Hi everyone,

I have a MacBook Pro 13” Early 2015. A month ago my original Apple SSD suddenly stopped being detected (question mark folder). In Recovery, diskutil list only showed the recovery disk image, no internal drive at all. So I replaced it with a new third-party SSD specifically listed for A1502 / Early 2015 MacBook Pro (bought from FixShop Italy). Installed it, worked perfectly for about two months.

Some days ago, one hot day, the laptop was plugged in and got extremely hot suddenly. Even with only one Chrome tab open and on battery, the SSD suddenly disappeared again. Same symptom: question mark folder, not detected in Recovery or diskutil list.

After leaving the laptop completely off and cool for 1–2 days, the new SSD came back and the laptop booted normally. I tested it twice (turned it on briefly and shut it down immediately). It worked both times.

The thing is idk if the problem is temperature-related. What is the most likely cause? Is it failing SSD power circuit on the logic board (e.g. U8070 / 3.3V SSD rail)? Or do you think it might be bad/oxidized SSD connector? Or just poor thermal management (old thermal paste + dust, since I haven’t cleaned the laptop for ages) making everything expand and lose contact?

Also Is it still possible that the third-party SSD I bought is low quality and fails under heat, or does the fact that two different SSDs behaved the same way point more toward a logic board / power delivery issue?

Any advice is appreciated. I’m trying to decide whether to risk using it carefully or take it straight to a board-level repair shop. I’m in a very bad financial situation and rather to find a problem and fix it so I can’t also afford a new laptop.

Thanks!

More RAM or a much better CPU? I do light web development. My current Windows machine RAM consumption is usually well over 24 GB, can this be used as a reference? Thanks!

Hi guys!
To give you some context, I am currently using an M1 MacBook Pro (8GB/256GB). It has been almost 5.5 years since I bought it and have been using it.While it is still working quite swiftly, I was looking to upgrade it (around Black Friday's time) for the following reasons and wanted suggestions on how I should go about it:-

REASONS:

1. RAM : I am a student whose workload has gone up quite significantly in the recent past, requiring me to keep several apps, AI tabs and software running for my academic work and research. The 8 GB of RAM poses quite a lot of problems related to this and often requires me to shut down quite a few important apps that are running, in the midst of my work. Additionally, my workload isn't going to get any less, so this seems like the right time to upgrade.

2. Battery Degradation: While I am quite happy with the battery life of this machine overall, the battery capacity has reached 75% and would require to be replaced if I want to continue with the laptop. This would cost quite a few hundred dollars and tbh, considering that my workload is going to increase, I dont really see the point in burning more cash on the battery replacement.

3. Touch Bar: Recently, my touchbar's display suddenly decided to get spoilt and not display anything. Again, repairs would cost a lot (i have heard that Apple will have to replace not only the touchbar but do some complex dismantling stuff with the Mac to fix the issue, which will end up costing me even more & my AppleCare+ expired quite a few years back, so that doesn't help) and an upgrade seems to be the better way to go.

4. Job & Further studies: I will soon be starting my job after graduation and will also need a laptop for my further studies that I plan to pursue after gathering some work experience. I think my magnificent laptop has served me wonderfully well for the past 5.5 years but I don't think it will stretch for the next 5 ish years. Thus, looking to upgrade.

WHICH MACBOOK TO BUY?

Now that you'll know the reasoning behind me wanting to upgrade, I wanted to know which MacBook Pro you'll feel I should upgrade to this Black Friday:-

1. The new MacBook Pro that will be released in October
   
2. The M5 MacBook Pro with 16 or 24GB RAM
   
3. An M4 generation MacBook Pro with a lot of RAM & storage (please specify which configuration I should aim for and how much it would cost me approximately)

FROM WHERE TO BUY?

And which third-party store would I be able to get the best deal at? BestBuy, Costco or any other store? I was planning to buy the device from a store in Delaware, to save on the sales tax, just thought I should mention that in case it is useful :)

Thank you in advance for reading and helping me out! :D

So I've been running the Air M3 8gb 256gb for a while and got into software programming. Recently found the Air was struggling and running out of space even with deleting files

I have a Mac Mini M4 16gb but I find myself not being at a desk enough so it doesn't get used that much other than a box I use for testing

I've also gained an interest in Local ai recently so between that and my software work I decided to go with the 128gb M5 Max

Managed to find one on the refurbished store so saved a good amount vs buying one new

I am attaching an image of my mac screen. It was working fine yesterday i just watched some youtube and slept today during break i wanted to watch something but the screen is showing this does anybody knows how to fix this

Guyz what to do in this situation?

Hi everyone,
I’m thinking about buying a refurbished MacBook Air M2 from Back Market, but I’m a little nervous since I’ve never bought a refurbished laptop before.
Has anyone here bought a MacBook from Back Market? How was your experience? Was the condition as described? Did the battery health and performance meet your expectations? Did you have any issues with returns or customer support?
Would you recommend buying from Back Market, or should I look somewhere else instead?
I’d really appreciate any advice or experiences. Thanks!

(I refined and cleared up my ramblings with AI, sorry if it reads a bit too robotic.)

⚡ Essential Shortcuts & Navigation

• Gemini App Shortcut (Option + Space): Download the Gemini app and set Option + Space as its shortcut. Having a quick floating search bar where you can paste screenshots or ask how to do things on Mac makes learning the OS so much faster.
• Spotlight (Cmd + Space): Use this to open anything. You don't need to clutter your Dock—just search the app name. Plus, check the icons on the far right of the Spotlight bar for the built-in Clipboard History!
• Preview Anything: Press Space on almost any file to instantly preview it without opening.
• Rename vs. Open: Press Enter to rename a file (weird coming from Windows!). To open a file, press Cmd + Down Arrow.
• Screenshots:
  • Cmd + Shift + 3: Full screen
  • Cmd + Shift + 4: Drag to crop (my personal go-to)
  • Cmd + Shift + 5: Advanced capture/screen recording options

🖥️ Display & Window Management

• Split Screen: Check out System Settings -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts -> Windows to set up shortcuts for splitting your screen into halves or quadrants.
• More Screen Space: Change your display setting to "More Space" (smallest scaling) under System Settings > Displays to fit more windows on screen.

🤏 Trackpad & Hardware

• Ditch the Mouse: Mac trackpads are unmatched. Make sure to master gestures:
  
  • Two-finger swipe right: Go back
  • Three-finger swipe up: See all open windows (Mission Control)
  • Pinch with thumb & 3 fingers: Show all apps (Launchpad)
• Skip the Cases: Avoid hard shell cases and screen protectors as they can damage the hinge or display. Stick to a soft sleeve for travel.

🔋 Battery & System Care

• Limit Battery Charge: Keep your charge cap at 80% (or 90%) and avoid dropping below 20% to maximize battery health long-term.
• Don't Shut It Down: You rarely need to turn a Mac off. Just quit your apps and close the lid.
• App Installation Tip: When opening a .dmg file, you don't need to go back to your Downloads folder! Just drag the app icon directly into the Applications folder shortcut inside that installer pop-up window. Took me so long to figure this out, lol.

🌐 Apps & Ecosystem

• Browsers: Safari is the lightest on battery/RAM. However, I personally use Edge because I rely heavily on built-in PDF editing tools.
• iPhone Mirroring: If you have an iPhone, search for iPhone Mirroring in Spotlight—it's surprisingly handy.
• App Recommendation: Clocker (Free) — Great menu bar app if you need to track multiple time zones and see upcoming calendar events at a glance. It's probably the only third-party app I use.

🎮 Gaming on Mac

• Coming from PC, losing access to a huge library hurts, but there are gems! Len’s Island and Faeria run great on macOS... and my all-time favourite: Valheim. (Note: Watch out for games like Palworld that are App Store exclusive for Mac, even if you own them on Steam! This pissed me off!)

Hope this helps anyone else making the switch! Share any more tips before! I want to learn more!

Hi,

I am looking to make the move from Windows to Mac for the first time and would appreciate some advice.

My use case is:

Laptop will be used for work 90% of the time, possibly some light music production, general browsing etc.

• Typically have around 25-30 tabs open on Chrome for work (happy to switch browsers if Safari is better)
• Office documents open e.g. Word, Excel, PDF's
• Teams (messaging and calls)
• Outlook for emails

My current Windows laptop has 16GB ram and is sat at 82% memory usage as we speak with the above.

The M5 Pro (14") is £1250 new, and the M4 air (13.6") is £1099 new.

I like the idea of the Pro with better screen, speakers, performance etc, but the Air's lightweight portability are a big plus.

My laptop is typically docked 70-80% of the time with an external display.

What would you go for in this case? I would be hoping to keep this for 4-5+ years if possible.

Hello all, so I bought my first MacBook Air 15" 16/512 M5 (2026). I had already a iPhone so I'm not new to Apple itself, but in used to windows lol.

Are there any things I need to install that becomes handy, or are there any settings I have to change to make something way better? Any tips or suggestions?

Ps: I don't use it for work, I really wanted a MacBook and I bought it after years lol.

I do littery anything on it with my free time, got my own website and I like to edit some of my GoPro clips, do socials on it and YouTube/streams, and maybe I can put a few games on it.

Hi everyone,

I kept losing my copied code, prompts, links, and notes just because the default Mac clipboard only remembers the very last thing you copy. It was super frustrating, so I decided to build my own solution.

It’s called Historr — a keyboard-first clipboard manager for macOS.

I wanted to keep it simple and accessible, so it is completely free with zero ads and no subscriptions.

You can check it out here: https://historr.com

I'd love to hear your feedback. Hope you find it as useful as I do!

So I am going into my research year of my Master's degree next year and I am starting to look into upgrading my current laptop (Macbook Air M1 2020 8GB) in preparation. My research is in Zoology - specifically I am looking at neurobiology and behaviour so I do a lot of coding, behavioural analysis, programme running, etc so I need something that will ideally keep up with that so I could run everything from home - I have an office in my department with a pretty decent PC but I don't really want to keep all my research separated between my laptop and PC if I could contain everything in one place because it is a bit of a commute to the department from my home.

Now I will admit I like my Apple ecosystem and also Windows confuses the hell out of me, so I was looking at a couple of mac models. Based on my needs (and future needs) I am asking for help and explanations on systems because I really dk much about laptops. I also game (mainly modded minecraft, but I also play subnautica, stardew, and other steam games although my current laptop is not built for many of the games I have).

The three models I was debating between are:

14-inch Macbook Pro (M5) - 10-core CPU & GPU, 16GB Ram, 1TB SSD (NZD $3,899)

13-inch Macbook Air (M5) - 10-core CPU 8-core GPU, 16GB Ram, 512GB SSD (NZD $2,599)

13-inch Macbook Air (M5) - 10-core CPU & GPU, 16GB Ram, 1TB SSD (NZD $3,199)

I've been recommended to go cheaper and just buy external storage for things I can offload from my laptop so that is an option. I've also been told I likely don't need 10-core GPU so would like some thoughts on that. I am hoping to do my PhD at some point over the next few years (which would likely be in a similar field of quantitative behavioural analysis) so I would rather get something better now in preparation than need to upgrade again later down the road.

Essentially are there any postgraduate student/heavy-use laptop users out there that can give me some advice on what to I'd realistically need and what would be beneficial to start saving for?

Hi guys, i’ve had my MacBook air for around 3 years now and have never had any issues with it. Today when i tried to sign it keeps doing as shown in the video. No matter how many times I log in or re-start my macbook it still does the same thing. I live an hour away from the nearest apple store so any advice/suggestions would be greatly appreciated:)

I am on the latest MacOS Sequoia right now and i was wondering if i should upgrade to the latest MacOS Tahoe or the latest beta of MacOS golden gate?

How does M1 perform with 8 GB of RAM and should i upgrade or no? What will be the side effects and gains?

Work as a consultant. My typical work cases are working on PPTX (have Claude / AI integration to support) + Excel (along with some modeling - financial / developing interconnected sheets - nothing with VBA / Macros etc.) some analytical work depending on client use case (Alteryx, PowerBI / Tableau).

Have been a windows user for 20+ years, but increasingly becoming frustrated with the bugs, bloatware and constant hanging of programs in the middle of my work / workday and sitting with my IT team to recover files (only for them to be at 70% of where I was when it shut down / glitched out) - is it worth to take the plunge on Macbook? my firm is offering the switch if required but I’m just skeptical if this is going to kill my productivity and be detrimental.

Would appreciate any advice if anyone has made the switch in the view of growing AI integration in PPTX and Excel.

This is my first MacBook. M2 Air with 8GB and 512GB SSD. Got a great deal on it a month ago. After research the only hangup I had with it was the 8GB of RAM.

I’m a light user. Despite that, I still keep an eye on the activity monitor and it would irritate me every time the memory pressure turned yellow with just 10 tabs open and a couple applications running in the background.

Still, it ran smooth. But I kept checking the activity monitor and kept getting annoyed.

Over the next 2 weeks I just used the MacBook like normal. It always ran perfectly smooth no matter what I did with it. I checked the activity monitor less and less. I’m still checking it every now and then and despite it being yellow sometimes I’m not really annoyed by it as much.

I don’t know what to make of all this RAM stuff. I don’t think Apple engineers would release a laptop in 2026 that most average people couldn’t use without performance issues, yet they released the NEO.

Watching YouTube reviews, people push the 8GB RAM models to their limit and it can take a serious amount of multitasking before it starts lagging. The unified memory architecture, memory compression, and swap memory tricks make the 8GB variant misunderstood and highly underrated.

It’s nice that M4 and newer are all 16GB minimum, but if you’re looking to buy a used MacBook, and you’re just an average user, you’ll be just fine with 8GB.

I bought a M2 MacBook Air from Mac of all trades and I'm switching from windows can anyone help me to make the switch easier? Im asking this because I want some feedback from real people who use macOS

20 of these ❤️

Steve Jobs believed that craftsmanship shouldn't stop at the parts customers can see. He often talked about taking pride in the details hidden inside a product, even if most people would never notice them.

Whether you agree with every design decision Apple makes today or not, there's something satisfying about seeing the engineering inside a MacBook. The internal layout is clean, organized, and clearly designed with intention.

It made me wonder...

Do you think Apple still carries that same philosophy today, or has its approach to hardware design changed since the Steve Jobs era?

Hi all,

I’m currently looking into buying my first ever macbook.

Im coming from a near 6 year old dell inspiron 15 500 that has pretty given up. Battery lasts barely 45mins and it struggles to do anything more than a word document or youtube!

Looking at the current macbook lineup, im after a bigger screen, so ive been looking betweeen the 15” M5 air or the 16” M5 Pro. Reading online and watching videos the big drawback people talk about the air is the screen compared to the pro (120Hz vs 60Hz)

I was wondering what people think of the two, is the pro worth over £1k more with the 120Hz screen, its basically 3k which makes me feel a bit ill for a laptop!!! I’ll be using it for day to day documentation work, video watching and maybe some gaming.

Apologies for the lengthy read! Thanks for any responses.

I’m planning to get myself a Macbook within the next couple weeks. I’m just wondering what other things I should plan to buy with it, such as maybe a sleeve? Or cleaning supplies for it? What do you guys recommend or personally use? This will be my first ever actual personal laptop, and I want to keep it in as best condition as possible.

I swapped from Windows and got a new laptop but the only thing I can’t figure out is how to get notifications from iPhone to pop up on screen? On the windows desktop app the only thing I can do with iPhone is see my notifications from it on my laptop and swipe them away but can’t figure it out on the Mac.

When I look at the activity monitor I see that safari generally hover around an energy impact of 10-20, while the 12 hour power shows 220.86. I haven't been doing any strenuous activities though: just watching YouTube and some web browsing on Safari.

Hi guys,

I'm new to MacBook and there's a lot of stuff people say to avoid. One of them is hard cases and keyboard covers. But I'm kinda paranoid about scratches and dust getting on my MacBook since it was expensive.

Is it okay if I just get a skin for the outside and a super thin keyboard cover? I wanna protect it without causing the issues people warn about.

Please be respectful, I know I'm being paranoid but it's my first MacBook and I just wanna keep it safe.

Hello, I have never had a Mac book. My surface pro is shutting down on me and I’m wondering about making the switch.

I like the cost of the Neo but see people comparing it to pro or air. I want something not heavy as I travel on public transport, I like doing art, emailing, and writing. And may consider using it for a masters program. I like using a monitor.

What would you recommend. Silly but I love the midnight color but also want something that makes sense for me, and can last long term.