My upgrading path to Apple Silicon — Part 7

System Settings — Part 1

Welcome back!

Last time, we finally booted up the MacBook Pro and went through all the initial setup process. Now, it’s time to configure this Mac as our new machine, taking care of all the little quirks that make the Mac Experience special!

Screenshot location

The first thing I did was to press Cmd-Shift-5 to invoke the screenshot/screen-recording overlay and change the location where files are saved, since the default is “on the Desktop” (another reason for not turning on Documents and Desktop in the Cloud). From there, tap on Options > Other Location… and choose the Downloads folder.

Something funny I’d like you to try is to invoke the screenshot overlay and then try to capture the overlay itself. The only way is to press Cmd-Shift-3 to capture the whole screen, and then crop the image. Trying to draw a lasso selection around it will result in the captured image of whatever was below the overlay.

System Settings

Let’s move on to System Settings, which on my older Mac was called System Preferences. Before doing anything else, please go to Trackpad and set Tap to click onto ON. It is unclear to me why this is OFF by default, and I wonder how many users keep it that way. To me, there was no point progressing any further without activating that option. Now, tap on your name icon.

Name > Apple ID

Personal Information

Go to Personal Information, then press the circled (i) at the end of Communication Preferences. Compared to the default, I have turned on Announcement.

iCloud

Go back one step and press iCloud. I have a 2 TB SSD, so this may vary from you to me but, in my case, I turned OFF Optimise Mac Storage. This is something that cannot be done on iPhone and iPad (sadly), but on my working machine this is crucial. One would rather not find oneself without connectivity and with evicted files. In my experience, the setting turned itself back ON independently, and I had to click again, after which it stayed.

Now, in the Apps Using iCloud section, tap on iCloud Drive, and check that Desktop & Document Folders is OFF. Beyond this, there are 15 apps in the Apps syncing to iCloud Drive, and I made a note to check back how many there were at the end of the configuration process. There are now 22. For some reason, the Dropbox app is syncing to iCloud Drive. I don’t understand why it does, and honestly, I don’t care, so I turned it off. It is a cloud per se, and it already bothers me enough with the continuous prompts to upgrade to the new File Provider system. After all I have read about it, I will not do that for quite a long time.

Lower, in the section called iCloud+, click on Private Relay and turn it ON. It’s a nice feature, and you can read more about here.

Next, tap on Hide My Email. It may appear to silently fail if you have already used it many times (as I have), since it needs to recover from iCloud a list of those usages. In my experience, I got a blank rectangle in the middle, which lasted for about a minute. At that point, there must have been a feature timeout, as I was brought back to the previous screen. Trying it again was immediate and effective. I suggest you add descriptions to each time you use this service, since it will help you identify services who have bought or sold your identity. One downside is that some services, knowing how using Hide My Email prevents them from effectively exploiting your data, will let you create an account with the hidden address, but never send you a confirmation, nor activate your account.

Media & Purchases

Go back from iCloud to the Apple ID page and tap on Media & Purchases. From there, tap on Subscriptions, and then on Manage…, which silently failed for me the first time. When you make it work, proceed to check that all your subscriptions are in order, then go back.

I propose turning on Use Touch ID for Purchases. Doing that will make the lower portion of the page disappears and, at least for me, the options turned itself OFF after a while. The next time I checked within 24h I found it OFF and I had to turn it back ON. It stuck there since then, at least.

If you get access to the lower portion of the page (or do it before checking Use Touch ID for Purchases), I suggest setting the Require a password for Free Downloads to Never Require. Once more, this failed for me the first time. The system thought for a while and then did nothing whatsoever. The second time, I got a request to sign in to my Apple ID to confirm the changes.

Devices

Back to the previous page, here is where all the devices connected to your Apple ID are listed. I thought I could change a device’s name from here, but it was not possible. I discovered subsequently that I had to go to General > Info, and we will cover that in due course.

Closing thoughts

If you have a software update available, you will see a red badge just below your Apple ID and your Family button. The same if you will have some services included in your purchase that you have not redeemed yet.

The next time, we will continue our coverage of System Settings.

I hope you found this article useful. If you did, please leave a like, share it, and subscribe to be notified of upcoming articles! Please share your experience setting up your Mac down in the comments, and have a great day!