What You Can't See Mac OS

This is useful when you can’t take a screenshot of something–a menu, for example–that hides itself when you start pressing the keyboard shortcut keys. To do this, use the Grab app included with your Mac. You can launch it by pressing Command+Space to open Spotlight search, typing “Grab”, and pressing “Enter.” You can also open the.

Before you begin

  1. For example, let’s say you have used “diskutil list” to show all of mounted drives on a Mac from the command line, and you have determined the appropriate drive to erase is identified as /dev/disk6s2, you want the disk name to be “Emptied” and you want the new disk file system format type to be Mac OS Extended Journaled (JHFS+), the.
  2. Hold the option key down while booting, see if OS X appears and select it to boot from, then reset the StartupDisk in System Preferences again. If that doesn't work, I suspect a hosed GUID partiton table, backup what you can out of Windows to a external drive and disconnect.
Mac

Make sure that your Mac is connected to the internet and using macOS Catalina or later. If using an earlier macOS, follow the password-reset steps for macOS Mojave or earlier.

Choose a reset option from the login window

To see one of the following password-reset options, click the question mark next to the password field in the login window. If you don't see a question mark, enter any password three times.

If you see the option to reset using your Apple ID

  1. Click the option to reset using your Apple ID, then proceed as follows:
    • If your Mac restarts, skip to the next section, “If you see the option to restart and show password options.”
    • If your Mac doesn't restart, but immediately asks for your Apple ID credentials, enter that information and click Reset Password.
  2. If you're asked to create a new keychain to store the user's passwords, click OK to restart your Mac.
  3. If you're asked to select an admin user you know the password for, click “Forgot all passwords?”.
  4. If you see a Reset Password window with the option to Deactivate Mac, click Deactivate Mac, then click Deactivate to confirm.
  5. Enter your new password information, then click Next.
    If this window shows multiple user accounts, click the Set Password button next to each account name, then enter the new password information for each account.
  6. When the password reset is completed, click Restart.

If you see the option to restart and show password options

  1. Click the option to restart and show password reset options, then wait for your Mac to restart.
  2. You're then asked to take one of these steps:
    • Sign in with your Apple ID. You might also be asked to enter the verification code sent to your other devices.
    • Enter your FileVault recovery key. You received it when you turned on FileVault and chose to create a recovery key instead of allowing your iCloud account (Apple ID) to unlock your disk.
  3. Select a user that you want to reset the password for, then click Next.
  4. Enter your new password information, then click Next.
  5. When the password reset is completed, click Restart.

If you see the option to reset using your recovery key

  1. Click the option to reset using your recovery key, then enter your FileVault recovery key. You received it when you turned on FileVault and chose to create a recovery key instead of allowing your iCloud account (Apple ID) to unlock your disk.
  2. Enter your new password information, then click Reset Password.

If you can't reset your password

Learn what to do if you can't reset your password.

Macworld reader Lon has a problem finding a file on his Mac. He needs to remove it to avoid a compatibility problem, and no amount of Spotlight searches nor browsing through folders can find it.

Spotlight should let you find nearly any file you create or store in macOS with ease, but it doesn’t always work that way. There’s a way to search comprehensively through your macOS drive (or drives) using the Terminal, but I think of it as a last resort, because it involves tricky syntax and can be slow. It also may match a lot of files you’re not interested in.

In the Terminal, a command called find can perform a comprehensive and deep search across everything, including system files and other stuff that we don’t need to interact with and macOS doesn’t readily expose to users. (Find is something I’ve used for decades, and it feels like a tool designed for a computer with a teletypewriter attached.)

What You Can't See Mac Os Catalina

In this example, let’s assume I’m looking for a file I know is named easysolutions.mdl, and I’m going to search on just easysolutions as the unique portion. The search pattern I show below is case independent, so uppercase and lowercase letters get matched regardless of what you specify. If you need to use a space, enclose the text in quotation marks, like 'easy solutions'.

  1. Launch Terminal, which you’ll find in Applications > Utilities.
  2. Switch to superuser, which requires an administrative account. You enter
    sudo su -
    and press Return, and then enter the administrative password. If it’s the first time you’ve used sudo, macOS also warns you about the dangers of having system super powers.
  3. You can include part or all of a file name in the search. Type exactly
    find / -name easysolutions -print
  4. This may take some time to process. It could be several minutes as macOS matches against every one of hundreds of thousands or millions of individual files. Each result appears as a separate entry.
  5. When you see the file appear, it will be proceeded by its full path name. Copy the path from the first / to the last / before the file name, like /Library/Application Support/BingoBongo/settings/preferences/config/
  6. Now in the Finder, choose Go > Go To Folder, and paste in that path.
  7. The folder will open. In some cases, you may have to authorize opening the folder, entering an administrative account name and password.
  8. If you’re sure the file you see is the one you want to delete, move, or interact with, you’re all set.

During this find operation, you will see entries you can ignore, like:

find: /path/name/here/filename.txt: Operation not permitted

or

What You Can't See Mac Os X

find: /dev/fd/3: Not a directory

Even though you’re a superuser, the underlying Unix operation system and Apple’s specific modifications prohibit some kinds of operations.

Once you’re done, return to Terminal and press Control-D or type exit and press Return to leave superuser status. (The # at the far left will change to a $.)

Ask Mac 911

We’ve compiled a list of the questions we get asked most frequently along with answers and links to columns: read our super FAQ to see if your question is covered. If not, we’re always looking for new problems to solve! Email yours to mac911@macworld.com including screen captures as appropriate, and whether you want your full name used. Every question won’t be answered, we don’t reply to email, and we cannot provide direct troubleshooting advice.