What are /r/MacOSBeta's favorite Products & Services?

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>Source: https://www.apple.com/macos/monterey-preview/features/
>
>AirPlay to Mac⁵
>
>5. Available on MacBook Pro (2018 and later), MacBook Air (2018 and later), iMac (2019 and later), iMac Pro (2017), Mac mini (2020 and later), Mac Pro (2019), iPhone 7 and later, iPad Pro (2nd generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad (6th generation and later), and iPad mini (5th generation and later). Older iPhone, iPad, and Mac models may share content at a lower resolution to supported Mac models when “Allow AirPlay for” is set to “Everyone” or “Anyone on the same network” in Sharing preferences.

Sadly, the older Macs aren't supported, presuming that the T2 Chip and Apple Silicon is a necessity for AirPlay to work. I'm stuck in the same boat as you :(

There is a list over on MacRumors

I don't use NordVPN myself, but noticed it mentioned in the comments. Switch to IPsec or something like that.

I’m having a similar problem. I found a work around using garage band for iOS but it’s a pain. I submitted a bug report. I hope they fix it in the next release.

http://osxdaily.com/2015/01/12/create-ringtone-iphone-garageband/

If you use this but import your m4a file as a track it works but is painful when you have 50 ringtone tracks like I do. I just did a couple I use most often.

Fixed!

Since it worked in recovery mode I was able to do internet recovery and that fixed it.

http://osxdaily.com/2014/12/14/reinstall-os-x-mac-internet-recovery/

Lesson learned: Before trying a beta, create a bootable usb!

I used GrandPerspective to see the real hogs of space that don't show up in programs like CleanMyMac and got rid of them. Just make sure you know exactly what you're doing, you don't want to delete anything crucial risk losing data. I can't believe how much junk builds up from old uninstalled apps (despite using AppCleaner to uninstall apps).

Hi guys, I was looking on the official macOS Monterey page and apparently spatial audio should be available on ALL Macs from 2018 onwards. Is it possible that it can arrive in the next betas?

P.S. as you can see on the page, the spatial audio is marked with the number 2 which corresponds to “Available on Mac models (2018 and later).”

Cheers!

macOS Monterey Preview

I haven’t used Little Snitch for a while now as it stopped working with a previous MacOS beta. I’ve been using LuLu since, might be worth a look for you.

https://objective-see.com/products/lulu.html

You need to use OpenVPN from their website ! The appstore build is indeed broken on Monterey !

I made a thread about it this morning in the NordVPN subbreddit

;utm_medium=ios_app&utm_name=iossmf

Replied to the other guy but pasting here so you can see too–

Don't use Dr. Cleaner. If you want a free app use this instead: https://github.com/exelban/stats

Only compatibility in existence is: https://www.codeweavers.com/crossover compatible with M1 in macos 11.0+

I have not tested it personally. Maybe try the free trial or find the full software to find out if it plays the games on steam!

I had the same issue and a developer from DaisyDisk got back saying that this was a temporary issue and macOS Big Sur related issues are fixed in the beta release.

You can download the beta-version from here: DaisyDisk Beta

After some period of testing, this new version will be officially released under number 4.11. You will be able to update from the beta to the non-beta version by simply using the "Check for Updates" menu command (the app will also notify you about the availability of the new update).

First up have you removed any extensions that might be causing it?

If so, I would probably reset safari and see if that fixes it. If you uncheck Safari in your Mac's iCloud settings, then use something like AppCleaner to find all the preferences that are linked to safari, it will reset the app. Because it's a system app, App Cleaner won't remove the actual Safari app itself, just the settings and preferences. Then you can reopen it and see if that works!

https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/

Might have better luck with a version of Lubuntu (https://lubuntu.me) which would be current software but can run on G4 hardware.

Check out this article - https://www.macobserver.com/tips/deep-dive/revive-powerpc-mac-running-linux/

In the Apple Website it says „…Available on MacBook Pro (2018 and later), MacBook Air (2018 and later), iMac (2019 and later), iMac Pro (2017), Mac mini (2020 and later), Mac Pro (2019)…“

https://www.apple.com/macos/monterey-preview/

Update: It's wavering between full speed and then immediate drops to like 200Kbps. Even if it takes a bit, I'd rather us PD, as my first attempt with the App Store failed and had to be restarted. This is the app btw: https://www.macpsd.net - I set threads to 10.

It's itsycal: https://www.mowglii.com/itsycal/

This was one of the things that hurt me on Big Sur, can't hide the time and date, before I could use Itsycal instead of the native date and time, it has better features like showing calendar and events on click.

Have issues with Private Internet Access, but just when split tunnel is active. If split tunnel option is on and PIA is disconnected, there’s no internet access. Can’t remember all the iterations I tried but there’s definitely issues. A PIA person on reddit looked into it, but it’s an issue on Apples side not in the app. He submitted a big report, but it’s still not fixed.

Yeah I think it’s more in the network protocols. It can be fixed server side, which I was really glad about since WireGuard is the only entrance on my home network. And was really annoying without it.

For NordVPN they also have to do server changes, but I guess the won’t do that for a few beta users

I was just having issues with NordVPN and to fix it I just temporarily removed the network entry thing for it in the wifi network settings. Soon as I removed the entry and hit apply my network connectivity started working again.

I’ll probably do a reinstall soon, so far Monterey is pretty cool I guess but Safari runs like ass for me rn and Crossover is pretty much totally broken which is a huge bummer.

Idk, might just roll back the update and wait for official release..

And this comes at no additional cost, as I have watched the WWDC, right?

I speculate it is just a fancy word for an openvpn servive (or wireguard for better battery life time), I have currently both PIA, and NordVPN subscriptions. What do you guys think, should I stop paying for them? What will be the difference?

I had a similar issue. Here is what you gotta do:

1) Applications, find ExpressVPN and move it to the bin.

2) Finder -> Search "ExpressVPN" through your whole computer. And remove every app associated with ExpressVPN

3) Reinstall the app.

It should work now. Let me know if you have any issues or if it still doesn't work

If you have access to another Mac you can try this:

http://osxdaily.com/2017/09/27/create-macos-high-sierra-bootable-installer-usb/

Works for Mojave and Catalina, just use the appropriate app of course.

Ok, I just found a link that might help. Apparently, there’s a tool which can re-create your Recovery Partition

link

You’ll have to connect your non-booting Mac to your other Mac with Target Disk mode and mount the internal drive of your non-working Mac. I don’t know how effective this tool is, as it’s an indie tool, but it might do the trick.

I had the same issue with my MacBook Pro nonTB. Deleting the .plist files from this system preference folder and rebooting solved it for me!

http://osxdaily.com/2018/11/19/fix-macos-mojave-wifi-problems/

Mine is a machine provided by the workplace even though I already have all the necessary to work from home. Which is great, I get to fool around with betas and stuff on someone else's hardware.

For the rare occasions where I actually work on it, I purchased a USB-C key of the same size of the internal storage (256 GB). I then made a 16 GiB partition where I used 'createinstallmedia' to make a bootable drive. The rest of the key is used for Time Machine.

So, whenever I get back home, I just plug the USB key and the power adapter and it'll be backed up on its own.

It's a simple, non-scalable solution, but I don't need much more. The rest of my home uses Linux where I use Syncthing.

This is adjustable and perfect for Continuity Camera (used it several times already)

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07C3MQYQV/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Hey, yeah, this is a thing.

I think it's the same problem being discussed here:
_ventura_13_beta_22a5321d_no_wifi/

Does your Wi-Fi network service have an * next to it when you run:

❯ networksetup -listallnetworkservices An asterisk (*) denotes that a network service is disabled. USB 10/100/1000 LAN ThinkPad TBT 3 Dock *Wi-Fi-Broken Thunderbolt Bridge Wi-Fi NordVPN NordLynx

Not my `Wi-Fi-Broken` service is disabled in that list. If your Wi-Fi service appears the same, then this one will activate it for you:

❯ networksetup -setnetworkserviceenabled Wi-Fi on

Does that resolve your problem?

KnockKnock [https://objective-see.com/products/knockknock.html] can detect shady software. And it’s free.

But PLEASE sir. Don’t be stupid. DONT install executable code from a torrent site. That’s the WORST thing you can do, since you have no idea what the code contains.

Music has never supported FLAC. But you can convert your FLACs to ALAC, which is Apple's own lossless format. You will have no quality loss because both are lossless.

Check out fre:ac for an easy way to convert audio files. It supports batch processing, and can convert between most formats. https://www.freac.org/

If you want a Quicktime-like experience, with support for every format imaginable, and extensive configurability, use IINA.

Sorry, too lazy, I just grabbed the ones that were available in Package Contents>Content>Resources. Surprisingly most either didn't have the updated icons or they were not placed in that folder, some even had 2 versions, the old one and the new one named AppIcon-1016.ics which I renamed for you. Get some of them here

Maybe try resetting launch services. I see this more often with video types more so than anything Apple Preview would normally have the default quick look extension for. I would actually recommend running through a couple of the maintenance options in a software called Onyx. Link below

https://www.titanium-software.fr/en/onyx.html

If that doesn’t remedy the issue you may want to double check that PNG image file type is associated with preview rather than another application. This last happened to me when VLC took the “open with” association from just about all media types.

You mean system audio in addition to microphone audio?

I’ve not used it yet but there’s this https://github.com/ExistentialAudio/BlackHole which you can feed into the Audio MIDI controller

https://macmost.com/how-to-record-your-mac-screen-with-computer-audio.html

Try to install using Homebrew (https://github.com/Homebrew/homebrew-cask-drivers) - the installation actually succeeds in a few minutes rather than an hour.

System prefs panel still doesn't work though, but hey, it's a start.

A good trusted (“signed”) app I use prior to updates, etc., of macOS... works great to run prior to ^ these...

OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the structure of the system files, to run miscellaneous maintenance and cleaning tasks, to configure parameters in the Finder, Dock, Safari, and some Apple applications, to delete caches, to remove certain problematic folders and files, to rebuild various databases and indexes, and more.

OnyX is a reliable application which provides a clean interface to many tasks that would otherwise require complex commands to be typed using a command-line interface.

WARNING: There is a specific version of OnyX for each major version of the operating system. Use the specific version, and don't try to use a non-compatible version.

Hopefully so. I also use Fluid to make my own web-based apps for Gmail and Google Drive (https://fluidapp.com) and the icons for those apps are mysteriously gone entirely, showing only the blank app icon. I've tried clearing the cache multiple times after successfully replacing the Messages app icon. There's definitely a cache issue.

I installed Bartender3, (give the system permissions it asked) and the notification icon just magically appeared. Then I just uninstall Bartender3 since I'm not gonna use it.

Downie is a weird one since it has an animated icon when downloading, so whenever it appears in my dock it displays the normal icon ANYWAY. I might take a crack at it today though.

Also Bartender is very much NOT WORKING. The dev is working on a beta for Big Sur: https://www.macbartender.com/blog/macOS-Big-Sur/

are we on 6 or 7 ? it's all a blur hehe.

That's an interesting conundrum. I hadn't heard of daisydisk before so thanks for that.

I've been using Grand Perspective for yonks - i just realised my version is from 2016 so i updated to the version on the website. There's a free version via Sourceforge and a paid one through the App Store. Whilst more of a visualisation app, what happens if you try GrandPerspective ?

Lifting from https://www.apple.com/ios/ios-13/features/ - iCloud Drive folder sharing

Share folders with friends, family, and colleagues in iCloud Drive. You can even give them access for adding their own files.*

• Coming later this fall.

How exactly is it a different issue? I am not able to send, or receive, SMS messages on my Mac using the Messages app. Is that not the problem you have?

I will say that sometimes the problem only is with sending something with media like an image or video, but simple text still works. It isn't consistent.

Anyway, what I recommended also does't always work some of the time, or at least not at first. But the past few times its happened it seems to have worked and i wasnt forced to try other methods.

One other trick that worked the one time I tried it was to just zap Messages data entirely so that it would open up as if on a brand new account being used for the first time. Since Apple now enjoys hiding everything in multiple cryptic folders buried in places like ~/Library/Containers and so forth, it isnt easy to try and find them all manually, so I have an app for that. I use CleanMyMac X, and i am pretty sure you can use it in trial mode without restrictions for a period of time. Anyway, it has an "Uninstaller" section that lists every installed app, and you can either uninstall them completely, or expand them to see the various component folders it uses and just purge those while leaving the app binary alone. So I just wipe everything Messages related and it fires right back up. If you are dealing with a built-in macOS app like Messages, it wont appear in this list at all unless you go to Preferences for the Uninstaller function and un-check a "Hide System Apps" option first, and even then, it wont actually let you remove any of the apps themselves, but for sure you can wipe out the data. I see no particular downside to this since I have Messages in iCloud and it will simply re-sync all my previous messages including media and dates sent, read receipts, all of it.

this seems quite time consuming and risky

freeing up space

I would recommend using DaisyDisk (just the free trial version) to figure out which large folders you can get rid off

• If you’re already willing to wipe your hard drive this seems like a much easier method to free up space
• even if you have 128 GB of storage (the lowest on any mac), once you clear out things you will have enough to install the beta without wiping your hard drive

backing up files

It’s not recommended to run beta software without first backing up important files

• if you don’t have a hard drive on hand, I recommend using Google Drive / iCloud Drive / Dropbox / etc to keep a copy of any files you don’t want to lose
• this could also be a way to free up space (upload and then delete your local copy [you can’t do this with iCloud easily])

better approach to clean install

• if you really want to wipe all your files, you can simply create a new user and then delete the old one (this should delete all your personal files)
  • again my recommended approach is still DaisyDisk

The makers of the DiskDaisy have an informative page about purgeable space. You won’t lose anything important, unless you need some of the things they list that are considered purgeable. (I had to do this last weekend, quickly and easy.)

Good news: an update of Karabiner Elements fixed the issue for me. I use this occasionally for video recording to advance slides with a simple Bluetooth clicker that sends volume up events that I remap to arrow right for Google Slides… Here's the issue in question.

Good news: an update of Karabiner Elements fixed the issue for me. I use this occasionally for video recording to advance slides with a simple Bluetooth clicker that sends volume up events that I remap to arrow right for Google Slides… Here's the issue in question.

Why ask that and wait instead of just converting them yourself? A toddler can figure out how to do that. I'm not gonna share them without OP's permission, so do as I did and just use an app (this one is free: image2icon) or any of the hundreds of online converters (just search png to icns)

According to Apple’s macOS Monterey preview page, Universal Control is available on:

• MacBook Pro (2016 and later)

• MacBook (2016 and later)

• MacBook Air (2018 and later)

• iMac (2017 and later)

• iMac (5K Retina 27-inch, Late 2015)

• iMac Pro

• Mac mini (2018 and later)

• Mac Pro (2019)

• iPad Pro

• iPad Air (3rd generation and later)

• iPad (6th generation and later)

• iPad mini (5th generation and later)

A user on another channel says that he unenrolled from the dev beta on RC2 and was able to update using the direct link: https://www.apple.com/macos/big-sur/

"Finally just got this after unenrolling from dev beta on RC 2 using update link from apple website taking me to app store for correct version of Bug Sur."

It seems to be working for me, so fingers crossed this will take me to 20B29 - just expect slow download times because servers are jammed atm.

I don't use antivirus software on my Mac as they have built in security. Also antivirus software can slow down your Mac as it runs in the background. One thing you could consider is getting Malwarebytes which you can run every so often as Macs can get malware but for antivirus I don't think it's necessary.

Hope this helps.

This is on the Big Sur Preview page. Early on the page, a traditional arrow cursor is seen interacting with the control center. Let’s you wonder why this iPadOS style cursor here...

Macintosh HD is the OS. Apple separated the OS from the user and application data so it'd be harder for malicious programs to access it. An example of why this is a good thing is that now all apps that require drivers are now required to use apple's new DriverKit instead of loading in Kexts. A direct quote from this page:

>DriverKit and user space system extensions
>
>Previously many hardware peripherals and sophisticated features needed to run their code directly within macOS using kernel extensions, or kexts. Now these programs run separately from the operating system, just like any other app, so they can’t affect macOS if something goes wrong.

If I am not mistaken, system files are installed in a private, read-only volume:

​

>Dedicated system volume
>
>macOS Catalina runs in a dedicated, read-only system volume — which means it is completely separate from all other data, and nothing can overwrite your critical operating system files.

​

Source

​

>Similar to how iOS is configured, macOS is now on a separate partition from user data, which acts as if it is read-only (but in beta 1, it’s merely SIP-protected). In the beta, you’ll see “Macintosh HD” and “Macintosh HD — Data”. Data is a separate volume mounted in /System/Volumes. OS-installed applications live in /System/Applications, but the Finder presents them in /Applications as well. Apple calls the technology “firmlinking”. Beta 2 will be fully read-only by default.

​

Source, Robert Hammen

Have you reported the crashes to the app developer of Background Music? Things are just gonna be broken sometimes in betas and major OS upgrades.

Edit: share your experiences here https://github.com/kyleneideck/BackgroundMusic/issues/357

They released an update, no mention of this problem an big sur compatible... Anyhow I would recommend lulu https://objective-see.com/products/lulu.html.

It’s newly released, free, open source and seems to work just fine.

I had this exact same issue and reported it to Apple; however, then I installed Little Snitch; just the demo/trial. Somehow, that fixed it. No need to actually even use the filtering feature; it works after I turn that off. I was going to use it as a sort of debugging or troubleshooting tool. I guess it poked some network setting or service in some way that I hadn't been able to before.

As pointed out by others

https://transmissionbt.com

I’ve tried different ones over the years but I keep coming back to Transmission. It doesn’t look like a windows port, simple minimalist, but fully loaded with options. I honestly don’t think there is any better.

As u/DracheMitch mentioned, since the clock icon is used to open the Notification Center, Apple has made its display and position mandatory.

I've reduced it to an analogue icon (System Prefs > Dock and Menu Bar > Clock) and use the free itsycal app with a custom date format E, MMM d h:mm a to show a date-time combo with a handy calendar dropdown. Bartender 4 is a great utility to clean up the menubar but so far can't hide Apple's clock.

For me, the only issues have been with Private Internet Access (block internet connection when it shouldn't) and Messages. For Messages, images and movies aren't loading, unless I either open them either in quick look or fully. They just show as a box outline with an icon based on file type.

USB-C to DP. I have a pair of these going to the pair of Dell monitors in the original picture I posted.
https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B075V27G2R/ref=ppx\_yo\_dt\_b\_search\_asin\_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Same. USB-C to DP. I have a pair of these going to the pair of Dell monitors in the original picture I posted.

https://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B075V27G2R/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_search_asin_title?ie=UTF8&psc=1

My issue ended up being related to Private Internet Access. If I uninstall the PIA app and reboot my MacBook, Private relay appears and can be toggled on. Reinstalled PIA afterwards and Private relay is still there but doesn’t seem to work. PIA works across all apps so I’d rather have it than Private Relay. So if you have anything that affects network connections like a vpn app or something else, maybe try uninstalling and rebooting.

Is anyone else still having problems with ExpressVPN and Monterey. I've had issues for a long time now, and the one I can get to work is the IKEv2 protocol. That particular connection also slows my internet down (900mbps down) to about 250mbps...which is still fast, but not what I'm paying for.

I don’t see it there. Is there a way for me to test if my USB C Hub is truthful when it says it supports HDR

Dockteck 7-IN-1 USB C Hub,... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B085NSTTK6?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share

I used to have an anker usb c hub that supported hdr mode but that one broke and is getting replaced

I'm not having any issues with Mullvad. It worked fine. The issue is with ClearVPN after I uninstalled Mullvad. It keeps telling me I have a VPN running. I disabled Apple's Private Relay too. Very odd.

Mullvad Beta has already been updated for MacOS 12 Monterey and works just fine! Using it right now.

All the more advanced options work too including manual IPV4, IPV6, Wireguard, forced DNS etc, it's really smooth. There's also some cool new features such as tracker and adblocking, which is big for Safari users limited to crappy Apple App Store extensions.

It works with iCloud's Private Relay just fine too.

Oh really? Wow. I’ve tried like probably 6 different hdmi cables, problems all the time. Now I’m using this USB-C to Display Port adapter, purchased from Amazon: https://www.amazon.co.uk/DisplayPort-uni-Compatible-MacBook-Surface/dp/B075V27G2R

But even with that one the issue happen.

Behavior is still exactly the same - just tried.

I never use the computer with the lid open at my desk; it sits in one of these cheap vertical stands connected to my dock + dual monitors until I take it with me somewhere. Right now GPU power consumption is around 7w.

There is an issue with your VPN, I'd be willing to bet there are entries that are blocking it.

Had the same issue and it works just fine for me on the latest DB (same as PB) after I removed all the ProtonVPN crap that jacked it up.

Let us know!

then I would try to reinstall Mojave. Had the same exact issue on both dev beta 4 and 5 - On 5 I was just looking around my settings because I had a new error that she couldn't connect to the net and found ProtonVPN was blocking basically everything.

I hope you get it fixed. :)

I was able to fix my issue by removing all traces of ProtonVPN (it lied and said it was free anyway) - turns out it created a bunch of proxy garbage that stuck around and blocked Siri from connecting to the internet. I'm not sure how if that would affect the mic or not. Anything is possible though. check your settings.

Hope this helps you! :D

Pick up something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power-Smartphones-Tablets-SP016GBUC3C31V1K

https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Ultra-Drive-Type-C-SDDDC2-016G-G46/dp/B01EZ0X034

I have the silcon power drive. Works great, definitely worth purchasing a dual usb flash drive if you have a newer MacBook.