Converters
Where Thunderbird stores mail on a Mac
One folder holds everything Thunderbird knows. That is why it moves between Macs so easily, and why copying half of it fails.
Guides for Mac Users
Walkthroughs for the file and mailbox problems macOS gives you no answer for. Written by the people who build the tools, not by a content team.
Showing 10–18 of 35 articles · page 2 of 4.
Storage
How much free space a Mac actually needs
Every answer to this is a percentage, and most of them are attributed to Apple. Apple has never published one.
File system
Which format to use for an external drive on a Mac
One question decides it. What else has to read this drive. Everything below follows from the answer.
File system
APFS or Mac OS Extended, what actually changed
Disk Utility offers you both and explains neither. Here is what separates them, plus the shrinking list of cases where the older one still wins.
Converters
Switching email clients on a Mac, what carries over and what does not
The account takes ten minutes. What goes wrong turns up weeks later, in a folder that was never on the server.
Converters
What IMAP and POP actually store on your Mac
One of these answers gets given constantly and it is wrong. Both protocols leave mail on your Mac.
File system
What happens to a file when you delete it on APFS
One reader wants the file back. The other wants it unrecoverable. Same mechanics, opposite conclusions.
File system
What is the Mac file system and how does it work
Three design choices sit under almost everything macOS does with storage. Here is what they are and where each one surfaces.
File system
Macintosh HD and Macintosh HD Data, why there are two volumes
Finder shows one disk. Disk Utility shows two, sometimes more. Only one of those pictures is a simplification.
Reading because something is stuck?
Every tool in the catalogue has a trial that runs on your own file, so you can find out whether it helps before you spend anything.