi Off”
From the Finder, create a new folder onto the desktop (or another user folder) and call it something like “WiFiConfigBackup”
Go to Finder in macOS, and pull down the “Go” menu, then choose the “Go To Folder” option
Enter the following directory path into window and then click on “Go”
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/
Find and select the following files that are located within the now open SystemConfiguration folder
Drag those files into the folder “WiFiConfigBackup” you created in the second step (alternatively, if you’re advanced, have a backup, and know what you’re doing, you can remove them)
Restart the Mac by going to the Apple menu and choosing “Restart”, then let the Mac boot up as usual
Return to the Wi-Fi menu in the upper right corner and choose “Turn Wi-Fi On”, and then join the wireless network as usual
Essentially what this is doing is ditching your old wireless preferences and causing MacOS High Sierra to replace them by generating new wi-fi preferences. For many users, this is sufficient to solve any problems with wifi networking.
Optional: Make a New Custom Network Location
If you’re still having wi-fi problems after ditching the preferences and rebooting the Mac, you can try the steps below to create a new network location with custom configuration settings.
Go to the Apple menu and choose “System Preferences”
Select the “Network” panel then choose “Wi-Fi” from the list
Near the top of the preference panel, pull down the “Location” menu and select “Edit Locations” from the dropdown
Click the [+] plus button to create a new network location, name it something like “FixWiFiCustomConfig” or whatever is easily identifiable to you, then click on “Done”
Alongside Network Name, pull down the dropdown menu and select the wi-fi network to join, enter the password if applicable
Click on the “Advanced” button in the corner of the Network preference panel
Choose the “TCP/ IP” tab and click on “Renew DHCP Lease”
Next go to the “DNS” tab, and within the “DNS Servers” section click on the [+] plus button then add the following IP addresses (one entry per line, by the way these are Google DNS servers, you can use others if you’d prefer but these are particularly easy to remember and ubiquitous):
8.8.8.8
8.8.4.4
Next, select the “Hardware” tab and set the ‘Configure’ option to “Manually”
Adjust the “MTU” option to “Custom” and set the number to “1453”
Now click on “OK”
Finally, click on “Apply” to set the network changes you just made for the new network location
Exit out of System Preferences
Open Safari or Chrome, and visit a website – it should load fine
This sequence of trashing wi-fi preferences, generating new wireless preferences, and then, if need be, creating a new network location with custom DNS and MTU are a longstanding set of steps for resolving various wireless problems in many versions of Mac OS, including Sierra, El Capitan, and before.
High Sierra Wi-Fi still not working?
If you’ve done all of the above and you’re still having issues with wireless networking, you can try some general troubleshooting tips too;
Try to connect to a completely different wi-fi network, if wi-fi works fine with other networks it could be an issue with the router
Connect a completely different device to the same wi-fi router, does it work fine?
Try adjusting the wi-fi router channel, or using 2.4GHZ instead of 5GHZ (or vice versa)
If all else fails and wi-fi worked fine before using High Sierra, you can downgrade macOS High Sierra to a prior version of macOS assuming you made a backup with Time Machine before updating to High Sierra. Downgrading is rather dramatic and should be considered a last resort
Apple has released macOS High Sierra 10.13.1 to all Mac users running High Sierra. The MacOS High Siera 10.13.1 update includes bug fixes, security improvements, and feature enhancements, and also includes over 70 new emoji icons.
Users who are or were experiencing anyproblems with macOS High Sierra should update to macOS 10.13.1 as it may remedy potential issues or bugs experienced with prior builds.
Separately, Apple has also issued Security Update releases for prior Mac OS versions including MacOS Sierra and OS X El Capitan. A minor update to iTunes 12.7.1 is also available. iPhone and iPad users can alsodownload iOS 11.1 update now, along with watchOS 4.1 for Apple Watch and tvOS 11.1 for Apple TV.
How to Download and Update to macOS High Sierra 10.13.1
Always backup a Mac before installing any software update. The simplest way to install a software update on the Mac is through the App Store update mechanism.
Go to the Apple menu and choose “App Store”
Go to the “Updates” tab and choose to download and update macOS High Sierra 10.13.1 when it becomes available
Prior Mac OS versions will find Security Update 2017-001 Sierra or Security Update 2017-004 El Capitan available in the Updates section of the Mac App Store as well.
Users can also choose to download macOS High Sierra 10.13.1 as an independent update packageif desired by going to the Apple support website:
Note that because 10.13.1 is the first update for macOS High Sierra that a ‘combo’ update is not available for the .1 release, since it is not required to combine prior updates.
macOS 10.13.1 Release Notes
The macOS High Sierra 10.13.1 Update improves the security, stability, and compatibility of your Mac, and is recommended for all users.
This update:
-Adds support for 70 new emoji, including food types, animals, mythical creatures, clothing options, more expressive smiley faces, gender-neutral characters and more. -Fixes a bug where Bluetooth appeared as unavailable during Apple Pay transactions. -Improves the reliability of Microsoft Exchange message sync in Mail. -Fixes an issue where Spotlight does not accept keyboard input.
Enterprise content:
-Improves the reliability of SMB printing. -Makes Touch ID preferences accessible while logged in as a mobile account on MacBook Pro with Touch Bar. -Adds support for unlocking a FileVault-encrypted APFS volume using a recovery keychain file. For details, enter man diskutil in Terminal.
For those with additional Apple devices, Apple has also released small security updates to other Mac OS X releases, a small update to iTunes, iPhone and iPad users can update to iOS 11.1, watchOS 4.1 for Apple Watch, and tvOS 11.1 for Apple TV are all available as well.
When you setup a Mac or create a new Mac user account, you’ll be asked for a full name during the setup process, and that full name gets associated with the user account. But what if you want to change the full name associated with a user account in Mac OS? Perhaps you had a name change, or want to correct a typo in the full account name, and you want the Mac user account full name to reflect the adjustment.
This tutorial will show you how to change the full name associated with any user account in Mac OS. For example, if a user account name is set to “John Doe” but you want to change it to “Sir John Doe III”, these are the steps you’d want to take. You can change the full name of any user account on a Mac as long as you have admin access of the computer.
Remember, this aims to change the full name associated with a Mac user account only. It is not attempting to change an account name, home directory, short name, or any other user account details.
Be forewarned that changing an account name can lead to problems with logins, keychain data, saved network logins, since the associated full name will no longer be the same, and thus attempting to login or use the old full name will no longer work. This is not a process to take lightly. It is essential that you thoroughly backup the Mac before editing user account details, otherwise the user account and any related data or files could be damaged or lost irretrievably.
How to Change the Full Name Associated with a User Account in Mac OS
Important: back up the Mac before beginning the process of editing user account name details. Editing user account details could lead to problems with the user account being modified. Do not proceed without a complete backup made with Time Machine or your backup method of choice.
Backup the Mac before beginning, do not skip a backup otherwise you may ruin your user account
Pull down the Apple menu and choose “System Preferences”
Choose “Users & Groups” from the system preference options
Click the lock icon in the lower right corner to authenticate and unlock the preference panel
Locate the user name you want to edit the full name of, then right-click on that account name (or hold down the Control click and click on the account name) and choose “Advanced Options”
At the Advanced Options screen, locate “Full Name” and replace the name in the Full Name field with the new name you’d like to use on the user account
When satisfied with the change to the full name field, click “OK” to set the change of the user account full name *
Exit out of System Preferences
Restart the Mac for the full name change to carry over everywhere
In the screenshot examples here, we changed an account user full name from “OSXDaily” to “OSXDaily.com Example Name”, because the name is long it becomes truncated in the Users & Groups preference panel.
* Do not make any other changes or edit any other fields in the advanced user account options. One wrong change could make the account completely useless and lead to major problems.
The advanced user account options allow for many other changes to be made, though all should be limited to advanced users only with compelling reasons to make those changes, and a thorough understanding of the risks involved (there’s a reason Apple puts a giant red warning on the top of this preference panel setting screen, it is remarkably simple to render a user account useless if you are not 100% certain in what you are doing). We’ve covered many of these advanced user account topics before, including changing user account short names in Mac OS, changing the user home directory in Mac OS, or even moving a home directory to another location.
It’s worth mentioning that changing a user account full name should only be used for making minor changes to the literal full name of a user account (“Jane R Doe” to “Jane Doe”, etc) and this should absolutely not be used to rebrand an existing user account for someone else. If you want to have an account for an entirely different person, simply make a new user account on the Mac instead.
The approach detailed here applies to modern versions of MacOS and Mac OS X. Much older versions of Mac OS X allowed users to edit the full name simply by clicking on the users full name within the generic Users preference panel view, but now it has been relocated to the advanced section.
