macOS commands

Helps when the desktop freezes, folders won't open, or file icons stop refreshing.

Restarts the app panel. Fixes frozen animations or window switching issues (Cmd+Tab).

Reloads the macOS menu bar. Use when clock, Wi-Fi, battery, or status menu icons freeze.

Resets the system font cache. Fixes boxes, question marks, or garbled text in apps. Restart your Mac afterwards.

Restarts the audio daemon. Fixes an unresponsive volume control, missing sound, or crackling.

Reloads the Bluetooth stack. Helps when AirPods, wireless mice, or keyboards fail to connect.

Sets output volume as a percentage (0–100). Handy in scripts or when volume keys stop working.

Resets the local DNS cache. Use when a site won't open, shows an old IP, or returns a DNS error.

Reloads the en0 wireless module. The connection drops completely for a few seconds.

Requests a fresh IP address from the router. Helps with address conflicts or "connected but no internet".

Prints the Mac's LAN IP (e.g. 192.168.1.42). Needed for SSH, file sharing, and dev servers.

Prints the external IP the internet sees you from. Useful for checking VPNs and allowlists.

Shows which processes await network connections. Finds "who took port 3000" and suspicious services.

Pulls the network password from the Keychain. Replace SSID with the network name; macOS asks for the admin password.

Forces Spotlight to reindex the main disk. Fixes search not finding files. Indexing takes a while.

Restarts the background mds process. Helps when indexing hangs or mds_stores hogs the CPU.

Resets the quick-preview service used when you press Space in Finder.

Prints the system name, version, and build — the first line of any bug report.

Prints arm64 on Apple Silicon and x86_64 on Intel. It decides your Homebrew path and half the instructions you find online.

The translation layer Intel-only apps need to launch at all. Installed once per machine. The --agree-to-license flag accepts the licence without a dialog.

Shows time since the last reboot and average CPU load over 1, 5, and 15 minutes.

An instant snapshot of the hungriest processes without opening Activity Monitor.

Drops the disk cache held in RAM. May briefly free memory, but the system refills caches later — use sparingly.

Reveals hidden system files and folders (dot-prefixed) in Finder.

Restores default Finder behavior, hiding system files again.

Makes an auto-hidden Dock appear instantly, without the default pause.

Removes pinned items and shows only open apps — taskbar style.

Lets you select and copy text right from the QuickLook preview window.

Removes the pretty but bulky shadow around window screenshots (Cmd+Shift+4, then Space).

Saves disk space: JPG is much lighter than PNG. Supported: png, jpg, tiff, pdf, gif.

Moves screenshots off the Desktop into a dedicated folder (create it first).

The "Save As" panel shows the folder picker right away, without an extra click.

Shows the full path to the current folder at the window bottom — with quick level navigation.

Stops macOS from littering SMB shares and NAS volumes with .DS_Store files.

Keeps the Mac awake during long tasks (rendering, downloads). Press Ctrl+C to stop.

Keeps the Mac awake for exactly 3600 seconds (1 hour), then restores normal behavior. Adjust the number as needed.

Lists processes and assertions preventing sleep. The answer to "why won't it fall asleep".

Charge percentage, power source, and time remaining — faster than reaching for the menu.

Full dump of power settings: sleep timers, disk and display sleep, lid behavior.

Shows whether Gatekeeper app assessment is enabled.

Strips the Gatekeeper quarantine flag — fixes "app is damaged". Replace the path with yours.

Shows whether full-disk encryption is on and if encryption is in progress.

Shows whether the firewall blocking incoming connections is enabled.

Shows everything in ~/.ssh: id_ed25519/id_rsa key pairs, known_hosts, config.

Shows used and free space on all mounted volumes in human-readable form.

Prints the hierarchy of disks, APFS volumes, and containers — required before any partition work.

Ejects a volume Finder refuses to unmount ("disk in use"). Replace NAME with the volume name.

Permanently deletes Trash contents, including stuck files Finder can't remove.

Frees tens of gigabytes: Xcode's intermediate builds and indexes. Projects survive — they rebuild on next launch.

Checks the file system for errors without making changes. May take several minutes.

The official package manager install script. Asks for your password and installs Xcode Command Line Tools.

The final install step people skip most often: without it the shell answers "brew: command not found". The path depends on the CPU — the command above is already set for the architecture you picked.

Refreshes the formula catalog and upgrades every installed package and app.

Shows formulae and apps with newer versions available, without installing anything.

Removes cached old package versions and unneeded dependencies. Frees noticeable disk space.

Checks the brew installation for common issues: permissions, PATH, conflicts. The first command for any trouble.

Shows formulae you installed explicitly (no dependencies) plus GUI apps from cask.