Want to clear and disable Significant Locations data stored on your Mac? For some quick background, your Mac will attempt to determine what locations are significant to you in order to provide you with location related information for Maps, Photos, Calendars, and with other apps too. These stored places are referred to as “Significant Locations” and can be very helpful for traffic and directions predictions, along with other location related assistance.
Some Mac users may prefer to disable the Significant Locations feature and clear any existing Significant Locations data from the Mac, and this tutorial will show you how to do that.
How to Clear & Disable Significant Locations on Mac
Go to the Apple menu and go to “System Preferences” and then go to the “Security & Privacy” preference panel
Choose the “Privacy” tab and then choose “Location Services”, then click the lock icon in the corner to authenticate and unlock the ability to make changes
Scroll down to find ‘System Services’ and click on “Details”
Locate the ‘Significant Locations’ settings and click on “Details” to see a list of any and all stored significant location data on the Mac
To clear all Significant Locations history, click on the “Clear History” button
Confirm that you want to clear significant locations from the Mac as well as from all other devices signed into the same Apple ID (for example, any other Macs, iPhones, iPads, etc)
Uncheck the box for “Significant Locations” then click on “Done” and exit out of System Preferences as usual
While you’re in the Location Services section of Mac system preferences, you might also decide to manage and control which apps can use location data on Mac. It can also be helpful to show the Location Usage icon in the Mac menu bar to be able to easily determine what an app or service is using your computers location data. If you never use any location specific data or services from the computer whatsoever, you can also completely disable all Location Services on Mac, but that is not recommended for most people.
It’s important to note that Apple says that Significant Locations are encrypted and cannot be read by Apple, so if you’re worried about the feature for any reason related to that, you probably shouldn’t be. Nonetheless there are many privacy and security conscious users out there who would rather minimize their location usage footprint, or even not have any type of location data kept or stored at all, regardless of its purpose.
As with all settings on the Mac, you can always reverse this decision and re-enable Significant Locations on the Mac again. Note that re-enabling significant locations will not bring back any cleared prior significant location data, however.
Some iPad Pro users report the touch screen is unresponsive at random. This can mean sometimes iPad Pro is not responding to any touch at all, or sometimes it may intermittently ignore touches or swipes or gestures, or the screen may appear to stutter or freeze after a touch, or even drop deliberate touches like typing letters on the onscreen touch keyboard of iPad Pro.
If you are experiencing random unresponsive touch screen issues with iPad Pro, try the tips below to see if they can help to improve or resolve the problem for you.
1: Clean the Screen
Before doing anything else, clean the iPad Pro screen. Press the screen lock button so that you don’t accidentally tap on anything you don’t want to, and then you just need a simple cloth and a tiny amount of water.
You can use a lightly damp cloth, don’t use any abrasive chemicals or cleaner products.
Sometimes gunk, grease, or food smudges on the iPad Pro screen can make the screen unresponsive to touch, thus cleaning the screen can be an easy solution to resolve this problem.
2: Remove the Case and/or Screen Protector
Many iPad Pro users use a case with their iPad Pro to protect it, and often those cases either include a screen protector or have a screen protector built in.
Lock the device screen, then try removing the case and screen protector from iPad Pro and seeing if the unresponsive touch screen issue continues.
Oftentimes simply removing an ill-fitting case or screen protector will resolve touch screen issues.
It’s worth pointing out that iPad Pro users with both glass and plastic screen protectors report this issue, so it’s not entirely clear if either type of the screen protector makes the problem any better or worse, or is even related at all, because there are reports of users without screen protectors that also have the randomly unresponsive iPad Pro touch screen issue.
3: Update System Software on iPad Pro
Back up to iCloud (or a computer with iTunes, or both), and then install any system software updates that are waiting on the iPad Pro by going to Settings > General > Software Update.
It’s possible that the intermittently unresponsive touch screen issue is a bug or some other issue specific to some versions of iOS / iPadOS, so updating to the latest version of system software on the iPad Pro may help.
4: Turn on Touch Accommodations
If the iPad Pro screen is still randomly unresponsive to touch, you can try enabling a system setting option called Touch Accommodations.
For iPadOS 13 and later: Go to Settings > Accessibility > Touch Accommodations > turn on “Touch Accommodations”
For iOS 12 and earlier: Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Touch Accommodations, then turn on ‘Touch Accommodations’
Apparently you don’t need to enable or toggle any other setting within the Toufh Accommodations section, simply turning the feature on can resolve the unresponsive touch screen issue for some iPad Pro users. Thanks to a user on Apple discussions forum for offering this particular suggestion.
5: Turn Off Tap to Wake
Some users report that disabling Tap to Wake has improved their unresponsive touch screen problems on their iPad Pro.
Go to Settings > General > Accessibility > find “Tap to Wake” and turn that OFF
6: Forcibly restart the iPad Pro
Some users have reported that forcibly rebooting the device will temporarily resolve the unresponsive touch screen issue with iPad Pro. If you’re not familiar with the procedure, here’s how you can do this:
Force restarting iPad Pro (new models without Home buttons): Press and release Volume Up, press and release Volume Down, press and hold Power button until you see the Apple logo on the screen.
Force restart older Home button models of iPad Pro: Press and hold the Power button and Home button until you see the Apple logo on screen
When the device boots back up again, the touch screen should be responsive and work as expected again, at least for a while.
7: Have an Apple Pencil? Disconnect and Reconnect it
Curiously, some users have reported that disconnecting and reconnecting the Apple Pencil to their iPad Pro can improve the unresponsive touch screen issue.
Of course if you don’t have an Apple Pencil, this will not be relevant to you.
8: Backup and Restore
Backing up and restoring may resolve the issue as well. I know this is the lamest advice for troubleshooting, but it’s also a step that Apple will require of you before you have a device serviced through warranty programs, so whether you want to do it or not, you should. Just backup your iPad Pro to iCloud or iTunes, then restore it from iTunes, or reset it and restore from backup using iCloud.
Misc other tips to try resolving unresponsive touch screen
issues on iPad Pro
If the touch screen problem only happens in some apps, try deleting those apps and reinstalling them on ipad Pro
Make sure the iPad Pro has sufficient storage available on the device, if the iPad Pro is completely full performance may suffer
Make sure the iPad Pro display is not cracked or damaged
Inspect the entire iPad Pro for physical damage, as any physical damage may impact the performance of the device and would have to be fixed before regular behavior may resume
You can also try some of the other tips and solutions for when iPhone touch screen is not working and there is some crossover between the two, like cleaning the screen, updating system software, and so on.
iPad Pro touch screen still unresponsive randomly? Consider contacting Apple Support
If you have tried all of the above solutions and the unresponsive touch screen problem still persists on your iPad Pro, then you may want to contact official Apple Support directly and have them try and work the issue out with you.
You can adjust the screen brightness on Apple Watch using two different methods. One approach to increasing or decreasing Apple Watch screen brightness uses the device settings directly, while the other approach to changing screen brightness on the Apple Watch relies on using the paired iPhone. You can use either approach, and we’ll show you how to use both methods to change the screen brightness of an Apple Watch.
How to Adjust Screen Brightness on Apple Watch
This method will adjust screen brightness directly from the Apple Watch:
Open the “Settings” app on the Apple Watch, it looks like a gear icon
Tap on “Brightness & Text”
Tap the lower or higher Brightness buttons to lower or increase Apple Watch screen brightness
Alternatively, you can also tap on the brightness slider and use the hardware Digital Crown hardware dial to adjust screen brightness up or down
While in the “Brightness & Text” settings of Apple Watch, you might also want to increase the text size on shown on the Apple Watch display, or turn on the Bold Text option for text, both of which can make screen text on the device easier to read.
How to Change Apple Watch Screen Brightness from iPhone
This approach to changing the Apple Watch display brightness relies on using the paired iPhone instead:
Open the “Apple Watch” app on iPhone
Choose “My Watch”
Choose “Brightness & Text Size”
Adjust the brightness of the Apple Watch as desired
You can use either the direct method to change screen brightness from the Apple Watch itself, or you can use the method of changing screen brightness indirectly through the paired iPhone. Both approaches will achieve the same effect of either increasing or decreasing the Apple Watch display brightness.
Increasing the brightness is often desirable if you’re using the Apple Watch in bright settings like the outdoors in direct sunlight, but some users may also just prefer the brighter setting in general. Note that using the brightest setting on Apple Watch can result in reduced battery life, just like any other device.
Setting the brightness lower can be helpful if you use Apple Watch as an alarm clock or have it placed in Nightstand mode and want it to be dimmer too. And just like how setting brightness higher can reduce battery life, setting the screen brightness lower can help to prolong battery life of Apple Watch by reducing its power consumption.
At some point in time you may have installed the popular Malwarebytes tool on a Mac to scan for malware, spyware, ransomware, junkware, and other garbage threats on a Mac, but at some point you may decide you want to uninstall Malwarebytes from the Mac and remove the utility from a computer.
Whether you’re using the free or paid version of Malwarebytes you’ll find that uninstalling it is fairly easy. We’ll cover two methods to remove Malwarebytes from a Mac.
How to Uninstall Malwarebytes from Mac OS the Easy Way
The simplest way to uninstall Malwarebytes from a Mac is to use the apps built-in uninstaller:
Open the Malwarebytes app on the Mac, found in the /Applications folder
Pull down the “Help” menu and choose “Uninstall Malwarebytes”
Choose “Yes” when asked if you want to completely remove Malwarebytes from the Mac
Authenticate with the admin password to uninstall Malwarebytes
How to Remove & Uninstall Malwarebytes by Script (if the Application is Missing, Doesn’t Work, etc)
If for some reason the above easy approach to uninstalling Malwarebytes does not work, or perhaps you already deleted the primary Malwarebytes application and so you no longer have the capability to use the built-in uninstaller function, another is available using a free removal script from Malwarebytes. Here’s how that works:
Launch the “Uninstall MWB” tool from the Downloads folder
Choose “Yes” when asked if you wish to remove all components of Malwarebytes from the Mac
This is the preferred method to remove Malwarebytes from a Mac. It’s easy and it’s relatively fast, and it should remove every component of Malwarebytes from the computer without having to do anything else.
Nonetheless there are other options which may be necessary if the primary application has already been removed, but other Malwarebytes components remain on the system.
When finished, Malwarebytes will have been deleted and all components uninstalled from the Mac.
Many of the components of the app remained which is often the case when simply dragging an app to the Trash does not uninstall everything related to the application. If you’re aiming to remove Malwarebytes from a Mac you can use either approach, but if the application is missing with the built-in uninstall tool then using the uninstaller script will still remove remaining Malwarebytes components from the Mac.
These uninstall methods should work on any semi-modern Mac running any modern version of Mac OS or Mac OS X, though the uninstaller script is valid for 10.10 and later only.
Technically speaking you could also manually remove Malwarebytes but that process is much more cumbersome than simply using the uninstaller tool offered in the application itself, or the uninstaller script available as a download from Malwarebytes. If you do want to manually remove the Malwarebytes app, you’ll be digging around in various user and system folders and searching system files for a variety of plists, extensions, and other components of the app, and other stuff. That’s really only appropriate for very advanced users, and there is little purpose to do so when there are easier uninstall methods.
To be clear, this is not a suggestion, this is simply a tutorial demonstrating how to uninstall Malwarebytes from MacOS. If you use Malwarebytes and find it useful, there’s no reason to stop using it or to remove it from a Mac. And remember that if you remove it because you’re finished using it for now, you can always install Malwarebytes again later if you want to.
As we mentioned before, Malwarebytes is a popular Mac utility and even the free download version will work for scanning and removing malware and junkware from a Mac, but whether or not you use it, or want to remove it, is entirely up to you. It’s generally well regarded and doesn’t carry some of the baggage (and bad headlines) that some other scanning and cleaning utilities out there, so if you’re interested in an malware scanner and removal tool on the Mac it’s a good choice even at the free level. If you are going to install a malware removal tool on the Mac, it’s best to pick just one and don’t overlap them to avoid any issues.
Malwarebytes for Mac is a popular and respected anti-malware tool for Mac that can help to clear a Mac of malware, ransomware, and viruses. While users can follow some simple tips to protect a Mac from viruses and trojans, and MacOS is fairly secure as-is from malware, junk ware, and adware, many Mac users often ask how they can scan their Mac for adware or for viruses. For those who have some concerns about malware on a Mac, using the Malwarebytes app to scan and clear a Mac can offer some additional peace of mind.
This article will show you how to install Malwarebytes on a Mac, and how to use the free version to scan and clean a Mac of any threats.
Note this tutorial will use the free level of the Malwarebytes app, which has the ability to scan and clean any discovered infections from a Mac. If you feel like you want or need enhanced security to proactively protect a Mac from further threats, then you’re welcome to try the paid version on your own.
How to Install Malwarebytes Malware Scanner on Mac to Clean Malware, Viruses, Adware, etc
Go to the user Downloads folder and open the “Malwarebytes” package installer
At the Malwarebytes installer screen, choose Continue and read through the release notes and license terms
Select the drive you wish to install Malwarebytes onto, this is likely the primary boot drive named “Macintosh HD”
Authenticate the installer to let Malwarebytes complete installation
In a moment you’ll be presented with a screen asking where you’re installing Malwarebytes, either Personal / Home or Work
At the next screen, choose “No thanks, I just want to scan” (or sign up for the 14 day free trial if you want to try out the full paid version)
At the Malwarebytes application screen, choose “Scan” to scan the Mac right away for any threats
If any threats or junk is found, Malwarebytes will report it to you on the next screen, otherwise you’ll see a screen saying the Mac is clean and clear
As mentioned before, we’re using the free version here to simply scan and clean a Mac (assuming any malware, bad junk, or unwanted stuff is found), but you’re certainly free to try out the 14 day full protection trial, or sign-up for the complete paid service and unlock the other features of the Malwarebytes app.
If you’re satisfied with the Mac being cleaned and scanned, you can quickly uninstall Malwarebytes from the Mac just by opening the app and pulling down the “Help” menu and choosing to “Uninstall Malwarebytes” and following the steps on screen.
To be perfectly clear, this is not any particular recommendation and we do not have any relationship with Malwarebytes, we just use the tool ourselves to scan Macs for scanning for junkware if the need arises either on our own hardware or someone elses (even back when the app was called AdwareMedic).
“how can I scan my Mac for viruses and malware?” and “how can I clean my Mac from adware or a virus?”,
so these questions are common. Generally speaking, a well secured Mac that has regularly updated system software and apps, and some savviness from the user like not downloading sketchy stuff from untrustworthy dubious websites and not installing browser plugins – is enough to prevent Macs from finding any malware, junkware, adware, ransomeware, or any other nefarious stuff on their Mac, but nonetheless infections can still happen.
Need to convert a Numbers file to an Excel spreadsheet file from iPad or iPhone? This is a common task for many work and educational environments where Excel is commonly used, and fortunately this process is easy to accomplish thanks to the Numbers app Export features.
This article will show you how to convert a Numbers document to an Excel spreadsheet file using an iPad or iPhone, the end result will be an Excel file in XLS / XLSX file format.
Note this is specifically for iPhone and iPad, but if you’re on a desktop or laptop then you can learn how to convert a Numbers file to Excel spreadsheet on Mac too.
How to Convert a Numbers File to Excel File on iPhone & iPad
Open the Numbers app on iPad or iPhone, then open the Numbers file or spreadsheet document you wish to convert
Tap on the (…) three dots button in the top right corner of the screen
Select on “Export” from the menu
Choose to export the file as “Excel” from the export options
Select the method you wish to save or share the converted Excel file as: save to Files app, iCloud Drive, send with AirDrop, send with Email, share with Messages, etc
Repeat this process with other Numbers files to convert them to Excel files as needed
The resulting exported Excel file can be opened by any app that opens Excel documents, whether that’s Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, LibreOffice, StarOffice, or Numbers on iPad, iPhone, or Mac.
Note that if you share the file directly from the Numbers app, say by exporting it as an Excel document and emailing it to someone, the original file will stay in the Numbers app in the Numbers file format. If you want to have physical access to an Excel file on iPad or iPhone, you’ll need to save it locally to the Files app or to iCloud Drive.
As mentioned earlier, if you’re on a Macintosh then you can also convert Numbers files to Excel spreadsheets in Mac OS too using a similar export process. You can even use iCloud.com to convert these documents too, but that’s a topic for another article entirely.
Do you want to turn off the screenshot thumbnails that show up on the Mac screen? You may have noticed that if you take a screenshot on Mac a little screenshot thumbnail preview pops up in the bottom right corner of the display and floats there for a few seconds. You can interact with that little thumbnail to quickly markup a screenshot, but showing those screenshot thumbnails also appears too slow down how long it takes for the actual screen shot file to generate and be available to the file system.
If you want to disable the screenshot thumbnail preview in Mac OS, this article will show you how to do that.
How to Turn Off Screenshot Preview Thumbnails on Mac
From the Finder of Mac OS, go to the /Applications/ folder and then to /Utilities/ and open the “Screenshot.app” application
Click on the “Options” menu in the screenshot toolbar
Uncheck the option for “Show Floating Thumbnail” to disable the screenshot preview
Exit out of Screenshot app when finished
With ‘Show Floating Thumbnail’ disabled, the screenshot previews will no longer appear, and the screenshot that has been snapped will be created and appear almost instantly in the Finder, much like in earlier MacOS versions.
For those who are wondering, the Mac ‘Screenshot’ application takes the place of the “Grab” app in modern MacOS versions, and it has other handy features too that make it easy to change some screenshot options that used to require the Terminal and defaults commands. For example you no longer have to use a defaults write command to change the screenshot file save location, and you can also set a timer and mouse pointer option for screenshots too just like you could in the Grab app. You will still need to use a defaults write command to change the screenshot image file format or screenshot file names however.
How to Re-Enable Screenshot Thumbnail Previews on Mac
Open the “Screenshot.app” application from Spotlight or the Applications/Utilities/ folder
Click the “Options” menu and check the option for “Show Floating Thumbnail” to enable the screenshot preview
Exit out of Screenshot app
With the floating thumbnail option re-enabled, screenshot previews will show up again, and there will be a delay before screenshot files appear in the Finder and to the file system again.
You may have noticed a similar screenshot preview on iPhone and iPad as well, but in the iOS / iPadOS side of things there is currently no method to disable that screenshot preview, as this option remains only on the Mac. Instead on the iPhone and iPad you can simply swipe or push the thumbnail aside to dismiss it, a trick that also works to dismiss the screenshot floating preview on Mac as well.
If you use Waze to navigate you may appreciate having the Waze app be front and center on CarPlay while you’re driving with iPhone. You might even be interested in replacing Apple Maps with Waze if you use the Waze app more than Apple Maps on your CarPlay vehicle.
This article will show you how to use Waze on Apple CarPlay with iPhone as your mapping and driving navigation app.
Requirements for using Waze on CarPlay: the car must have CarPlay compatibility, the iPhone must be running iOS 12 or later, you must have iPhone setup with CarPlay, and the Waze app must be updated to a recent version.
If you don’t yet have the Waze app on iPhone you can download it from the App Store here.
How to Use Waze on CarPlay Instead of Apple Maps
Connect iPhone to CarPlay if you haven’t done so already
Open “Settings” app on iPhone
Go to “General” and then choose “CarPlay”
Select the car with CarPlay
Locate Waze and then tap and hold on the Waze icon to drag it to the primary CarPlay Home screen for fast access
Optional: replace Apple Maps with Waze on CarPlay, by moving the Apple Maps icon to another screen to make Waze icon more prominent on CarPlay display
Exit out of CarPlay settings on iPhone for changes to take effect
Use Waze on CarPlay in the vehicle as usual by tapping on the Waze app on the CarPlay display
With Waze prominently on the CarPlay display, you can easily launch Waze and use it as your preferred mapping application in your vehicle.
If you want multiple maps options to use with CarPlay, you can also use Google Maps with CarPlay, and you can also always use the built-in Apple Maps application.
You might be wondering if it’s possible to make Waze the default maps application on CarPlay or with iPhone, but that is not currently available as a feature. Instead, you’ll have to launch Waze and use it through CarPlay that way.
ou can also ask Siri to find you directions somewhere with Waze by summoning Siri and then saying “Get me directions to Apple Store with Waze” or a similar command, of course specifying your intended destination.
Wondering how to switch back to a mobile site after requesting a desktop site in Safari for iPhone? You may have noticed there’s not a “Request Mobile Site” option in Safari on iPhone and iPod touch, but changing back to the mobile version of a desktop site is quite simple on iPhone with Safari as we’ll show you in this tutorial.
As you likely know, many websites serve a mobile-specific version to smaller screened devices like the iPhone or iPod touch. But sometimes users will use the “Request Desktop Site” feature in Safari for iPhone to view the full version of a website rather than a mobile site. But how do you switch back to the mobile site again? That’s easy, here is all you need to do :
How to Switch from Desktop Site Back to Mobile Site with Safari for iPhone
Returning to the mobile version of a website in Safari on iPhone is simply a matter of closing the tab and opening the website again :
From Safari on iPhone, go to the desktop webpage that you want to view the Mobile Site for
Tap on the Tabs button in Safari and then close that webpages tab while it’s still in Desktop Site view (optionally, you may want to copy the URL first for easy retrieval)
Now open a new Safari tab and go back to the website URL you just closed, it will load automatically in Mobile Site view
Simply closing the Safari tab on iPhone and re-opening the webpage will switch it back to the Mobile Site default view.
Alternatively, you can also delete the specific sites website data in Safari Settings on iPhone and then refresh the website to accomplish the same thing. Doing that will also refresh the webpage into Mobile Site from Desktop Site, as the default user agent on iPhone is for a mobile device.
While we’re obviously focusing on iPhone here, this process is the same on iPod touch and iPad too, though most websites will show an iPad the full desktop version of a website rather than the mobile site anyway.
Currently this is how you switch from the desktop site back to a mobile site, and while it would make a lot of sense for the iOS “Request Desktop Site” option to switch to a “Request Mobile Site” option in the Sharing action menu, for now that feature does not exist. Instead, you’ll want to just close the tab and then open it again to achieve the same result.
This is probably mostly relevant for web workers, but sometimes regular users find themselves having to switch between desktop sites and mobile sites too.
Want to disable Camera access for an app on iPhone or iPad? At any time, you can easily revoke camera access for any application on an iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. By turning off camera access for an app, that app will no longer be able to use either the front or rear cameras on an iPhone or iPad.
How to Stop Apps from Using Camera on iPhone & iPad
You can prevent apps from being able to access and use the camera on your device by going through the following steps:
Open the “Settings” app on iPhone or iPad
Go to “Privacy” in the settings
Choose “Camera” from the privacy settings list
Locate the app(s) you want to disable camera access for and toggle the setting corresponding to their name OFF to disable camera for that app
Repeat with other apps to turn off camera ability as desired
All apps that have requested camera access on the iPhone or iPad will appear in this list. If an app does not appear in this list, the app has not requested camera access before (or yet).
Obviously some apps will require camera access to function properly, like a video chat app, so be mindful about what apps you disable camera access for and which you allow.
On the other hand, there are many apps that don’t need to access the camera for the app to work at all, they just request camera access for some other reason, and turning off those apps camera access may be beneficial to privacy or security. Think logically about what an app is and what the apps purpose is when deciding what apps to grant camera access to. Does a camera app need camera access? Probably. Does a social network need camera access? Maybe, or maybe not. Does a game need camera access? Probably not. If you never use the camera in a particular app, you can likely turn it off without consequence to that apps functionality. Be discerning!
Similarly, you can also control what apps have microphone access on iPhone and iPad. If you’re going through and auditing app access to camera for privacy or security purposes, you’d probably want to do the same for the microphone too.
Of course once you have taken pictures with the camera, there are apps that also want to access the photos on your iPhone or iPad too. Accordingly, separate from controlling camera access for apps you can also control what apps can access Photos on iPhone and iPad too. You’ll often find apps that want to have photos access that simply don’t need it.
It’s worth mentioning this is not the only time you can manage what apps have camera access on an iPhone or iPad. Usually when you first launch an app that wants to use the camera, a pop-up screen appears on the iPhone or iPad that says the app is requesting camera access. For example if you freshly install Instagram or another camera app you will find this request when you launch the app for the first time. Whether you choose “Allow” or “Disallow” at that screen will control access for that particular circumstance, but beyond that you can always find the apps which have requested camera access in this privacy list within the device Settings. And of course you can then adjust each app individually as to whether you want that app to have access to the device camera or not.
This obviously allows you to manage what apps can access and use the camera on an iPhone or iPad, but you can go further if you’d like to and disable the Camera app itself as well.
