8 Common Problems for New Mac Users and How to Overcome Them
Reading Time: 5 minutesGetting used to a Mac is hard work, but these top tips can make life easier for you.
A new computer operating system is always difficult to navigate, and macOS is no different. Most new Mac users have to unlearn habits from their former computers, typically running Windows, and relearn how to perform tasks in macOS.
While it is generally easy to adjust to macOS, there are still many problems that a new user will encounter. Most of them stem from the disparity in the design and fundamental hardware differences. Here we’ve outlined some of the most popular challenges new users encounter and how they can solve them.
1. Creating and Signing In to an Apple ID
You need an Apple ID to enjoy Apple’s Continuity features across all your Apple devices. You also need one if you want to download apps from the App Store or make use of iCloud. Lot’s of new Mac users accidentally miss out on all of these features by neglecting to creating or signing in to an Apple ID on their Mac.
You can sign in to and create your Apple ID the first time you set up your Mac, but if you chose not to do it then, you can still follow these instructions to do so:
- Open System Settings, which you can find by clicking the Apple logo on the menu bar.
- On the left pane, you will find the Sign in with your Apple ID option at the top of the list.
- If you have an Apple ID, type your email into the input box, click Next and follow the instructions.
- If you don’t have an Apple ID, click the Create Apple ID in the bottom left and follow the prompts to create one.
2. Installing Apps Outside the App Store
The Mac App Store is the safest place to download apps, but not all popular apps are available there. For example, if you want to use Google Chrome, you’ll need to download it from the Chrome website instead of the App Store. But installing apps you got from different websites isn’t always so simple on a Mac.
By default, your Mac only allows you to open apps you downloaded from the App Store and identified developers. When installing an app from unidentified developers, you’ll get blocked by a warning that the app ‘cannot be opened because the developer cannot be verified.’ Thankfully, you can turn still install the app by following these steps:
- Click the Apple logo on the menu bar and go to System Settings.
- Select Privacy & Security and scroll down to Security.
- Choose Open Anyway.
You can read more on how exactly to install these apps in our dedicated guide on how to install Mac software.
After opening them, some apps will take you through an installation process where you will need to accept their terms and conditions. Others may ask you to drag the downloaded file to the Applications folder instead.
3. Getting Used to the Trackpad
One of the features that may strike a new MacBook user as unwieldy is how the trackpad works. You might find that it scrolls in the wrong direction or doesn’t click when you tap it. Luckily, it’s easy to tweak your trackpad settings to get it to work to your liking. Four of the trackpad settings you want to change are might experience are:
- Tap to click: Enable this to click by tapping the trackpad.
- Natural scrolling: Toggle this to switch the direction your trackpad scrolls.
- Secondary click: Use this option to enable a ‘right-click’ function.
- Swipe between pages: Disable this if you keep going back a page accidentally.
Here’s where you need to go to change those settings:
- Click the Apple logo in the menu bar and open System Settings.
- Scroll down to the bottom section of the left pane and click Trackpad.
- By default, you will land in the Point & Click tab, here you can turn on Tap to click (this allows you to click with a tap on the trackpad).
- On this tab, you should also change the Secondary click settings and choose the more familiar Bottom-Right Corner.
- Click the Scroll & Zoom tab and turn off Natural scrolling with the toggle.
- Go to the More Gestures tab and select how many fingers you would like to use to swipe between pages.
4. There’s No Windows Button
The Mac’s keyboard doesn’t have a Windows button, and this might be a bit frustrating for new Mac users who are used to using it in Windows. However, instead of a Windows button, where you can search for apps and anything else on your laptop, the Mac has Spotlight for search and Launchpad to view all your apps.
Access Spotlight by pressing Cmd + Space, then start typing your search term. Once you’re logged into your Mac, you can activate Spotlight from anywhere. Spotlight is also great for getting quick calculations, conversions, and definitions. You can even use it to perform web searches.
To view all your apps together in one place, click the Launchpad icon next to Finder in the Dock. Or pinch with four fingers on your trackpad. You’ll see all your apps laid out on different pages. You can click to open one, or click and drag to move and reorganize them.
5. Learning to Use Finder
If you’re coming from Windows, you’re likely to feel lost without having access to File Explorer. Fortunately, macOS has an equivalent app to use instead: Finder.
Finder is that smiling blue face that you see in the farthest left corner of the Dock, and it is used for managing files or folders on your Mac. Finder and File Explorer offer similar functions for managing the files on your system, even though they may appear different at first.
Just like File Explorer, you will find your major folders (Desktop, Downloads, Recents, and so on) in the left pane. You can also interact with files the same way you would in File Explorer. However, you won’t find the Devices and drives home screen you usually see in Windows File Explorer. Instead, you can find that information by going to System Settings > General > Storage.
We explored more on how different these two apps are in our Finder versus File Explorer debate.
6. Taking Screenshots
Taking screenshots on your Mac is simple but may not seem straightforward to new Mac users. Instead of looking for a Print Screen button on the keyboard, in macOS you can use keyboard shortcuts to take a screenshot:
- Cmd + Shift + 3: Takes a screenshot of the entire screen.
- Cmd + Shift + 4: Let’s you screenshot a portion of the screen.
- Cmd + Shift + 5: Access the built-in snipping tool, which gives you multiple options to take a screenshot or record your screen.
Screenshots save to the Desktop, but you can also tweak the screenshot settings on your Mac to change where they save.
7. Notes Keeps Popping Up
Does Notes keep popping up when you’re using your Mac? This only happens when you move your mouse to the bottom-right corner of the screen, and it’s called Hot Corners. When you customize it, it can be an efficient way to perform actions on macOS. But if you can’t get used to it, it can really slow you down.
Here’s how to disable the Hot Corners Quick Note feature:
- Go to System Settings and click Desktop & Dock in the left pane.
- In the bottom-right corner, click Hot Corners.
- This opens up the tab for Hot Corners. You can either change the bottom-right option from Quick Note to something else or completely disable it by selecting the Dash (–) from the options.
8. Command Is the New Control
You might find that all your favorite keyboard shortcuts, like Ctrl + S or Ctrl + C don’t work on a Mac. That’s because the Command (Cmd) key on a Mac serves a similar function as the Control (Ctrl) key on other computers. So most of those shortcuts will still work if you use Cmd instead of Ctrl.
Similarly, you may notice that there’s no Alternate (Alt) key on a Mac. Just use the Option key for this instead.
Using macOS Becomes Second Nature Over Time
When you start using Mac, the difference between macOS and other operating systems is always glaring. You may encounter any of the problems we’ve listed here, but following our steps to resolve them will give you the opportunity to further explore and get to grips with your Mac. Eventually, you’ll find all these difference feel normal to you and using a Mac will become second nature.