Guides, How Tos, and Tips for New Mac Owners

Friday December 18, 2020 2:31 PM PST by Juli Clover

MacRumors readers who were lucky enough to receive a new Mac for the holidays will want to check out our collection of Mac how tos and guides to learn the ins and outs of your new machine.

m1 macbook air
Whether you're new to the Mac or are upgrading from an older model, there's likely to be a useful tip or two here for you. These how tos apply to Apple's latest Macs, from desktops to notebooks, and it includes macOS Big Sur tutorials plus some useful info just for the M1 Macs.

Beginner Tips

Just for M1 Macs

Security Tips

Continuity and Other Product Tips

Mac App Features

iCloud

Hidden Tricks

Advanced Features

In-Depth Mac Guides

Mac App Recommendations

Every few months we do a video series where we recommend a useful selection of Mac apps, and these articles are worth checking out if you're looking for great Mac apps for your new Mac.

Mac-Related Videos

More Info

Know other great Mac-related tips and tricks that MacRumors readers should be aware of? Let us know in the comments.

For more details on Apple's newest Macs, check out our roundups: MacBook Pro, MacBook Air, Mac mini, iMac, and Mac Pro.

Related Roundups: MacBook Pro, MacBook Air

Buyer's Guide: MacBook Pro (Buy Now), MacBook Air (Buy Now)

Related Forums: MacBook Pro, MacBook Air

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iPhone 18 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 12 New Features

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While the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max are not expected to launch for another six months or so, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. It was initially reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models would have fully under-screen Face ID, with only a front camera visible in the top-left corner of the screen. However, the latest rumors indicate that only one Face ID component...

• 80 comments

iOS 26.4: Top 10 New Features Coming to Your iPhone

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iOS 26.4 isn't the major update with new Siri features that we hoped for, but there are some useful quality of life improvements, and a little bit of fun with an AI playlist generator and new emoji characters. Playlist Playground - Apple Music has a Playlist Playground option that lets you generate playlists from text-based descriptions. You can include moods, feelings, activities, or...

• 47 comments

Top Rated Comments

Joniz

81 months ago

Where’s the link to: 15 Ways to Get Back at Uncle Colin for Giving You Last Year’s Model MacBook Pro with Butterfly Keyboard?

(I hate Uncle Colin!)

Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Will do good

Great service from MR

Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Came here looking for someone to be jaded or complain that Macs were too expensive to be Xmas gifts. Wasn't disappointed.

Came here looking for someone who takes things much too seriously, or willing to attack with an unrelated point. Wasn’t disappointed.

(And I still hate you, Uncle Colin!)

Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Shaggymax

Lots of great info, in a condensed, easy to chew package!

macduke

Pro Tip: If you got a base model Mac Pro for Christmas, exhange it for a maxed out (except for RAM) 2019 iMac 5K and 32GB RAM kit from Amazon, and enjoy the couple thousand dollars you pocketed, the extra 8GB of RAM, the faster Vega 48 GPU, the “free” 5K display, the faster i9-9900K CPU, and the much larger SSD. Invest the money you saved and use it to buy another one in four years instead of paying out the butt to upgrade a base model Mac Pro that will still be stuck on old PCI-Express 3.0, Thunderbolt 3, and possibly USB 3.1 unless they allow Thunderbolt 3 USB-C to be upgraded to USB 4.

Otherwise if you got a decently spec’d Mac Pro then grats.

Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)

panag

Great job , thank you !! This should be Sticky !!!

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