I have an Macbook Air M2, 2022. Although I would expect, that my M2 chip has a L3 cache of 8MB, I can not find it with sysctl. sysctl hw.l3cachesize returns empty sysctl -a | grep -i cache does show L1 and L2, but no L3. Also no Unified or Last cache with 8MB. Did I miss something? --- Spec's Reference: - [Notebook Check](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-M2-Processor-Benchmarks-and-Specs.632312.0.html) - [Wiki](https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-M2-Processor-Benchmarks-and-Specs.632312.0.html)

I have a Mac that someone asks me to help them sell. They already wiped the hard drive and put a fresh installation of macOS on it. Upon boot, it's at the "Welcome" setup with no users intialized yet. Is there an easy way to see the System Information and version of macOS currently installed on this machine without creating a new user? I'd like to leave this machine in a clean state without having to re-wipe the hard drive with a new installation.

I have a brand new Mac with 4TB of SSD and it seems that ~270 GB are lost. I'd like to recover them if possible. Below is the explanation on how I arrived to that total. **Disk Utility** shows the following: - Used: 388.24 GB - Other Volumes: 17.88 GB - Free: 3.59 TB **Macintosh HD info** shows: - Available: 3.59 TB - Used: 398.5 GB There's a *slight discrepancy* of **7.62 GB** between Disk Utility (total used 388.24 GB + 17.88 GB = 406.12 GB) and Macintosh HD info: 406.12 GB - 398.5 GB = 7.62 GB, but that's ok (Macintosh HD does not show other volumes sizes). When I look at System Settings → General → About → Storage → Storage Settings..., the graphic shows: 402.11 GB used, which is more or less in line with Macintosh HD info. Lower in the Storage window, I get: - Applications: 24.48 GB - Developer: 2.45 GB - Music Creation: 81.8 GB - Other Users & Shared: 261.1 GB - macOS: 18.34 GB - System Data: 13.94 GB For a total of 402.11 GB which, thankfully, corresponds to the graphic part at the top of the window. However, when I open a Finder window → Macintosh HD and request info on the existing folders (both visible† and hidden), I get the following: - .vol: 0 byte - Applications: 24.54 GB - bin: 4.9 MB - cores: 0 byte - Library: 87.49 GB - opt: 204.3 MB - private: 2.87 GB - sbin: 2 MB - System: 14.3 GB - Users: 1.06 GB - usr: 705.9 MB - Volumes: 1 byte The total of both visible and hidden folders is 127.39 GB + ~3.79 GB respectively, for a grand total of ~131.18 GB. The difference between what Storage indicates and what I can gather between the info of the individual folders is quite big: 402.11 GB - 131.18 GB = 270.93 GB For information, Time Machine has not yet been set up on the computer, therefore the suggestion of this Ask Different thread won't work in this case. My questions: - **Any idea on how to find out where are those 270.93 GB gone and, crucially, how to recover them?** - Would *System Settings* → *General* → *Transfer or Reset* → *Erase All Content and Settings...* solve the problem or just be a waste of time? ----- System used: - Apple M3 Max - 128 GB RAM - macOS Sonoma 14.6.1 Other info: - Trash can has been emptied in all profiles - Computer has been rebooted several times ----- † Applications, Library, System, and Users are visible folders, the rest is hidden and can be rendered visible by pressing cmd-shift-., to hide them again press again the same combination keys.

I just bought a new Samsung SSD 830 and installed it my 13" MacBook Pro (Mid 2010) in the hard disk bay, replacing the drive that was there (I actually have a second drive in the optical drive's slot). Unfortunately, when I started up my computer (from the other drive I have), I can't see the SSD in System Information (formerly Profiler) or Disk Utility. However, I see the drive fine when using a SATA-to-USB adapter and I also am able to see the old hard disk when it is connected via the internal SATA, so the internal wiring seems to be fine. Thus: * HDD via USB: works * SSD via USB: works * HDD via internal SATA: works * SSD via internal SATA: completely broken Anyone have ideas for a fix?

Where would one find a refence explaining the details of things presented in the "System Information" app to somebody with technical background? The "help" explains how to open the app. That's it. I'm looking to understand, **for example**, the meaning of Network->Locations. How is "Wi Fi" related to a "Location"? What does it mean for location "Wi-Fi" to have "Join Mode Fallback" set to "do nothing"? Where can I learn this? PS Please, if your answer is along the lines of "just google it", do suggest the search query. I'm posting here because I couldn't find it by googling. If your answer is along the lines of "it's obvious and doesn't need to be documented", I beg to differ. That's not common knowldge even for somebody with a degree in computer science and decades of working in the field. This has to be documented somewhere. How do apple tech support geniouses learn about the technical details like this? It can't be by googling.

I’ve been accused by a professor of using one of my iPhone’s study apps during a test. The app by Instructure is called “Canvas Student.” Not only did I not cheat, this app that I allegedly used was not installed on my iPhone that day. I have two back ups from that time period of my iPhone saved on my Mac: one using Apple Music and another using iMazing. Is there some way to show a comprehensive list of all the apps that were on my iphone on a particular day? I know that some apps are invasive and record activity of other apps. Is something like that possible in the logs? I have looked in the logs, and I find many entries for the day in question. I just don’t know what I’m looking for. Please help. My grade and school record are riding on this case. Thank you.

The closest thing I know of is system_profiler but it spits out way too much unnecessary information and I don't have a good way to filter / transform that output. What's the closest alternative to something like lshw or lspci on Mac OS X?

I have a Macbook Pro Retina that I bought brand new in 2015. Its battery died and wouldn't boot. Because it's old, Apple wouldn't provide a battery in my country, so the shop bought a battery "from the market" and replaced the old one. In System Information -> Hardware -> Power -> Battery Information, I get: Battery Information: Model Information: Serial Number: C01514309YEF90MA4 Manufacturer: SMP Device Name: bq20z451 Pack Lot Code: 3230 PCB Lot Code: 3230 Firmware Version: 2d31 Hardware Revision: 322d Cell Revision: 3036 Charge Information: Fully Charged: No <---- Here! Charging: Yes Full Charge Capacity (mAh): 9054 State of Charge (%): 100 Health Information: Cycle Count: 1 Condition: Normal It says not fully charged, although the state of charge is at 100%. In contrast, hovering over the battery icon says fully charged, and the charger's light is green. Should I worry about it? I don't know what the old authentic battery reported.

While cleaning some software off my computer, I noticed the following extensions listed in System Information → Software → Extensions. For context, I am running an M2 Max MacBook Pro with MacOS Ventura 13.4. I did not ever install applications by "HighPoint Technologies" or "Other World Computing," and I certainly never approved the activation of system software by either of these developers. **Can someone tell me what these pieces of software are, whether they should be on my Mac, and—if not—how I can get rid of them?** > **HighPointIOP:** > > Version: 4.4.5 > Last Modified: 2023-05-12, 18:29 > Bundle ID: com.highpoint-tech.kext.HighPointIOP > Notarized: Yes > Loaded: No > Get Info String: Version: 4.4.5, Copyright (c) 2020 HighPoint Technologies, Inc. > Obtained from: Identified Developer > Kind: Intel > Architectures: x86_64 > 64-Bit (Intel): Yes > Location: /Library/Extensions/HighPointIOP.kext > Kext Version: 4.4.5 > Loadable: Yes > Dependencies: Incomplete > Dependency Errors: > Dependency Resolution Failures: > Indirect dependencies can't be resolved: com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIParallelFamily, com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily > Signed by: Developer ID Application: HighPoint Technologies, Inc (DX6G69M9N2), Developer ID Certification Authority, Apple Root CA > > **HighPointRR:** > > Version: 4.22.1 > Last Modified: 2023-05-12, 18:29 > Bundle ID: com.highpoint-tech.kext.HighPointRR > Notarized: Yes > Loaded: No > Get Info String: Version: 4.22.1, Copyright (c) 2020 HighPoint Technologies, Inc. > Obtained from: Identified Developer > Kind: Intel > Architectures: x86_64 > 64-Bit (Intel): Yes > Location: /Library/Extensions/HighPointRR.kext > Kext Version: 4.22.1 > Loadable: Yes > Dependencies: Incomplete > Dependency Errors: > Dependency Resolution Failures: > Indirect dependencies can't be resolved: com.apple.iokit.IOSCSIParallelFamily, com.apple.iokit.IOPCIFamily > Signed by: Developer ID Application: HighPoint Technologies, Inc (DX6G69M9N2), Developer ID Certification Authority, Apple Root CA > > **SoftRAID:** > > Version: 6.3.1 > Last Modified: 2023-02-09, 04:39 > Bundle ID: com.softraid.driver.SoftRAID > Notarized: Yes > Loaded: No > Get Info String: SoftRAID version 6.3.1, Copyright © 2002-22 Other World Computing, Inc. All rights reserved. > Obtained from: Identified Developer > Kind: Intel > Architectures: x86_64 > 64-Bit (Intel): Yes > Location: /Library/Extensions/SoftRAID.kext > Kext Version: 6.3.1 > Loadable: Yes > Dependencies: Incomplete > Dependency Errors: > Dependency Resolution Failures: > Indirect dependencies can't be resolved: com.apple.iokit.IOStorageFamily > Signed by: Developer ID Application: Other World Computing (Q9P8K45M5C), Developer ID Certification Authority, Apple Root CA

I'm on a 2016 MacBook Pro with macOS 10.13.5 In (User)Library/Application Support/CloudDocs there is a folder called session weighing approx. 35GB. Inside there is another folder called r(why r?) which contains a few thousand files, 99% of which are what seem to be incremental versions of the same Pages document. Why are those files there? Can I safely delete them? (for your knowledge, I have already copied the original final version of the file elsewhere for backup, just in case). What is the use of this folder (apart from being the iCloud Drive mirror on the computer's drive)?

I'd like to identify which CPU this notebook is using, in terms of code names such as "Ivy Bridge" and "Haswell". The little Apple logo in the upper left shows some information, but not this.

Is there a file somewhere in the System folder or in the Library that shows me which OS is installed on the disk?

I am trying to understand each field of activity monitor to understand my process usage.
But I am not able to wrap my heads around few things.
Model Name: MacBook Pro Model Identifier: MacBookPro11,4 Processor Name: Intel Core i7 Processor Speed: 2.2 GHz Number of Processors: 1 Total Number of Cores: 4 L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB L3 Cache: 6 MB Hyper-Threading Technology: Enabled Memory: 16 GB Number of cores here are 4 but if I see the See CPU Usage in activity monitor, I see 8 blocks, how they are corresponding to 4 cores.

In memory what are Swap Used, does Memory used and Cached Files are always have to be less than or equal to Physical Memory.
How to know if the maximum read and write IO operations are being performed looking at the graph.
There is also a Data option which I don't understand how it is different from IO operation.

My computer is a late 2011 MacBookPro with an original 128 SSD running MacOs 10.13.6. For some years now the total of the used disk space plus the available disk space has been slowly shrinking. In particular, the available space keeps (slowly) decreasing, even if I do not use additional storage space. Right now the free space is 11.5 GB out of a total capacity of 128 GB. Looking at "About This Mac > Storage" I see the following ("Documents" is 31.77 GB, blue is "Apps" with 6.69 GB, dashed is "Other Volumes in Container" with 3.88 GB) Using OmniDiskSweeper v1.11 I get this instead that sums up to roughly 67 GB used *in total*. My question is: what is eating up disk space behind the curtains? Is this a software related problem or an hardware related problem? (since my SSD is one decade old, is there some mechanism that marks SSD sectors as unavailable when they break or become unreliable?) Additional information: * Time machine is enabled, I did the latest backup yesterday on an external hard disk, but available space did not change, even after a restart. * About three months ago I made an accurate clean up of my hard disk using "Clean my Mac" to detect junk and manually deleted the actually useless files (caches, old files, unused apps, ...) reaching 25 GB of free space. Yet, after a few months, space slowly shrank to 11.5 GB. * I found lots of other similar questions here and on the internet, but no answer seems to make sense in my case. **UPDATE (22/12/2022)** I scanned my ssd using Daisy Disk and got the following result. Any suggestions on how to get rid of those 41 GB of hidden space? (Daisy diary requires to buy the full version to display further details and I would like to avoid it).

I am trying to find a way, using the Terminal/command line, to determine if the Mac I am using has Touch ID or not. So far web searches have not turned up any answers. I would have thought that either ioreg or system_profiler might have the answer, but my attempts to use them have not uncovered anything useful. (I did find one reference to _Multitouch ID_ but I believe that has to do with the _trackpad_ not Touch ID.)

Typing ifconfig on the command line gives me listings for several devices. I've seen at least the following ones: - lo0 - gif0 - stf0 - en0 - en1 - en2 - en3 - p2p0 - awdl0 - bridge0 What specifically do each of them refer to? I know en0 is a wireless connection, en3 is a connection using a Thunderbolt-to-ethernet adapter, and en1 is an ordinary ethernet connection. What about the rest?

Does anyone know the descriptions of the NotChargingReason code from the ioreg command. For example, when I type this command: ioreg -l -w0 | grep 'ChargerData' I get the following output: "ChargerData" = {"ChargingCurrent"=0,"NotChargingReason"=23,"ChargingVoltage"=13048,"VacVoltageLimit"=4350} I've seen different code numbers for the NotChargingReason variable besides 23. I've also seen 6, 4 and 1... I would just like to know if there is a text description of these codes somewhere? I have tried googling with no luck... and mind you, I'm not your typical googler. I'm a programmer who knows how to use the advanced google features.

NPU cores don't show up in system information or Activity Monitor. Is there a way to see their utilization -- something like nvidia-smi or nv-top?

On Windows the systeminfo command is a quick way to get system information from the shell. Is there any command like that on macOS?

**Is there a way to find the read/write speed of the SDXC card readers on Macs?** I've been looking for it in System Information, or some chart on the web, to no avail. --- (I'm specifically looking for rMBP Mid-2014 13", however the question is general so it is applicable to more people. However, if you happen to know the answer to this particular computer, please do share. :))